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Last Women Standing
An exhibition by three recent MA Fine Art graduates
Niki Cotton, Kate Parker and Simone Williams
6.6 – 28.8.2022
Niki Cotton
Pray God you can cope
I stand outside this woman’s work
This woman’s world - Kate Bush
Niki’s practice stretches across many mediums including collage, painting, printmaking, sculpture, performance, textiles & photography. As a Generation Xer, Niki finds herself referencing the pop culture and music of the 80’s and 90’s where she grew up, whilst absorbing the rebellious nature of Punk and the brashness of Americana. Having just completed an MA in Fine Art, Niki is occupied with thoughts of what it is to be a woman in the 21st Century and with the advent of children, motherhood, including the fracturing and fragmenting of self that occurs and the endlessness of domestic drudgery. In her own words, her work “echoes the madness of juggling an over full life where I feel like a cake that doesn’t have quite enough slices to go around all the people at the party.”
Kate Parker
And although home is name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than any magician ever spoke, or spirit answered to, in strongest conjuration. - Charles Dickens
Kate’s artistic practice spans the mediums of painting, sculpture and printmaking. She makes use of free-flowing fabrics and canvases, incorporating found objects and elements of autobiographical narratives. The use of non-traditional fine art materials is used as a link to the domestic as well as a comment on the ideas of home and what we value. The hidden stories between the folds of the works are observations on everything from memories, journeys, connections to landscapes and having a sense of belonging and self. This body of work aims to explore how we have a deeper connection to physical, domestic spaces than we first might realise, and question how those types of spaces help us to form a sense of identity.
Simone Williams
Simone’s work deals with environmental, ecological and sustainability issues. Taking inspiration from the natural world and specialising in sculpture, installation and digital mediums, she uses materials of an ephemeral nature such as light, water and ice.
Her current work "The River Project North Wales" explores the river as a living entity in relation to the ancient indigenous belief in animism, one of the oldest religions known to mankind. She also refers to James Lovelock's Gaia Hypothesis. Ephemerality is at the core of the work: the ephemerality of water, climate, and us as a species on Earth.