My drawings and small sculptures are informed by anything to do with forensics and my experiences as an artist-in-residence working in prisons. I am interested in the microscopic. I work between the two cultures of inside and out. Various patterns can be detected: DNA, polymer chains, skin and scars, edges, x-rays, cross-sections of prison loaf, as well as discarded debris from the prison environment. Shards of broken glass from car break-ins are put into syringes and Victorian silver spoons stained with acid. Stories of poisoners are re-invented.
My drawings and small sculptures are informed by anything to do with forensics and my experiences as an artist-in-residence working in prisons. I am interested in the microscopic. I work between the two cultures of inside and out. Various patterns can be detected: DNA, polymer chains, skin and scars, edges, x-rays, cross-sections of prison loaf, as well as discarded debris from the prison environment. Shards of broken glass from car break-ins are put into syringes and Victorian silver spoons stained with acid. Stories of poisoners are re-invented.
Unsolved crimes are researched and aspects of these are gathered together to form an overall structure taken from either a birds-eye view of a landscape or a close up of part of a place where evidence might be hidden, for instance, inside a hole in a tree trunk.
To a certain extent, my drawing process mirrors forensic method as I know it from books, the internet and film and TV crime series. I ‘dig into’ the top layer of the paper with an embossing tool and then carefully ‘reconstruct’ layers with pencils ranging from 10H to 8B. I take colour details from the evidence of unsolved crimes and when using paint and pencil, I ‘unwrap and pull back’ colour from edges to reveal something else. The Installations include small sculptures which are the evidence in fictional crimes.
Carolyn Curtis Magri
Education
1986-88 Dip.H.E. Visual Studies; 1988-91 BA (Hons) Fine Art Painting Manchester Polytechnic; 1993-95 MA Art and Design, Sheffield Hallam University; 2003 M. Phil. Fine Art ‘Contemporary Artists of Maltese Origin’
Exhibitions
2016 Spectrum, PS Mirabel August, Chicago Calling, Artsmill Open, December
2015 Forensic Derelict, Preston, Chicago Calling and 3rd Floor, Drawing Exhibition, Manchester
2014 Chicago Calling, Collage, Collaboration; Drawing Possibilities, The Studios Gallery, New Mills with Magda Archer, Lindsey Bull, Mike, Chavez-Dawson, Jenny Core, Sophia Crilly, Beatrice Haines, Stewart Kelly, Jim Medway, Klaus Pinter, Richard Shields, David Shrigley; Paper Gallery, Manchester, ATC collection.
2013 Verb Project 5, Bankley Studios and Gallery and Shortlisted Prize Winner, Open Call
2012 Fishbowl Gallery, Dublin, Windows Project; Curator and exhibitor 60 Drawings Exhibition, Bankley Gallery, Levenshulme; Exhibition Castlefield Gallery with Jessica Longmore
2011 Curator, Captured Images: The Photographer Comes to Prison, European Prison Education; Association Conference and Presentation on The Windows Project; Edgar Allan Poe Posters, The Fox, Stoke Newington
2010 Chicago Calling
2009 The Windows Project, Bankley Studios and Gallery; 491 Gallery, Leytonstone, London ‘Screamers’; Lamprey Watercolours, The Foundry, Shoreditch, London; Chicago Calling
2008 London Open Rehearsal, Skylark Gallery and Chelsea Arts Fair; Chicago Calling
2007 Chicago Calling
2006 Chorlton Arts Festival; Royal Exchange Theatre; Chicago Calling
2005-1991 – Wendy Levy Gallery, Didsbury, Yorkshire Art Space, Sheffield, Genremelt Chicago, Millenium Project Malta, Gaudi Gallery Chicago, Matthew Gallery Edinburgh, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, The Glassbox Salford University, Dadi Gallery Manchester, Pankhurst Centre, Bishops House Sheffield, Kadomah Free Art Space, Manchester, United Abstract Artists, The Mall Galleries, London, Stockport Art Gallery Solo Show, Buxton Fringe Festival
Research
1998-2003 M. Phil. Fine Art, Artists of Maltese Origin, Manchester Metropolitan University
2013 Diary Keeping Exercise, Surf, Salford University
2014 Paper, The Difficulty of Evaluation, Surf, May, Liverpool John Moore University
2014-2015 Arts and Humanities Research Council, Connected Communities Steering Group; Imaginative (Im)mobility Consortium, Presentation on M. Phil. Research, 20th January, Cardiff
Teaching and Residencies
2014 ongoing Artist-in-Residence The Mustard Tree, Ancoats, Manchester
2011-2013 Artist-in-Residence with The Turnkey Trust, Manchester
2008-2012 Mary Ward Centre Tutor, Queens Square, London
2004 current Advice and Guidance Tutor HMP Manchester, Distance Learning and Open University, Cover Tutor (also Hindley, Holloway, Altcourse, and Art Course Director Pentonville)
1991-1998 WEA Art Tutor, Drawing Project Sheffield Hallam Fine Art Course, Art Tutor Bretton Hall, Joseph Beuys Free University Malta
Associate/Memberships
2014 CG Associate, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
2012-16 Suite Studios, Salford and 3rd Floor Gallery and Studios, Manchester
2016 (ongoing Artsmill) Linden Mill, Linden Rd., Hebden Bridge HX7 7DP