Louise Pallister

‘exploring the relationship between fact and the unquantifiable experience of reality’

Press Release: A drypoint print by Louise Pallister 'Martha', showing the last of the passenger pigeon species, extinct in 1914, has been selected for the 'Exceptional' exhibition, part of the Collyer Bristow Graduate Award. 22nd February - 14th June 2017

'Animals first entered the imagination as messengers and promises' John Berger

Louise Pallister received a First Class BA Fine Art/American Studies from Liverpool University/LIHE (1987) and an MSc Historic Conservation from Oxford Brookes University (1991). Seeking new challenges for her work led to an MA Fine Art at City and Guilds of London Art School, and a complete ‘reboot’ of her practice. She graduated with Distinction in 2014 and was awarded the Slaughterhaus Print Prize by the Stockwell print studioshe.  Recently her work has been included in the Collyer Bristow graduate exhibition 'Exceptional' and her essays published by the online journal The Learned Pig.
 

Statement

Louise Pallister’s practice encompasses aspects of drawing, printmaking, and film to bear witness to the absence of elusive, extinct or endangered species. She uses mark making to acknowledge both a widely shared familiarity with animal others and the unknowability that divides us.

Her recent work has developed to favour ‘felt’ sensation over representational ‘truth’ to describe the complexities of our relationship with the sentient world. In this she is influenced by the gestural work of Francis Bacon, William Kentridge and Jenny Saville and critiques of animal marginalization by thinkers such as John Berger and Jacques Derrida.

Species’ and individual histories inform the direction of Pallister's work but drawing is the fundamental means of information gathering and understanding. Using the positive act of mark making she describes the negative states of disappearance and extinction. Images are formed, drawn and erased, wiped, subtracted, transformed; layers revealed or obscured; movement implied. Their feral traces are visible in areas of negative space or smudges of charcoal and ink.

Activating the drawing through stop motion film describes a process that fluctuates between adding and removing, a narrative from manifest to extinct, "there" to "not there". In printmaking the use of images in series that repeat, fade or are disrupted, refers to the imprint of an animal, its mark, and to the impression left. Thus the surface of the work is a visual narrative of its making, documenting the fragile tension between actuality and extinction, the ambiguous and insubstantial nature of ‘fact’ and of mark making.

This revision and evolution of work is an undertaking with no expected outcome, rather a series of open-ended questions by which Pallister tests the boundaries of her practice. She finds writing about her practice helpful to reflect on both her own experience and the ideas that inform it. As such her work may be viewed as extended field notes; a personal record of explorations in both nature and art.

 

**********

Contemporary animal artwork from the Studio of Louise Pallister to include mixed media equine drawings.

Louise Pallister was given permission from Paul Green the trainer of Oaklea Racing Stables to study horses at close quarters. This followed with an exhibition which benefited the ex-racehorse charity, the Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Centre.

CERVUS TATTON PARK

MOVING OFF

Magnificent Red Deer from the parklands of Tatton Hall, Cheshire.

EQUINE HAYDOCK

FLEET

This derives from an invitation by Haydock Park Racecourse to exhibit with them.

Education:

2013 -14 MA Fine Art Distinction City & Guilds of London Art School

1991 - 92 MSc Historic Conservation Oxford Brookes University

1984 - 87 BA Hons 1st Class, Fine Art Sculpture/American Studies

Liverpool University

Exhibitions  TO BE UPDATED

Group

 
• Slaughterhaus Five, Slaughterhaus Print Studio, Stockwell, 2015
 
• MA Fine Art Show, City & Guilds of London Art School, 2014
 
• Noah's Art, Orleans Gallery, Twickenham, 2013
 
• Editions Gallery, Liverpool Christmas exhibition, 2011
 
• National Exhibition of Wildlife Art, 2011
 
• David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year, 2011
 
• Liverpool Hope University Alumni Art Exhibition, 2011
 
• Headspace @ Eggspace Winter Blues, 2010
 
• Old Fire Station Gallery, Henley on Thames, 2010
 
• Cork Street Open, 2010
 
• Headspace @ Eggspace Short Spring Open 2010

Solo

 
• Stockbridge Gallery, Hampshire 2013
 
• Staacks, West Kirby 2013
 
• Haydock Park Racecourse 2012
 
• Staacks, West Kirby 2011

Awards

 
• Slaughterhaus Print Studio Prize 2014
 
• Shortlisted for David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year 2011
 
• Bird Art & Photography magazine award, National Exhibition of     Wildlife Art 2011
 
• Highly Commended, Liverpool Hope University Alumni Art Exhibition     2011
 
• S. Katharine's College prize for highest achieving BA student 1987

Other

 
• Contributed to collaborative artwork The Binding Grid of Creative     Connection, David Smith, Black Swan Arts, 201
  
 
• 'Artist's Sketchbook feature Birdwatch magazine February 2012