All Flesh is Grass (exhibition)
An exhibition by Fay Sheppard, Gabriella Drewer, and Jay Finnis.
Soon-to-be Part C Fine Art students Fay Sheppard, Gabriella Drewer, and Jay Finnis consider the cyclicality of life in All Flesh Is Grass, by using a range of impermanent mixed media and curatorial methods.
Their work guides visitors through discussions of grief, hope, death, and desire - the exhibition aiming to provoke self-reflection and thought surrounding the place of humanity in the landscape.
All Flesh Is Grass is an intersection of each artist's individual practice so far and celebrates the overlap between distinct styles and motifs within the selected works.
About the artists:
Fay Sheppard
Fay's work focuses on landscapes, and this year she has been using foraged plants to create her own natural dyes. She has taught herself to create mushroom dyes while foraging, experimenting with rust as a dye and recycling dried specimens.
Due to the laborious nature of foraging and collecting, much of Fay's process becomes the artwork itself. In her exhibitions, she loves displaying specimen jars, solutions, and her dye pot alongside her artwork.
Fay aims for her work to remind people of the complexity of the natural world. She believes that if plants can create such work, we must appreciate nature for all it is capable of doing.
Follow Fay on Instagram at @fay.folio
Gabriella Drewer
Gabriella explores the cyclicality of life in her work, through traces, delving into memory, memorialization, and identity. Her practice is ritualistic in nature, involving the collection and hoarding of old photos and memories, which she then destroys and manipulates to create new traces.
By using found family film photography and postcards, Gabriella confronts the ephemeral nature of life and the transience of memories. The constant creation and destruction of her work serve as a meditation on the cyclicality of life, with each birth and death of her art embodying this theme.
Follow Gabriella on Instagram at @gabriella_d_art
Jay Finnis
Jay's practice revolves around their own experiences and is shaped by their queerness and experience living with fibromyalgia. Through their work, Jay journeys through a landscape governed by otherness, isolation, fear, grief, and desire.
Their practice is curatorial-based, seeking to emphasize the connections between objects and the space occupied. Jay is drawn to the impermanence of the materials they use, frequently focusing on organic matter, wire, handmade paper, unfired clay, and found objects and their tangible work is often supported by sections of poetry they have written.
Follow Jay on Instagram at @jayfinnisfineart
Accessibility
There is step-free access into the gallery via a ramp and side door. During opening hours, there will be an invigilator on duty in the gallery. If you require their assistance, then please alert them on arrival by calling to them or waving at them – the entrance to the gallery is fully glazed and the main entrance door should be open.
For more information about the venue, including photographs, view the access guide for Martin Hall on AccessAble.
If you have any specific access requirements, then please contact LUArts@lboro.ac.uk in advance of your visit and we will do our best to accommodate them.
Facilities
There are toilets located on the ground floor of Towers Dining Hall including an accessible toilet. There is step-free access into this building.
Martin Hall Cafe serves light refreshments and is open from 8.30am to 3.30pm Mon-Fri. It is located behind the gallery, accessed through the main entrance to Martin Hall or the side entrance round the right hand side of the gallery (step access).
Parking
Please note that visitors are now required to register their vehicle and pay to park on campus. There are various ways in which you can register and pay (both in advance and on arrival).
More information on visitor parking
Public transport
If you are travelling by public transport, you can take the Sprint Bus from Loughborough railway station or the town centre (Ashby Square) and alight at Loughborough College. Cross Epinal Way at the pedestrian crossing and keep going straight ahead to enter campus. This brings you onto Shirley Pearce Square with Martin Hall on the left.