Nicola Grellier
Through drawing, collage, print, stitch and found object assemblage, my work is centred around integrally connected notions of memory, time and language. The work continues and diverts the effect of time on matter with lengthy processes which weigh a touching absurdity against precarious outcomes.
Domestic household or clothing materials, and discarded objects are worked on with readily available, functional products, over lengthy time in a response to the dehumanising speed of contemporary living. The materials both hold and suggest traces of memory.
Single words, fraught with misinterpretation, communicate the difficulty and hilarity of making oneself understood through language and point to
I have been a practising artist for over 30 years since graduating from Chelsea in 1988.
Apprehension 2019 graphite and collage on board 107 x 153 cm
When her mother was six, her father killed himself. He may have been having a love affair, or her mother was. Or he was an alcoholic, or killed his father-in-law in a car crash. Or he had debts he couldn’t pay. It may be too late to know.
Consumption 2020 silk, cotton wadding and wool 121 x 128 cm
She can’t help being bourgeois. She was born that way.
Project 2018 graphite, found paper, screen 160 x 168 cm
She has a silk shirt she bought when she was eighteen. She could never wear it, the shape was wrong. She kept giving it away and taking it back without ever wearing it. She liked it very much though, because of its pattern. Complicated but only black and white.
State 2019 embroidery silk and hessian 110 x 65 cm
People used to tell her she didn’t really have a name because she wasn’t christened.
Domestic Objections 2020 digital photograph
Her mother had wanted a different life but had no will to change the one she was living.
A Pocalypse 2020 ink and paper 19 x 19.5 cm
She had to practice using the fire escape. She put the rope around her torso and climbed out. Her brother was below, looking up her skirt. She could see the rope was loose, she was going to drop. She clung on to the ledge. In the end she let go.