Isabel English

Through the combined mediums of photography, textile and sculpture, Isabel English extends from the literary genre of autofiction - combining autobiographical truths with fictionalised renderings - to create contextually sensitive installations. English draws on the architecture of the home, fusing sites of personal significance with the politics of psychology. Here, body and building become analogous; with body acting as an architecture which houses an emotional interiority, and with building, whose ambition is to protect those who dwell there. The concealing gestures of covering, protecting, layering and armouring become significant processes within her work, using these actions to trace onto the material properties of her practice. The absence of a figure (or wearer) is suggested in the objects that English locates within these settings, resurrected or located in details and images of personal loss. As viewers, one stumbles upon an undisclosed intimacy, positioning us towards human experience which is protected and concealed beyond the limits of language.