Mandy Payne‘s Betwixt and Between exhibition will take place at Cupola Contemporary Art Gallery from 11 March – 9 April.
Mandy is a multi-award-winning graduate from Nottingham University who currently lives and works in Sheffield. She was runner-up for The John Ruskin Prize in 2014 and a finalist for the John Moores Painting Prize, also in 2014.
‘For the past two years I’ve been exploring Park Hill in Sheffield – the Grade II* listed council estate is one of Britain’s largest examples of brutalist architecture. The site is currently undergoing regeneration, part has been transformed into luxury flats, while part remains boarded up and derelict. The remainder is still inhabited, the residents remaining resolutely on-site until finally decanted.
I am ever drawn to the site’s un-refurbished parts, where memories and layers of the past are almost tangible. I wanted to create observational paintings that spoke of the desolation and displacement of the established communities and temporality of urban landscape.
I’ve been working with materials integral to the estate itself, namely concrete and aerosol spray paints, aluminium and found objects. Concrete has been the constant material in my process, I have incorporated it into my paint to create texture and have cast up blocks of it to work on as a substrate. In this latter method I have sprayed on aerosol paints using masking tapes to create the image. Concrete is an interesting material to work on as it can be sanded back and abraded and has interesting haptic qualities.’
Words: Mandy Payne
Images courtesy of Mandy Payne
