Home Comforts: Brian Ord & Val Close

Brian Ord’s ‘Impossible Interiors’ works are a series of digital prints from hand-made collages, which are then re-worked with mixed techniques and media such as resin, oil paint, print and collage, alongside three sculptures in bronze.  The photograph’s & objects that Ord uses are rarely his own, choosing instead to appropriate objects, images, cards and photographs from a variety of sources in the public domain. This lends the works a sense of , showcasing objects and spaces that the viewers will find both familiar and surreal. The ‘Impossible Interiors’ series attempts to comment on issues involving the contemporary house and home and are, in particular, a political comment on the futile pursuit of domestic perfection, echoing the attainability of domestic utopia.

Alongside Brian Ord, Val Close will be presenting a brand new series of work for this exhibition concerned with consumerism and materialism. She references these issues while using a variety of images including precious stones & expensive possessions, often working with paint and collage. She plays these off against traditional subjects - birds and gardens, for example - in a figurative context. The overall effect underlines the ultimate errors of commodification.