WORKS OF THE WEEK: Abigail Reynolds 'Tol II', 2024 and 'Onyx' 2024

Abigail Reynolds
Tol II, 2024
Powder coated steel, printed, tinted and textured glass, palladium leaf
189 x 154 x 84 cm
74 ½ x 60 ½ x 33 in.

"Abigail Reynolds thinks about the visual excitement of the landscape, and of how often it has been seen through the glass lens of a camera. She thinks about the Cornish landscape as a place of ritual, folklore, and spiritual practice. She thinks of the artists and writers who have lived and worked here before her. She thinks about it as an in-between place." - Hettie Judah, 2024

Tol II illustrates Reynolds’ relationship with the landscape as she travels between her home in St Just and her studio at Porthmeor in St Ives. The Cornish landscape is tinted by the work of the women who came before her; Barbara Hepworth, Virginia Woolf, and Daphne du Maurier. Among the collaged panes of printed glass, a photograph of the Mên-an-Tol from du Maurier's book Vanishing Cornwall (1967), and an image of the Godrevy Lighthouse, an inspiration for Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse (1927), shift and change with the light and position of the spectator. The steel frame is inspired by Hepworth’s lithograph, Itea (1971).

Abigail Reynolds
Onyx, 2024
Tinted and textured glass, copper foil
40 x 20 x 13 cm
15 ¾ x 7 ⅞ x 5 ⅛ in.

Also included in the exhibition are Reynolds' Masks; glass collage works that offer the spectator an augmented perspective as they look through the lens.

"These sculptures have mineral titles which suggest a transaction with non-human elements. They alter sight - whether seen as an object or help to the eyes their textured and tinted planes distort the view. Each contains a slice of mirror, which includes the mask’s surroundings in their form, and if worn, bring the environment onto the head of the wearer." - Abigail Reynolds, 2024

Abigail Reynolds studied English Literature at St Catherine’s College, Oxford University, and subsequently a Fine Art MA at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Reynolds has exhibited widely across the UK. Selected solo exhibitions include We beat the bounds, Tate St Ives and Lost Libraries, ROKEBY, London (2017); Double Fold, Rambert, London (2013) and most recently, Flux, Kestle Barton Gallery, Cornwall (2022). Her work is included in the Arts Council Collection, London; the New York Public Library, New York; and the Government Art Collection, London. In 2024, she was commissioned for a suite of works titled Anthronauts by Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, which are displayed in the house and garden for their summer exhibition Picturing Childhood: A New Perspective.

Abigail Reynolds' Works in Glass is available to view in the gallery at Roche Court Sculpture Park until 1 September 2024.