Final Exhibition at Gallery@49 - Tonia Maddison

Today's post shows the work from the third artist, Tonia Maddison, from the ReOrsa group now showing work at Gallery@49.

This final exhibition is called Foundation: ReOrsa Founders Finale. The 3 artists - Janet Curley Cannon, Tonia Maddison, Jenny Parkes - who began the Gallery@49 project are completing their time at this site by putting on the last exhibition. In many ways the exhibition marks the beginning of the changes coming due to the Regeneration Project in Bracknell.

In fact, several of the guests at the Private View were expressing their sadness that this venture wouldn't continue. At one point I remarked that it almost seemed like we were at a 'wake' rather than a private view celebrating their work!

Tonia has a Blurb book online, All That Remains, which shows some of her artwork. You can see there is a similar theme to the pieces in this show...ideas of remembering and forgetting connected with nature.

One of the reason I left Tonia's work for last in this review was that I really felt drawn to the exquisite detail of the mock museum methods of display which Tonia uses. I do love small and detailed - as you probably have guessed.

(So much so that I neglected to get any photos of her large drawings displayed on the walls around the smaller displays.)

But, too, these small pieces have their own moments of calm about them, as if you were standing in a quiet room in a museum looking at rocks and thinking about the patterns in them or where they are from.

I have photographed the label at the side of the displays
and then digitally added it to the image of the work. I am not sure you can read it.

Tonia said to me that part of the thinking was connected to the collecting of rocks. Eventually you can lose the memory of where each rock was when it was found. And further to that, within some of the rocks are fossils - which for such a long time have been forgotten - indeed the moments of their existence are unremembered moments because there is no memory of them to begin with.

Along with rocks are special little books with drawings and words.
And little folders which look as if supplied by museums...

but no, she made them herself...along with realistic slate-look pieces having worn surfaces, but made from MDF!

Very realistic.

Each piece has it's own number related to the place where it may have been found.

I think I would love to see a whole room full of these little collections. Very special.