Becky Beasley’s photographs and sculptures, while deeply personal, often develop through an engagement with the ideas and works of other artists and writers. On this occasion, one such figure is artist and designer Eric Ravilious. Towner has one of the largest public collections of Ravilious’ works and this archive became a place for Beasley to start from and journey into. Along the way she encounters Paul Nash and Enid Marx.

Across six room installations, OUS will explore Beasley’s ongoing interest in specific qualities raised by Ravilious’ practice: space, flatness, light, abstraction and nature, as well as his creative friendships. Through the filter of the artist’s deep engagement with the histories and possibilities of photography, the exhibition reflects by turns on themes of gardens, interiors, weather, mourning and human encounter. Featuring newly commissioned linoleum floor designs, photographs and sculptural works, these installations can be experienced as a gently unfolding environment in which questions of interior and exterior become blurred. Space can be experienced as an image, through a subtly dreamlike journey, at once pastoral and sensual.

Funded by Arts Council England and Henry Moore Institute

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/21691