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Reconstructing the Old House - 3 interdisciplinary artworks by Mosscrop (Everything Is Everything; Theory and Practice; and To Hear Is To Speak To

Oneself) included in Reconstructing the Old House at the Nunnery, London, April 2009, and at the Ruskin Gallery at

Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, October 2009.

3 sculptures by Mosscrop included in Reconstructing The Old House at the Nunnery, London, and the Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge, 2009.

What are the formal and aesthetic implications of displacing painting from the gallery wall? The exploration of new strategies for supporting and exhibiting the work, and the extension of the painted surface into three dimensions, involved a re-evaluation of conventional distinctions between art, design and craft disciplines, and a reconsideration of the decorative and spatial potential of painting.

The research grew from the finding that the treatment of a painting’s edges could radically effect its spatial qualities; extended Mosscrop’s enquiry into the potential conjunction of painting, sculpture, and architecture in a single work; and was informed by the Bauhaus’ notion of the total work of art, and the multi-discilpinary practice of early modernist pioneers such as Malevich, Bill & Schwitters. The work’s development and construction combined an architectural approach to design with the making skills of the cabinet-maker and the traditional skills of the painter.

These works question distinctions between art and support, expression and ornament, painting and sculpture, and promote a questioning of their relationship with their architectural environment. Mosscrop joins contemporary artists Angela De La Cruz, Helio Oiticica, Thea Djordjadze, & Eva Berendes in extending the possibilities for contemporary painting by liberating it from the wall, investigating alternative means of display and questioning the place of craft in contemporary practice.

Curated by Benet Spencer, the exhibition explored works by nine artists in reference to architecture and modernism, included an artists’ gallery discussion and a catalogue published by Anglia Ruskin University, with essay by David Ryan. Funded by Arts Council England, Bow Arts Trust and Anglia Ruskin University.

This research lead to the residency and exhibition Platform X (A) at Permanent Brighton 2010 and Roy Exley’s essay Chromatogoria exploring the spatial implications of Mosscrop’s research.