Engages,

Rebecca Moore & Kelly Fliedner. Written by Kelly Fliedner Faces in the Water: A short play based on the life and times of Giogia de Vivre

Opening: Saturday 16 May, 2pm Dates: 16 May 2015

‘Faces in the Water’, a play written by Kelly Fliedner based on the life and times of Giogia de Vivre, will be performed live in the space on the final day of Tai Snaith’s exhibition ‘Portrait of a Sunday Painter’.

Giogia de Vivre painted for the love of it, but not without seriousness or meaning. She was a true amateur in that she cared little for the hierarchy of the art world and only ever followed her own instincts. Not unlike many female painters today who feel isolated from the art canon and at the same time exploited and marginalized by lifestyle trends (design blogs and fashion magazines) her paintings were constantly referred to as illustration or ‘interior decoration’ – making her work and life more relevant than ever before. Although she (de Vivre) was relatively unknown during her lifetime, she was celebrated by the art world retrospectively, after her death. For this project, Tai Snaith collects rare snippets of research of the artist’s life to paint the picture of a forgotten and inspiring woman ahead of her time.

Tai Snaith is interested in the point where still life becomes real life. How and why does an artist express her life through a series of pictures? With a practice which employs many different forms of research and materials and presents them within widely varying sites and contexts including collage, drawing, painting, performance, writing and publishing, her work is often personal, collaborative and experimental.