Celia Bridle - 'Converging Interactions'

Wednesday 24 August - Saturday 10 September 2022

Converging Interactions, an exhibition of 15 framed digital prints, continues Celia Bridle's interest in the interplay between contemporary media, particularly scanning and printing, and creating original imagery, principally through drawing and painting.

The surface of a digital print can accommodate pigment wet and dry, thereby offering an exciting opportunity to explore and develop printed images. An image can be enlarged or reduced in size using digital media. The images in this exhibition are small, with the width of the largest measuring 21 centimetres. 

Bridle has created detailed and complex imagery, such as Coiled Interaction 02, where a photograph of one of her sculptures was scanned and printed on archival paper as a basic image. Then, by drawing into the printed image with coloured pencils and fine-line pens, the narrow, shadowy lines of the sculpture were integrated into a soft, feathery surface, transformed by the process. Similarly, in Quartet, four hard-edged dark shapes, which also resemble sculpted forms, were surrounded by soft rainbow colour.

Tie-dye techniques have been used since ancient times to colour yarn and woven fabrics. It is a method of tying cloth in particular ways before placing the tied cloth in the dye.  A distinctive feature of the tie-dye technique is the intriguing manner in which the colour seeps into the fabric. During the process of creating both Stony Cascade 02 and Colour Span 02, paper, not cloth, was tie-dyed. It was folded, tied and dipped into the dye. Once dyed, the paper was unfolded, dried and cut up to create a collage. The collage was scanned and printed on archival paper and soft light colour, using pencils and pens, was applied to the space around the tie-dyed elements, with the intention of creating a richly coloured surface.

In Intersecting Textures and Complex Weave, flourishes of lines spread out from a shadowy motif to form a vibrant, swirling cluster. Tonal Intensity 02 pulsates with colour from a multitude of lines spreading across the image. In Flowing Substrate 02 there is a prevalence of white lines which leads to a softness of tone overall and links the darker elements to the pale mauves, greys and light pink, accumulating in a richly detailed surface. 

Fluidity and movement are generated by the linear nature of Bridle’s imagery. An amalgam of colourful lines combines to suggest a surface surging with energy. Readings of intricacy and delicacy are heightened by the small size of the images and the cumulative effect of flowing lines and swathes of colour, leading to surprising and intriguing interactions.