Joanne Masding: The Moveable Scene of the Page at the Bluecoat

The Bluecoat presents a new exhibition from Birmingham-based artist Joanne Masding: The Moveable Scene of the Page continues the But Does it Speak? season of screenings, exhibitions and events exploring connections between writing, speech and the visual arts.

The show combines Masding’s sculptural practice with writing as she explores the very nature of both objects and what happens when they’re captured, whether in words or image. The artist describes writing as a “sculpting tool’ allowing her to defy the laws of physics and go inside objects”, and in the show visitors will find sculptures made from metal, ceramic, plaster and textiles. The new alphabet sculptures are inspired by Monster Munch crisps, with rounded shapes of bubble letters. They’re made through the process of extrusion – forcing a soft pliable material through a hole in a disc. The letters are combines to create lyrical sentences like  “tongue tripping over a glazed ceramic marble”, somewhat in contrast to the Monster Munch aesthetic.

Viewers can also rip pages from the installation to read Masding’s written work. Her work as a whole is a meditation on the nature of the things that surround us and the way we understand them. She uses art as a way of slowing down time to really, really look at what’s in front of us.