Questioning the shifting value of ‘things’ is a recurring theme in Elaine Mullings’ practice. Working with anything from tissue paper and plastic bags to copper pipe and broken glass – delicate or fragile ‘things’ that hover like residual low-level noise - Mullings interrogates the emotions and sensations that seemingly ‘low value’, ephemeral material can provoke. Divorcing these ‘things’ from their everyday disposable contexts, Mullings explores complex and difficult subjects such as exploitation, prejudice and injustice. The aim is to unsettle our understanding of the familiar and disrupt our responses to the 'strange'.
While drawing and printmaking are often starting points, Mullings’ practice is firmly underpinned by a commitment to ‘facture’ - the accrual of labour and time, materiality, pattern and repetition. To create her sculptural pieces and installations, she often uses intensive manual, repetitive processes. This approach is echoed in her use of multiples and fragmentation which she employs as a way of deconstructing and manipulating familiar surfaces of the ‘everyday’. For Mullings, evidence of the rhythm of labour and time sustained in the making is visibly embedded in the work to retain honest connections between the material, process and form itself. The large-scale nature of her sculpture and installations often responds structurally to the works’ environments, drawing attention to the poetics of simple things such as light, space and texture.
Mullings’ practice references the language of Arte Povera, Minimalism and Pop and draws inspiration from the work of artists such as El Anatsui, Mark Bradford, Leonardo Drew, Theaster Gates, Alicja Kwade, Claire Barclay and Jannis Kounellis.
Contact
elaineym@btinternet.com
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CV
Elaine Mullings is a visual artist living and working in East Sussex. Her practice centres on sculpture, installation and printmaking. Following success as a television producer and director at the BBC, she left broadcasting in 2005 for a career in visual art.
Mullings graduated in Fine Art Drawing at Camberwell in 2009, before going on to complete an MFA in Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL in 2011. While there, she won the Red Mansion Art Foundation Prize. The resulting residency in Beijing, PRC has had a lasting impact on her work.
Mullings has exhibited work nationally and won several national and international commissions. In 2016 for example, after a two-year focus on printmaking, she won a large sculpture commission in Stockholm, Sweden.
In 2022, after a four-year break precipitated by the global pandemic, Mullings set up a new studio. She cemented her return in 2023 with two new, large-scale artworks for We Out Here, an exhibition showcasing the work of six Black artists of Caribbean heritage at the Hastings Contemporary, Hastings.
Education
2011 MFA Sculpture - The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London
2009 BA (Hons) Drawing - Camberwell College of Art, London
2006 Foundation Diploma in Art & Design, Camberwell College of Art, UAL, London
1990 BA (Hons) Italian Studies & Political Science, University of Lancaster, Lancaster
1987 University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Employment
2014-16 Sessional Lecturer, Art & Design, Sussex Coast College, Hastings
2012 Studio Assistant to Briony Marshall, Pangolin Studios, London
1991-2005
Television Producer/Director, British Broadcasting Corporation, London
Commissions
2016-18 Roost for Einar Mattsson + Young Art, Stockholm, Sweden
2015 Finalist of two - Vesta House Art Project + Get Living London, Stratford - Project postponed
2014 Thorney Island & Phyllis, The Courthouse for Conran+Partners + Barratt Homes + LCP London
2013 Murmuration, Duke Restaurant, Istanbul for Conran+Partners, D&D London + Hoxton Art Projects
2010 Ball Park, Bloomsbury Festival + Slade, Russell Square, London
Awards
2010 The Red Mansion Foundation Art Prize
2009 Arts and Humanities Research Council Postgraduate Award
Residencies
2010 Red Mansion Prize, Cao Chang Di 300, Beijing, PRC
2009 Littorall Arts/Merzbarn - Kurt Schwitters' Merzbarn, Lake District, UK
Solo Exhibitions
2017 Stranger Fruit. Clifford Chance LLP, Upper Bank Street, Canary Wharf, London
2014 Nicole Farhi + Elaine Mullings. Nicole Farhi, Conduit Street, London
2013 Off Centre - Works on Paper + Sculptural Proposals. Arts Forum, St Leonards on Sea
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 The Future Is Now, Weil + CasildART, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, London
We Out Here, Hastings Contemporary, Hastings, East Sussex
Open Studios, Coastal Currents Arts Festival Hastings & St Leonards, East Sussex
2016 JP Art Gallery, Battersea, London
Open Studios, Coastal Currents Arts Festival Hastings & St Leonards, East Sussex
2015 Crossing Borders, The Garage, St Leonards on Sea
JP Art Gallery, Battersea, London
Open Studio, Coastal Currents Arts Festival Hastings & St Leonards, East Sussex
2014 Rye Society of Artists Summer Show, Rye, East Sussex
A Slice of Hastings & St Leonards, The Arches Studio, Hastings
Blackheath Contemporary Art Gallery, Blackheath, London
Dulwich Contemporary Art Gallery, Dulwich, London
2013 Open Studios on Marina, Coastal Currents Visual Arts Festival Hastings & St Leonards
Rye Society of Artists Summer Show, Rye, East Sussex
Assemblage, Hastings Arts Forum, St Leonards On Sea
Muster Point, ASC Gallery, London
2012 The World's Our Oyster, APT Gallery, London
2011 The Chess Club presents 11.11.11, SPACE studios, London
The Slade Shows'11 MA/MFA Fine Art, The Slade School of Fine Art, London
Life is Elsewhere, The Crypt Gallery, St. Pancras, London
Surplus to Requirements? Exhibition & Symposium, Woburn Square, London
The Red Mansion Art Prize, The Triangle Space, Chelsea College, London
2010 Open Studio, The Slade School of Fine Art, London
Q-Art London Presents, APT Gallery, London
Bloomsbury Festival + Slade, Russell Square, London
Slade MFA/MA Interim Show, Woburn Place, London
2009 APT Presents Q-Art London, APT Gallery, Deptford
Summer Showcase, Camberwell College of Art, London
Atlas: separated at intervals, The Crypt Gallery, St. Pancras, London
Macro-Micro Visions, The Redgate Gallery, London
2008 9 Views, Hillcrest Road, Camden, London
140, Area 10 Project Space, Peckham, London
Mullings has also participated in art symposiums and art events, such as The Other Art Fair.