'Rebalancing the Abstract' free discussion

A public discussion with the artists exhibiting in 'Rebalancing the Abstract', chaired by John Bunker. The collective Talking Sculpture Making (TSM) host a free public discussion during their exhibition Rebalancing the Abstract, about their practice, ideologies and experiences of working as women abstract sculptors, aiming to provide an inclusive environment for audiences to engage and respond on their terms. Gillian Brent, Alexandra Harley and Sheila Vollmer will be joined by invited artist, painter Melanie Ahmed. The discussion will be chaired by artist and writer John Bunker in the exhibition, offering an exchange of ideas around the languages of abstract art and the evolving nature of women’s art practices. Talking Sculpture Making (TSM) is an exhibiting and discussion forum formed in 2019 by abstract sculptors Gillian Brent (Sheffield), Alexandra Harley (London/Norfolk) and Sheila Vollmer (London). The collective has an established exhibition profile exploring contemporary abstract sculpture, generating dialogue and supporting multi-generational women’s practices in the genre. TSM are fore-fronting the practice of community building as integral to the ongoing feminist repositioning of abstract sculpture, to redress the imbalance resulting from women sculptors’ underrepresentation in the genre. TSM aim to provide a showcase for intergenerational women’s practices and augment their voices. Throughout their careers, the TSM sculptors have chosen not to make work about women’s issues and domesticity, preferring instead to focus on material, process, space and visual connections. For the exhibition at The Margate School, TSM want to interrogate and open up conversations about how the visual languages of this discipline refer indirectly to the complex world we live in and how much this can be understood as gendered, fuelling discussions that explore and dissect the content and nuance of the artists’ respective practices and how they engage with ideas. For this exhibition, TSM invites London and Margate based artist Melanie Ahmed to show with them. Melanie’s paintings and deconstructed painted objects offer a bridge between the more familiar genre of abstract painting and the composition of form, materiality, colour and surface in the works by the TSM sculptors.