The artist Phoebe de Gaye has been producing installations and drawings over the last decade. Her creative journey began by exploring the special potency of used clothing - the language spoken by clothing separated from their former wearers. This preoccupation is mirrored in her other career as a successful costume designer in film and television. Here, clothing may be the catalyst that brings a character to life.
In 2006 Phoebe developed some of these ideas in a series of site specific installations at Panther House, a labyrinthine Victorian warehouse in King's Cross. Naming the exhibition 'The Opening of Room 304', she filled a room with old clothing the colour of faded flesh and partnered it with mysterious presences, blackened and charred; yet still seeming to communicate with each other. The faint but persistent sound of dripping water marked the passing of time. A little theatre of decay was created- fascinating, but claustrophobic and disturbing.
Visitors were asked to view the work as dusk fell, on their own, as the winter light faded. Then, in another darkened room, they were asked to write down their impressions. Working quickly, Phoebe produced drawings in response to these testimonies. She then made etchings from a selection, which are being shown here together with extracts of the hand-written responses: a hooded photographer, a ballerina, sausages, faces in drops of water, day dreams in the bath, nightmares by the sea, abandoned swimming pools.
In the game called 'Consequences', the players are forbidden to look at each other's written fragments, but at the end find they have collectively constructed a story. Phoebe regards this exhibition similarly as an unconscious collaboration with the audience. She hopes that her responses shown here will trigger still further impressions, memories and dreams in the imagination, down limitless forking pathways of image and association. Her creative impulse is delicately personal; she presents her vision in a manner that is both witty and disturbing. The artist will be present at the private view.
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