STEIDL-WERK No. 24: “Collisions” explores the creative influences and personal friendship between artists Rose Wylie and Fraser Taylor, and is a mixed-media survey of their careers to date. Designed by Theseus Chan, Creative Director of WORK Pte Ltd and WERK Magazine, the book archives an intense three-day experiment with Wylie and Taylor working simultaneously and led by curator Alison Harley. In response to Wylie and Taylor’s extensive creative practice, artists Jimmy Cosgrove, Jeff Gibbons, Ian Massey, Jo Melvin and Liam Scully were invited by Harley to create open forms of writing that Theseus then integrated into the book as text collages.
Central to this collaboration are notions of commonality and difference, as well as Wylie and Taylor’s emphasis on graphic materiality and spontaneity: Taylor is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice is rooted in drawings that move between figuration and abstraction, while Wylie declares: “Draw what you see, or remember; use everything at your disposal … including ‘sparkle’, wandering wispy lines for ghosts, soft zigzags for heat (and steam), and cross-hatching, foreshortening … use what you’ve got.” Documentary photos by Oona Brown also round off the book and transport us to the original site of Wylie and Taylor’s “Collisions”.
The process of Collisions has enabled the idea of artists “in conversation”, mediated through individual practice, intense discussion and shared friendships, which has produced a unique and permanent record that interprets all voices in harmony. — Alison Harley
In preparation for the book launch, WORK partnered with DECK, an independent art space in the heart of Singapore that supports our community of photographers, artists and designers. The exhibition will be held from 29 July to 6 Aug 2017.
BIOGRAPHY OF ROSE WYLIE
Born in 1934, Rose Wylie studied at Folkestone and Dover School of Art, and the Royal College of Art. Wylie’s work centers on painting and drawing, and her first retrospective exhibition was held at the Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, in 2012, followed by her BP Spotlight exhibition at Tate Britain in 2013. She has received the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Visual Arts Award (2011), the John Moores Painting Prize (2014) and the Charles Wollaston Award (2015).
BIOGRAPHY OF FRASER TAYLOR
Born in 1960, Fraser Taylor studied at the Glasgow School of Art and the Royal College of Art. Taylor co-founded The Cloth (1983-88) with selected works now held by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2001, he was appointed adjunct professor by the Department of Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
