9.5.16 – 15.5.16

O C T A G O N : MOLLY BALDRY, ELENA BOLDINA, MAYA BUSBY, FUSHIA CLAYTON, MITRA FARHAN, PENNY MAE, MOLLY MARIA, IZZY VENTRESS

FOREWORD"I really wanted, more than anything

else, to contribute to the culture that I was living in. It just seemed like a challenge to move it a little bit toward the way I thought it might be interesting to go" David Bowie

'We Prick You' is a show where absence is present, where the location, a derelict workshop, is not neutral but a player - the space gives meaning to the work and the space is animated by the work.

Subtle connections are made. A window is a framing device for a digital projection that swells with the fading of the light , perfectly crisp white sheets are seen against the noise and randomness of a fruit machine, living skin is projected onto dead hide, painting incorporates layers of graffit i and a bank of televisions share space with a curtain of petals suspended and weightless.

Here is diverse work exploring disparate ideas, with an ambition to push the culture forward to where it might be interesting to go.

Paul Ed wards

TOhe huotues

MOLLY BALDRY

PreconceptionsRepurposed fruit machine

2016

Attempting to create a sense of confrontation and confusion, the viewer encounters themes concerning the representation of women in popular culture. The relationship between the work and the viewer holds significance, using installation I explore the restraint of the female form, with the intention of controlling the way the audience views the body.

Through the manipulation of sound, light and music the preconceptions of an object are challenged, as I have taken a recognisable cultural object and removed it from its natural environment. In the manner that images presented by the media of women are digita Ily altered to d isplay a false sense of perfection, I am manipulating images of fruit with images of the female form in reference to the misogynistic categorisation of women's bodies. Ult imately chaIlenging both the preconceptions of an object, and the objectification of the female body.

www.mollybaldry.wix.com/artist www.mollybaldryartist.tumblr.com

ELENA BOLDINA"The exhibition itself ceases to be basically a self-contained, static condition and becomes more and more

an aggressive energy, seeking to transform the visitor. The visitor is another energy, a different process of life. Both energies interact" - The way beyond art- the work of Herbet Bayer, 1942.

I take as my subject the human condition, explored through the manipulations of space and specific environments. As there are many factors, which engage and contribute to the development of human conditions. My intention is for the viewer to engage and become aware of the ontology of our human functions; our senses, physical capabilities and social interactions - the key question being, 'what makes us, us?'. Hannah Collins, Uta Bart and Phillipe Parreno; all engage with the concept of site, space and t ime- recycling discarded materials within the rejected space, resonates an assent and descent of a bodily presence. I am cross breeding both living and dead skin, with the aim to recreate or redesign these functions into the ethereal.

The film documents the body, exploit ing it as an abject material through the juxtaposition of the two skins. Explicitly conveying humanistic characterisations to the leather, I am interposing its cycle, by violating the industria Iprocesses that have taken place. Animating the abandoned materiality of a sofa, as skin but not presenting it as its body. Skin Tracing, Skin.

SkinSculptural projection2016

www.elenaboldina9.wix.com/artistandcurator www.facebook.com/elenaboldinartist

MAYABUSBY

UntitledInstallation

2016

Free-standing, the window is neglected: abandoned the material is decaying. Formerly functional the objects are resolved by the space; they no longer fulfil their original purpose but exist as ambiguous material. In an attempt to manipulate the objects deterioration I exhibit them as sculptural entities, now functioning to subvert the materials insignificance. Relocating the objects I impose the space with movement, animating it with gestures of the body. The objects are recast as overtones of the human form, marking it as absent , yet uncannily present. Haunted by their estranged purpose the objects presence becomes eerie, particularly when juxtaposed with a phantom body.

mayabusbyart@outlook.com

FUSHIA CLAYTON

My intention is to transform a space by inhabiting it through absence. Combining performance and photography to explore the aesthetic of movement, I open out the boundary between fixed states of being. The hallucinatory quality of long exposure captures an evanescent presence of my own body, which I then return to the space through projected image.

Influenced by notions of the sublime and the uncanny, I am interested in a disengagement from reality; wherein a fixed physicality of the body is defined by the sites conditions. Light is an integral element in this interplay between body and site. As I allow it to create moments of presence and absence, a liminal realm is conjured and an eerie ambivalence is evoked.

Untitled Moving image 2016

www.facebook.com/FushiaClaytonArt

MITRAFARHA

NI explore themes of inequality through the lens of intersectionality, the concept that oppressive institutions such as racism, sexism, classicism, homophobia etc. cannot be examined and criticised through looking at one social categorization solely on its own, but that all these factors need to be considered together as they create overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage. I convey my experiences as an immigrant and woman of colourthrough the medium of paint and text, almost entirely in an abstract way. Colour, form, and my emotional responses to my subject are essentially interlinked, as I make work about culture and the human condition.

BruisingAbstract painting2016

www.instagram.com/sothenicouldreallybefly

PEN NY MAE

Rose-kissedPetal

installation2016

"All the little rose-kissed foxy girls Shoes, shoes, little white shoes Where have all the flowers gone" David Bowie, We Prick You

My current practice concerns notions of the domestic and the human compulsion to cater to our inate, carnal, habitual natures. Environments of familiarity become physical extensions of their human counterparts, reflecting back the internal condition of our psyches - cluttered minds I cluttered spaces. Using installation and the everyday, I intend to impose a natural, living presence onto a location that is overwhelmed by desolation, due to the absence of human interaction.

www.instagram.com/unchartedworld/

MOLLYMARIA

Predominantly a digital artist, Molly works with photography and video. The subject matter of the work concerns object and personaIity, from the exp!oration of her own everyday Iife to Iarger concepts surrounding the topics of fem in inity and gender stereotyping. They are both addressed as separate topics in their own right, but are also explored in unison discussing the potential relationship between the two visually. Questions such as; how do the objects we own reflect our personality. What can objects tell you about a person? Are recurring starting points.

For the exhibition 'we prick you' the main focus is on object, taking a step away from the digital, Molly is bringing what would have been digitalised into the space, the object itself being present, creating an interactive experience for the viewer. She wi 11 be exploring the juxtaposition between the 'pricking' and grungy atmosphere of the outhouse and the pristine presentation of a bed, a source of comfort, pleasure, and safety. What does it mean to do this? The answer of which, is not given. It is accessed only by the m ind of the viewer themselves and what they bring to the piece. Theirthoughts only.

Giraffe Bed 2016

www.mollymaria.wix.com/mollymaria www.facebook.com/mollymariaartist

IZZYVENTRES

SAs a predominantly performative artist, my practice considers the personal expression of my body as a medium and a visual piece of live sculpture, often framed using electronic media such as VHS camcorder films and altered record players to provide notions of discomfort and unease. I use a range of digital media as a means of consecutive progression through bodies of work, aligning a time-line of my own existence alongside the digital revolution of computing technology in the late twentieth century. My sense of self is used in experimentation to investigate my own psychological and sexual state, whilst considering struggles with dysphoria and a failure to conform, consuming ideas of post-humanism and 'man-made', transgendered bodies. Most current ly, my work concerns the idea of artificial gender, investigating the ever increasing crossover between the sexes after medical and social advances.

Interference TV installation 2016

www.izzyventress.com www.facebook.com/izzyventressart

Part of Oddity Arts Festival 2016

JUNK : Collaborative Piece

Octagon would like to thank everybody for their generous support and cont ributions. With special thanks to Cube Company. Thanks to View London for your donation. Thanks to Paul Edwards, Felicity Shum, Robert Britt and Richard Black for your time and advice. We could not have done it without you.

YOUR LOCAi. GUIDE

O C T A G O N : MOLLY BALDRY, ELENA BOLDINA, MAYA BUSBY, FUSHIA CLAYTON, MITRA FARHAN, PENNY MAE, MOLLY MARIA, IZZY VENTRESS