BLANCO
Madeleine Fenwick
Great Britain, resident 2022
Madeleine Fenwick was born in Great Britain, trained in painting, drawing, printmaking, sculptural and digital installations. After studying at the City & Guilds School (2012) she spent 2 years organizing art exhibitions and events. She moved to the island of Malta in 2014 where he set up a studio in Valletta. She participated in local projects (including the Medina Biennial) and exhibitions at the Palacio de Castilla, the European Parliament and the national dance company Zfin, as an artist in residence. She has worked on collaborative projects using natural materials, practicing disciplines ranging from painting and drawing, through video and performance, to sculpture and mixed media installation. In 2022, she went to StudioBlock 74 (Mexico City) where she developed sculptural projects during a 4-month residency. It explores myth, belief, and symbol within the universal narratives of our history with an emphasis on the abstract and transitory elements of experience.
a leap into the void
Madeleine allowed herself to play during her stay at Ruido Blanco, she momentarily abandoned painting and sculpture as supports to make a video-performance. During 2022 she moved to Mexico and became interested in the cosmogony of the myths of the region.
On one of the visits organized by the residence, she heard the myth of the origin of the Iguazu falls. Based on a recording of a performance that she carried out in a waterfall near the area where the house-residence is located, Mads reflects on the union that all myths have and the points in common between them. The elements with which she worked especially on this occasion were complementary opposites - an aspect typical of myths and reinforcing this idea of a cycle present in all his works. These are: fire/water, beginning/end, creation/destruction, silence/noise, reflection/reality. Another axis with which the artist worked was the importance of oral history in the Guaraní culture, the artist believes that sounds contain the shape of things and that despite not understanding the language or dialect there is something in the sound that It is universal.
Finally, her video-performance wants to invite the viewer to remember that we are 70% water. From her visit to the falls, Mads experienced a sensation of jumping into the void and connection with the environment that she sought to enhance with the compositional elements of the video - large sequence shots of the falls, white sound, among others.
Text: Irene Gelfman
