Stafford Allpress and Rebecca Thomson: His and Hers

Stafford Allpress creates static still life arrangements of objects; each designed to draw the viewer close into a little world of his making. His works are based on actual environments and objects made to an exacting 1:20 scale.

Allpress sources items of furniture which have been handcrafted or strangely adapted by previous owners, then ‘preserves’ them in miniature. He has a deep appreciation for the mundane objects which populate our lives and values the ugliness that befalls them as they are used and abused to the point of dereliction. He is also interested in recording and archiving personal, domestic spaces; his surfaces are faithful to the tarnished and used originals and become little records that document the history and activities of previous owners.

Rebecca Thomson’s work is a quiet and sometimes haunting homage to domestic handcrafts. She begins by sourcing fabrics and stitch crafts in local thrift shops; there is an element of chance and serendipity here in that generally each work will be a direct response to a find. Central to the works are the notions of ‘keeping’, ‘noticing’ and ‘preserving’. Stickers and voids where labels or stickers have been make reference to the charity stores where things are itemised, categorised and priced by well-meaning volunteers, often in a haphazard way.

Thomson uses a range of drawing, collagraphic print and collage techniques to execute highly detailed imagery. She has a continued interest in working somewhere between flat and shallow space. Her new works are largely monochromatic, representing depth and dimension with slight shifts of tone and surface texture. She also investigates ways to incorporate crafts such as knitting, embroidery and marquetry into her print techniques.

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