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Louisa Fairclough’s ‘Mental Falls’ comes to MIRROR
Thursday, 12 December, 2024 — Gloucester-based artist Louisa Fairclough’s ‘Mental Falls’ in MIRROR at Arts University Plymouth is an exhibition of film and moving image exploring the legacy of a loved one’s sketchbook.
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://mirrorplymouth.com/whats-on/mental-falls"></a></p>
<p dir="ltr">Louisa Fairclough’s 'Mental Falls' in MIRROR at Arts University Plymouth is an exhibition of film and moving image responding to a sketchbook by Louisa’s sister, Hetta Fairclough (1973-2008). This body of work was made by Louisa Fairclough before, during and after a lengthy period of mental illness.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://mirrorplymouth.com/whats-on/mental-falls">‘Mental Falls’</a> is an upcoming exhibition of expanded film and moving image by Louisa Fairclough in <a href="https://mirrorplymouth.com/">MIRROR</a> at Arts University Plymouth. Running from Friday 24 January until Saturday 29 March 2025, the exhibition opens for a drinks’ reception with the artist on Thursday 23 January from 5pm until 7:30pm.<br /></p>
'Feel Stupid' film still - Louisa Fairclough
<p dir="ltr">Louisa Fairclough explains: "Hetta’s sketchbook of drawings probe at the complexities of being, pulling on her own experience to give voice to psychological intensities. The drawings are sculptural assemblages and visual poems which lend themselves to being voiced. For a while I’ve been making works that take a page at a time from Hetta’s sketchbook responding to the drawing as a vocal score. With 16mm film, I work with a choir of film projectors. Or I work with singers to create choral performances. 'Feel Stupid' is the latest in this series of works. Here, multiple film loops are punctuated by shards of intoned phrases and images of gestures conveying anxiety.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"For a long time, I wanted to make a film which would shine a light on the entire sketchbook. To return to Hetta’s sketchbook and to slowly and deeply look at it, a page at a time. The composer and musician, Pauline Oliveros, talked about 'Deep Listening'. Well, I approached Hetta’s sketchbook with this in mind when making the essay film, 'Mental Falls'. </p>
<p dir="ltr">"Both works were made within the shadow of my own unanticipated experience of serious mental illness."<br /></p>

'Feel Stupid' installation detail. Installation at Danielle Arnaud gallery. Documentation: Sean Dougherty
<p dir="ltr">‘Feel Stupid’ (2024) is an expanded film installation which has five 16mm film loops that stretch across the gallery space. The installation responds to a single page from Hetta’s sketchbook. The drawing now smudged with the shadow of time has strips of masking tape that hinge from the centre over newspaper cuttings. Along each length of masking tape is a phrase she's written in felt-tip pen. Shards of these phrases were intoned by a singer and recorded onto magnetic tape; they now splinter across the film loops like a maelstrom of anxious thoughts. Projected onto five small pieces of float glass are gestures illuminated by a flashgun, glimpses of a pulling down and a contracting of things, a turmoil inside the head and body, an embodiment of some sort of reality that is not. As Vicky Smith writes “translated into a range of linguistic ruptures, Louisa Fairclough confronts the ongoing taboo and misunderstanding surrounding mental illness, a painful experience that must, according to Julia Kristeva, be named and taken into a new form.” The 16mm film installation was made with Louisa’s long-term collaborators, composer Richard Glover, singer Samuel Middleton and performer Nancy Trotter Landry.</p>
<p dir="ltr">‘Mental Falls’ (2024) is an essay film weaving the voices of singers with Louisa's own voice in a close observation of Hetta's sketchbook. Page by page, Louisa’s interpretation of her sister’s drawings - spoken and sung - becomes the soundtrack to the film. Cherry Smyth writes "The spoken and sung ‘voice in difficulty’ responds to the written voice, embodying and extending its sphere of painful influence in a brilliant and enthralling vocal score."</p>
<p dir="ltr">Associate Professor Stephanie Owens from Arts University Plymouth says, “Louisa Fairclough’s thought-provoking artwork serves to highlight the profound connections between art, memory, and mental health, offering an intimate exploration of lived experience through the lens of extraordinary creativity. We’re excited to bring Louisa’s ‘Mental Falls’ to Plymouth, creating opportunities for our students and staff members, and people across the South West, to engage with work that is as moving as it is visually compelling.”<br /></p>