2 - 21 July

Audrey Reynolds was born in Manchester. She studied in Bath and London. Reynolds currently lives and works in London.

A conversation between Tom Bardwell and Audrey Reynolds

Tom Bardwell: A good starting point seems to be the exhibition’s title Anote, which to me hints at the works referencing something beyond what is presented. Could you explain how you arrived at this choice of title?

Audrey Reynolds: Notes, endnotes and footnotes, are provided as supplementary material, as explanatory or tangential extras, but they also have the potential to give clues, to act as circumstantial evidence for an author’s thinking process. The etymology is quite fitting too: early 13c., "observe, mark carefully," from O.Fr. noter, from L. notare, from nota "letter, note," originally "a mark, sign," possibly an alteration of Old L. *gnata, infl. by gnoscere "to recognize."

My note starts indefinitely.

TB: You have previously described your practice as generating ‘bunches’ of work, which ‘tries to establish a set of mid-range or mid-phase archetypes…to fix the work at an intermediate juncture’. Would you say this of Anote?

AR: The ‘bunches’ relate to my practice as a whole but what I am presenting here, in Anote, is a selection from these categories of my art production. Mid-range and mid-phase, possibly yes, or leaning towards the edge of range and phase.

TB: Your use of marks, stains and non-final materials such as plasticine tend to engage with subsidiary and negligible values, and offer the work certain paucity. Is this also a way of allowing the understated and restrained properties to be accentuated?

AR: I like this term you use, ‘non-final’, I’ve never come across that before. The plan is to make final marks but the fact that their qualities may be referred to as ‘non-final’ is, perhaps, a measure of their moderate level of result. Paucity is another word that strikes me in your question. I like the way this word looks.

TB: Language and words seem a keen interest of yours within your practice, are there criteria for this?

AR: Titles have always been important to me, and the space between a work of art and its title is a space worth taking a look at. The audio work in this show Opera Mallow is based on conversations between myself and a friend that were imbued with strains of recognition and linguistic rhythm. The resulting work is in part an exploration of musicality and agreements.

TB: During the install you showed me some music videos. Do you ever go to live gigs?

AR: I think it’s important not to experience life.