OFF THE CUFF

Improvisation is key to many artistic processes, and to Freddie Robins’ in particular. “I’m working spontaneously with my materials,” she explains in a recent interview, “enjoying the release from pre-planned, designed work I’m knitting, crocheting, embroidering, sewing and pinning onto knitted bodies and body parts.” This sense of impulse has long been evident in Robins’ practice, and art lovers can look forward to seeing her latest works at a playful group show opening at The Minories Gallery in Colchester tomorrow.

Titled Between Things, this group exhibition is curated specifically to harness this playful approach to art, and to use it as a way to turn a straightforward exhibition into a series of unpredictable “scenes”. Exhibiting alongside the likes of Ben Coode-Adams, Clare Iles, Sharon Leahy-Clark, Paris Essex, Stafford Schmool, Will Cruickshank and Celia Pym, Robins’ work will piece together, overlap and collaborate with the other artworks on view, turning display protocol on its head.

Revelling in the decorative and the domestic sensitivities of interior design, the majority of works for this show are made from objects that we use on a daily basis. Well known for her installations made from socks and gloves alongside her tea-cosies-turned-sculptures, this premise is familiar ground for Robins. Slightly less familiar is the element of collaboration at play in this show, as Celia Pym teams up with Robins to create The Imperfect; a repair of one of Robins’ moth-eaten works.

By turning the artists’ gazes to each other instead of directly out to the audience as per usual, Between Things aims to defy our artistic expectations, turning the exhibition into a kind of ad-hoc collage in itself.

Between Things will be on display at the Minories Gallery in Colchester, England 15 April - 10 June 2017 www.art.colchester.ac.uk www.freddierobins.com