Into The Labyrinth . . .

Michelle Rumney

There Are No Shortcuts . . .No doubt Michel le Rumney is grounded in an openess to new ideas as wel l as an embrace of the human condit ion as a journey. Her work sums up a widely travel led inter ior l i fe . Rumney is an art ist of meditat ive transparency where empty space holds equal weight to the v is ib le . She represents what i s not seen to express the essence. Her work speaks with a soft voice, yet beneath there is a power and spir i tual i ty.

The attract ion of Rumney ’s col lages is not their inscrutabi l i ty, but their access ib i l i ty. Their f leet wit combined with conceptual ingenuity and metaphor ic p lay. They are fragi le and yet res i l ient , se l f-enclosed but r ich with potent ia l l i fe . Something exc i t ing happens when the mater ia ls she uses take on an ex istence of their own. Too unruly for scr ipted rules or predict ive p laces, mater ia l i s seen with new eyes or because they are understood in new contexts . Occas ional ly i t ’s because they possess an aesthet ic grandeur that res ists any interpret ive gr id .

The art ist tends to focus on t ime pass ing i t ’s entra quick power. There are serendipitous l inks f rom one col lage to the next , f rom her ear ly years to the present . There is something inherent ly specia l about d iscover ing the work of an art ist whose oeuvre is very ass imi lated - I was thr i l led at the opportunity to wr ite about Michel le Rumney ’s images, which combine storyboard e lements with meditat ive states , l ive ly pos i t ion and respect ive nodes to mythologica l iconography.

T ime spent whi le not only looking but feel ing the v ibrat ions of Rumney ’s creat ion, the paint ings of Agnes Mart in come to mind as wel l as the col lages and weavings of Leonore Tawney. Both of them succeeded in pushing the boundar ies of the hereto core into new dimensions. Tota l ly independent of one another, Mart in , Tawney and Rumney have shaped art that reconf igure the def in i t ion of the monumental .

Herta Wittgenstein

Into the L abyr inth. . .This ser ies began with a s ingle impulse – I wanted to try to make sense of the informat ion in a book I was reading. P ick ing through the content of th is part icular book (The Seven Habits of HIghly Effect ive People – a New York T imes Bestsel ler by Stephen Covey) fe l t too s imple – i t was a 7-step process that c la imed to, i f fo l lowed, change your l i fe fundamental ly. This concept has bothered me s ince the I f i rst acquired a copy of the book (but d idn’t read i t ) about seven years ago.

A labyr inth, as I understand i t , i s a maze in which you can’t get lost – there is a s ingle path in , and you use the same path to get out – once you’ve reached your goal , you s imply turn around and retrace your steps ( remember Theseus retrac ing Ar iadne’s golden thread?) . Labyr inths can be used to solve problems – the walker asks a quest ion as they enter, and at each turn on the path, ponders the quest ion from a s l ight ly d i fferent perspect ive, hopeful ly achiev ing c lar i ty by the t ime they ’ve walked the whole maze. In essence, labyr inths are a way of going for a long , thoughtful walk in a fa i r ly compact space.

So i t seemed appropr iate to use a labyr inth pattern to trace the path of th is ‘s imple’ se l f-help book. I d issected the book, pul l ing the chapters and pages apart , s i f t ing through the informat ion, pul l ing out key sentences and the ‘nuggets ’ of ‘ important ’ content . And then I spread out the informat ion I ’d g leaned onto the labyr inth, mapping the paths chapter by chapter, reaching the goal – the concluding chapter with the b ig ‘aha’ moment presumably.

Once I ’d got a way into th is labyr inth, I began to work on the next few in the ser ies – more se l f-help or how-to books and a lso more maps – informat ion is beaut i fu l as they say. I chose a d i fferent labyr inth pattern for each map or book – f rom a 15th Century hedge maze pattern, to an Indian swir l labyr inth to a Greek meander. A l l pre-ex ist ing labyr inth patterns, not of my own des ign – I wanted to a l low mysel f to be guided, both in terms of the ‘subject ’ and in terms of the process i tse l f.

The result ing ser ies of seven labyr inths seem at f i rst g lance quite r ig id and formal – most ly they have sharp corners and mainly stra ight- ish edges. However, when standing c lose enough to read the actual words on the page or p lacenames on the maps, the d is jo inted and fractured snippets seem a l i tt le r id iculous and nonsensica l . At the same t ime as tak ing up more space, feel ing perhaps more grandiose and ‘puffed up’ than their or ig inal book or fo lded map format, these books have shi f ted or transformed in meaning a lso by having their contents ‘ la id bare’.

Has their or ig inal explanatory intent ion been increased or d iminished? Does the v iewer achieve a d i fferent understanding of them? How do the pathways and ‘wal ls ’ of these new maps affect the reading of them? Though there’s only one path in and out , you may f ind yoursel f looking for your own shortcuts . . .

Michel le Rumney

The Road to Tober mor ymap pieces on paper

148 x 148 cm 2013

S ali sbur y : Con stable’s Plainmap pieces & st i tching on paper

73 x 46 cm 2013

In My Ow n Foostepsmap pieces & graphite on paper

143 x 140 cm 2013

The 48 Laws of Power : 1-26book pages, graphite & fabr ic on paper

168 x 168 cm 2013

I .O.W.map pieces & st i tching on paper

77 x 64 cm 2013

Das Indi sche Laby r inthadhesive labels and fabr ic on paper

112 x 112 cm 2013

Herbal Laby r inthadhesive labels and ink on paper

148 x 148 cm 2013

Cuer pos y Almas IV - ¡Tonter ías!comic book pages and st i tching

30 x 32 cm 2013

Cuer pos y Almas I - ¡Fin!comic book pages and st i tching30 x 37 cm 2013

Cuer pos y Almas II - S entimentoscomic book pages and st i tching

31 x 38 cm 2013

Cuer pos y Almas IV - ¡Tonter ías!comic book pages and st i tching

30 x 32 cm 2013

Cuer pos y Almas III - ¡Mas! ¡Mas!comic book pages and st i tching30 x 37 cm 2013

Cuer pos y Almas IV - S ol loz antescomic book pages and st i tching

30 x 32 cm 2013

Cuer pos y Almas S er ies (detai l s)

7 Habits of Highly Ef fec t ive People (7 Path Laby r inth)

book pages and graphite on paper & c loth205 x 185 cm 2013

Walk ing seems to cover t ime and space

but in real i ty we are a lways just where we started. . .

Agnes Mart in

Cuer pos y Almas V - ¡Tonter ías!comic book pages and st i tching

30 x 32 cm 2013

MICHELLE RUMNEYMay 1967 Dorset, England

Education2001 – 02 MA in European Fine Art Winchester School of Art UK & Barcelona1992 – 96 BA (Hons) in Fine Art (First Class Honours) University of Plymouth, UK & New Mexico, USA1990 – 92 Foundation in Visual Arts Chelsea School of Art, London, UK1985 – 86 BA (Hons) in Film, Video & Photographic Arts (1yr) Polytechnic of Central London

Solo Exhibitions2002 Autoadhesiva, Panorama Gallery: Barcelona1998 Oraciones, Exeter Picture House: Devon, UK1994 Sacred Realities, ENMU: New Mexico, USA

Group Exhibitions2013 Kundst in der Fabrik: Salzburg, Austria2010 Nerja Arts Festival : Malaga, Spain2002 TOP 02, Poble Nou: Barcelona, Spain Shortlist, Can Felipa Centre: Barcelona 4 x 4, Panorama Gallery: Barcelona Espai Mutant, Can Felipa Centre: Barcelona2001 MA Group Show, Panorama Gallery: Barcelona Open Studios, Spike Island Artspace: Bristol, UK2000 Group Show, Spike Island Artspace: Bristol1999 Open Studios, Spike Island Artspace: Bristol Art Haven Group Show, The Look Gallery: Exeter, UK Group Show Selected, Art for Offices: London, UK1998 The Spanish Connection, Thelma Hulbert Gallery: Devon, UK Honiton Arts Festival : Devon, UK Gidleigh Open House : Dartmoor, UK1997 9-X, The Tannery Gallery: London, UK1996 Aspires, Sherwell Gallery: Plymouth, UK1995 Open Studios Centro Historico, Mexico D.F., Mexico

Awards1996 Highly Commended – John Moore’s Competition, UK1994 Awarded: ‘Outstanding 2D Student’, Eastern New Mexico University, USA

Speaking2011 Performing Art History: Courtauld Instisture of Art, London2012 Meeting Agnes Martin’: Harwood Museum of Art, New Mexico, USA’

View more artwork at :michel lerumney.com

©2013-15 Michel le Rumney