Exhibition: Wall by Aliyah Hussain and John Powell-Jones

Our sketchpad artists John Powell-Jones and Aliyah Hussain are hosting an exhibition of new and recent work at Islington Mill this Friday from 6pm. Tell them you are coming here. Aliyah and John work across a broad range of mediums, including printmaking, sculpture and jewellery making, we caught up with them last year to find a bit more about their practices. Fred Aldous: How would you describe your work? Aliyah: My practice encompasses performance, photography, painting, printmaking, collage, sound and costume. I experiment with the performative and technical aspects of different media to create works that reference futurist narratives, utopian visions and ritualistic practices embedded in the everyday. Distortion of the familiar is a prevalent theme in my current work whether 2d, sculptural or performance. I use colours, forms and sculptural motifs as a means to create unexpected structures and disruptions in the landscape, blurring the distinction between the real and imaginary. I’m also interested in the idea of the “Uninvited”, an object or form, living or inert that is at odds with its surroundings, but through manipulation engages in a disjointed harmony within it’s setting. A lot of my work takes place outdoors and relies on the forces within nature to complete it – using objects such as flags, kites and banners. By extracting the shapes and colours and using them in an abstract way I’m developing a form of visual communication that isn’t reliant on spoken language. John: I’m still trying to figure that out! FA: What inspires you? J: I get inspired a lot by traditional print processes, what marks and textures different methods give, then using these to inform part of a piece of work. I’m based in Islington Mill which is full of great people and a really inspiring place to work on a day to day basis. A: I’m inspired by the space, the universe, landscape, architecture, mythology, geology abstraction, folklore, geometry, movement, the body and adornment. Having a studio at Islington Mill is also a constant source of inspiration, being around so many different people who are working in different ways is amazing and there are always chances for unexpected collaborations either with the other residents or visiting artists. Read Aliyah's full interview here and John's here.