Black Rat Projects was initiated in 2007, and for six years was located in a converted railway arch in Shoreditch. East London, innit.
Since this time Black Rat Projects and Press have been supporting and developing the careers of both UK and international artists whose media and techniques are in many ways traditional, yet whose practices are fused with a contemporary interventionist spirit. Black Rat has for many years been a central force in the transition of urban art from the streets (we're so street) to inside the gallery space, and our editions can be found in collections worldwide including the Victoria and Albert Museum and The Tate Modern in the UK.
Sedate children and their animal companions are stylishly executed in miniature, and give vision to the lessons and warnings of fables. Suspended in a world of white negative space, we are enticed to allow our imagination to build the content and context of their bizarre and gently humorous action.
In June 2011 Black Rat Projects hosted this tumble down the rabbit hole, for a one-night introduction to Candice Tripp’s work. Descending the staircase to the narrow kingdom of Morrell House and we expected the unexpected and were not disappointed. In July 2012 Black Rat Projects went on to host Candice’s solo exhibition and installation ‘Petit Mal’. Exploring themes of normality, insanity, order, disorder and the dark innocence of childhood ‘Petit Mal’ envisions Tripp’s perception of infant ‘petit mal’ syndrome as “a brief interruption of consciousness”. Candice explains:
While I was painting, I kept thinking about a small town full of young, isolated inhabitants and how every place, to a degree, has “a way” of doing things, a way which is rarely interrupted until an outsider witnesses and draws attention to it I found myself thinking a lot about an interruption of consciousness - in the sense of it occurring in a group. I tend to paint a fraction of a story- often either prelude or aftermath – and so I ended up focusing on fictitious (often awkward social) scenarios occurring in a town that is unaware of its single-minded lapse in judgement; Cult-like. The idea being that children who don’t outgrow it, will fall victim to it.
Having been starved of information for so many years Franklyn and Brendan were initially overwhelmed by the outside world but soon developed an insatiable curiosity and a remarkable appetite to learn. They developed a system whereby each of them would read, watch and discover things independently and then share them with one another via a series of notebooks and sketchpads. This interaction developed into making art together, a process they describe as ‘trying to make sense of the world.’ Their often humorous work is steeped in references to both historical and popular culture and presents an almost anthropological view of contemporary western society.
