Arkadia: Threads of Fate

Rushton: Mallinson (consisting of Stephanie Rushton in a collaborative practice with sculptor, Mally Mallinson)
were accepted for inclusion in the 2022 West Midlands Open at The New Art Gallery, Walsall. The exhibition ran from the 19th May until 25th September 2022 and was seen by thousands of visitors to the gallery during this time. The exhibited work came under the title Arkadia, (from the previous installation and commission from ACE and Urban Wastelands) and was made up a dyptych entitled Threads of Fate (2021) and Skip of Fools(2021). The collaboration fuses Mallinson’s ideological, satirical and political sculpture with Rushton’s psychological, photographic landscapes. The still life landscape images depict humankind’s attempt to control nature and nature’s retaliation as a recurring Sisyphean nightmare. This collaborative practice explores posthuman themes of Deep Ecology, an environmental philosophy that considers humans to be equal to, and no more important than any other species. It advocates a radical re-adjustment of the relationship between humans and the natural world. Born of a desire to bring increased awareness to contemporary, post humanist, ecological research. Combining the language of sculpture and photography, the work interweaves ecological, surrealist, and dystopian narratives, in a diffractive approach that recognises the entanglement of matter and meaning; considering our genetic link and interconnectedness, not just to other animals but to all forms of life.