YELLOW ARCHANGEL
An Exhibition of Rhizomic Painting

​

4th September to 2nd October 2020

​

In Bluebells in senescence in ancient hedgerows
You will notice hooded golden hoards of Yellow Archangel,

Familiar like bad man’s posies
Spreading like wildfire like billy–oh.
It is below ground their true efficacy lies
Stems tunnelling horizontally
Unabated,
Firing out exploratory roots at haphazard intervals,
In unrelenting permeation
Ever more, advancing more.

​

In painting in expanded painting,
We shall speak of this rhizome plant
And concern ourselves with the significance of its lateral stem system

For we are concerned with permeations and syntheses,
With cross pollinations and lack of restrictions.
We shall not concern ourselves with
Tap
Root
Systems
Burrowing
Down.

​

So let us go then you and I
And explore new territories,
Let us see the extent to which painting has spread–
Pausing at the perpetual intersections of the streets,
Let us observe its unions, networks and guises
And so indulged might we become that the lands from whence we came will feel so

Very far away at times.

​

Let us experience the infinite possibilities of what painting is

(Ah, its impurities! Its loss of substance!)
Like a wayfarer of no fixed destination
Perpetually shifting territories

Seeing the lands into which painting has been permitted;
And some might say “oh things were so much better here before all this,

We knew where we were!”
But we shall not bother with them
For the shifting interests us.

​

Indulging ourselves in conjecture
As to the whys and wherefores of the spread,
The hybridizing and homogenizing–
We must understand that what we have considered permanent
We have misconstrued;
Painting with all its constituent parts has never had an independent existence

Rather it has a co-dependent relationship with so many non-painting elements,

Of soil of rain and cloud and sun.
Interdependent with everything else in its aliveness
Painting must proceed–
If we try to find the essence of painting
We
Shall
Surely
Not.

 

Paul Bramley

Exhibiting Artist and curator of Yellow Archangel
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Exhibiting Artists: Shane Bradford, Paul Bramley, John Bunker, Liz Elton, Jack Ginno, Laurence Grave, Jacqui Hallum, Helen Hayward, Clare Holdstock, Allyson Keehan, Jo McGonigal, Adrian Wald, Sarah Kate Wilson
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yellow Archangel opens on Friday 4th September until Friday 2nd October, by appointment. Please email:  There will be a socially distanced Finissage on Friday 25th September, 6-8pm – details and updates to follow on social media.

​

​

Oceans Apart – OA Studios – 24-26 King Street – Salford – M3 7DG

​