FRAN HAYES | THICK, STRETCHY, STICKY SPACE

FRAN HAYES
THICK, STRETCHY, STICKY SPACE

10 MAY - 21 JULY 2024

IMT Gallery is proud to present the first solo exhibition by emerging interdisciplinary artist Fran Hayes. Thick, Stretchy, Sticky Space features digital paintings and video works that delve into speculative landscapes, inspired by damaged ecologies, science-fiction, and the uncanny; all viewed through a profoundly human lens.

Stumbling into technotime you are confronted by amorphous energies, they are whispering sweet nothings – forgotten melodies, dark truths, hidden narratives – digital paintings spill from screens, illuminating elastic futures.

i have seen it before but forgot…

lightning strikes
sequins pour down my legs
their tiny plastic bodies scream in bliss

memories are lost to tides
whispered secrets pass from tongue to tongue
pain and ecstasy continue their slowdance
i cease, in effect, to be part of humankind

Tidal child, your power is waxing, you have eddied out but will return, surging back with power
and treasures
Riches abounding

time slides irrevocably into the past
hold on like it’s greasy
or let go like it scalds

The embroidered sampler, early nesting, now
cast aside, unfinished, the Y stemless, suspended,
Incomplete, Y for You, my incomplete, part-formed Pisces fish
excuses excuses
(she excuses herself)
She was convulsing me, twisting me without heed like screwed paper before the fire
Knifing her way through the net of my caul
Swimming free, breaking the sac, slippering from me on a tide of amniotic piss

My body taking over, instinct ruling as I squat
Feral, panting, red-smeared, feet washed by my own blood
My body spitting her out like a pip Or is she spurning my safety, ripe and ready to fall?
she is a woman now
she stretches leisurely into all corners of the human condition
i fall through her pelvic floor

A yowl, a shit, her father’s best shoes bespoiled
I collapse, spent, sated, finished, flaccid belly, torn skin
I keen a welcome, as she gazed sightless, blue marble eyes and black hair
Alien child, yet more familiar than myself

The fisherwife comes to stitch me, needle-bright pain in a field of blood
Puckering an added contour on the map of my skin
Remaining to this day, a private souvenir

softly, she thawed
bruised by moss she grew into the world
She is mine, yet not mine: together we are enmeshed in Earth’s fabric

she was marinating in her own flesh, her own skin
desperate to escape the monotony of life yet unsure how to do so

she makes art and then she does not
she crumbles in on herself
(i crumble in on myself)
[we crumble in on ourselves]

how can you go from thinking something is forever
to thinking that it never even existed at all
and feel nothing

The woods where you ran now echo with silence
Waiting
The birds call, the beech mast crunches underfoot, underfeet
Undefeated, it waits for your return

how can one process anything when life moves so terrifyingly fast
viewing a dozen world disasters concurrently from the convenience of your palm
twisted truths leak from black mirrors but stay a comfortable distance from the pits of despair that grow in our bellies

a broken fish is spat out onto the shore
a feathered heart beats faithfully against the changing night
i can only be what i am
yet believe me i try to be more

my heart is heavy
a clenched fist holding onto old memories
i just want arms around me
i don’t care whose
(as long as they’re yours)

A little hedgepig, so spiky, defensive yet dripping vulnerables
Bright and hot and sudden as lava spits
My arms encircle, but they are not the right ones
Yet they will do, for now

Text by Fran and Ruth Hayes

who will stop me now

PHOTO BY PETER OTTO

Fran Hayes is a multidisciplinary artist based in London working predominantly in Blender, an open-source 3D modelling software, expanding into writing, sculpture and installation. Fran creates speculative landscapes and immersive environments that explore damaged ecologies, science-fiction and the uncanny through a fundamentally human lens.

Fran graduated from a BA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins in 2022, and has exhibited locally and internationally, most recently in collaboration with Ika Schwander for Rooms Festival, Maastricht, The Netherlands in January 2024. She has also organised and curated exhibitions including through the eyes of a pigeon (2023) in Cape Town, South Africa, for which she made a collaborative installation with Nick Rushton, and The Way We Were Tenderly (2023), London, with Alice Palm.

Other significant exhibitions include: Sluice Lisbon: Territory (2022), a group show in Lima, Peru (2020), and UnFabricated at DContemporary (2021). Fran collaborated with established multimedia artist Maggie Roberts to make the digital work ADA whose first iteration has shown at IMT Gallery, GIANT Gallery and the London Art Fair 2022.

PHOTO BY PETER OTTO

Plant Gazing: Under Waxing Crescent Moon – a new workshop by Joseph Walsh
Tuesday 9 July at 7pm

As we approach July’s regenerative waxing moon, Joseph Walsh’s new Plant Gazing workshop offers a unique opportunity to connect with plant allies and set personal intentions for the month ahead.

Immerse yourself in the IMT Gallery space, subtly infused with frankincense – woody, fresh and uplifting. A curated selection of plants will be available for drawing, accompanied by prompts and guidance on the techniques of plant gazing and observation.

In this two hour workshop we will explore the mysteries of plants through drawing, painting, and meditative observations, we will go beyond the confines of the ordinary. We’ll take a moment to reconnect to our bodies and the living world through a serene Rose tea ceremony, grounding ourselves in the present moment. Booking Details

Fran Hayes will be back at the gallery on Thursday 4 July from 12 – 6pm for the next iteration of world building. Please join us as we re-enter the Blender-verse, learning and playing together in infinite 3D space.

Join us in co-creating a digital environment, touching upon the basics of Blender including object creation, sculpting, texturing and animating. Turn up any time, no experience necessary.

Fran’s exhibition Thick, Stretchy, Sticky Space features digital paintings and video works that delve into speculative landscapes, inspired by damaged ecologies, science-fiction, and the uncanny; all viewed through a profoundly human lens.

To coincide with the exhibition, we will be participating in the London Gallery Weekend from the 31 May – 2 June. On Sunday 2 June from 12 – 6pm Fran Hayes invites you to explore her latest exhibition Thick, Stretchy, Sticky Space and co-create a new digital landscape in Blender 3D, an open-source software emerging in contemporary art spaces. Experience firsthand as Fran expertly melds participants’ input, crafting a dynamic environment. Throughout this immersive experience, Fran will offer valuable insights into her artistic process, elucidating techniques such as object creation, sculpting, modelling, and animation. Entry is free and no experience is necessary.