A common treasury for all, acrylic on canvas, 200x180cm, 2023
Part of the Between Earth and Sky exhibition with Periscope Arts in Stroud, 2023
Artist’s Statement
Art making is a means of reconnecting the alternative values of past cultures to the present, and addressing issues of resistance, sustainability, and economies of care.
I use painting as a way of thinking through complex systems with multiple and entangled narratives. My tapestry-like ‘history’ paintings use a vernacular of interpretable figures, colours, symbols and patterns to tell stories about women’s lives. Assimilating mythologies from the past and realising them in a language of the present explores empathy and what we value now.
Idealised and fluid female archetypes satirise hierarchies in which women have so often been absent. They are surrounded by surreal landscapes and domestic patterns that heave with carnivalesque hybrid figures, patterns and symbols that create new fictions and polyphonic stories that create relatable and transformative experience.
Painting installations combine painting with found objects, including local granite egg stones and domestic furniture. Performance and film works use reflexive processes of embodiment in local landscapes as a vehicle to empower and connect. Visual storytelling creates equality, visibility and value for women’s bodily experiences of mothering and caring for the natural world.
Delpha Hudson, March 2024
Watch a film of Delpha talking about her work
Works on paper
Bitumen paintings
Older works include the use of bitumen paint as a conceptual medium. I no longer use this messy medium preferring to use ‘greener’ materials but do look at the ideas behind the works.
Feral Mothers is a performance collaboration with Helen Sargeant.
Have a look at performance, film and installation projects.
For all the latest news and writing connect to Delpha on instagram @delphahudson