‘First the Air Is Blue’ is a group exhibition from seven Graduate Monthly artists.

It showcases the outcomes of a three month long residency at ONCA Barge, presenting new artwork that responds to the socio-historical and environmental conditions of Brighton Marina and the barge itself.

Outcomes take on a range of media including site-specific poetry performances, sculptures, abstract photographic panels and experimental moving image installations.

About the artists

Violet Blyth

Through moving image and installation, Violet’s work preserves moments of transition. These everyday in-between states offer a meditation on the evolving relationship between human activity and natural processes. There is a conscious interplay between scenes and how they are presented; viewed on, through or reflected off materials with their own fragility. Her imagery tends towards muted palettes, unlikely blossom and amorphous remains of activity – appearing as if of another world.

www.violetblyth.format.com

Jess Butcher

Jess is a performance artist, filmmaker and writer. Informed by people-watching, she collects sights, sounds, and scraps of conversation that later feature in her practice. Her work contains choppy references to both popular culture and personal anecdotes. Alongside this, she looks at ‘quintessential British culture’, by observing bastions of British life such as the pub, the pavement, and the greasy spoon, as microcosms of society. Jess is also the founder and director of The Bobolyne Poets, and The Writers Club; creative collectives that host nights for refugee-related charities.

www.jessbutcher.com

Ella Husbands

Ella Husbands’ work explores notions of disrupted perception. She often combines dizzying video projections with 3D sculptural shapes to immerse the viewer in a distorted environment. Her practice is connected to her current experience with chronic fatigue syndrome and centres on a sense of movement and pattern. Her work draws the viewer into an altered perceptual space and invites them to consider

www.ellahusbands.com

Violeta Marchenkova 

Violeta is a queer cultural activist and moving image artist whose practice comprises documentary work, personal essay films, written pieces of art criticism, and collaborations on SEA projects. Her work is informed by queer and disability theorists, intersectional feminism, precarious aesthetics and the spirit of Russian pop culture. Violeta is an organising member of Devil’s Dyke Network.

www.devilsdykenetwork.org 

Tom Nicholson

Tom’s work develops out of specific spaces and opportunities for critique. He interacts with sites through ‘public intervention’, site-specific works and documentary approaches, utilising found matter and everyday situations. His work forms institutional or social critiques often in the form of exhibition as a way to determine the viewer’s experience aiming to create didactic scenarios.

www.thomasnicholson.info 

Vienna Orme-Williams 

Vienna works with film, photography, and installation art to explore gender role play and performance in domestic and work environments. Her works form a conversation through the joining of imagery and poetry, often portrayed with undertones of sarcasm and humour.

Lorna Ough

Thus far Lorna’s work (as both an artist and curator) has been centred around the dynamics and nuances of conversation and often takes the form of either writing or discussion. Thinking of the gallery space as an organism waiting to be embellished with ideas, images and situations. A corner of a room holds its own specific symbolism, so why not extract and emphasise that through curation? Lorna currently works with Towner Art Gallery, as a research assistant for The University of Brighton and as a project manager with the blackShed Gallery. She was also instrumental in instigating the Graduate Monthly programme.