Prop

Location

Country: UK
City: England
Place: Manchester, DCMS Hub

Davis uses the stage-set and associated props in many of her larger paintings as a device to point to other worlds or ‘what is just out of view’. The book in this painting, open halfway through and with blank pages, looks as if it has been hurriedly placed down midway through reading. In appearing to create an unexplained tableau, the viewer is invited to make up the story in their mind: the blank pages acting as a reminder that this is a prop and not a real book, so that the narrative story the viewer finds themself considering is one that is already fictional. Davis has said she likes ‘creating the world in which I can play out dramas or discover them as I paint’ and this work seems to be an invitation to the viewer to share in that experience with the artist.
This work is part of a series of books painted by Angelina May Davis, for whom the book is many things: a stage prop, a relic, and a simple object with slabs of colour that are easily abstracted in a painting. The book also points to the literary idea of suspending disbelief, which, Davis observes, ‘allows you to think about things like history and where your ideas and values are formed’.

Angelina May Davis received her BA at Lanchester Polytechnic in Coventry in 1988 and her MA at the University of Central England in 1998. After a series of solo exhibitions at Ikon Gallery Birmingham (1991); City Gallery, Leicester (1992) and MAC, Birmingham (1993) she set her art practice aside to focus on motherhood. In 2014, she began showing work again, at galleries in Birmingham, where she lives, and surrounding areas. She was included in Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2021, showing at Firstsite, Colchester and South London Gallery. Between 2021-22 Davis returned to art school at Turps Banana and has since had solo exhibitions at Oxmarket Gallery in Chichester, and shown work in group exhibitions at the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester and The Art House Worcester (both 2022).

Places

Subjects

Materials & Techniques

panel, oil, oil paint, oil painting

Artist

Angelina May Davis (1966 - )

Title

Prop

Date

2022

Medium

oil on panel

Dimensions

height: 40.0 cm; width: 30.0 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Division of Labour, March 2022

Provenance

Division of Labour, from whom purchased by UK Government Art Collection, March 2022

GAC number

19051