Lorette: Scarlet Topley and Ed Ruscha

The first exhibition of Interval One, an annual programme featuring one graduating artist each year, aiming to showcase their work alongside historical influences while also supporting the beginning stages of their career.

The exhibition takes its title from a message received from the artist’s sister whilst on a romantic weekend away in Paris. The tablecloth read Lorette in a scarlet red font with an illustration of a maid sat just above. Lorette refers to a 19th-century Parisian sex worker who was located near the church Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. Scarlet Topley’s new works for Lorette emerge from two years of activity in her shed in Camden and at the Ruskin School of Art. The works on display reveal Topley’s devotion to americana and its uncanny solitude.

The work is also tinted with a dark, but profound yearning for meaning within the emptiness of modern life. In Lorette, her work is linked together with Ed Ruscha, an artist whose playful approach to language has influenced her since teenagehood. Her copy of his book They Called Her Styrene, Etc. (2000) is dog-eared and paint-splattered.

Free

Wed – Sat 12pm-6pm