Capturing Light: Solo Exhibition at Foundry Gallery, London

The project was developed from Grady's research into the window as an architectural device, that not only filters light, but also act as a framework that connects the outside world with the inside. Freed from the burden of representation, Grady's artworks have been created through problem solving and reductionist techniques of her own invention. Her designs related to the architecture in and around the site of her artworks, highlighting the character and architectural details of The Foundry Gallery.

Capturing Light included two new site-responsive window installations. The first Teardrops (Interlocking) on the gallery's large front window and the second Teardrops (Rising / Falling) on a large sash window at the rear. Both artworks included a 'teardrop' shape that navigates the proportions of the window frame and is placed in different orientations to create a variety of interlocking forms. The installations were activated by daylight pouring into the gallery casting evolving-coloured shadows. They were presented alongside a series of framed screenprints, ink drawings, and works on perspex. The artworks examined how the use of pattern can create movement and perspective through a variety of mediums. The body of work emphasises the blueprint of Fiona's art practice: interchangeable shapes, contrasting colour palettes, and the use of layers of transparency to create a harmony of lightness, ambiance and colour.

In her essay 'Symphonies in Light and Colour' arts writer Elizabeth Fullerton comments:

"In this show Capturing Light, she presents a series of six mounted prints resembling stained glass windows of different shapes Windows (Old Church Street) I - VI, partly inspired by the window of a nearby church. Her luminous vinyl window installations Teardrops (Interlocking) and Teardrops (Rising/Falling) naturally reinforce this comparison with stained glass, whose purpose was traditionally to prompt spiritual reflection, even if this is not Grady's own intention. Given that she did a residency at the Mark Rothko Foundation in Daugavpils, Latvia, in 2019 and that Rothko considered his grids of gradated colour bands as channels to a metaphysical realm, she is well aware of the spiritual aspect of grids and windows.

To me, Grady's semi-transparent window installations feel more connected to humanism, being subject to random elements and the messiness of quotidian life. From the inside looking out, they contend with the traffic and passersby in the street, while the interior scenes and bustle disrupt their "purity" from the outside looking in."

Thank you to a-n for the Time - Space - Money Bursary to support the exhibition research.