more or less
Millie Walton
PV: 5 August, 5-8pm
until 9 August, 12-6pm
more or less transforms the gallery space into an unstable text. Walls are covered in fabric and words, creating an environment that visitors can step into and play with.
The installation is the latest development in an ongoing artistic project by Millie Walton, which began after the birth of her son. It features several of her ‘moveable poems’ – texts composed to be reinterpreted through movement, by anyone, regardless of whether they are a mother. These poems originate from writing Walton produced during her first year of mothering: fragments she typed on her phone during the middle of the night or in the early hours, and shared on Instagram, part diary, part artistic experiment. Each text has since been broken into individual words or phrases, handwritten on fabric and backed with Velcro.
At the opening of the show, the poems will appear in their original form for the first and only time. After that, visitors are invited to rearrange them: pulling phrases from the walls and reconfiguring them into new orders and shapes. In this way, the work becomes a communal text, continuously evolving and adapting.
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Millie Walton is a writer based in Somerset. She is the founder of the art and research group Babe Station, through which she regularly leads workshops and recently curated Sorry about the mess, an exhibition supported by Bow Arts and featuring artists and writers who are also mothers. Her short fiction, poetry, essays and art criticism have appeared in a wide range of publications, including Apollo, The Guardian, Burlington Contemporary, Plaster, Flash Art, Wallpaper, Studies in the Maternal and Motherlore. In September, she will curate a live literary and arts event in collaboration with Bo Lee and Workman.