JANE FRERE

IN THE SHADOW OF THE WALL

Returning from the occupied Palestinian Territories after witnessing the so-called Segregation Wall tearing apart urban and rural communities in the West Bank, Jane Frere found herself a lightning conductor for a storm of emotion on canvas.

Working with oils and acrylics on canvas, and sometimes with pastels, the theme of her recent paintings has mirrored the intensity of the anguish and suffering that has been the lot of the many hundreds of Palestinians she has worked with. 

Her latest large scale work, "What is the colour of occupation?" (left) was exhibited at La Scatola Gallery in London from November 22 to December 3, as part of the Passport to Palestine group show with noted Palestinian artists presented by Janet Rady Fine Art.


[What is the Colour of Occupation? - triptych mixed media on canvas, 200 x 300 cm, 2011.
Photographs courtesy Malcolm Crowthers Photography]

 

 

The triptych was first seen at Testbed1, the arts venue in Battersea, London, in September 2011 as part of a show linked to the London Design Festival entitled "A Few Friends" curated by the internationally renowned architect and artist, Professor Will Alsop RA OBE.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Jane Frere's series of works on the apartheid wall was exhibited at the Lang Byre Gallery in November 2010, alongside the world premiere of 'e-mails from Palestine', composed by David Ward and performed at the Woodend Barn, Banchory, Aberdeenshire. To view more works click on this link.....

     

See press coverage:  The Scotsman interview - November 13 2010 and  Paintings scream to break walls of silence by Stephen Fiddes - E.I. November 29 2010

 

 

About Jane Frere 

Scottish artist and theatre designer Jane Frere has worked in a variety of media over many years. She began painting professionally whilst living in Greece, prior to formal training at the Central St Martin's College of Art and Design and at the Slade School of Fine Art (UCL). Her work has been exhibited in galleries and arts venues at home and abroad and hangs in several private collections. Her major installation, Return of the Soul, gained a 'Five Star' review from Scotland's leading art critic during the Edinburgh Art Festival in 2008 and her 30-piece solo exhibition, In the Shadow of the Wall, received plaudits in several media profiles in 2010.

In addition to her work as an artist and theatre designer, Jane Frere won an international reputation over many years as a bold producer of radical theatre introducing cutting edge international performance to wider world attention, particularly at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the City of London Festival and the National Theatre, London, as well as pioneering outdoor performances in rural Scotland including staging an outdoor show on the slopes of Cairngorm.

Now focused chiefly on painting, after dedicating several years to in-depth research, Jane has embarked on an artistic journey in her studio overlooking Loch Ness to produce a substantial volume of new work.

Jane's series of large scale paintings, using oils, acrylics and various mixed media, reflect her response to her troubling experience living behind the apartheid wall in the West Bank.

For her celebrated installation Return of the Soul, Jane devised the concept, undertook planning and development, and raised substantial funding internationally for a major artistic collaboration - the Nakbah Project - which began with a journey to a concentration camp in Poland and led to Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon. The resulting monumental artwork -  a multimedia installation now comprising more than 7,000 suspended wax figures - was accompanied by a soundscape, written testimonies and video recordings of interviews with Palestinian individuals and families displaced in the "Nakbah" in 1948. The project was undertaken in collaboration with the Al Hoash Gallery in East Jerusalem, with major support from the Welfare Association, UNRWA, and many other partner galleries and organizations as well as generous individual patrons.

Further details, images and video reports can be found on the project website -www.alnakbah.net.

Pictured above: The cover of the artist's exhibition brochure and a preliminary sketch of the sculptural installation (photographed by Malcolm Crowthers - © Malcolm Crowthers Photography contact malcolmcrowthers@hotmail.com)