Abi Braley

Abi Braley (b. 1998, UK) studied Fine Art at the University for the Creative Arts and Sculpture at the Royal College of Art. Based in the West Midlands, she engages in a multi-disciplinary practice focused mainly on object-centred installations that may also include video and/or kinetic elements.

Prick & Stitch. Standpoint Gallery, London.

Dirty Hands and Revelations II: The Great Oxidisation Event. Standpoint Gallery, London.

Anti-Prom. Instincts - sixth edition, London.

Britain's Home of Tomorrow - Today! Subsidiary Projects, London.

Prop-Up Shop. Creekside Projects, London.

End of the World Party. Unify Space, Surrey.

The Living Room. Bad Art, London.

Think Thunk. Crypt Gallery, London.

Her work fluctuates between two parallel timelines: that of objects seen in relation to each other and objects seen as windows into autobiography. The work questions the human everyday, with an emphasis on typical, mundane ‘negativities’ that one is often encouraged to suppress. Via reappropriated objects, the work reveals failure and ridiculousness as important components of a full and realistic look at life. At once visceral and considered, her practice renders as productive small aspects of the social—absurdity, clutter, stupidity, etc—that tend to be seen pejoratively.

Her work is disinterested in technical perfection. It is instead focused on raw physicality and on the power of objects to arrest emotions. Her practice conveys the truths of a messy life. By acknowledging the endemic nature of chaos and the unreliability of prediction, she generates an Alice in Wonderland-style perspective. From this position, her multi-format works assert: a tendency towards dissensus, a move away from pedestaled art, an affinity with bad art, and a certain bias towards the positive sides of the negative.