Equal Opportunities

Abstract

“Equal Opportunities” (2 panels each 152 x 183cm, oil and gloss paint on canvas) was shown in an exhibition of Manchester-based “abstract painting in the expanded field,” curated by Ben Cook. The curator Ben Cook’s position focused upon thinking like an abstract painter yet rejecting paint and canvas, Ayliffe however remains interested in the actual activity of painting and the language of abstraction colour, space, media and mark. Her challenge was to make work that appears to belong to the idiom of abstract painting while simultaneously developing and deploying methods of construction and image-making that inscribe a sense of difference. Previously Ayliffe made direct reference to the construction of identity as played out in the world of teen magazines, fashion, fabrics and decorative motifs. Here further emphasis was placed upon the performative element of the work. The paintings are a mix of collaged digital images of embroidery, interspersed with hard edge predetermined patterns and repeated gestural marks. Repetitive and mundane tasks are offset against 'chancy' and highly choreographed moments; the handmade is offset against the mechanically reproduced and digitally enhanced, the domestic and decorative against the grand gesture.