RACHEL BRIDE ASHTON (b. 1976, UK)
rachelbrideashton@gmail.com|https://rachelbrideashton.com
What Freud calls the Id and internalised misogyny are two of the current themes in my work. I use a hybrid of Blue Beard and the wolf of fairy tales to embody these concepts, representing the sexual predator of our own psyche, the shadow and also the external predator and the patriarchy.
Drawing on examples like the depiction of the torture of St Agatha in Renaissance painting, I use masks, props and sometimes sinister humour to challenge this and encourage people to question whether they are part of the problem. I create semi fictional contemporary settings of female oppression and use drawing, painting, etching, poetry and sound in my practice as developmental stages in the process towards and around performance and video.
Education
2019 – present, Fine Art BA (Hons), Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee
2018 – 2019, NC Music, North East of Scotland College, Aberdeen
1993 – 1994, NC Art and Design, Glasgow College of Building and printing, Glasgow
Residencies
April 2017 – May 2019, Walking Without Walls, Digital Residency, Deveron Projects, Huntly
Events and Achievement
- March 2020, Submitted to Miles in Minutes Film Showcase, Dundee/Canada
- February 2020, Our Space Performance, Second Year Seminar Room, DJCAD, Dundee – Il Teatro Delle Marionette
- February 2020, Art Bar, Dundee, Performance –Musical collaboration
- February 2020, Generator Projects, Dundee, Performed at Members Exhibition Opening Night
- November 2019, Church Dundee, Performed in Fleeting Motions – A Show Case of Performance Art
- November 2019, 28 Coutties Wynd, Dundee, Art Party – Exhibition, Performance and Discussion
- November 2019, DJCAD, Loving Vincent– Curated second year film screening
- August 2019, Repair, album release
- January 2019, Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums Lunchtime Talks at the Maritime Museum, Aberdeen – Presented A Transcultural Exchange
- August 2018, The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Arts Festival – Art, Borders and Migration – presented Walking Without Walls
- August 2018, Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts, Austria – Global Academy II, Examples of Transcultural Exchange- Presented Walking Without Wallsas a Pecha Kucha
- May 2018, Walking Without Walls, Tate Modern, London – Film included in Tate Exchange Programme Presented by Cornerstone Arts
- April 2018, Walking Without Walls, Huntly – Simultaneous Slow Marathons in Scotland and Gaza
- 2015, The Story of Mouse– Collaborative book publication
- 2014, Featured on Sky TVs ‘Portrait Artist of the Year’
- 2017 – 2019, Collaboratively hand built and established an off-grid, self-sufficient natural house and five-acre forest gardens, Aberdeenshire
- 2002 – 2016, Opened and ran Northern Eye Gallery, Ceres
- 2002 – 2018, Led workshops, classes, walks and private tutored in intuitive painting, healing weeds, plant journaling, natural paint-making and clay oven and rocket stove building
- 1997 – 2019, Home educated my two children
Collections
The Town Collection, Huntly
ConocoPhillips,RubislawHouse, Aberdeen
Various private collections in the UK and the United States
Solo Exhibitions
2018, Ethical Gift Shop, Huntly – Walking Without Walls
2018, The Bank Restaurant, Huntly
2015, The Art Room, Huntly
2015 The Gallery, Elgin Library, Elgin – Repair
2015 The Tearoom, Castle of Park, Cornhill
2015, 2014 NEOS, The Bothy, Knock
2013 NEOS The Old Shop, Huntly
2013 Larks Gallery, Ballater
2011 Touched by Scotland, Insch
1999, 2013 Still Life Studio, Aberlour – The Painted Land
2005, 2006 The Blue Door Gallery, Pittenweem
2002, 2004, 2006 Northern Eye Gallery, Ceres
2000 Insomnia, Glasgow – Postnatal Impression
Duo Exhibitions
2018, 2017 The Ethical Gift Shop, Huntly
2017, 2015 Forgue Church, Forgue
2007 Still Life, Aberlour
1999 Logie Steading, Forres
1996 Barnyard Studios and Gallery, Garmouth – Mojo
Collective Exhibitions
2020, Travelling Exhibition, Art school exchange – Cabin Baggage
2020, DJCAD Mathew Gallery, Dundee – Then and NowExhibition
2020, Ron Lawson Gallery, Dundee
2020, DJCAD, Dundee – DJCAD Foyer Exhibition
2019, Mathew Building Upper and Lower Foyer, DJCAD, Dundee – Rubatosis
2019, DJCAD Open Days CAP Second Year Students Exhibition
2019, The Cooper Gallery, Dundee – Studio Jamming
2019, The Artist’s Studio, Aberlour
2019, RBS Building, Huntly – Five Huntly Artists
2019, The Blue Roof Gallery, Oyne
2019, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2011, 2009 Larks Gallery, Ballater
2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, Imagine at 27, Banff
2016, 2015, The Wee Gallery, Cullen
2016, 2014 Archies Art, The Wood Group, Aberdeen
2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 The Holburn Gallery, Aberdeen
2015 Teasel and Tweed, Aberdeen
2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 The Elgin Gallery, Elgin
2016, 2014, 2012, 2009 Art Aboyne, Aboyne
2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2005, 2004, 2003 Still Life, Aberlour
2011, 2004, 2000, 1999 Just Art, Fochabers
2009, 2008 Coast Festival, Macduff
2007, Mcgregor Fine Art, Glasgow
2007, 2005 Carby Art, Aberdeen
2004 Eduardo Allessandros, Broughty Ferry
2004 The Queens Gallery, Dundee
2004 Gallery Nomansland, Aberlour
2004, 2003, 2002 Iona House Gallery, Woodstock, Oxford
2002 ConocoPhillips, Rubislaw House, Aberdeen
2002 Indigo for Contemporary Art, St Andrews
2002, 2000 Frames Contemporary Gallery, Perth
2002 The Old Course Hotel, St Andrews
2001 Nickleson Gallery, Scone
2000 The Fotheringham Gallery, Bridge of Allan
2000 The Glasgow Room, Princes Square, Glasgow
2000 The Gallery, Cupar
2000 The Weem, Pittenweem
