Terrain – Kirsty Palmer and Kristen Mallia

Terrain is an exhibition of new work by Kirsty Palmer (UK) and Kristen Mallia (US).

Since undertaking parallel residencies with Skaftfell Centre for Visual Art, Seyðisfjörður, in 2020, Mallia and Palmer have maintained a working dialogue; an ongoing exchange of reflections, words and images. Terrain follows a period of expanded conversation between their individual practices and provides a platform for collaboration.

Developed for Patriothall, Terrain is a body of large-scale drawings, sculpture and printed matter which responds to experiences of space/ place within the wider platform of landscape. It considers relationships to time and space/ place as archived through specific memories and manifested through objects, surfaces, images or words. It considers the trust we place in the spaces (foundations) and contexts (landscapes) in which we reside, reflecting also on the often-precarious power balance between humans and nature; the impact of shifting or dislodging foundations and breaching boundaries.

Mallia and Palmer reference a variety of wider working practices and processes including archaeology, geology, field recording, walking, mapping and cataloguing, and seek to bring these to tangible visual outcomes within the exhibition.

As a body of work, Terrain considers visible time, seeking to navigate specific ground, experience or events through looking to their smallest parts; the elements which form them; their material memories and the shift in states they undergo. The gallery acts as a physical container for the work as a landscape can act as a container for individuals’ experience of a place, event or period of time.

Forming part of the installation, a collaborative piece of printed matter explores shared ideas and themes within Mallia and Palmer’s individual practices as well as the wider exhibition.

Rooted in interaction with materials, place and process, Kirsty Palmer’s practice addresses ideas surrounding landscape, archaeology and materiality. It considers notions of territory and landscape(s) as sites of memorial; perceived histories of matter encountered or collected and human narratives constructed surrounding experience of place, events and periods of time. Formally, it is often driven by materials themselves; their changing states and multi-layered making processes.

Predominantly sculptural and/ or drawing-based, bodies of work often present as site-specific or temporary ‘archipelagos’ of forms, objects, surfaces and images, inhabiting a given architectural space whilst simultaneously presenting a dedication to a particular retrospective space, place, event or period of time.

Kirsty Palmer is a visual artist based in Glasgow. She graduated from the MFA programme at The Glasgow School of Art in 2014, and with BA (Hons) in 2010. She has recently been artist in residence with Skaftfell Center for Visual Art (Seyðisfjörður), ArtsIceland (Ísafjörður), SÍM (Reykjavik) and Fish Factory (Stöðvarfjörður). She has received support from Hope Scott Trust, Bet Low Trust and Creative Scotland.

Recent solo exhibitions include QUARRY, South Block, Glasgow (2021); Matter / Efni, Skaftfell, Seyðisfjörður (2020); LANDING, Glasgow Project Room, Glasgow (2019); Of A Mountain/ Af fjalli, Bræðraborg, Ísafjörður (2018). In October 2023, she will present a solo exhibition at Gallerí Úthverfa, Ísafjörður.

Kristen Mallia’s work examines ritual, collection, and preservation through material and process based investigation. Concerned with the relationship between identity and geography, and the place-based nature of memory-keeping, Mallia’s work considers the evolution and accumulation of behaviors and structures over time with a particular focus on personal histories in relation to “home.” Site-specific research, performative rituals, and environmental processes inform Mallia’s methodologies for understanding foundations, landscapes, and the trust placed in these ever-shifting structures. Memories and landscapes are iterated, re-presented, and re-contextualized over time.

Kristen Mallia is an interdisciplinary artist based in Boston, MA, USA. Mallia received a BA in Electronic Media from The George Washington University, a BFA in Graphic Design from Corcoran College of Art + Design, and an MFA from Boston University. Recent artist residencies include L’Appartamento Napoli in Naples, Italy inJune 2023, ArtsIceland in Isafjörður, Iceland in 2022, and Skaftfell Center for Visual Arts, Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, in 2020. She was a panelist at Multiple Formats Contemporary Art Book Symposium and Book Fair at Boston University in 2023 and her work has been exhibited internationally, most recently at Kathryn Schultz Gallery in Cambridge, MA, Midway Gallery in Boston, and in The Newport Biennial 2022 at Newport Art Museum, juried by Dr. Kimberli Gant.

Mallia self-publishes a quarterly project called Field Notes (Index_23) and maintains an independent studio practice, Mallia Design. She is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Suffolk University.