Four new studio holders have joined KARST’s community, taking residence in Under – the space below KARST. We welcome Rachel Dobbs and Hannah Rose (LOW PROFILE), Tom Pether and Arielle Etheridge.
LOW PROFILE are artists Rachel Dobbs and Hannah Rose who have been working together in collaboration since 2003. The pair are most interested in the connections between people and creating new experiences that happen in people’s real lives. They find ways to create temporary communities, collective experiences and situations that get people thinking about their individual role within a group. They celebrate the strength of coming together, camaraderie, resourcefulness, resilience, generosity and loyalty.
Rachel and Hannah say: “We have started to make larger physical objects and need to have more space to experiment and develop ideas. We’re really looking forward to being able to have a space to work out ideas and leave them ‘up’ to return to. We are also super excited to be part of an artist community and to benefit from hanging out with other artists we admire.”
LOW PROFILE are currently undertaking a residency at GROW, Plymouth, where they are inviting people to come to free, drop-in Making Days. Using simple patchwork and hand-quilting techniques, people work together to make artworks that celebrate the power of coming together to achieve change through community building, group effort and collective action.
Tom Pether is a visual artist and writer whose work explores memory, fantasy, and the ways in which we are haunted – both by the past and the future. Through simple material juxtapositions, Tom´s sculptures build unstable bridges between the concrete and the ephemeral, and reference both our desire to escape the world and our inevitable failure to do so.
Tom says: “Being new to Plymouth, it is really exciting to be invited to join this vibrant studio community. It feels great to become a part of the city´s art scene, and I´m looking forward to opportunities for collaboration.”
Arielle Etheridge is a biracial, American artist based in Devon. Her work looks into her ancestry surrounding the Etheridge slave plantation and draws on collective cultural memory and the black Atlantic. Arielle explores traditional ways of making – including quilting, weaving, printmaking and natural dyeing – alongside modern practices such as photography.
Arielle says: “This is my first time having my own studio and I’m so happy it’s at KARST. There is always something going on, whether it’s crits, talks, artist-led events or shows. It’s such a great community to belong to!