True Love Rachel Cattle

C4RD Nanospace 61 - 63 Cudworth St. Bethnal Green, London
31 Jan - 16 Feb 2007
Wed - Fri 12.30 - 5.30

I went to Rachel Cattle’s show with a preconception of her work, gained from seeing reproductions. I was expecting little, cute, drawings that were interesting but accessible. Luckierly, this is not what I saw. In the C4RD pinned around the room (only at the top) were a series of approximately A3 sized heavy graphite drawings. The works are part of the ‘100 drawings’ series; the title being something she saw scratched into a tree. Looking at the drawings I saw my own childhood anxieties, often ones that were unexplainable. Brownies, not fitting in, but trying to unsuccessfully; an up turned tree trunk that watches you, but you have to go round it; a stuffed bear, that isn’t scary for being a bear anymore, but for being something else; a person covered in hair; but without a face. ‘True Love’ turns this small intimate gallery into a space that has the thoughts of a psychologist’s consultation room, with its dark troublesome memories hanging around. Taking an appearance, but still difficult to pin down in words. These drawings, akin to outsider art, seem to hold an answer, but an answer that isn’t in the person but only exists in a tantalising space between thought and the surface of the paper. It allowed me to remembered things I didn’t know I had forgotten.