PAUL COLDWELL
Kafka's Doll and other works

2- 30 March 2007

Paul Coldwell's current exhibition at the Eagle Gallery presents a recent series of sculptures and print works which extend the themes of his new artist's book, Kafka's Doll - a collaboration with the writer and poet Anthony Rudolf.

The book revolves around a short story by Rudolf that is based on a recorded event in Franz Kafka's life, in which Kafka took on the persona of a child's missing doll and corresponded with the girl through a series of letters. Coldwell's images, developed on computer, reflect on the text by layering drawn and photographic elements. Simple objects, which reference children's dot to dot drawings, are brought together with maps of constellations and are suggestive of the layering of imagination with reality. The book develops themes of loss and displacement that have been consistently apparent in Coldwell's previous work.

The exhibition features a new suite of screenprints Sites of Memory, together with a number of small scale bronze sculptures. These focus on familiar domestic objects such as beds, an iron and a coat hanger, to suggest how they may function as repositories for ideas and memories.

Paul Coldwell is Professor of Fine Art at University of the Arts London and visiting Professor at the University of Northampton.
In 2006 Coldwell curated Morandi's Legacy: Influences on British Art , for the Estorick Collection, London and Abbot Hall, Cumbria.
In 2006 he was selected for The International Print Triennial Cracow, and was one of the UK
representatives at The Ljubljana Biennial Slovenia 2005. His work is featured in the recent books Print Now; Directions and Definitions (Rosie Miles and Gill Saunders, V&A) and Collecting Original Prints Rosemary Simmons, A&C Black.
His work is included in numerous public collections including Tate, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Imperial War Museum, the British Council and the Arts Council of England.

Anthony Rudolf has published books of poetry, literary criticism and autobiography, as well as
translations of poetry from French and other languages. His introduction to R.B.Kitaj was published by the National Gallery in 2001.
He is the founder of Menard Press. In 2004, he was appointed Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. In 2005, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Kafkas's Doll is published in an edition of 300 signed and numbered copies (price £45)
A special edition of 20 copies in boxed sets with nine inkjet prints is available (price £1250)