New Exhibition! Introducing TUSSIE MUSSIE
I have a new solo show coming up! It’s my first one at Art Escape Studios (the art collective I joined earlier this year), and I am so excited!
It’s a lovely venue, and the collective is incredibly supportive. I feel really fortunate to have this opportunity to introduce my latest work in such a wonderful community space.
The exhibition is called Tussie Mussie, and I’ll be showing a brand new collection of floral work. But of course, as you might remember from my last floral collection, my flowers are never just flowers…
WTF is a Tussie Mussie?
Well, as well as being a pleasing collection of nonsense syllables, a tussie-mussie is a small posy of flowers that was used in the Victorian era to communicate secret messages via floriography.
In Victorian floriography specific flowers represented specific things, for example a sweet pea in your tussie mussie meant 'gratitude', and a zinnia meant 'everlasting friendship'. Different combinations of flowers could be used to build up quite complex messages - all without saying a word...
(You can read more about this fascinating topic here.)
Why I chose to call this collection Tussie Mussie
I use flowers in a highly symbolic way in my paintings, and they are often present in my work to represent my emotional state or to communicate something I am unable to. As an autistic person I can suffer from alexithymia, which is when an individual has difficulty identifying, describing, and expressing emotions.
Think of each one of the paintings in this new collection as a sort of tussie mussie. A bouquet of flowers acting as my secret messengers, conveying that which is beyond my verbal reach.
Unlike the rigid structure of Victorian floriography, though, my blooms are abstract and untethered. They explode across the canvas in a riot of colour and texture, and are unabashed in their expression.
Each one communicates something to you, the viewer. Each painting has a message - perhaps it’s for you, or perhaps it’s for the person standing next to you. Each painting will resonate with someone who’s on the same frequency.
And sometimes, like in a game of Telephone, perhaps the exact meaning gets lost along the way, but the essence always remains.
Join me for opening night!
I would love to welcome you into my crazy, colourful world, and I hope you’ll be able to join me at Art Escape Studios on November 10th at 7pm.
You can find all the info here.
Everyone’s invited!
“For the first time Art Escape Studios will feature a collective artist in a solo exhibition for our annual Christmas party.
You will have the privilege of taking a deep dive into the wildly colourful world created by the incredible AES Artist Eli Trier.
Eli's work unravels in a vivid world of texture, colour and form that speaks to the incredible way she sees the universe. Her use of paint and built up texture, create stories and imagery that tantalise your visual sense. So much so you want to reach out and touch each painting! **But please don't 😜
Tussie Mussie refers to gifts of blooms, plants, and specific floral arrangements which were used to send a coded messages allowing the sender to express feelings which could not be spoken aloud in Victorian society. Armed with floral dictionaries, Victorians often exchanged small "talking bouquets", called nosegays or tussie-mussies, which could be worn or carried as a fashion accessory.
Come and see what messages Eli might have hidden in her very special body of work: Tussie Mussie.“
