Fray: Coming Away at the Ends (2011), is a meditative work that follows the ten or more ways that come together in a cell to cause it to die and us to age; the protein debris that accumulates; the chromosome damage produced, etc. etc.  The work blends the processes at play in the cell with the ‘protagonist’ of the work. The figure in the slide piece is looking at himself in a state of change; as a ‘single’ cell undergoing the complex cellular changes in ageing that were brought to Andrew's attention while visiting and discussing the innovative work at the Centre for Ageing in Newcastle. 

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The work is projected from six 35mm slide projectors, the projectors working independently in pairs,  the images for each pair of projectors falling on three voile layered screens, set between the projectors. There is a diagram of the set up in the large Newcastle exhibition space below.

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Fray was exhibited in Coming of Age: the art and science of ageing, at the Great North Museum, Newcastle, 2012 and at  GV Art, Maylebone, London, 2012 in a show with the same title and  reviewed in Wall Street International, (22 May 2012) and The Economist, (28 June 2012).

 

The exhibition was a celebration of the human spirit in the face of life's challenges, Coming of Age used art to challenge negative perceptions around ageing. It explored how and why we age and affirms positive responses to the experience, as seen through the eyes of both artists and scientists.