The Hours of Healing
A response to the operas of Benjamin Britten
7 April – 27 June 2014
Private View takes 3-5pm on Saturday 5 April 2014
Ruth Oinn is showing a series of twenty-six prints which have been a year in the making. Celebrating the centenary of Britten’s birth, Oinn created the works based on Britten’s operas, by revisiting several much-loved works, poring over librettos and seeing productions at Aldeburgh and Glyndebourne.
Britten’s operas cover sources as diverse as Shakespeare, medieval Bible stories, American folk legends, Henry James, Thomas Mann and George Crabbe. Oinn’s research varied from Japanese Noh theatre to 1930’s barber chairs via the V&A for Tudor fabric design, early American loggers and medieval stained glass.
The words, the visual images and the music have been translated into the twenty-six prints, which are not illustrations but a personal reflection of the operas and Oinn’s understanding of the ideas and characters within them.
Ruth Oinn was born in Wales and grew up in the Midlands and Kent. She wanted to be an art student but was persuaded to study English at university and spent most of her working life enjoying teaching English at secondary level. Five years ago Ruth decided to embark on a printmaking course and her life utterly changed. This is Ruth’s fourth exhibition and she says she finds printmaking just as exciting as she did when she first peeled the paper off the first linocut. Ruth works from her studio in Saffron Walden, using a Rollaco Boxer press.
