The title of Ruth McHugh's latest exhibition comes from a line of Wordsworth's Intimations Of Mortality, "Apparel'd in celestial light", which hints at the concerns at play.
Apparel'd finds an artist engrossed in her vision, in which a range of subjects is depicted through a number of media, styles and treatments. Thematically, fabric features large - a dress hanging against a roughly plastered wall, the eponymous materials of the drape and oil cloth series, while for In Waiting and Suite, the subject is taken from an embroidered dress in Velβzquez's painting Las Meninas.
These subjects are repeatedly reworked from source photographs through painting, print and drawing, and in this process McHugh elicits a wide range of resonances and weights.
The scale of the works is generally small, and, in conjunction with the lightness of touch, instils a sense of intimacy. Texture and its relationship to light are clearly important elements, in both the photographs and the applied works. Photographs capture texture and light, achieving almost monochrome quality, whether depicting the intricately decorated interior of Rome's Pantheon or the richly embroidered dress from Interior I and II.
The exhibition's title piece, Apparel'd, addresses a large, utilitarian piece of furniture that, in its various treatments, ranges from pale and ephemeral to dark and ominous, while the pale, fragile painting Glasshouse contrasts sharply with its dark, cage-like source, Last View.
McHugh's rigorous explorations achieve a concentrated richness, and the lightness of touch and the nature of the source material impart a distinctly feminine quality to the exhibition. Through McHugh's understanding of her media and clarity of artistic vision, she achieves a subtle, understated intensity that is quietly enduring.
