Abigail Robertson

Abigail Robertson is an abstract artist working at the intersection of textiles and painting. A graduate of Central Saint Martins, London, Abigail is now based in her hometown of St Ives, Cornwall.

Through her practice Robertson explores the physicality of the Cornish coastline, charting passing moments of her lived experience into a map of stitched and dyed canvas. Tactile memories - the quality of light in a coastal studio, the intersection of horizon and sky - are translated and given dimension through the act of making. Deconstructed and re-joined into a patchwork of experiences, the canvas now presents a new understanding of place; a topography through which Robertson seeks to situate herself.

The scale and dimension of the finished canvas fundamentally determines the final piece. Notions of up down, front back are challenged as Robertson engages physically with the square canvas, twisting, rotating and questioning its form until the last moment. Yet these explorations are not resolved within one canvas, instead they are returned to and expanded across a series of works, each piece informing the next. It is this dialogue of exchange between individual works and the collective, between materiality and intention, that defines Robertson’s experimental practice.