‘Responding Silently’ centres around the idea of ‘pictorial correspondence’ between the participating artists; a silent and entirely visual conversation with which the viewer is invited to engage.

The premise of this visual correspondence is simple: a drawing or artwork made by one person is passed to another without either written or verbal explanation. The recipient must then respond using only the visual clues of the first work as inspiration, before subsequently passing their own work (and not the work of the artist before them) to the third participant. So it continues in a kind of artistic relay, with no one person ever seeing the full circle of communication; witnessing only the single works passed to them; fragments of a broader conversation.

This exhibition is the first time that the full evolution of correspondence is unveiled – the displayed work almost as unexpected to the viewer as to the artists themselves.

Begun first as a means to keep in touch during the summer, the semi-regular flow of despatch and receipt has become absorbed into the integral structure of our friendship. Most surprising has been the new facets and personas of other group members encountered in the drawings, often existing outwith 'usual' artistic styles. It is perhaps easier to reveal the more complex or tender parts of ourselves through visual rather than verbal discourse.

Moving between the works, the audience are invited to draw inference and interpretation; imaginatively fill the silent conversation between works; and consider their own response. The recent pandemic having brought into focus the necessity of connection, ‘Responding Silently’ considers the fragility of communication - the ways in which, through visual language, ideas can be lost, misinterpreted, translated, appropriated and rediscovered.