Things Unsaid

Imogen Rorke & Fiona Allen

Things Unsaid brings together the work of artists Fiona Allen, based in Derbyshire, and Imogen Rorke, based in Cornwall.

Although we live at opposite ends of the country and work independently, we were drawn to one another’s paintings, drawings and words through a shared way of making and a fascination with the things we come to understand through making our work.

Our work begins in much the same way: not with a finished idea, but with a feeling. We make intuitively, allowing marks, layers and materials to lead us towards understanding rather than trying to illustrate something already known. Paint is worked over, drawings evolve, surfaces are stitched, hidden, revealed and reworked until something begins to emerge.

While our visual languages are different, we share an interest in what lies beneath the surface. We are both drawn to the push and pull between control and freedom, order and chaos, concealment and revelation. Our practices explore the emotional landscapes that are often difficult to articulate; the experiences, questions and contradictions that shape us and are still taking shape.

For both of us, making is a way of thinking, processing and connecting. It allows space for uncertainty, vulnerability and discovery. Rather than offering answers, the work invites conversation, encouraging viewers to find their own meanings and perhaps recognise something of themselves within it.

This exhibition grew from an ongoing dialogue between us—through images, messages and shared reflections—and from a mutual recognition that, despite working hundreds of miles apart, we were asking many of the same questions.

Things Unsaid is an invitation to pause, to look closely, and to spend time with the things that are felt before they are spoken.