Please Don't Make Me Cry
Scene 2, 2021
The works presented are developed during a chaotic time, defined by an underlying notion that anything, and everything, could happen now. When the country shut down due to the covid pandemic Toogood created a daily routine making collages, about observing an unrecognizable world from the balcony. Her energetic and intense use of color, combined with gestural brushstrokes and loud patterns create such tension and excitement that all the elements appear to be shouting at each other. The painting and the collages all share a repetitive wavy form representative of an awning - as if one is sitting on a balcony looking out at the world under its shade.
The sculpture Please Don`t Make Me Cry (2021) has the shape of a folding screen. The folding screen functions as a shield or a hiding place.
Toogood’s practice focuses on painting as a medium and the transition between the two-dimensional painting and the spatial painting. Sometimes as a sculpture, other times with elements of installation and performance. The sculpture Spending time with my cat (Balcony sculpture I) display Toogood’s continued exploration of how painting can be incorporated into space with the use of perforated mirrors and silhouettes.