Alexis Soul-Gray & Hannah Wooll: What Was Lost

Sara Makari-Aghdam

Inspired by the verse of Iranian poet, Forugh Farrokhzad, writer Sara Makari-Aghdam experiments with prose poems in her interpretation of works from What Was Lost, on show at PAPER until 29 October 2022. The exhibition features reworkings of kitsch or outmoded public realm archival material by two artists who have long admired each other’s stylistic and aesthetic concerns. At once playful and poignant, Hannah Wooll’s soulful and insouciant girls and Alexis Soul-Gray’s deceptively saccharine children find a new level of existence in Makari-Aghdam’s fresh, bright snippets of text. Their deletions, redactions and superimpositions are echoed in a brand-new collage of imagery and writing.

‘Inexperienced little stars, fall to earth from treetop heights. And from the pale windows of the fishes’ abode, the sound comes coughing at night. Our courtyard garden is lonely.’  

Forugh Farrokhzad, excerpt from Feel Sorry for the Garden (Delam Barayeh Baghcheh Misuzad), pub. 1974  

PAPER Gallery in Manchester is currently displaying the work of two like-minded British female artists: Alexis Soul-Gray and Hannah Wooll, in an exhibition entitled What Was Lost. The decorative and vibrant imagery on offer falls within the remit of figurative art and most of it is crafted on various types of paper. The gallery wall space in an eye-catching lapis lazuli jewel blue includes Wooll’s evocative paper-clay portraits, amongst a collection of two-dimensional paper works. Additionally shown in What Was Lost are Wooll’s sculptural, experimental amalgamations of paper clay, porcelain and found ornaments which are mashed together to create something entirely new. 

In exploring the beauty of the body of works in the space, I have picked out six works of the best quality, in my opinion, having divided them into two categories. The first three artworks reimagine domestic interiors, while the second three incorporate outdoors exteriors. Inspired by the poem Feel Sorry for the Garden by the Iranian feminist poet Forugh Farrokhzad (b.1934-1967), I have added my own poetic prose to each image, to reflect my impressions of these playful, childlike works.  

Analogies can be drawn between the poem Feel Sorry for the Garden and the artworks in What Was Lost.  Farrokhzad’s poem also paints a picture of the past and joins memory with family places/spaces. Feel Sorry for the Garden was written as a means to convey the artifice and loneliness of upper middle class life in Iran, through the poet’s rich descriptions of physical surroundings in the home. Farrokhzad led an emotionally intense and unconventional existence, and she continues to remain an underrated and marginalised female author. Choosing her work to compare and contrast with the artists’ seeks to reinstate power to her. In Soul-Gray’s Love Me, for example, the same sort of abandonment and melancholy is hinted at as in Farrokhzad’s oeuvre, the caregiver turns away as the girl figure looks miserable.

Unlike What Was Lost however, Feel Sorry for the Garden searches for “paradise lost”— but a paradise that never even existed. It speaks of an untended garden, a dying “baghcheh” (the traditional courtyard garden of Iran), which represents the demise of family life. What Was Lost is full of joie de vivre, a kaleidoscope of jellybean colours, fun and games, but also a story of childhood innocence lost.

Domestic interiors: 

1. Alexis Soul-Gray, Rainbow, Oil on Paper, 24 x 18 cm, 2021 

A baby blue boy, pulls at the threads, an Indian monkey dance and an elephant stomp —warm and cosy granny knits until mum put the washing machine on 60 degrees!  

2. Hannah Wooll, Blue, Paper clay, acrylic ink on found ceramic, 21 x 10 x 10 cm, 2022 

Kitty litter, kitty cat, my cat can’t chase any birds… Lajvardina blue and pink floral delight, curly eyelashes and tickly whiskers: kitty and the girl with the ragdoll hair. Kitty cost 50p at the carboot, to have the kitty to yourself is priceless. [1]

[1] Lajvardina is the luxurious blue colour from enamel-painted ceramics that came from Ilkhanid Iran. In Western terms it’s what’s called lapis lazuli shade, or cobalt blue.

3. Hannah Wooll, Like a Fish Out of Water, Paper clay, porcelain, paint, acrylic ink on found ceramic, 20 x 9 x 4 cm approx., 2022  

“Like a fish out of water!” they used to say! An idiom for the unacquainted, oddities and freaks. This lustrous, mother of pearl fish is freakishly large, the girl with the ragdoll hair hangs on for dear life as the fish gasps for one last breath… Having jumped from the pond, the fish adorns a dressing table of glittery nail polishes, pink powderpuff, Tinkerbell perfume and combs with missing teeth.  

Outdoor exteriors: 

4. Alexis Soul-Gray, Sunbeam, Oil on paper, 24 x 18 cm, 2021 

Got to wear your suncream in the sun, or your nose turns pink. Mummy said we could get 99 Flake ice-creams, if we’re good. On a trip to granny's, we dressed in the wrong clothes for the weather. It is too hot now in these woolly red tights, cardigans and jumpers, the pearly buttons of my sister’s cardigan are too tight and won't come undone. A light breeze now and again makes the bunting shiver, and we slurp fresh lemonade.  

5. Alexis Soul-Gray, Push Up Toy, Oil on Paper, 4 x 18 cm, 2021 

Wheeeee!!! Whoooooo!!! Push up toy!!! The doll’s head jerks. Push up toy was a birthday present, no more pens allowed at this point since we doodled on our hands and it took days to wash it off.

6. Hannah Wooll, Springtime, I Need You More Than Ever, acrylic ink and collage on book page, 30 x 22 cm, 2020

Sprays of carnations, freesias and tulips—sweet baby buds and tangled stems. Mother’s Day falls in Spring, running all the way to the shop with a scrunched note. With eyes shining, presenting the gift… next week, the flowers wither in the Murano glass and the petals fall off one by one.  

See full translation of Forugh Farrokhzad, Feel Sorry for the Garden (Delam Barayeh Baghcheh Misuzad), pub. 1974:  

https://www.forughfarrokhzad.org/collectedworks/collectedworks4.htm