Donna Huddleston interview | Simon Lee Gallery | 25 January 2022

Donna Huddleston – video interview: ‘I was thinking of all the works being a double for myself’

Huddleston talks about her beguiling new works on paper, for which she draws on her background in theatre to create figures that she sees as performing within the composition.

In Person is Donna Huddleston’s inaugural show at Simon Lee in London. The title is both a playful reference to the show’s long-delayed opening due to the pandemic and to the theme of doubles and mirroring that reverberates through the works. “I was thinking a lot about the theatrical term ‘the stand-in’, which then led on to thinking about doubles,” she says. “Whether it's a body double, or the double of an actress, that idea to use doubles within individual works, and then, also, I double works with another piece in the show so that they reflect each other.”

This is evident in echoes between drawings such as Brighter and The Stand-In, which each portray a female figure leaning on two plinths that flank her, as well as New Moon and Rising Fawn, which are linked by the motifs of piano keys and carnations; but one can find subtle threads connecting most of the works in this exhibition, which is characterised by moments of gathering and waning intensity like a symphony. One such thread – to return to the show’s title – is the theme of self-portraiture, the different sitters functioning as doubles for the artist, even if there is little visual resemblance.

Donna Huddleston: In Person
Simon Lee Gallery, London
21 January – 26 February 2022

Interview by ELIZABETH FULLERTON
Filmed and edited by MARTIN KENNEDY