Whispers on the Wall invites visitors into a space where stories are constantly changing, shaped and sensed through the traces of those who came before. At the heart of the exhibition, an evolving artwork asks audiences to become co-creators, shaping an installation through shared imagination and mark-making.
Drawing directly onto fabric with graphite of varying thicknesses, visitors respond freely to gesture, texture and instinct. A modern retelling of the fairytale Baba Yaga by local artist Dougal Kirkland runs quietly through the space, offering fragments of narrative rather than a fixed script.
Inspired by the narrative works of Paula Rego, the exhibition embraces storytelling through expressive marks, as each contribution joins a suspended, large-scale artwork shaped by many voices, quietly speaking to one another.
Dougal Kirkland
Dougal is an artist and printmaker from Stroud, Gloucestershire whose practice centres around drawing. Taking inspiration from motifs relating to folklore, ecology and landscape, Dougal brings a queer perspective to his work.
He studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London (2017) and completed The Royal Drawing School’s postgraduate scholarship programme (2022), where he was awarded the ACS Drawing Prize.
His work evokes a sense of otherness — something in-between worlds — at once marginal and mysterious, as though unearthing hidden, almost archaeological narratives that feel both ancient and quietly suggestive.
He currently has works in the Royal Collection and private collections internationally.
www.dougalkirkland.co.uk
