Bristol, Royal West of England Academy, Drawing On, 21 March – 7 June 2015
Woking, The Lightbox, Not all contemporary art is rubbish! The Ingram Collection, 2 February – 10 April 2016
Vidal says of her work “I explore a post-apocalyptic world in ruin; my practice, taking the form of charcoal drawings and sculptures, balances both the will to survive in such circumstances and the vulnerability of the human body. I re-imagine a future world as a place whose inhabitants consist only of feral children and where Mother Nature is claiming back her own territory. Influenced by spiritual experiences from my Catholic upbringing and travels, I am particularly concerned with ideas of religious symbolism, ritual and cult, questioning the reason and primary quest of human beings for faith and transcendence. I use the unique ability of charcoal to capture emotions within a fragile and quivering stroke. The totemic three-dimensional works I create reference to a range of historical, cultural and visual divine objects from around the world, mixing styles from disparate places and period.
The common disappears and the mysticism takes its place. Admiring the ruins of an orderless present, we face our own vulnerability. Is this the world we are living in today, facing its own end?”
, 2014)
