Two Plus One

> Assembly House, Norwich

This first exhibition of paintings by Gillian Brown and Rema Petrie includes some pleasant enough still lifes, Brown making a notably more interesting choice of subject matter.

She also makes headway in capturing the innate character of objects: After the Rain features two umbrellas that pose jauntily portrait-style, their animation further enhanced by the way in which shadow is endowed with almost equal importance.

But it is all decidedly amateurish in comparison to the work of sculptor Hilary Sussum.

Her inspiration comes from architectural sources, especially bridges, and although precedence is given in the first instance to the design concept, it is the materials that imbue her work with such contemporary simplicity.

Practising an interesting technique involving the construction of a metal frame on to which handmade paper can be draped with controlled randomness, Arc in Space I has been thrown upwards as if attempting to span a void with delicate fronds of pulped phormium tenax fibre that cling cobweb-like to the stainless steel structure. And Arc in Space II, influenced by a cable suspension bridge, seems to soar like a massive moth-eaten moth.

Sussum is also interested in the space that penetrates her constructed forms.

Two triangular pieces are exemplary of this artistic concern, and, while identical in composition, Triangles in Red & Black differs dramatically from White Triangles, demonstrating the impact of introducing colour to 3-D forms.

I also liked Moonscape, a relief featuring pockets of pineapple fibres to evoke a highly textured lunar surface. And as with all her pieces, this possesses a tantalising tension between solidity and fragility.

t Continues until October 16.