In responding to the question of “What’s it all about?” the artist has stated:

“The work could be said to engage with the past as well as the present; even, by implication, a future. Presently I can say it’s fundamentally the installation of an accumulated and modified array of pre- and post- handled bricks and their kind, which can be considered individually and/or collectively, being a semblage with aesthetic and tropal qualities; and on this occasion the floor exhibits are supplemented by a few framed works/images/ views which optionally may contextually suggest thematic overtones, eg historical, social, cultural and topical.

Whether the exhibition in situ succeeds lyrically I cannot be certain. What the late John Constable would make of it I can only wonder, let alone presume its contemporary apprehensibility beyond that of my own provisional position to evade the conventions of ‘meaningful explanation’ and ‘declaratory inspiration’. Yet I do admit there is some direction afoot, to wit: it’s more ‘brick than bract’; so come along with your baggage to interact with my luggage.

Thank you.”

Andrew Macbeth, January 2026 

Once upon a time there was a cottage in a cornfield is an installation of mixed media, gestating and developing from the early 1990s until the present.

Andrew Macbeth was born Glasgow 1953. Lived Bristol 1966-80. London resident since. Present main studio Preston, Lancs. Weston-Super-Mare Technical College, School of Art (Foundation) 1975-76. Brighton School of Art (BA) 1976-79. Goldsmiths’ College, London (MA) 1986-88.

Programmed by Matt Hale for Tension –  matthale58@gmail.com     www.matthaleart.com