Nina Chua’s work isn’t representational, and so to me the most fitting way to describe how it functions visually is to treat it as though it were a sound, and to think about it in terms of volume and echo. There’s a word for that: synesthesia, but this isn’t so automatic. Some of her works are loud with colour, shouting and chattering repetitively into a din, whereas others whisper, hum or tut as they draw the viewer into a barely comprehended dialogue.

For Chua the incremental changes and accumulative quality of the work convey a sense of time spent. In this exhibition two works are shown, one freshly framed for the first time, the other at the end of its life on its final public outing. Together they mark the passage of time, obsolescence and slow decay.   

Chua and Velvick lived in Manchester simultaneously for around 9 years but never met. In 2016 they were both selected to be Liverpool Biennial Associate Artists and in due course discovered similarities and meeting points between their attitudes towards being an artist and moving through the world. Chua has an MA in Fine Art from Manchester School of Art, graduating in 2011. This is her first solo exhibition. Velvick didn’t do an art degree and is sometimes designated an artist, sometimes a writer.