VICTORIA SILLS

PRESS RELEASE

BETWEEN:US brings together the work of Peter Haugh, Jonathan Rust and Victoria Sills at the Beecroft Art Gallery, Southend-on-Sea.

The exhibition features painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking and digitally composed image-based works, reflecting the varied material approaches of the three artists.

Rather than presenting a unified theme, the exhibition proposes a space of relation between artists, between works and between viewer and image. Each practice approaches this differently, yet all share a concern with how meaning is formed. Not as something fixed or delivered, but as something that emerges through encounter.

“Meaning doesn’t arrive fully formed. It emerges in the space between what is seen, what is sensed, and what is allowed to unfold.”

Beecroft Art Gallery, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea, SS2 6EX

6th September - 29th November 2026

The Masking series:

The Masking series of paintings and drawings explores feelings of isolation, anxiety and the ways in which individuals conceal their true emotions. These works function as self-portraits, drawing on personal memories to create a nostalgic yet introspective lens into my own experiences.

In one scene, a girl sits alone at a birthday party while other guests blur into one another in the background - a result of social overwhelm. They take part in familiar party games, seemingly carefree, while she remains detached. In another, a girl sits isolated, wearing a mask.  The mask raises questions: does it conceal her true feelings, or does it allow her to become someone more socially acceptable - someone who fits in?

The series also examines masking through a female perspective. Set within a non-specific 1970s-80s era, the work reflects a time when many neurodivergent conditions went unrecognised. Girls, in particular, have often been expected to suppress or alter their natural behaviours to meet social expectations. While masking may offer short-term protection from judgement or exclusion, it can lead to long-term impacts on mental health.

Visual elements such as painted masks and exaggerated hats act as overt symbols of this concealment. The central figure remains separate from her surroundings, emphasising a sense of disconnection - not just from others, but from herself.

The Scold’s Bridle series

The scold's bridle was an instrument of punishment and public humiliation. Constructed from iron, it functioned as a muzzle-like apparatus secured around the head, incorporating a metal bit that pressed against the tongue. Speech was restricted under threat of pain, rendering the wearer both physically and symbolically silent. 

Although the scold's bridle was used predominantly on women, a related device known as the Mask of Shame existed as early as the Middle Ages was also used on men. These iron masks often took the form of animals or grotesque figures, their features reflecting the wearer's alleged offence: exaggerated tongues denoted gossip, pig snouts suggested uncleanliness and oversized ears signified eavesdropping.

While overt forms of social control may be less visible today, disciplinary structures continue to operate through mechanisms such as social media, algorithmic moderation, and the pressures of cancel culture. Within this context, the mask becomes a metaphor for internalised shame and self-censorship, where control is no longer enforced by external forces but is sustained psychologically from within. 

This work explores how silence functions not simply as the absence of speech, but as a form of self-regulation in which anticipated judgement shapes what we choose to reveal and what we choose to conceal.