Exhibition Review: Another Spring

Exhibition Review of Another Spring in RAZZ by Luanna De Abreu Coelho

24 May 2018

At the heart of Exeter, almost hidden down Gandy Street, is Exeter Phoenix. Apart from being the home to various ‘Showcase’ events, Phoenix has plenty to offer. It’s an exciting, high-caliber arts venue that is famous for its cinema, theatre, radio station, art workshops and art galleries. From the 4th of May, it is home to Another Spring, an exhibition that showcases the work of several internationally renowned artists on the topic of citizenship and politics in Western society. Curated by art historian and critic Dr. Jean Wainwright, Another Spring brings together the work of Andreas Angelidakis, Forensic Architecture, David Birkin, Layla Curtis, kennardphillipps and Steffi Klenz. In their pieces, the artists reflect current trends of changing notions of citizenship, concerns over nationality, and the ever-present ‘problem’ of our borders. Strolling through the gallery made me question my Britishness, my connection to Europe, and the actions of our politicians during this very significant period in our country’s political reality. And that’s exactly what art should make you do – it should make you think, make you feel, and most importantly, make you question the world you live in. Another Spring does all that.

To read full article please visit the RAZZ website HERE.

BEG STEAL AND BORROW opens at Bermondsey Project Space, Curated by Jean Wainwright

BEG STEAL AND BORROW opens at Bermondsey Project Space, Curated by Jean Wainwright

Bermondsey Project Space

Bermondsey Street,
London SE1 3UW

Private View: Tuesday 25 February, 6-9pm
Exhibition opening: 26 February – 7 March 2020

Philip Colbert
Haley Morris-Cafiero
Yinka Shonibare CBE
Ori Gersht
Melinda Gibson
Stuart Hilton
Birgitta Hosea
Steffi Klenz
Simon Patterson
Andreas Schmidt
John Stezaker
Gavin Turk
Jessica Voorsanger

Curated by Jean Wainwright 

Beg, Steal, Borrow Exhibition Catalogue

Recycling, borrowing, stealing, shamelessly ripping off… artists scavenge. They remix. They find new pathways, links and meanings. They plunder from past or present to create debate. In ‘steal this essay’ Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson poses the question: ‘What imagery is so pervasive that claims of ownership seem facile? And are artists in their ability and need to comment on contemporary culture, thereby somehow entitled to universal usage?’ Art is timeless, but art is also provisional, one iteration of an idea giving way to another: Raphael and Diego Velázquez to Édouard Manet, Andy Warhol to Sturtevant, Walker Evans to Sherrie Levine, in our digital age, these iterations are becoming far speedier. This is putting the laws that relate to copyright under huge pressure. While these laws protect the rights of an artwork’s creator for seventy years, online work can be copied, parodied and memed a thousand times in our age of digital acceleration. We are exposed to so many often fleeting, visual influences. For many artists appropriation is about addition or reinterpretation, so that the new creation is unique, yet contains within it copies or traces of the original.

The artists in Beg, Steal and Borrow, scavenge, remix, recreate, find new pathways, links and meanings. They are using what is already there to fashion new work and create pressing debates. Interconnected in their dynamic engagement their work is multilayered, yet bearing a trace or reference to the other art works or contemporary issues, from art history to archival material, colonial history to online bullying. There are collages and sculptures, large canvases, photographs, appropriated collections and videos. Each work is unique yet bears pertinent traces to its artistic coded pathway.

project-space.london/beg-steal-and-borrow 

Exhibition: Women in Photography – A History of British Trailblazers

Exhibition: Women in Photography – A History of British Trailblazers

From the early innovations of Anna Atkins and Queen Alexandra, through to Dorothy Bohm’s depiction of 1960s London and the self-portraiture of Sarah Lucas in the 2000s, the exhibition will for the first time present an in depth historical survey showcasing the achievements of female photographers working in Britain.

Professor Jean Wainwright (University for the Creative Arts) has compiled new and archival interviews, including those from a selection of exhibiting artists. The interviews will be installed as sound compilations, recorded as conversations directly referring to the artists’ photographs on display.

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Exhibition: Powerful Tides – 400 Years of Chatham and the Sea

Exhibition: Powerful Tides – 400 Years of Chatham and the Sea

Powerful Tides – 400 Years of Chatham and the Sea curated by Jean Wainwright 

23 March – 17 June 2018

NO.1 Smithery, The Historic Dockyard, Chatham, ME4 4TE

Powerful Tides: 400 Years of Chatham and the Sea is not only a celebration of the artists inspired by The Dockyard and the ships that were built there, but also links The Dockyard back to the waterways and the sea to which it was once intrinsically connected.

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