FALL PROTECTION ONLY
Upper Gulbenkian, Kensington, 24 - 26 October 2023.
Fall Protection Only is a tongue-in-cheek response to a shifting economic landscape. As multiple galleries both large and small are forced to close doors, there has been a readjustment to the gallery model with an emphasis on fluidity, roving spaces and itinerant gallerists as well as collaborative artist-led spaces.
With this in mind, the artists have taken their artworks off the gallery walls – given them feet and legs, armatures and straps, hung them, propped them and built around them: to free them from a dependency on the four walls of the white cube. Where the work spans different painting genres, styles and interests, common ground is found through challenging their respective creative practices, and in some cases actively disrupting these practices, by considering innovative, unorthodox, and unexpected ways of displaying and presenting the painted works. This is done with an emphasis on sustainability, all the while taking into consideration the space that they occupy and how the audience will interact with them.
NO MAN'S LAND
Dyson Gallery, Battersea, 14 - 16 November 2023.
No Man’s Land” comes from the Latin expression “Terra Nullius”, meaning “Nobody’s Land”, signifying a space simultaneously literally and metaphorically where no one has control or a place unsuitable for habitation. It is our earth, our world, our only home. This diverse curatorial and artistic team collaborate and infuse their passions with one another to raise awareness and address the issues of our environment. Our earth is wounded by man’s greed and it is now down to us to heal it. The exhibition invites viewers to imagine a space with a sense of neglect, ambiguity, or lack of clear ownership and responsibility. This concept serves as the central theme for the show, as artists from over 15 countries give a powerful and emotive response to the socio-environmental crisis that we, as a society, are facing.
This exhibition, this message and this art will take its viewers on an interactive journey through the inertia of state, through the void and into the blur. The audience will become part of the curatorial message. Modeled on them and flowing back to the greater narrative, No Man’s Land asks the right questions and lights up the right areas. It ignites a discussion that needs to be at the forefront of almost all things socio-political
ANNIHILATION
Hockney Gallery, Kensington, 20 - 24 November 2023.
From the very beginning, we are the beings with a self-destructive instinct that inescapably leads us to death. Each of us has carried a flaw like a ‘malignant tumour’, and through a series of sudden transformations, we have pushed humanity to the apocalyptic conclusion of extinction.
This place resembles a vast post-apocalyptic world. However, those who survive are, in the end, always the creations of nature. They thrive amidst the ruins of human civilization, as various bio-forms cover what remains of humans’ properties.
Annihilation is a group exhibition curated by RCA curating contemporary art student that explores the existence of life forms within nature that, despite undergoing inevitable annihilation, paradoxically continue to persist. Two RCA students remind us of their existence here and now through the movements of entities with mystical, but colourful life forms by oil on canvas and textile. The audience will gaze upon this ruin, furthermore, will have the experience of entering it
ALL FISH ARE DEAD FISH
Hanger Gallery, Battersea, 11 - 15 December 2023.
A cycle. Everything changes. Everything stays the same.
Every day, more than two thousand ping pong balls will drop from the sky of the Hangar. Throughout the day, the balls are gathered and picked up in different performative and choreographic ways. To then be dropped again.
Every day there is a program of performances, and sound performances. What would it mean for a group exhbition to be choreographed?
Just as a forest is in constant flux. Never stepping into the same river twice. The painting and sculptures stay in the same place. But the ping pong balls on the floor and the performances make it into an ever changing group exhibition.
This group exhbition will be structured as a five day long opera. The entire process consists of taking care and cleaing up after onself. To treat the space and the planet in a sustainable way. Rain comes and goes. Let not all fish, be dead fish.
RECIPROCITY
Hockney Gallery, Kensington, 20 - 22 February 2024.
Reciprocity is defined as a mutually beneficial exchange. In biology, the concept of reciprocity may be synonymous with the term mutualistic symbiosis, which describes a relationship where all species benefit from the interaction. Mutualism is contrasted with two other types of symbiosis: competition (a struggle for limited resources) and parasitism (living at the expense of the other).
As the climate crisis becomes an increasingly immediate challenge in today’s world, it has become more apparent that our relationship with the natural world may be likened to that of competition and parasitism. In Reciprocity, the artists, designers, and researchers respond to our changing climate, develop processes that move away from an extractive nature, and propose a future where collaboration, co-creation, and mutualistic symbiosis with Nature is at the forefront of art and design.
INTERNATIONAL MAW
Upper Gulbenkian , Kensington, 18 - 22 March 2024.
A diverse showcase of artwork by ten artists from nine countries and five disciplines: painting, ceramic, textiles, jewellery and printing. What do they have in common? They are MAW: middle-aged women. Yes, that unique demographic that you instantly assume is boring…like your mum or your teacher. But what if you’re wrong? What if MAW are creative, aggressive, opinionated people who spent half their life taking care of others and now want to take care of themselves?
10 Artists, 9 Countries, 5 Disciplines.
EARTHERN REVERIE
Hangar Gallery, Battersea, 08 - 12 April 2024.
This non-academic show positions Africa as the central mediator of its material-temporal crafts and possibilities.
The etymology of ‘Afrofuturism’ displaces and dictates a Black other, a colonial voyeur that is incentivised to ravage and negate. Instead, RCA Africa positions itself as an ecosystem that ideates and purveys a Future in Africa. One that returns to fertilise soil and encourage conscious splendour. A motion that destabilises the notion of African stasis.
Our audience will be seduced into an immersion of play and delight. That which coalesces delicate motion with astute craft. That which goes beyond spatiotemporal hegemonies that confine and undermine.
Whispers of the past will be interspersed with echoes of tomorrow. This amalgam of tradition and innovation will pay homage to what was and is the potency of African artistry. Earthen Reverie will exhibit 18 RCA Africa artists from varying disciplines across the Royal College of Art.
ECHOES OF EXISTENCE
Upper Gulbenkian, Kensington, 15 - 19 April 2024.
The 'Echoes of Existence' exhibition seeks to examine the dynamic interplay between social and political issues and the human body. Through the art, the project presents how the human body is evolving amidst the profound changes of the modern world and how its portrayal, deeply rooted in history, serves as a lens through which we can comprehend these changes, as the world outside shapes us and influences who we are and who we are becoming.
The 'Echoes of Existence' – is about a human body as a powerful tool through which we can observe the current devastative changes such as wars, widespread protests, ecological crises, and debates over gender and identity. Recognizing ourselves within the broader human experience, where shared struggles shape our collective reality, empowers us to confront and navigate the complexities of our world.
READ ENTWINEMENT
Mezzanine, Battersea, 3 - 7 June 2024.
"Read Entwinment" is a duo exhibition featuring a collaboration between textile artist Seongeun Lee and product designer Bo Gyeom Kim. The exhibition showcases six works in total: two by Seongeun Lee, two by Bo Gyeom Kim, and two collaborative pieces, with the latter being presented for the first time in this exhibition.
Read is from Old English, which is the etymological root of ‘Red’. As the first colour to be textualised, red exists in numerous and diverse forms in our lives. It evokes blood, symbolising life and death, beginnings and endings, and carries dual meanings. It signifies prohibition, stop, strong warnings, danger, and urgency. Furthermore, it represents sacrifice, risk, courage, and fire, symbolising both warmth and passion. Culturally, it holds various other meanings as well.
The colour red, in itself, encompasses a vast array of texts and signs. This diversity indicates that it is not merely a binary opposition; it is difficult to define and categorise with a single term. Therefore, how diverse is our approach and interpretation when we view artworks? As you explore the works of the two artists, who come from distinct yet complementary backgrounds of textiles and product design, recommend considering how the objects of our lives can be defined through this lens.
Curated by Curating Contemporary Art student Yeneul Kim and artists Seongeun Lee (MA Textiles) and Bogyeom Kim (MA Design Products).
