Matt’s Gallery’s new space in Bermondsey opens with Leah Capaldi’s Lay Down
Matt’s Gallery’s new temporary space on Decima Street in Bermondsey opens with Leah Capaldi’s solo show Lay Down on Saturday 29th October 2016 from 3 – 6pm. Join us to celebrate a new era in Matt’s Gallery’s 36 year history, as the gallery moves south of the river to continue its programme. The exhibition will remain open between 29 October – 11 December 2016.
Lay Down is the first major solo show by artist Leah Capaldi, presenting an entirely new work comprising a site-specific installation inspired by her time in the deserts of the American West. Here, Capaldi met a Utah cowboy and his horse, a film exploring their relationship and the vast, performative landscape that surrounds them forms the core of the installation. Lay Down asks how power is constructed and understood, this question arising throughout the installation, in the iconic figure of the American cowboy, the influence of the sublime landscape and the authority of the screen.
The full address for the space is 65 Decima Street, London, SE1 4QR
Lay Down in kindly supported by 5A Studios, The University of Brighton and Arts Council England.
Forthcoming Exhibitions & Events
Matt’s Gallery + Blackrock opens with Small Acts of Deception by Willie Doherty
We would like to thank everyone who attended the open weekends of Blackrock Artist Residency 2016. Photos, press and details of next year and plans for the future to follow soon.
Matt’s Gallery + Blackrock are currently showing Small Acts of Deception, a solo exhibition by artist Willie Doherty, in our newly converted exhibition space. The exhibition is open every first Saturday of the month until December 2016, at Cross Barn House GL15 6DE. Please email info@blackrockresidency.org for more information.
Small Acts of Deception includes works from a series of black and white photographs with text produced in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. Doherty produced these works, where there are no visible signs of the drama of violence, in response to mainstream journalistic representations of the conflict in the North of Ireland. The exhibition also includes works from a body of colour cibachrome works made between 1993 and 1999. These works examine the border roads between Derry in the North and county Donegal in the South of Ireland. Many of these small ‘unapproved roads’ were blocked with makeshift military barriers in order to control movement across the border. Doherty worked extensively along the border, criss-crossing these roads on foot and by day and night. These works record the material evidence of how these locations looked but also tap into the narrative potential of partially glimpsed fragments and the residue of unspecified events and encounters.
Please email info@blackrockresidency.org for more information.
Bronwen Buckeridge, What I thought I saw, saw me, Gdansk City Gallery 2, Poland, 28 October – 27 November, 2016
What I thought I saw, saw me is a new sound work where Bronwen Buckeridge invites a medium and her spirit guides to select items for exhibition from the storage rooms of the Matt’s Gallery archive. The work will be presented in Poland where the idea for Matt’s Gallery first came into being, and which is arguably the spiritual home of the archive.
Current
Richard Grayson, Possessions_inc. Continues 1 October 2016 with Episode 5
Possessions_inc is a new video and web project by Matt’s Gallery and Richard Grayson. Episode 5 is now available to watch.
Over 2016 and 2017 Matt’s Gallery will be posting monthly instalments of the video project Possessions_inc. Part series, part blog, part essay, part talking head, Possessions_inc. is an expanding exploration of: ideas of value, ways we invest in objects, the Bilderberg owl, animatronics, the mystery of Rennes Le Chateau, codes, fakes, oligarchs, the missing head of Philip K Dick, treasure hunting, M.R. James, the V.I.P. Lounge, drug smuggling, computer animation, animism, Pygmalion and the insurance industry.
To subscribe please sign up to the Matt’s Gallery mailing list
To watch the episodes click here
Artists’ News
Imogen Stidworthy, Suzhou Documents, Johann Jacobs Museum, Suzhou, China, 21 August – 20 October 2016
Graham Fagen, NEON: The Charged Line, Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, 1 October – 7 January 2016
Graham Fagen exhibits work in NEON: The Charged Line, a major new survey exhibition exploring how artists have worked with neon, from the 1960s to the present day. The exhibition will encompass a wide range of ways in which artists have experimented with light designed to be seen rather than illuminate; whether through text and language, the drawn line or an investigation into its physical and sculptural qualities.
Anne Bean, OF OTHER SPACES: WHERE DOES GESTURE BECOME EVENT? CHAPTER ONE, Cooper Gallery, Dundee, 28 October – 16 December 2016
Anne Bean is participating in an exhibition and rolling event programme comprising live performances, screenings, collective readings, participatory dance and an international symposium 12-Hour Action Group at Cooper Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design. The programme references art works, artist collaborative groups and activism by women from the 1970’s to the present day, looking at the contemporary relevance and cogency of feminist thinking on power as it is enacted through bodies, institutions and systems of representation.
Anne Bean, Heart Beat Ear Drum: a film about Z’EV, Film and Drama Studio, London, 6 October 2016
Anne Bean will be performing alongside Richard Wilson as an introduction to Heart Beat Ear Drum: a film about Z’EV, created by Ellen Zweig, at the Film and Drama Studio in Queen Mary University of London. The film is a portrait of the artist and musician Z’EV, known for his punk era scrap metal music, considering how his music changed and grew as well as how his personal journey led him to the margins of art and the depths of heart. For several years during 1980’s Z’EV worked with Bow Gamelan Ensemble, comprising Anne Bean, Paul Burwell and Richard Wilson. The event will start at 7pm.
Melanie Jackson and Hayley Newman, Now it is Permitted: 24 Wayside Pulpits, Swedenborg House, London, 19 – 22 October 2016
Both Melanie Jackson and Hayley Newman will be showing work as part of the Now it is Permitted: 24 Wayside Pulpits, an exhibition during the Bloomsbury Festival, curated by Swedenborg Society’s Artist in Residence Bridget Smith and the Swedenborg Society’s Director, Stephen McNeilly. Inspired by a collection of 24 New Church ‘wayside pulpits’ from the 1950s held in the archive at Swedenborg House, the exhibition features 57 newly commissioned visionary statements from invited artists, writers, musicians, playwrights and filmmakers. Designed by Fraser Muggeridge studio, the posters will be on display at Swedenborg House, the Window Gallery in Conway Hall and neighbouring Bloomsbury Festival venues.
Melanie Jackson, Unreliable Matriarchs, Birkbeck School of Arts, London, 18 November 2016
Melanie Jackson alongside Esther Leslie will present a performance lecture on the subject of breastmilk titled Unreliable Matriarchs, as part of the Fluid Physicalities speaker programme at Birkbeck School of Arts. Fluid Physicalities is a new seminar series convened by Anthony Bale and Esther Leslie. The interdisciplinary project investigates bodily fluids and speaks to a broad conception of embodiment that lies at the interface of culture and medical knowledge, making links to questions of health and well-being, disease and biomedical exploration across historical and contemporary settings. The event will take place at 6pm in the Keynes Library.
Jordan Baseman, Blackout, New Orleans Film Festival, New Orleans, 12 – 20 October 2016, and Aesthetica Film Festival, York, 3 – 6 November 2016
Jordan Baseman’s Blackout (2015) has been selected for both the 27th Annual New Orleans Film Festival‘s Short Films section and the Aesthetica Film Festival, the latter being a BAFTA qualifying short film festival in its sixth year taking place in 15 distinct venues across York and showcasing 400 films as part of its Official Selection.
Jordan Baseman, 22/2/1992, Dolph Projects, London, 16 November – 3 December 2016
Jordan Baseman will present 22/2/1992 at Dolph Projects. 22/2/92 is a 90 minute unedited interview with the twin brothers Lee and Dee Smith. Lee Smith began his hand built Mansion in Wapiti, Wyoming, in 1979. In April 1992, he fell twelve feet onto a roof on one of the lower sections of the Mansion. He struck his head and lay unconscious for two days while he bled out and died. Locally known as The Crazy House, The Mansion remains unfinished, yet still stands. This interview was recorded two months prior to Lee Smith’s death and was never used, nor broadcast, located in the Wyoming State Archives in Cheyenne, Wyoming for the past 24 years. The interview focuses on the idea of landscape and our environment. At times very funny, wild and informal, the document is a moving discussion with a pioneer, maverick unlicensed architect. 22/2/92 will be presented on a continuous cycle, in a pitch black space.
Willie Doherty, Loose Ends, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, 3 September – 19 October 2016
Kerlin Gallery hosts Willie Doherty’s Loose Ends, a historic new body of work comprised of a two-screen video installation and accompanying photographic diptychs. The exhibition opens with a reception in the company of the artist on Friday 2 September. Loose Ends turns our attention to the passage of time and its powerful, corrosive effect on our hopes, beliefs and sense of identity. Across two screens, Doherty uses the camera and spoken word to focus on the details and textures of two very different locations. Both associated with the 1916 Easter Rising – a key event in the history of Irish independence, the sites are examined in detail through the use of a slow, almost trance-like, zoom. Doherty’s lens absorbs the material evidence of each location today, 100 years after the events of 1916, asking whether a residual response to these events continues to be played out, or how the voices and actions of one generation and the ‘vapours of the past’ resonate in the unconscious of another.
Hayley Newman, Liberties, EXCHANGE, Penzance, 22 October – 7 January 2016
Hayley Newman exhibits work in Liberties at EXCHANGE in Penzance, an exhibition of contemporary art by 24 female artists reflecting on the 40 years since the Sex Discrimination Act. Curated by Lucy Day and Eliza Gluckman it presents a snapshot of a woman’s place in British society. Body, femininity, sex, motherhood, economic and political status are explored through film, photography, sculpture, performance and painting. Works by more than 20 women artists reflect the changes in art practice, within the context of sexual and gender equality, since the introduction of the Act.
Jennet Thomas, Unspeakable Freedom >> Tastes like Chicken, Block 336, Brixton, 25 September – 21 October 2016
Jennet Thomas’ solo show at Block 336, Unspeakable Freedom >> Tastes like Chicken, will feature the full scale installation of the epic ‘Unspeakable Freedom Device’, originally commissioned by Grundy Gallery, (click to see the trailer here https://vimeo.com/122742554) and also part one of a brand new video work, ‘Animal Condensed/Animal Expanded’. Themes include; The Live Authenticity Fetish, A cargo cult for Margaret Thatcher, A pilgrimage and a broken Oracle, collapsing signs and imploding meanings, if you see something unusual report it…
Alison Turnbull, Re:Bandera, Centro de Memoria, Bogota, Columbia, 12 October 2016 – 12 January 2017
Alison Turnbull is exhibiting as part of Re:Bandera at the Centro de Memoria, Paz y Reconciliación in Bogotá, Columbia, for which 26 artists have been invited to reimagine the Columbian flag. All of the flags will be produced and will fly from 16 meter high flagpoles in the park.
Alison Turnbull, Cloud Diagram, Art Seen Contemporary Projects, Nicosia, Cyprus, 23 September – 4 November 2016
Roy Voss, Native, Durden and Ray, Los Angeles, California, 10 September – 25 October 2016
Roy Voss will participate in the group exhibition Native at Durden and Ray in Los Angeles, California. Voss will exhibit alongside Kio Griffith, David Leapman, Tom Dunn, Richard Kirwan and Mandy Ure.
Benedict Drew and Imogen Stidworthy, British Art Show 8, Southampton City Art Gallery and John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, 9 October 2016 – 15 January 2017
Benedict Drew and Imogen Stidworthy have been selected for the British Art Show 8, widely recognised as the most ambitious and influential exhibition of contemporary British art, with artists chosen for their significant contribution over the past five years. Imogen presents the installation A Crack in the Light, 2013, which was first shown as part of the Bergen Triennale 2013, while Benedict has created new work Sequencer, 2015 specifically for the exhibition. The work will now tour to Southampton, opening on 9th October 2016.
Mike Nelson, Imperfect geometry for a concrete quarry, Kalkbrottet, Limhamn, Malmo, Sweden
In autumn 2012, Mike Nelson exhibited his installation 408 tons of imperfect geometry at Malmö Konsthall. The work consisted of cast concrete blocks placed on the floor in a geometric pattern. The blocks’ weight was calculated so that it – plus the visitors – could only just be supported by the exhibition hall’s floor. These same concrete blocks have been used to create a new work for Kalkbrottet (Limhamn limestone quarry, now a municipal nature reserve within the City of Malmö, Sweden).
Imperfect geometry for a concrete quarry consists of approximately 3,500 concrete blocks laid out in their strict repetitive geometric pattern. Here, Nelson allows the suggestive and enigmatic patterns of Oriental art to encounter and tie in with Western art’s rational minimalism. The work’s placement in Kalkbrottet adds yet another dimension through its location being the very source of one of the main constituents of concrete, that of limestone. The physical nature of the work seems strangely fitting to the site, reinforcing a sense of servitude that one might feel about its very making – something echoed in the site returning to nature after its creation through man’s industry.
Imogen Stidworthy, An Introduction to Bliss for Two Voices with Chorus (2014-2016), commissioned by Concreta magazine for their 6th online platform
An Introduction to Bliss for Two Voices with Chorus (2014 – 2016) is a binaural sound piece by Imogen Stidworthy, commissioned by Concreta magazine for their 6th edition online platform. The work can be found here: http://www.editorialconcreta.org/bliss/index-en.html
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