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Exhibitions ARCHIVE 2009  

RATTLING THE CAGE

exhibition in the North Gallery

7 – 21 March, 11 - 5pm     PREVIEW: Fri 6 March, 5 - 7pm

A local campaign against the global injustice of Guantánamo.

Rattling the Cage is a community archive of documents, textiles, photography and film used in the ‘Save Omar’ campaign. It demonstrates the power of improvisation.  As a group of people from Brighton, Worthing and Eastbourne began to work together for the return of Guantánamo detainee Omar Deghayes to his home in Saltdean, they developed skills and materials that could be called an art of politics: they wrote letters and plays, performed on the street and for the screen. They also created posters, postcards, badges and clothing. The exhibition of their archive is an opportunity to reflect upon how the creativity of local people can be used to effect political change.

Rattling the Cage

When the Save Omar campaign formed, Omar Deghayes had already spent over three years in prison camps, the first in Bagram Air Base before transfer to Guantánamo. He was finally released in December 2007 after more than six years imprisoned without charge or trial and subjected to torture.

Curated by Louise Purbrick
Supported by Arts Practices and Performance Research Institute (APPRI), University of Brighton

TALKS & EVENTS: 
Polly Ruiz, University of Sussex, joins Rattling the Cage curator to discuss ‘Cultures of Protest’, Wednesday 11 March 6pm, free.

Omar Deghayes reflects on the Guantánamo system followed by an opportunity to meet activists and participate in a drop-in writing workshop, Saturday 14 March 2pm, free

Workshop to prepare for the performance: “Anniversary – an Act of Memory” - see below. Wednesday 18 March 8 pm. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights can be found in more than 300 languages at www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

“Anniversary – an Act of Memory”. A recitation, from memory, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948. Monica Ross with members and friends of the Brighton Against Guantanamo Campaign. Saturday 21 March, 2pm in the gallery, FREE.


ANGELA CARTER

exhibition in the South Gallery

7 – 21 Mar, 11 - 5pm

Angela Carter Calypso

Angela Carter works in 2-D and 3-D with a range of raw, accessible materials. Her work is drawing and research based and communicates memory, relationships, nostalgia and emotion.

The pieces are often tactile and inspired by objects and fabrics once owned by someone she has never met. It is important to her that the objects represent the history of a person's life such as found notes and letters which capture a moment in time. She embroiders these notes/letters to preserve, celebrate and explore character and transience. Angela is based at Phoenix Brighton.

 

'SMASH GURU & THE CRYSTAL MIND FORTRESS'

An Installation by Matt Robinson

25 April – 7 June 2009

NB Special opening hours:
Wed – Sun, 11 – 5pm

PREVIEW: Fri 24 April 5 - 7pm
MEET THE ARISTS: Sat 25 April 1pm FREE

Matt Robinson

Be prepared to encounter an astonishing sculpture emerging out of a maze of miniature landscapes.  Plastic animals, extruded foam, papier mache, wires, scraps and molten goop form the details. Step back and the body of a “supreme being” emerges from the crowded mass. This creature is the brain-child of a passionate adolescent/artist who, fuelling himself with shark cartilage, sweet drinks and pure adrenaline, creates an effigy of his beloved sweetheart. However, the object of his affection quickly morphs into a multi-armed monster, and we are left with the phantasmagorical projections of the artist’s mind. 

In this ambitious, site-specific work, Matt Robinson draws upon a range of influences from popular culture and also references myths and legends, issues of religion, hierarchy, utopian ideals and consumerism. He uses a wide assortment of found and recycled materials and incorporates digital imagery to create a giant billboard sized backdrop and a series of related prints.


Matt Robinson is supported by Arts Council England

Artist's website



Video clips from the opening on Fri 24 April


Click here for photographs of the exhibition set-up (photo: Mike Stoakes)

   
ACE Fringe 2009

25 April – 7 June (Wed – Sun, 11 – 5pm)

Installation

In the South Gallery and front of building

Artists from the internationally acclaimed Mutoid Waste Company and Wrekon - Sam Haggarty, Strapper, Debs Wreckon and Denise Felkin have created an installation of scrap sculpture and photo art featuring mutated creatures made from found objects, recycled materials, recycled metal components and animal carcasses. With small and large-scale sculptures filling both the interior and façade of the building, this exhibition reveals the darkest recesses of the brilliantly twisted imaginations that first captured public attention in the early 80’s.

Denise Felkin Mutiod Logo Wrekon - click for website

 


25 April – 7 June (Wed – Sun, 11 – 5pm)

Jim Sanders

Collaborative Artwork

In the corridor

Apollo, Hermes, Jim Sanders & The Intuitives have teamed up to produce a powerful series of collaborative works in paper, featuring talented youngsters working alongside a favourite local artist.

Jim Sanders' website: www.jimsanders.info

 

boca2mouth INTERVENTION

in the Main Gallery

Sat 6 June, 8 – 10 pm,

Join artists and performers for an evening of experimentation and collaboration. Everyone welcome, materials provided. FREE
See website boca2mouth.net

 

 

FABRIC OF WAR

4 July – 16 August 2009    Preview: Friday 3 July, 6 - 8pm

In the North Gallery

Breaking Rank Sitting Bull

'Breaking Rank'
Drew Cameron, Drew Matott

'Conflagration'
Marshall Weber


Fabric of War records personal and collective histories of conflict, translated into paper from uniforms and monuments by US-based Combat Paper Project and Marshall Weber.

Combat Paper Project brings together war veterans, many suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, who pulp their uniforms to make paper as the basis for cathartic artworks (www.combatpaper.org). Founded in 2007, the group tours the US holding papermaking workshops that bring together veterans and members of the public. Their work is in the collections of the Library of Congress and Harvard and Princeton libraries.

Marshall Weber is an artist and curator who founded Booklyn Artists' Alliance in 1999 (www.booklyn.org ). His ongoing Monument project uses rubbing, drawing and collage to create works reinterpreting texts and images from war memorials around the world. Fabric of War will present a substantial body of the Monument series, including new works executed at the Royal Air Force church of St. Clement Danes on the Strand .

Fabric of War is the first exhibition of Combat Paper Project's work outside the US and will be accompanied by a Conflict Paper workshop tour of the UK in June, during which the group will travel with a portable papermaking studio, making paper from uniforms, flags, currency and other materials related to conflict.

Fabric of War is curated by Nick Dubois. Fabric of War tours from The Courtauld Institute. Details of associated activities: www.courtauld.ac.uk/booklibrary/exhibitions

 

Courtauld Institute CPP logo Booklyn logo


Conflict Paper Workshop

Sat 4 July, 10am - 4pm

A day of papermaking workshops and demonstrations run by Drew Mattot and Chris Arendt from the Combat Paper Project.

Open to people from all backgrounds. The workshop costs £10.00 per person.

 

'OUT OF THE BLUE'

4 July – 16 August 2009   Preview: Friday 3 July, 6 - 8pm

In the North Gallery 2

Works on paper and copper plate by three artists from Hawaii: Dorothy Faison, Hal Lum, and Timothy P Ojile.

Dorothy Faison Hal Lum Timothy Ojile

Dorothy Faison

Hal Lum

Marking its 50 th anniversary as the 50th American state this August, Hawaii is a unique and paradoxical place. With over a million inhabitants, the capital city of Honolulu is populated by a mix of people from all corners of the globe. The artists of Hawaii are equally diverse, reflecting influences from Asia, America, Europe and Polynesia. This small exhibition presents us with a taster of the local art scene, showing the work of three talented and established artists with a contemporary / western training, who call Hawaii home.

Dorothy Faison's allegorical paintings show us fragmented glimpses of the Hawaiian landscape which have been interwoven with social and historic perspectives not normally compatible with our notions of ‘paradise'. Reminiscent of Renaissance landscapes, the works on paper and copper plates allude to contemporary issues affecting the state of Hawaii , including environmental degradation, US military presence, and the role of commerce in the exploitation of the islands' resources.

Hal Lum's vivid and witty compositions reflect a delight in encountering people, places and experiences. Focusing on the process of drawing and the use of fluid and spontaneous gesture, his influences range from Japanese pottery to minimal sculpture, high, low, outsider and ethnic art. Lum states, 'Art is like a big open arena that takes in the smallest, most intimate details of a person's life and the widest expanse that is the world and universe . . . I like to keep an open mind, to open the senses and take it all in.'

Timothy P Ojile works intuitively and spontaneously, developing a visual language of symbol, gesture and form that eludes categorisation. He navigates the contractions inherent in the activity of image-making, harnessing both his enthusiasm and ambivalence in the process. The three large drawings in this exhibition, made with coloured felt tip pen, are filled with natural forms, geometries and a jumble of minutiae. Like an elaborate mind-map, they highlight various pathways, roundabouts and impediments.

Cyril Mount

4 July – 16 August 2009   Preview: Friday 3 July, 6 - 8pm

In the South Gallery

Cyril Mount

Born in Liverpool in 1920, Cyril Mount served in India, Iraq and Persia with the Royal Horse Artillery. From 1942 he was engaged in combat in the Middle East and North Africa, including the invasion of Sicily. Following this, he was commissioned and returned to active service in Europe, during which he was promoted to captain. Throughout his military career, Mount kept sketch books; 39 of these drawings and gouaches are now in the permanent collection of the Imperial War Museum in London. After studying at Liverpool College of Art, he lectured in art until 1978. Following this, he spent three months in India, and later ran art therapy and life drawing classes.

Now aged 89 and based at Phoenix Brighton studios, Mount continues to generate a prolific outpouring of paintings ranging from experimental works to political commentary and portraiture. This exhibition includes a series based upon his experiences on the battlefields of North Africa and a recent trip to revisit significant sites from this period of his life.