Ruth Ewan and Oscar Murillo, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield
This exhibition of works by Scottish artist Ruth Ewan and Turner Prize-nominated Colombian artist Oscar Murillo explores the role of creativity in the development of children. Ewan’s Asking Out is a participatory installation that brings to life a Castleford primary school classroom from 1972. It is named after a pioneering teaching method that was developed by Castleford teacher Muriel Pyrah, with the work produced in partnership with some of her former students. Murillo’s Frequencies meanwhile is part of an ongoing project which aims to record the ‘frequency’ of different childhoods across the world by attaching blank canvases to school desks for six months. The students are invited to mark the canvases in any way they choose and the resulting 15,000 individual canvases have been exhibited in more than 31 countries. This show features canvases developed with students from the local area.
Until 3 November 2019. www.ysp.org.uk
Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life, Tate Modern, London
Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, who brought 30 blocks of glacial ice to London at the end of last year to highlight global warming, returns to Tate Modern with a bumper exhibition featuring more than 30 works and spanning nearly three decades of practice. Spread across 1,000 square metres of exhibition space, it includes a 45-metre tunnel of blinding fog entitled Your blind passenger, which is designed to ask questions about the human senses. This use of natural phenomena continues with elements such as rainbows introduced into the gallery space, along with reflections and shadows. Also on show is a massive waterfall sculpture outside the gallery.
Until 5 January 2020. www.tate.org.uk
John Akomfrah, Baltic, Gateshead
First coming to prominence in the early 1980s as part of the Black Audio Film Collective, a group of seven artists founded in 1982 in response to the 1981 Brixton riots, John Akomfrah was the winner of Artes Mundi 7 and awarded a CBE in 2017. His recent work has evolved into multi-screen installations with his latest show including the European premiere of Precarity, a new work that tells the story of Charles “Buddy” Bolden, the African American cornetist and key figure in the development of jazz music – a series of events and screenings accompany the exhibition. Akomfrah is also currently showing at the Venice Biennale as part of the Ghana pavilion.
Until 27 October 2019. www.baltic.art
In Ruins, Whitley Court, Worcestershire
This intriguing exhibition features contemporary artworks displayed amongst the grounds and ruined mansion of Whitley Court, Worcestershire. Exploring our enduring fascination with ruins and how they still remain relevant, it includes a disused Woolworths shopfront by Matthew Darbyshire as well as sculptures by Alex Hartley, Tim Etchells, Holly Hendry and Jack Evans. With the works calling into question what sort of ruins we might ourselves be leaving behind, also featured are photographs by Marchand & Meffre, Amélie Labourdette and Stuart Whipps, and postcards by Ellen Harvey.
Until 3 November 2019. www.meadowarts.org
Arnaud Desjardin & Fraser Muggeridge: Brexit Bus, Matt’s Gallery, London
Brexit Bus is a life-size recreation of the bright red vehicle used by the Vote Leave campaign in 2016, famously adorned with the statement: ‘We send the EU £350 million a week let’s fund our NHS instead’. Desjardin and Muggeridge’s work is printed in black and white on 434 individual sheets of A3 paper, which when brought together create a 4-metre-high, 13-metre-long image of the bus. For the next three weeks it will occupy one side of the shell space that will soon become Matt’s Gallery at Nine Elms.
Until 28 July 2019. www.mattsgallery.org
Images:
1. Oscar Murillo, Frequencies, 2013-ongoing, detail. Courtesy: the artist
2. Olafur Eliasson, Din blinde passager (Your blind passenger), 2010, fluorescent lamps, monofrequency lamps, fog machine, ventilator, wood, aluminium, steel, fabric, plastic sheet, dimensions variable. Installation view at ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, 2010. Photo: Thilo Frank / Studio Olafur Eliasson
3. John Akomfrah, Precarity, 2017, three channel HD colour video installation, 7.1 sound, dimensions variable. 46 minutes 3 seconds. © Smoking Dogs Films. Courtesy: Lisson Gallery
4. Matthew Darbyshire, Woolworth Tower
5. Arnaud Desjardin & Fraser Muggeridge, Brexit Bus, 2019. Courtesy: the artists and Matt’s Gallery, London
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