An Edible Family in a Mobile Home
a-n member Bobby Baker restages her seminal feminist work An Edible Family in a Mobile Home at Tate Britain, coinciding with the exhibition ‘Women in Revolt!’ which explores art and activism in the 1970s and 1980s through the work of over 100 women artists.
Inside a replica of Baker’s prefabricated East London house, where An Edible Family in a Mobile Home was originally staged in 1976, visitors will find an installation including five life-size sculptures of family members made from cake, biscuits and meringues – which the public are invited to eat.
During the original week-long installation, Baker served cups of tea, performing the role of polite female host, while visitors consumed the cake family that she had baked, sculpted and decorated herself over the course of a month. This iteration will be a replica of the original work, with several elements updated by Baker, including a specially developed icing to decorate the walls of the house and a vegan cake option.
An Edible Family in a Mobile Home: 8 November – 3 December 2023 and 8 March – 7 April 2024, Tate Britain, London
Women in Revolt!: 8 November – 7 April 2024, Tate Britain, London tate.org.uk
Contested Bodies
a-n members Larry Achiampong, Jonathan Baldock, Lindsey Mendick, Paloma Proudfoot and Gray Wielebinski are among the 40 artists taking part in this major group exhibition that explores the notion of gender as a social construct.
Featuring painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, printmaking and video made in the last 10 years, ‘Contested Bodies’ brings together artists from across the gender spectrum who use the human body as a medium or subject matter.
Understanding gender as an act that is ‘performed and reproduced at individual, societal and institutional levels’, the artworks address an array of ideas and issues, including stereotypes, self-representation, objectification, desire and kinship.
Until 6 April 2024, Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds library.leeds.ac.uk/info/1900/galleries
… like a short cut through the brambles
The latest iteration of Coventry Biennial investigates humans’ relationship to the natural world, with work ranging from portraiture and sculptural installations to urban gardens. Among the 15 artists exhibiting are a-n members Janet Tryner, Jo Gane, Ania Bas and Phoebe Boswell.
Warwickshire-based Tryner presents a major new installation and sculpture, which examines the impact of housing developments on rural ecosystems through textile, digital processes and found objects.
a-n Artists Council member Yva Jung shows four videos that explore human relationships, intimacy and loss, including one which features her young daughter.
The programme also features workshops and events, and includes a screening of Turner Prize nominated work RAFTS by a-n member Rory Pilgrim.
Until 14 January 2024, venues across Coventry and the West Midlands coventrybiennial.com
EcologyNOW
Rugby-based a-n member Pamela Schilderman’s sculptures pair human forensic identifiers such as teeth, hair and blood, with animal species including limpets, snakes and mink, to question whether humans are the most important species on Earth.
The works, which resemble Victorian curiosities, are inspired by and displayed among the permanent collections of Lapworth Museum of Geology. They are accompanied by Indian ink drawings depicting Brazilian animals, in which the wild crosses over into the domestic. One features a hummingbird that made national news after nesting in a public phone booth and as a result was provided with 24 hour protection.
Until 20 December 2023, Lapworth Museum of Geology, Birmingham a-n.co.uk/events/ecologynow-2/
Artes Mundi
The tenth edition of the international contemporary art prize presents work by seven artists across five venues in Wales.
Mounira Al Solh, who lives and works between Lebanon and the Netherlands, presents a major new sculpture at National Museum Cardiff, made from intricately embroidered textile panels that recall traditional ceremonial tents used by Middle Eastern and Arabic communities. The artist’s work is informed by her own Lebanese-Syrian heritage, and reflects on oral histories, language, and storytelling as records of the lived experiences of those displaced by the continued impact of conflict in the Middle East.
The other participating artists are: Rushdi Anwar, Alia Farid, Nguyễn Trinh Thi, Taloi Havini, Carolina Caycedo and Naomi Rincón Gallardo. The winner of the £40,000 Artes Mundi Prize will be announced in January 2024.
Until 25 February 2024, venues across Wales artesmundi.org
Transience
This solo exhibition by a-n member Nick Archer showcases a new series of paintings, which reference visual source materials including vintage postcards, online and media images, and the artist’s own photographs.
Archer’s interest in the qualities of a photograph – its surface marks, distortions or fading – are reflected in the surfaces of his paintings. As well as working on to conventional linen, Archer paints on black sand cloth (an industrial scale sandpaper), creating marks ranging from thick splashes of paint to translucent veils and washes. Paintings such as Tribes (a snowball fight) have the ethereal feel of old, faded photos, evoking a sense of time passing.
15 November 2023 – 12 January 2024, Long & Ryle, London longandryle.com
How do you make a Queer ritual?
Manchester-based Jez Dolan and Blackpool-based Garth Gratrix, who are both a-n members, present work they developed during a residency at Lancaster Arts in 2022.
‘How do you make a Queer ritual?’ includes individual and collaborative works by the artists, which explore queerness and ritualistic practices.
On 22 November, Dolan and Gratrix will be collaborating with other Queer creatives to form a ‘Queer Winter Congregation’ and create a live Queer ritual together. All are welcome to join their work-in-progress ritual-making (time to be confirmed, see Lancaster Arts website for details).
27 October – 8 December 2023, Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster Arts lancasterarts.org
Top image: Bobby Baker, An Edible Family in a Mobile Home, 1976. Documented by Andrew Whittuck.
