Love
For this year’s Bold Tendencies summer programme ‘love is the message’. New works by a-n members Rhea Dillon and Paloma Proudfoot, along with sculptures by Martin Creed, Nan Goldin, Dominique White and Gray Wielebinski, occupy the expansive south London rooftop of a former multi-storey car park with panoramic views of the city.
Transcending clichés of love, the exhibition reflects on themes ranging from Windrush Generation stories and touching portrayals of alternative communities to the ‘intricacies of loss, desire and codependency.’ The programme is accompanied by live events including performances by Philharmonia Orchestra, readings from authors, and a cartoon-opera for children.
Dillon presents a towering sculpture made of nine triangular blocks of African mahogany. Entitled 9/3 or I know how to fall (3) and I was born to nights (9), the work references Nine Nights, a celebration in Jamaican culture to see off a person’s spirit nine nights after their death. Meanwhile Proudfoot’s commission Grief is recognised as a friend includes glazed ceramic figures resting on a purple wooden structure – a form inspired by medieval cadaver monuments.
Until 17 September 2022, Bold Tendencies, London www.boldtendencies.com/
Bright Dynasty
This multidisciplinary exhibition by British-St Lucian artist and a-n member Adam Moore includes new paintings, sculpture, moving image and sound presented as part of an ongoing exploration of personhood and antidotes to structures of oppression. A series of dance performances will take place within and in relation to the gallery installation, reflecting various physical, emotional and spiritual states of being.
Moore comments: “Bright Dynasty began as a personal and political creative practice to centre, explore, and consider Blackness within a transdisciplinary multidimensional space within which I could locate and understand myself. With this new production, Bright Dynasty presents agile understandings of identity and what it means to be in a changing world with others.”
4 – 26 June 2022, Phoenix Art Space, Brighton www.phoenixbrighton.org/
In the Air
This thoughtful and enlightening exhibition about our human relationship with air features work by contemporary artists including a-n members David Rickard and Dryden Goodwin alongside historical materials ranging from a 3.5 billion year old stromatolite (a microbial fossil) to documents relating to the repressive use of tear gas in Northern Ireland in the 1970s.
Rickard’s new work A Roomful of Air consists of a block of concrete construction bricks. The first object encountered on entering the gallery, it represents the weight of air in the room and provides a visual expression of the invisibility of air and the alarming pressure it would exert on our bodies if they were not also air-filled.
Goodwin presents a series of 60 portraits of six Lewisham residents who are involved in the ‘fight for clean air’ campaign in London. The small black ink drawings, collectively entitled Breathe 2022, depict the activists inhaling and exhaling, with each moment captured as if in a frozen film frame. The works can also be seen as large-scale animations, installed along the highly polluted South Circular Road in Lewisham, as part of London Borough of Culture.
Until 16 October 2022, Wellcome Collection, London www.wellcomecollection.org
12 Hour Sit-in Revel
This day-long gathering in the open-air of Dundee Botanic Garden will feature conversations, dance, music, performance, readings, screenings and workshops. The event is part of Cooper Gallery’s ongoing project The Ignorant Art School, which re-imagines art education and unsettles systems of knowledge by bringing together contributions from artists, activists, culture workers, educators, musicians, performers, students, thinkers, writers and various communities in Scotland and beyond.
The Revel will include a screening of O Horizon, a feature-length film by The Otolith Group, one member of whom – Anjalika Sagar – serves on a-n’s Board. The event will also premiere two newly commissioned live performances by a-n members: Scotland-based artist Ashanti Harris and Ranjana Thapalyal & Hamshya Rajkumar. Meanwhile the Ignorant Art School’s ‘Associate Occupier’, artist, activist and a-n member Jade Montserrat, will unveil a blueprint for future art schools.
25 June 2022, University of Dundee Botanic Garden www.dundee.ac.uk/events/12-hour-sit-revel
Archipelago
a-n member Caroline Wendling has curated this exhibition that celebrates the Queen’s Park area of Bedford through film, embroidery and clay vessels made by members of the local community. A film, also titled Archipelago, was shot in Queen’s Park and includes contributions from and stories of residents.
Wendling has worked on the wider Take Part Queen’s Park art project since 2020, running workshops and walks with residents of all ages, including local school pupils, older people from independent living accommodation and Afghan women in their own homes.
Until 12 June 2022, The Higgins, Bedford www.thehigginsbedford.org.uk
An Ecology of Mind
a-n member Aidan Moesby is one of five artists participating in this group exhibition, which explores ‘inner and outer natures’ through work inspired by the grounds of Bethlem Royal Hospital.
The artists, who make work across ceramics, collage, photography and installation, are united by an interest in the complex connections between art, ecology and health.
Moesby’s installation Blanket Coverage is made from three different types of blanket – fire, survival and comfort – to draw subtle parallels between climate change and extreme emotional states. The artist will also develop a tool kit guide for increasing awareness of ‘personal emotional weather’, which can be used in the hospital grounds and elsewhere.
Meanwhile artist Lateisha Davine Lovelace-Hanson presents a multi-layered installation of sound and video, wall and floor poetry texts, and objects exploring feminist perspectives on healing and ecology.
Until 27 August 2022, Bethlem Gallery, London www.bethlemgallery.com/
Top image: Dryden Goodwin, drawings from Breathe:2022. Courtesy the artist and Invisible Dust, 2022
