Studio News
Barbarians at the Gate
September 8 – October 13, 2022
Blackbird on SuperRare
Launching at 6pm September 8th.
Blackbird works with contemporary artists who have a critical and thoughtful practise away from the world of digital art. Using the SuperRare Spaces platform, and the NFT or crypto art audience which that provides, artists are able to reimagine their work and take it in unexpected directions. In this fifth Blackbird show, the first as a SuperRare Space, four contemporary artists approach the worlds of digital animation and the enormous possibilities it allows.
"Working now in the world of NFTs, is a bit like being in at the start of vinyl and the 3-minute pop song. The experimentation and blue sky possibilities are incredibly exciting."
The expression 'barbarians at the gate' was used by the Romans to describe foreign attacks against their empire. It is now often used within a sarcastic, or ironic context, when speaking about a perceived threat from a rival group of people, often deemed to be less capable or somehow primitive.
Blackbird understands that not even the most celebrated traditional contemporary artists will necessarily be successful in making the switch to a digitally native format, but we believe that these artists will make an incredibly valuable long-term contribution to crypto art and how it is seen in the future. They bring progressive and conceptually thoughtful work and there is a real excitement for this to be a forum for brilliant experimentation.
https://www.superrare.com/spaces/blackbird-contemporary-art-nft/gallery
For information on how to purchase an NFT please click here for an explanatory Blog post.
JAMES SCOTT BROOKS / KATE STREET / MARKUS VATER / DOUGLAS WHITE
Horror Show at Somerset House
27 Oct 2022 – 19 Feb 2023
Somerset House London - Embankment Galleries South Wing
This autumn I’ll be showing some of my collaborative work with Hollie Miller at Somerset House as they present a major exhibition celebrating the UKs greatest cultural provocateurs and visionaries, examining how ideas rooted in horror have informed the last 50 years of creative rebellion in Britain.
The Horror Show! is a landmark exhibition that invites visitors to journey to the underbelly of Britain’s cultural psyche and look beyond horror as a genre, instead taking it as a reaction to our most troubling times. Featuring over 200 artworks and culturally significant artefacts from some of our country’s most provocative artists, the exhibition presents an alternative perspective on the last five decades of modern British history in three acts – Monster, Ghost and Witch. Recast as a story of cultural shapeshifting, each section interprets a specific era through the lens of a classic horror archetype with thematically linked contemporaneous and new works.
The exhibition offers a heady ride through the disruption of 1970s punk to the revolutionary potential of modern witchcraft, showing how the anarchic alchemy of horror – its subversion, transgression and the supernatural – can help make sense of the world around us. Horror not only allows us to express our deepest fears; it gives a powerful voice to the marginalised and society’s outliers, providing us with tools to overcome our anxieties and imagine a radically different future.
The Horror Show! is co-curated by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard and Claire Catterall, who also conceived the idea. Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard are BAFTA nominated filmmakers and resident artists at Somerset House Studios. Claire Catterall is Somerset House’s Senior Curator.
MONSTER
Opening The Horror Show! Monster begins by delving into the economic and political turbulence of the 1970s and the high octane spectacle and social division of the 1980s. Against a backdrop of unrest and uprising, it charts the origin story and ascent of the individuals who will go on to disrupt, define and destroy British culture, while exploring the monsters which plague society today.
Contributing artists include Marc Almond, Bauhaus, Judy Blame, Leigh Bowery, Philip Castle, Chila Burman, Helen Chadwick, Monster Chetwynd, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Tim Etchells, Noel Fielding, Martin Green & Mark Moore, Pam Hogg, Dick Jewell, Harminder Judge, Daniel Landin, Jeanette Lee, Andrew Liles, Linder, London Leatherman, Don Letts, Luciana Martinez de la Rosa, Lindsey Mendick, Peter Mitchell, Dennis Morris, Matilda Moors, Tim Noble & Sue Webster, Keith Piper, Guy Peellaert, Gareth Pugh, Jamie Reid, Derek Ridgers, Nick Ryan, Ralph Steadman, Ray Stevenson, Poly Styrene, Francis Upritchard and Jenkin van Zyl.
GHOST
The show’s second act, ​Ghost, marks the collapse of hyperinflated 1980’s culture into an uncanny temperature change that presided over the 1990s and early 2000s. It traces an unsettling path through to the global financial crisis of 2008, a turning point in time between a century of old and new, at the dawn of a digital age of faceless audiences and invisible cyber wars.
A newly commissioned, immersive sound installation from Nick Ryan highlights the strange frequencies of an age that saw the emergence of trance music and readily accessible sampling machines: voices form a call-and-response, as visitors become spectator, spectacle and a ghost in the machine.
Contributing artists include A Guy Called Gerald, Barry Adamson, Hamad Butt, Adam Chodzko, Kevin Cummins, Graham Dolphin, Tim Etchells, Angus Fairhurst, Paul Finnegan, Ghostwatch, Laura Grace Ford, Lucy Gunning, Paul Heartfield, Susan Hiller, Matthew Holness & Richard Ayoade, Stewart Home, Derek Jarman, Michael Landy, Richard Littler (Scarfolk), Jeremy Millar, Haroon Mirza, Drew Mulholland, Pat Naldi & Wendy Kirkup, Cornelia Parker, Steve Pemberton, Nic Roeg, Richard Russell, Nick Ryan, Scanner (Robin Rimbaud), Adam Scovell, Sensory Leakage, David Shrigley, Iain Sinclair, Kerry Stewart, Tricky, Gavin Turk, Richard Wells, Rachel Whiteread, Words & Pictures.
WITCH
The exhibition’s final act, Witch, focuses on 2008’s financial crash until the present day, and celebrates the emergence of a younger generation and their hyper-connected community – a global coven readily embracing a dynamic grounded in integration and equality. Penny Slinger and Zadie Xa forgo the patriarchal occult and old world druidism with a new sorcery, rooted in ecology and bodily autonomy.
Among the works on display are newly commissioned works from Somerset House Studios artists Tyreis Holder, Col Self and Laura Grace Ford, as well as a new commission from Linda Stupart and Carl Gent. The act’s final scene features a striking presentation from Turner Prize winning-artist Tai Shani, seen for the first time in the UK, accompanied by an audio installation created by Gazelle Twin and specially commissioned for The Horror Show!
Contributing artists include Ackroyd & Harvey, Josh Appignanesi, Ruth Bayer, Anna Bunting-Branch, Juno Calypso, Leonora Carrington, Coil, Charlotte Colbert, Marisa Carnesky, Damselfrau, Jesse Darling, Eccentronic Research Council, Jake Elwes, Tim Etchells, Gazelle Twin, Bert Gilbert, Rose Glass, Miles Glyn, Tyreis Holder, Matthew Holness, Sophy Hollington, Bones Tan Jones, Isaac Julien, Tina Keane, Serena Korda, Linder, Hollie Miller & Kate Street, Grace Ndiritu, Col Self, Tai Shani, Oliver Sim, Penny Slinger, Matthew Stone, Linda Stupert & Carl Gent, Suzanne Treister, Cathy Ward, Ben Wheatley, Zoe Williams and Zadie Xa.
New Giclée prints available from collaboration with Hollie Miller
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Até, 2021
Giclée print on Epson Premium Lustre 260gsm (satin)
42cm x 30cm
Edition run of 20 each
Available through Somerset House shop as part of the Horror Show Exhibition
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Faun, 2021
Giclée print on Epson Premium Lustre 260gsm (satin)
42cm x 30cm
Edition run of 20 each
Available through Somerset House shop as part of the Horror Show Exhibition
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Lysistrata, 2021
Giclée print on Epson Premium Lustre 260gsm (satin)
42cm x 30cm
Edition run of 20 each
Available through Somerset House shop as part of the Horror Show Exhibition
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Daphne, 2021
Giclée print on Epson Premium Lustre 260gsm (satin)
42cm x 30cm
Edition run of 20 each
ÂŁ55 - please email to purchase
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Hecate, 2021
Giclée print on Epson Premium Lustre 260gsm (satin)
42cm x 30cm
Edition run of 20 each
ÂŁ55 - please email to purchase
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Demeter, 2021
Giclée print on Epson Premium Lustre 260gsm (satin)
42cm x 30cm
Edition run of 20 each
ÂŁ55 - please email to purchase
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Eros, 2021
Giclée print on Epson Premium Lustre 260gsm (satin)
42cm x 30cm
Edition run of 20 each
ÂŁ55 - please email to purchase
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Group exhibition Select Dream, co-curated with Patrick Galway, is now up in Palmerston Road, Southsea, and on view until Spring/Summer 2021. For more information visit Instagram site @selectdream. Participating artists: Hermione Allsopp, Charlotte Brisland, Ruth Collins, Stephen Cooper, Jaye Ho, Naty Lopez-Holguin, Greg Palmer, Iain Rayner, Josephine Rock, Paul Vivian, oh and myself and Patrick!
Selected Works
The Wind Sleepers, 2020
Vinyl print, anti-slip mat, net bag, rocks, toggle clamps, hair extensions
205cm x 100cm
Fossils of All Ages, 2020
Book, collage, anti-slip mat, chain, hooks, feathers and fluorescent paper
60cm x 24cm
Perigean Tide, 2020
Digital print, bronze, iron, plaster and hooks
250cm x 155cm
Originally intended for Greenness is a Kind of Grief at Y.A.R.D. projects in Brighton. Physical exhibition replaced with scaled down model for online version due to Covid-19 Lockdown
Shelf Life, 2019
Collage, lens, cage front and wood
32cm x 37cm
Screen, 2019
Collage, steel, magnets and hooks
50cm x 25cm
Reel, 2020
Paper, wooden bobbin and metal
Height 75cm x 42cm (variable length)
Hermetic, 2019
Paper, plastic, and toggle clamps
158cm x 92cm
Daggers (Pink), 2019
Digital print and toggle clamps, edition of 5
86cm x 58xm
Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife, 2019
Collage, book jacket, clip and hooks
32cm x 45xm
37, 2019
Collage
28cm x 22cm
From the Hostess series
Nepenthes, 2019
Collage
28cm x 22cm
From the Hostess series
39, 2019
Collage
28cm x 22cm
From the Hostess series
Images from the Hostess series installed in the Allhallowtide exhibition at Art Space Portsmouth, 2019
Hostess imagery displayed as a centrefold format
Widewe, 2019
Collage, acrylic paint, latex, paper, silicon, magnets, thread, metal, clips, foam cord, floats and bronze
150cm x 100cm (main panel) - dimensions variable
Widewe installed at Art Space Portsmouth for Allhallowtide exhibition
Details of Widewe in the studio