GHAZALEH ABASSALIAN, STEVEN ALLBUTT, BIGTOE GROUP, CRAIG BARNES, KITTY CLARK, TOM CRAWFORD, JEREMY DELLER, SEAN DOWER, JEREMY HUTCHISON, ALEXANDER KRONE, JIMMY MERRIS, MARK MCGOWAN, DOMINIC SAMSWORTH, MARK TITCHNER, CHARLOTTE YOUNG, HENNESSY YOUNGMAN.
Curated by Craig Barnes.
10th September 2011 – 15th January 2012.
“Art is made by those who are not content with the configuration of human relations to objects and phenomena as presented. Art presents an alternative to the configuration as it stands.” Lawrence Weiner, 1991.
Change The World Or Go Home is an exhibition that brings together artists that share an awareness of the wider world into which their work is placed. Work with clear targets and aims will be set alongside work that makes a noise whilst seemingly questioning what the role of an artist is in today’s contemporary society.
Upon entering the gallery the viewer will be confronted by Turner Prize nominee Mark Titchner’s The World Isn’t Working banner alongside his work The Last Ten Years, a film that documents in sequence every New York Times headline over a period of ten years.
Beyond this, works by Jeremy Hutchison and Jimmy Merris will demonstrate different modes of enquiry and investigation through their works An English tourist and the Oslo agreement and Creative hobby set and novelty eraser assemblage No.1 & No.2 respectively.
Turning in the other direction the viewer will be met with three second hand PC’s on computer desks, playing videos by Mark McGowan, Charlotte Young, and Hennessy Youngman (the alter ego of American artist Jayson Musson) directly from YouTube. Also in this room, Steven Allbutt’s 100 years of artists manifesto’s (abridged) will be available as a pocket sized publication for visitors to take away.
Ghazaleh Abassalian’s film Art Hero – The Contemporary Artist be shown in the screening room. The hallways leading to this will house a display of the masks used in each of her performances.
In the next room, Tom Crawford’s Cul-de-Sac is a set of three hanging baskets completed with seasonal bedding plants. These will hang opposite Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller’s I love joyriding, a photograph of a car bumper sticker bearing an appropriation of Milton Glaser’s I love New York logo stuck to a police car.
The following room will show more work of Crawford’s. Concrete Action documents the artist repairing a London park bench. This work is set alongside Sean Dower’s watercolours of Witness Appeal signs series.
In the final room Madley raised artist Dominic Samsworth will present his fluorescent light assemblages mimicking the structures of advertising hoardings and street architecture.
The exterior of the gallery will be covered with work by the show’s curator Craig Barnes. His Lack series draws utilises JPEG’s of Ikea’s bestselling range of free floating shelves appropriated onto cheap yellow, green and orange flyposters. The show will also feature new sculptures by Kitty Clark, a performance by the Bigtoe Group and drawings from Alexander Krone.
Click here to see images of the show.