British Art Show 9 explores three overarching themes – healing, care and reparative history; tactics for togetherness; and imagining new futures. Each of the four exhibitions will also adapt to local contexts. In Wolverhampton the exhibition looks at how we live with and give voice to difference.
Andy Holden
Cats - reference to museology and archiving through use of vitrine. - read more as a collection
Idea of collecting as a working process - creating artwork out of encountered materials.
The video piece is also interestingly installed vertically - this is well suited for the content of the video, exploring the verticality of the cat sculptures.
The video is also often humorous, fully embracing the randomness and kitsch nature of the cats
His work is grounded within the social-political anthropomorphic study and research which goes alongside the collection - mainly present within the film through a audio narration - exploring the material of the cats, their respected time periods, the makers, where they were made from and where they might have been procured or transported from - the kitsch aesthetic and its impact on culture and largely the significance of charity shops and their relation to English history and culture. This research makes the work important and necessary - it can be received as art in that way - needs contextual grounding.
Jamie Crewe, Solidarity & Love, 2022.
Sculptural relied - Museological format of display using J clamps
Clay - very culturally significant material - rich history
Slab stones - could be interpreted as alter pieces, plaques - containing messages, writing
Shapes - very fragmentary - clearly produced by hand
Orange wall - feel that it is unnecessary - bold choice to separate the pieces from the background - take out of the white cube aesthetic
Visiting the BAS9 was a very beneficial experience for considering my own work - provided helpful reference in terms of material use, modes of display, the curation of individual artworks as well as their relationship with other artists work - use of colour, hanging devises - these can all be used to inform my own work and how I explore my own modes of display.