20/10/15
British Art Show 8
Leeds Art Gallery
9 October 2015 – 10 January 2016
Now in its eighth year, the British Art Show is the
largest and most ambitious touring exhibition of contemporary art in the UK,
bringing together emerging artists worth watching with those who have been
working for three or four decades.
Over the years, the British Art
Show has captured numerous significant moments in the nation’s art history and has
promoted the careers of many who have gone on to become household names,
including Anthony Caro, Lucian Freud, Gilbert & George, Steve McQueen,
Chris Ofili and Damien Hirst. This year, the exhibition, curated by Anna Colin
and Lydia Yee, comprises work by 42 artists, 26 of whom have made new
commissions and many others of whom are presenting works that have never been
shown in the UK.
Studio International spoke to five
of the artists involved.
Ciara Phillips – one of last year’s Turner Prize nominees – is a
Glasgow-based Canadian artist who uses printmaking as a way of bringing about
socio-political discussions. With a curatorial focus this year on
collaboration, BAS8 has provided Phillips with an opportunity to run community
print workshops and create a publication based on the Irregular Bulletin, a
newsletter produced in the late 50s/early 60s by radical educator and artist
Corita Kent and her colleague, Sister Magdalene Mary.
Laure Prouvost, the London-based French artist who won the 2013
Turner Prize, is showcasing three of her “interruptions” – sound and light pieces
that turn on and off at intervals, humorously giving voice to a range of
objects, including a hard drive, a fan and a croissant.
Ryan Gander, who lives and works in Suffolk and London, is
displaying a range of works including sculpture, film and a wallpapered diorama,
comprising notes he makes to himself on his studio walls. His carved pieces
explore the concept of still life, like Prouvost’s, bringing together
improbable objects into imaginary dialogues.
Feed Me is the first feature-length
film work by Scottish artist Rachel
Maclean. With Maclean playing all of the characters, with wild and wacky
costumes and facemasks, the plotline veers from the saccharine to the horrific,
tearing down contemporary society and its vices along the way. Pop culture
references abound and the Disney-like effect is a facade for the Grimms’ fairytale
beneath.
Last but not least, Martino Gamper is a London-based
Italian designer who describes his artisanal approach as “conceptual and functional”. His participatory project, Post Forma,
has been commissioned by Yorkshire Festival and Hayward Touring, in partnership
with Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle and Arts Council England’s Strategic Touring
Programme. Gamper’s mixture of craft, design and art – furniture-making,
cobbling, weaving and bookbinding – fits this year’s curatorial emphasis on
materiality and the importance of objects, not just as objects, but as vehicles
for narratives.
Watch the interviews here