Exhibition Statement
Posted by Jonny Drury on August 2, 2010
During nearly eighty hours of intensive, experiential learning, the artists explored the notion of creating identities through a wide variety of artistic practice and self-exploratory exercise, culminating in the setting up of their own show. In the process of this educational programme many different definitions of the meaning of identity and learning were developed and revealed.
A group of from different places and backgrounds, here in the UK for different reasons, were invited to participate in the project. They met in the gallery, and the space allowed them to activate matters around and about identity and community. The gallery was the space in common.
Maurice Blanchot says: “A writer who writes ‘I am alone’ can be considered rather comical. It is comical for a man to recognize his solitude by addressing a reader, and by using methods that prevent the individual from being alone”.
The intention of understanding through the making of artwork together, in a gallery space, unlocked then embraced a rather unexpected a sense of community. This sense fed the process and the work with unpretentious honesty.
The workshops helped the participants travel from sensual memories to creating an autobiographic mini scenario through the question ‘can we affect our own past as well as our own future?’.
This art exhibition is the result of five weeks work, both veiling and unveiling some unspoken matters around the subject of identity, yet it whispers in the ear some things, which if it wasn’t for the artistic expression they would stay in the unspoken as collective secrets.
Helen Blejerman
The Artists
Yusuf Abdullah; Onamol Beeley; Ornuma Grant; Myo Zaw Htet; Jade Morris; Sadaf Gulzar; Reza Rasoolzadeh; Farida Sabri; Shokhan Ibrahim; Vida Tankas; Zahra Tankas; Aye Thandar Wai
Artist-Facilitators
Helen Blejerman; Jonathan Drury; Bob Levene; Gemma Luz
Director: Jonathan Drury. Consultant: David James Ross. Artistic Consultants: Katie Owens; Helen Blejerman. Web Designer: Joke De Winter. Administrator: Katie Owens.
With thanks to Bloc Studios; Bloc Projects; Prof. Colin Beard; Mick Beck; Sheffield Hallam University
