Reconstructing the Old House

The Nunnery Gallery, London
4th – 26th April 2009
pv: Friday, 3rd April, 6-9pm

Touring to:
The Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge
9th - 31st Oct 2009
pv: Thurs, 8th Oct, 5-8pm

Exhibiting Artists are: Jo Addison, Gordon Cheung , Adam Gillam, Julian Hughes-Watts, Kounosuke Kawakami, Max Mosscrop, Steven Rendall, Danny Rolph and Benet Spencer

Curated by Benet Spencer

Reconstructing the Old House is as a touring exhibition, featuring artist’s who take architecture or the urban environment as a starting point. The approaches are multiple, some directly referencing architecture as an iconographic form, others sitting on the edge of fully adopting architecture as a theme, yet freely and willfully plundering the territory for inspiration. The utopian pipe dreams of fantasy landscapes sit next to near-unclassifiable experiments in playful construction; mixed-media collages of synthetic ephemera alongside a purity and elegance that echoes modernist ideals.
 
In essence, the architectural reference can be seen as a starting point for a broader investigation of process, material and ideas - highlighting the highly subjective nature of the relationship between the artist-maker as an individual and a broader urban context that is, in itself, a fascinating subject. The emphasis is on the making of things - objects or images - and the relationship between two separate areas of construction: the artist’s studio or the man-made world outside.
 
Reconstructing the Old House is curated by Benet Spencer, and funded by Anglia Ruskin University. Generous support has been given by both the  Nunnery Gallery and the Ruskin Gallery.