RWA Press Releases
RWA Press Releases
For further press release information, latest news, or if you require press images please contact:
Fiona Swadling Davies, Marketing Officer at the RWA.
e-mail: info@rwa.org.uk
Tel: 0117 973 5129
comes to Bristol
15 July - 17 September 2006
This summer, the British Art Show 6 reaches Bristol, the final leg of its tour round the country.
This will be the last chance to see the most ambitious survey of new and recent developments in art from the UK. It is a unique chance to view recent developments in British art, and to experience a visual arts festival on a city-wide scale. The British Art Show will also give an opportunity for visitors to see work by all four artists shortlisted for this year’s Turner Prize – Tomma Abts, Phil Collins, Mark Titchner and Rebecca Warren.
The British Art Show is a Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition. In Bristol, the Show has received £150,000 Arts Council funding, along with support from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Bristol City Council and the University of the West of England. The exhibition includes sculpture, painting, film, performance and public projects by 50 artists and artists groups. A diverse selection of Bristol’s galleries and museums, large and small, will host the exhibition. Arnolfini, Bristol’s City Museum & Art Gallery, R O O M, the Royal West of England Academy, Spike Island at the A Bond Warehouse and STATION (the former Fireboat Station) are all taking part, representing what is probably the most significant collaboration across visual arts organisations ever seen in Bristol.
The British Art Show offers an exciting opportunity to experience the cutting edge of contemporary art through a large scale visual arts festival that will draw audiences from throughout the region. It follows a series of significant showcase exhibitions in contemporary art that have visited the city throughout the year, beginning with Bloomberg New Contemporaries in autumn, 2005 at LOT and Spike Island, and the Arnolfini’s staging of Becks Futures in the A Bond warehouse. These exhibitions testify to the growing recognition of Bristol as a vibrant creative city and vital regional hub for art.
Notes for editors:
The exhibition includes an ambitious range of work including: Adam Chodzko’s M-path project where visitors are invited to swap their shoes for a second-hand pair, the change of footwear influencing the visitor’s walk through the show – and their perception of it: Tonico Lemos Auad’s delicate sculptures made from carpet fluff; a new site-specific work by Claire Barclay created in response to the industrial surrounds of Bristol harbour; and a wealth of film and video work by, Daria Martin, Phil Collins, Saskia Olde Wolbers, and others.
Also accompanying the exhibition is a live art programme developed from work included in British Art Show 6. Doug Fishbone delivers a labyrinthine slide lecture through history, philosophy, politics and sexual mores. Birmingham-based duo juneau/projects/ stage a sonic performance involving four CD walkmans and a drill. Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska collaborate with Ben White and Eileen Simpson to perform a live soundtrack to their new film, compiled from material released from the South West Film and Television Archive in Plymouth, whose copyright term has expired.
A number of artists from the exhibition are also developing new commissions in Bristol, responding to its built environment, artefacts and history. Hew Locke transforms images of statues around the city into relics of its history. Toby Paterson's wall painting for A Bond reflects upon post-war reconstruction, with an element dedicated to Bristol. Mark Titchner works with young people from the Bristol’s Education Unlimited initiative to develop a public billboard. Chris Evans, Lucy Skaer, and Heather and Ivan Morison will also create commissions.
The artwork in British Art Show 6 reflects the diversity and internationalism of current British practice, with 50% of the artists born outside of the UK and over half of the selected artists women. In developing the shortlist for the British Art Show 6, curators Andrea Schlieker and Alex Farquharson travelled extensively throughout the UK and considered the work of over 500 artists. They said: ‘It is a particularly exciting moment for us to assemble this exhibition, as the art scene in Britain is now broader in outlook, more vibrant and internationally oriented than at any other time in the British Art Show’s 26-year history’.
For further information and photos contact Gillian Taylor on 07989 430881
For further information please contact Fiona Swadling Davies at the RWA
email : fiona.swadling@rwa.org.uk