Knut Henrik Henriksen 2007, installation view, mixed media, Kunsthalle Basel, 2007
Courtesy: Hollybush Gardens, London; Sommer & Kohl, Berlin; Elastic, Malmö
24 July - 30 September, 2009
Ayse Erkmen (Turkey), Tue Greenfort (Denmark), Knut Henrik Henriksen (Norway), public works (UK), Esther Stocker (Italy/Austria), Pieter Vermeersch (Belgium), Leon Vranken (Belgium)
Seven international artists have made site-specific works for Beyond These Walls, an exhibition prompting fresh perspectives on the South London Gallery’s architecture, our negotiation and interpretation of its spaces, and its geographic context.
For some of the artists architectural or spatial interventions are an important part of their practice. Visitors can walk into Esther Stocker's 3D version of a black and white op art painting and Pieter Vermeersch's expansive wall painting completely transforms the main gallery space with its gradual colour shifts from white to green and red to black. Sheets of brightly-coloured plastic draw attention upwards to the SLG's magnificent roof lantern, from which Ayse Erkmen has removed two glass panes and covered the openings to emphasise their dual function of letting in light and protecting from the elements.
Esther Stocker, What I don’t know about space, 2008, installation view, Museum 52,
London, Courtesy: Museum 52, London
Other pieces relate to the gallery's foundation in the late 19th century and its original floor panel bearing the words ‘The source of art is in the life of a people’. Ayse Erkmen transposes the inscription to helmets worn by builders of the SLG’s current expansion project, while Leon Vranken carves abstract forms from the modern floor covering the original. Making oblique reference to the original arts and crafts panel, Vranken transforms the extracted wood into a shelf and chair, questioning the relationships between fine arts, craft and design, as well as between form, function and the classification and use of objects.
Knut Henrik Henriksen’s work gives material form to the impact of the passage of time by making concrete casts of the recesses at each doorway created when the current floor was installed. Made at a workshop with Camberwell College of Art students and in consultation with the builder working on the SLG’s expansion, the sculptures represent the SLG as a point of intersection between its neighbours. Equally they embody a moment in the gallery’s history by incorporating fragments of the gallery’s foundation stone and being destined to be buried in the floor of the SLG’s new building.
Tue Greenfort, THW Brücke, 2008, wood, metal, cable
Photo: Alexis Zavialoff Courtesy Johann König, Berlin
London-based artist/architect collective public works' take the social as well as physical reach of the gallery’s activities as their subject in a live mapping process which sets out to give visual form to the various extensions of the SLG, while Tue Greenfort creates an entrance at the rear of the gallery to shorten the access route for residents on the neighbouring housing estate. Harking back to the SLG’s original layout, Greenfort’s piece also opens up the sight line running through the central axis of the building, blurring the boundaries between inside and out.
Ayse Erkmen, Das Haus, 1993, DAAD Gallery, Berlin
Photo: Anno Dittmer, Courtesy Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin
BEYOND THESE WALLS
24 JULY - 2O SEPTEMBER 2009
South London Gallery
65 Peckham Road / London SE5 8UH
Gallery open Tuesday – Sunday 12-6pm. Closed Mondays.
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Family events: Walk Through Wednesdays
Every Wednesday 29 July to 16 September, 2, 3 & 4pm, Free
Join artist Robert Osborne and take a de/tour around the SLG to explore its history and future. Discover the building’s hidden nooks and crannies new building works, secret entrances and exits and the surrounding Sceaux Gardens estate making maps, pathways and collages in response to the exhibition.
Free Gallery Tours
Every Tuesday & Friday, 2–3pm
If you are part of a local group and would like a free tour of the exhibition and a sneak preview of our future education space contact [email protected]
Discussion
Thu 6 Aug, 7– 8.30pm, SLG, Free
The SLG's original floor bore the inscription “The source of art is in the life of a people”. Sophie Hope, a researcher into cultural democracy and part of the artist collective B+B, discusses this idea with an art historian.
public works:Friday session
Friday 18 September, 7-8.30pm, SLG
Join this event as part of public works’ ongoing series of informal and cross-disciplinary discussion events.
Behind-the-scenes tour by 6a architects
19 & 20 September, 3pm, Free
Find out more about the SLG’s expansion project as well as its history in these special 'hard hat' tours. Acclaimed architectural practice 6a will outline their plans to turn a domestic terraced property into a cafe, artists' flat and exhibition spaces, as well as build a new extension at the rear of the SLG's original arts and crafts building.
Part of Open House 2009.
Booking recommended for all events on 020 7703 6120 or [email protected]
