CGP London: Exhibition Thumbnails - Making Ships in Bottles

Making Ships in Bottles

19 May - 20 Jun 2010

REBECCA LENNON / GAIL PICKERING / OLIVIA PLENDER / SUZANNE TREISTER / BIK VAN DER POL

Making Ships in Bottles explores the process of gathering research and the manipulation of information, the ways artists display their work and the methods they use.

With research obtained from varied sources, libraries, the internet, newspapers or lived experiences, each artist merges obscure or radical ideas and movements from the past within the present. Using a museum-like aesthetic, documentary techniques or design formats they scrutinize different approaches to forms of communication. Bureaucratic procedures, belief systems or site-specific investigations are researched and revised but the artists rarely conclude any raised issues for the viewer.

Secondary and tertiary sources play with fiction and narratives, often with wry humour or a questioning of the impossible. Making Ships in Bottles highlights alternative political and social perspectives encouraging us to reflect on the present.

The exhibition features selected works from HEXEN 2039 by Suzanne Treister, the 2006 incarnation of the Rosalind Brodsky project described by Art in America as ‘one of the most sustained fantasy trips of contemporary art’, the first London showings of Ken Russell in Conversation with Olivia Plender and Past Imperfect by Bik Van der Pol, alongside new video works from Rebecca Lennon and Gail Pickering. An exhibition tour with artists Rebecca Lennon, Gail Pickering, Suzanne Treister, curator Claire Shallcross and critic Rebecca Geldard will take place on the exhibitions closing weekend.

Curated by Claire Shallcross.

Tour: Saturday, 19 June, 2.30pm - 3.30pm with artists Rebecca Lennon, Gail Pickering, Suzanne Treister, curator Claire Shallcross and critic Rebecca Geldard. Free, no booking required.