Opening on Thursday 26th November 4– 8pm
Exhibition continues 27th November – 5th December
Open Thursday and Fridays 4 – 7pm and Saturdays 1 – 6pm
At Portman Gallery at Morpeth School
We hope you can come to the opening of ‘The Dissolving Cube’ at Portman Gallery where we will be running the show as a festival.
You will be able to physically enter the works of Ryo Ikeshiro, Simon Katan and Andrew Cooper becoming exposed to imagery, sound and colour which you can manipulate. Other work has its focus or location in the surrounding area and way beyond as exemplified by the poet Hassan Najmi who speaks to us from Morocco in a moving film by Samuel Shimon.
The work literally looks everywhere and uses anything. A glimpse of the normally hidden world of the institution contained within the school, with its labyrinth of departments and offices will be given by David Collins, and the nooks and crannies of local housing and its politics will be explored by Laura Oldfield Ford and Shireen Drarabi. The discarded and rejected, in the form of objects, donated by students and staff will be given a new lease of life through the drawing and story telling of Antonio Cabrera.
Dean Kenning and Emma Hart will question the frontiers between the inner and outer world. Following the dialogical method proposed by radical pedagogist Paulo Freire, students working with Dr Kenning will respond to situations set in the local area depicted through isotype picture language. Daisy Delaney will also locate thought provoking traffic signs in the school grounds and surrounding area. The very air itself will carry some of the work in the form a subtle new piece of contemporary electronic music. The music will change through random interactions each time it is heard and was written especially for The Dissolving Cube by Kristian Sakulku and Raymond Yuenfai Vuong.
New copies of the Dark times will be created thought the show by Paul Sakoilsky and his editorial team recruited from the rank and file students at Morpeth as he invites them to take back what’s theirs, i.e., the world. The Dark times is the only newspaper that shows us the shadow image that the media normally projects for our digestion.
After all this you may want to relax so the artists have created lounge for you, Relax in a comfy chair surrounded by hallucinated wall paper by Sarah Sparkes and rubber creatures worthy of the medieval underworld of Hieronymus Bosch by Naomi St.Clair-Clarke. With the numerous miniature portraits staring at you from the mantle piece created by Heike Kelter from Berlin and her crew (students from Morpeth) you certainly won’t feel lonely. Sarah Doyle has created a mirror that reflects the joys of hearth and home while René Luckhardt gives us a comforting image of a grandmother Norman Bates would be proud of.
The Dissolving Cube incorporates an on-going exhibition, a symposium “Art, Learning and Liberation” and a grand finale of artists’ performances, “The Return of The Repressed”
Portman Gallery
Morpeth School
London E2 0PX
map
(Tube: Bethnal Green)
Part 1- Exhibition opening on Thursday 26th November 4– 8pm
Part 2-“Art, Learning and Liberation” a symposium, 28th November 11-5pm
Part 3 “Return of the repressed” performance event, 5th December 1– 5.30pm
The Dissolving Cube presents work which corrupts the boundaries between object, word, performance, sound, the viewer and the viewed. The work includes visual, poetic and sound art forms which blend together to dissolve artificial boundaries between separate art works. The show will pose questions concerning art's purpose. The work will interact with the audience of the school and local area. Several artists will be working with students to produce work for the show. The cube will mutate, dissolve and reach out down Portman Place, beyond Globe road from four different zones. The Dissolving Cube incorporates an on-going exhibition, a symposium “Art, Learning and Liberation” and a grand finale of artists’ performances, “The Return of The Repressed”
Curated by Andrew Cooper
Part I – Exhibition in the Portman Gallery and beyond
Zone 1 – The Inner Zone
A functioning lounge complete with wall paper, pictures, domestic ornaments, memorabilia and comfy chair.
Heike Kelter, Sarah Sparkes, Sarah Doyle, René Luckhardt, Naomi St Clair-Clarke
Zone 2 – The Oyster Zone
Material and people are gathered to produce transformative works.
David Collins, Paul Sakoilsky, Antonio Cabrera
Zone 3 – Twilight Zone
Experiences are offered to visitors when they enter three booths and a horizontal cabinet. They can in turn leave their own impressions by adding work to the zone.
Simon Katan, Ryo Ikeshiro, Andrew Cooper
Zone 6 – Outreach zone
Work investigating and reaching out into the surrounding gallery and beyond.
Laura Oldfield Ford, Dean Kenning, Shireen Darabi, Emma Hart, Daisy Delaney, Hassan Najmi
All Zones
Kristian Sakulku, Raymond Yuenfai Vuong
PART 2 - “Art, Learning and Liberation” What use is art in schools?
Symposium, 28th November 11am – 5pm
Discussion Chaired by Ian Hunt
Speakers include:
Dean Kenning (artist and critic)
Andrew Cooper (artist and teacher)
Emma Hart (artist)
Leanne Turvey (Tate Modern Schools Curator)
Susan Sheddan (Tate Modern Schools Curator)
Charlie Fox (artist and teacher)
David Collins (artist and Head of Art, Wormwood Scrubs)
Corinna Till (artist)
Tina Gregoriou (artist and teacher)
Grigoris Papazafiriou (artist and teacher)
Students from Morpeth School
PART 3 -The Return of the Repressed - Grand Finale
Saturday 5th December 2-5pm,
What has been repressed for the last three decades will be raised from the ground in a carnival of artist's performances.
Charlie Fox
Mark Mc Gowan
Miyuki Kasahara
Laura Oldfield Ford
Nebuchadnezza
Paul Sakoilsky and Dark Times Editorial Staff
Thump and Fiend
For more info email -portmangallery@morpeth.towerhamlets.sch.uk
