Moving Target: An Exhibition Proposal to the Sir John Cass Department of Art

Would that the ship Argo had never sailed- (source unknown)
a
Positioning and attempting to stabilise ourselves in a world of constantly changing social, economic and natural environments is one of continuous concern; careful or not so careful; and steady or unsteady journeying for each and every one of us on this planet. In this sense, we should consider ourselves, everybody around us, and everything that happens around us each and every day - a Moving Target. One and all, changing or capable of changing position at any given point in time.
a
This exhibition investigates and challenges the viewers’ perception of some of the changing positions that have historical and contemporaneous impact on us as citizens. It attempts to provide some answers and raise questions about the positions we take and moves we make.
a
Proposed artists’ work for inclusion within the university’s art spaces are:
a
Roni Horn – Some Thames (2000)
Roni Horn challenges the view of ‘identical experience’, insisting that our sense of self is marked by a place in the here-and-there, and by time in the now-and-then. ‘Some Thames’, on loan from the University of Akureyri in Iceland consists of 80 photographs of Thames water representing the idea of a finite thing having an infinite range of appearance or expression because of its inseparable relation to other things. The work will be bought back to its place of origin and shown in London’s largest university. As in Iceland, the photographs will be spread throughout the university’s open spaces, mirroring the ever-changing ebb and flow of students’ lives and learning.
a
Cildo Meireles – Babel (2001)
Cildo Mereiles’ gigantic tower of radios, each tuned to different channels and set to the lowest hearing volume relate to the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, which reached the heavens. Offended by the tower, God caused its builders to speak in different languages and, unable to understand one another they became divided and scattered across the world. According to myth, this inability to communicate became the cause of all mankind’s conflicts. Babel consists of around 800 radios of various ages, from beautiful vintage large valve radios to more recent mass-produced small electronic radios, which form the sculpture’s summit. Due to the time-based nature of radio, no two experiences of this work are ever the same.
a
Yinka Shonibare – The Swing (after Fragonard) (2001)
Yinka Shonibare’s work explores the changing issues of race and class. Underlying this theme is a series of contradictions and shifting realities. His trademark ‘African’ fabrics are not really authentically African, as people often believe. The Dutch produced these fabrics in the 19th century and in more recent times they are made in England for sale to the African market. It’s the knowledge of this ‘changed’ perception that adds to our investigation of his work. In Shonibare’s words, culture and society is an ‘artificial construct’. The Swing (after Fragonard) is a 3D remake of the original rococo painting in keeping with the style of extravagant pre-revolution France. Although the sculpture maintains the original’s romance, the fact that the woman on the swing is headless and dressed in incongruous yet fabulous African fabrics transports us to another place and position in time and history, to connect the rococo era with its concurrent period of colonialist slave trading.
a
The Mereiles and Shonibare sculptures will be displayed in Unit 2 Gallery at opposite ends of the space. Lighting will be subdued over Babel and a spot light set over The Swing to highlight and contrast the shifts of light and darkness through time.
a
Lorna Pridmore – Lambs to the Slaughter (2008)
In contrast to the other artists, Lorna Pridmore is at the most formative stage of her art career. Her work explores connected themes of mutability and change. A constant is the deconstruction and reconstruction of materials in an attempt to have the viewer question the effects and impact of change through time and making. Lambs to the Slaughter takes an everyday domestic object, the mop and through a making process akin to punitive labour shifts the physical material back through time and at the same time forward in meaning. From its ready-made coiled strands of cotton, the mop-head is shifted to a state nearer to its material origins as rolled sections of fleece. These rolls bring to mind lambs’ tails and can be interpreted in the sense in which we often move through life – attempting to balance being the ‘master of our own destiny’ alongside the struggles of being like ‘lambs to the slaughter‘ moving along unaware of, and not always in control of impending situations. This work will be shown in a corner space of the Entrance Lobby gallery.
_______________________________________________________________________
Nobel Prize Winner, William Golding stated in his essay Moving Target ‘The Writer does not choose his themes at all. The themes choose the writer. ’The same goes for making art; it’s a constant moving target.

A supplementary proposal sheet is attached including: a detailed space proposal and exhibit sizes, funding and sponsorship agreements; curatorial statements and an outline exhibition catalogue.