Announcement of first 2019 InTheWindow artists

 

 

 AirSpace Gallery is really happy to announce the selection of the first three artists for our 2019 InTheWindow programme.

Our window at AirSpace is a really important space. When operational as part of our main exhibitions, it acts as a non-institutional way in to the gallery - accessible on the public's own terms. In between our exhibition programme, while changeover activity

is happening, we close the window up and offer the space, through a series of open calls, to artists to propose new and experimental works - for a period of 1-2 weeks - with a significant challenge, in how to successfully utilise the specific opportunities that such a front-facing, idiosyncratic space offers.

For this call, we specifically requested proposals which would catch the eye in an animated way - and so movement and performance of both object and self is central to each of the selected works.

For this first part of the 2019 window programme, we have selected artists Kiran Kaur Brar, Alex Billingham and Hollie Miller. Each artist will animate our window with a series of sculptural and special event single performances for a period of 2 weeks each between March 9th and May 4th, 2019.

Look out for details of each artist's works via our website - www.airspacegallery.org - and Facebook group . The schedule and artist info can be found below.

March 8th to 23rd, 2019 - Kiran Kaur Brar - timed to start on International Women's Day and Women's History Month, Koran presents a performative work referencing Suffragetism and violent/non-violent protest.

"Through resilience and playfulness, I’m interested in questioning assumptions about progress and power and the social, political and ideological systems that narrate them. Using photography, video, performance, text and collage, I attempt to resist formulas and aesthetic continuity. I am particularly interested in exploring the possibilities offered by site specificity to link the micro politics of the exhibition space/institution to the macro politics of the wider world. The visual language I employ is influenced by the context that I am responding to." - Kiran Kaur Brar

March 30th to April 13th, 2019 - Alex Billingham - Die Glamour Berg - an installation comprising a series of suspended sculptures currently measuring from 1 to 11 inch’s diameter, consisting of a mixture of wool, latex, false eyes, glitter, Dymo tape, Rein stones, wigs, false nails, sequins, glass beads, feathers and electrical tape. Finishing with a durational performance where Alex becomes a Berg, covering himself in materials then free myself from the Berg.

I’m a genderqueer performance artist from the West Midlands making work which mixes endurance, visual arts, low-fi tech, film and installation. It’s often visceral and physically exhausting, pushing what my body can take. While performance forms the core of my practice I also work in film, installation, sculpture, and audio using whichever medium best fits the idea.

Trust is central to my work, often trusting my safety to the audience while asking them to trust in me. I strip away all my supports leaving a tender and violent performance. Our place in the environment, gender, temporal mechanics, a fascination with the fetishization of Nuclear dread and an obsession with outdated hopes for the future all bleed into my work.

Research and experimentation inform my practice starting with a basic idea and playing around with different materials and techniques before committing to the research. I find it essential to have both working together as the physical often alters the direction of the research. Often adopting a low-fi visual style binding grunge with glitter and grime to make beautifully dirty work.

 

April 17th to May 4th, 2019 - Hollie Miller - two sculptures, consisting of  human hair wigs, individually wrapped around a pair of antique children’s boxing gloves with a cow bell of different pitches nestled in each palm - the hair coated in pigment (blood and bone flour) and hanging off delicate rusted chains will occupy each half of our window - gently rocking, ringing the bell and dropping pigment throughout the time. Finishing the exhibition, Hollie will present a site specific public performance.

Hollie Miller is a visual artist working with performance in live and recorded contexts. Her corporeal works are site-specific, intimate and time-based, exploring ephemerality in the digital age. In placing emphasis on recording live performances, Miller suggests that our everyday actions never cease and can be crystallized through the digital as ‘living fossils’. In her performances, Miller activates sculptural objects installed in the gallery space. These charged artefacts exist beyond the live moment where her affect has left residue.

Using her own body as a vessel of transgression and subversion, Miller’s work is informed by the history of women’s self-representation. Her artworks employ the language of cinema to critique and disrupt the capitalist portrayal of women by the commercial industries. She is particularly interested in vulnerability as a form of resistance and how this engenders our capacity for empathy in relation to the other. In her work Miller embodies the ‘minor gesture’ with poetic sensibility to highlight and overcome invisible violence on women.
When working within the natural environment, Miller often applies organic materials such as mud, onto her body as emblems of freedom that corrupt the surface of her skin. This physical change draws attention to her identity and sexuality via her actions and presence. By placing her body within the landscape, both interrupting and merging with the land, she surrenders to the earth as mother and/ or lover. Creating a dynamic between the physical and the metaphysical she uses performance as a tool for transformation and female ascension.

More details, including individual work statements and documentation coming soon...