Avril Corroon is a visual artist working with moving image, performance and sculpture to examine inequity and how architecture manifests governance. She has made cheese from black mould in housing and has turned a gallery into a car dealership. Corroon received a BA from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin in 2014 and a MFA at Goldsmiths University in 2019.

Bianca Hlywa is an interdisciplinary artist with a wide ranging practice. Using installation, film, drawing, performance and especially the organic material SCOBY, Bianca’s work questions culturally steadfast distinctions between life and non-life. The artist lives and works in London, UK. She holds a BFA in Fine Art from Concordia University, Montreal, CA (2015) and an MFA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London (2019).

Lydia Wong’s practice investigates how identities and sense of a place are maintained through political upheaval, especially when news and historical records are determined by political narratives rather than truth. Turning to geomancy and cultural Chinese rituals including the magic of Taoism and Feng Shui, her practice seeks to preserve histories and notions of identities through sculptural performances. She completed a MFA at Goldsmiths in 2019.

Public Programme

NO SMOKE WITHOUT _ _ _ _ is an exhibition of sculpture, film and drawing by Avril Corroon, Bianca Hlywa and Lydia Wong. Included works contain materials which have gone through state changes: bacteria and yeast, damp from people’s houses and abstracted crabs. Transformative gestures are used to reflect on concerns, which are redefined and reclaimed in new light. The artists work around political erasure, the cost of living crisis and housing conditions or steadfast distinctions between life and non- life.

 

This exhibition was awarded to the participants based on an open call put forward by the arts organisation and charity HYPHA Studios.

 

Artists websites:

Avril Corroon https://avrilcorroon.com

Bianca Hlywa https://www.biancahlywa.com

Lydia Wong https://lydiawong.co.uk

Eliza Bonham Carter (pictured), Curator and Director of the RA Schools, and Mark Davy, CEO of Futurecity

Eliza Bonham Carter has been a noteworthy contributor to arts education for over twenty years.  From her early days as a senior lecturer in Fine Art at DeMontfort University in 1993 and Head of Fine Art at the University of Reading in 2003, to her current position as Curator and Director of the Royal Academy Schools, since 2006. Graduating in Fine Art from the Royal College of Art, Eliza exhibited widely and has work in both private and public collections. Eliza is Vice Chair of Camden Art Centre and recently stepped down from the Council of the British School at Rome where she was also previously a member of the Faculty of Fine Art. 

Mark Davy is a former fine artist who studied at Canterbury College of Art and the Architectural Association. His last exhibition at the RIBA London in 2000 gave its name to Futurecity, set up in 2007 to reflect the growing interest in placemaking and regeneration. He has used the agency to provide a platform that promotes the use of arts and culture, community and wellbeing as a guiding narrative for the development and regeneration of our towns, cities, and urban centres. His work has led to major new funding for the arts in the UK and abroad, and Futurecity has been involved in over 250 cultural projects globally, placing artists in partnership with other disciplines including engineers, landscape architects, developers, and architects.