Seismic Mother
curated by Holly Birtles and Charly Blackburn
SEISMIC MOTHER curated by Charly Blackburn and Holly Birtles
PRIVATE VIEW 31st August 6.00- 8.00pm 2023
Open 1st September – 27th September 2023
Performance Events = 2nd September
Performance Events & Book Launch = 16th September
Closing Party = 27th September
50 Celebration Avenue, Stratford E20
Kindly supported by Get Living and East Village London
The average life expectancy of the human body is 72 years.
The earth has existed for 4.5 billion years.
Seismic Mother is an exhibition that captures the work of 20 artists whose work attempts to communicate the seemingly incomprehensible nature of the earth’s magnitude and magnificence, temerity and resilience as it endures, regenerates and struggles to survive through the slow violence of ecological catastrophe.
The artists involved expose and narrate the experience of what it means to be alive in the 21st century through the materiality of matter; drawing on experience, manipulating mineral and metal and making works that are contemplative and meditative. The work places the extraordinary alongside the everyday, harnessing chemical reactions and volcanic ecologies exploring environmental exploitation and the ingestion of raw materials, exposing and creating unseen or new worlds. Their methodologies and mediums are wide-ranging and diverse, encompassing film, performance, ceramics, photography and interactive sculpture. They invite the audience into a world that is texturally and visually tactile, recalling landscapes, objects and ways of living that are precarious and endangered, creating works of art that transgress boundaries and borders.
In an attempt to regain and rebalance ourselves in a time of flux, these art works and performances address the paradox of natural beauty associated with geology as a reaction and resistance to the barbarism and potency of human disruption and destruction of our planet.
Seismic Mother asks the audience to heed its call, to immerse in the aesthetic, while responding to the pragmatic; how do we move beyond catastrophe, how do we steady ourselves and what do we hold onto?
Artists
Miriam Austin
Nikolai Azariah
Holly Birtles
Charly Blackburn
Alfonso Borragan
Johanna Bramli
Ed Chivers
Stephen Cornford
Josie Maprayil
Rosaleen Maprayil
Hollie Miller
Cameron Naylor
Gareth Phillips
Phillip Reeves
Véronique Rolland
Xavier Ribas
Himali Singh Soin
Lara Smithson
Samuel Zealey
contact information
ABOUT THE CURATORS:
Holly Birtles is a photographic artist and photography lecturer. Her photographic practice incorporates performance, prop production informed by multi-disciplinary collaborations with writers and musicians. In her work she links performance to place; places consider ecologies and placement and agency within the wider ecosystem.
Charly Blackburn is an artist and material explorer, her work tells stories about the deep structures of matter, from the mystifying behaviours of minerals at atomic interfaces to the colossal extraction of the earth’s subsurface.
Contact Information
Email: [email protected]
Socials: @hbirtles and @churlyblurburn_
Website: wwww.hollybirtles.com
@ed_chivers @1horsemonkey @samuel.zealey @alfonso.borragan @hbirtles @churlyblurburn_ @xavierribas_ @johannabramli @miriamaustin @phillipreeves_ @garethphillips_ @nikolai.azariah @s_cornford @cameronnnaylor @hollie___miller @himalisinghsoin @larasmithson @veronique_rolland
preview 15th June
Installation Shots
Featured Artworks
Alfonso Borragan
HALITO, 2023, Digital Film, Run time 29 mins 53 seconds
Charly Blackburn
2023
Holly Birtles
Volcano Mother 2023, Mount Pelee, Digital Print on Dibond 20 x 30 cm
Holly Birtles
Volcano Mother, Unzen, 2023, Digital C-Type print 100 x 80 cm
Miriam Austin
Aluminium, algae, limestone, jesmonite, silicone, chalk, silvite, sand, sea salt, steel, quartz, eel fat, blood, turbo shell, hemlock, peat.
Véronique Rolland
Memories of an Unknown Island, 2022, Photographic Book
Charly Blackburn
Copper, Iron, Lead, Manganese, Silica, Sodium, Potassium, Aluminium 2023 1400 x 260mm
Himali Singh Soin
Body of Light, 2022, Glazed porcelain
Phillip Reeves
A Conference for Etna, 2023, Oil and Volcanic Pumice from Etna Summit and Aluminium Dibon, 120 x 160cm.jpg
Johanna Bramli & Ed Chivers
Tipping Point,Interactive audio installation 2023
Sam Zealey
Thames, 2023 , Steel Plate folded origami boat
Rosaleen and Josie Maprayil
Geological death bed, Funeral for a fossil, Limestone and Metal Coffin 2023
Alfonso Borragan
HALITO, 2023, Digital Film, Run time 29 mins 53 seconds
Holly Birtles
Volcano Mother, Masaya, 2023, Digital C-Type Print, 77 x77 cm.
Stephen Cornford
Spectral Index, 2023, Digital Film
Sam Zealey
Thames, 2023 , Steel Plate folded origami boat (1)
