A SENSE OF PLACE | Survival

***Closed for Christmas***
23 December until 2 January 2023

This is the last of three thematically linked exhibitions curated by Philippa Beale responding to the concept of A Sense of Place. The challenge to the artists’ imagination in the 2020s is to profoundly question our values by asking how does humankind imagine its place on the planet?  How can the artist evolve ways of living and working with ourselves and with nature? This current exhibition encompasses a diverse range of responses to the central idea, including distance, politics, and imagination. The exhibition at Bermondsey Project Space contains work by internationally celebrated artists studying why certain places hold special meaning for them.

Among the thirty artists contributing are SUZANNE BAKER, DAY BOWMAN, SUSANNE du TOIT, KERRY HARDING, and PAUL FINN, who create beautiful paintings of places that have a strong identity for each artist and describe how each of them perceives and experiences the place or environment. More intimate still, JOANNA HYSLOP’s place is the human skin. PHILIPPA BEALE, HELEN KIRWAN, and SARAH MEDWAY are concerned with certain geographical places that existed but evoke a sense of loss or grief. ANGELA RUMBLE and RACHEL SARGENT position themselves to incorporate the physical and the metaphysical, to create spiritual places. HOWARD PHIPPS engraves exquisite miniatures of sites of special interest and includes symbolised elements that make them unique.

Other artists turn their attention to more politicised aspects of A Sense of Place. FRANK CREBER, FERHA FAROOQUI, JOHN BLANDY, and ALEXANDRA BLUM’s work is concerned about living in the city. MICHELE STAGNETTO paints Gibraltar, which like certain geographical places is continually threatened by over-development and erosion. MARGUERITE HORNER concentrates on how the numinous is inspired by particular sites. One of the Gallery events, her talk ‘Loss and Hope’ will elucidate on how hope is sustained in the Calais Jungle. NATASHA LIEN similarly paints Refugee Island of Greece. LESLEY & NIGEL SLIGHT manifest their concerns about the destruction of forests; SANDRA WROE depicts the fading culture of Welsh Chapels; VAUGHAN GRYLLS, NAHEM SHOA, and ALEX FAULKNER look at the spaces created by the politics of difference.

For some, ‘A Sense of Place’ is more linked to the environment itself. CHRIS PLATO documents the struggle for the survival of a river; while MARK GIBBS‘ sculptures are multidimensional, complex constructs used to characterise the relationship between birds and their spatial settings. JANE HUMPHREY literally maps areas under threat in Wiltshire and Somerset; CLAIRE CANSICK and LARA COBDEN the destruction of the planet by fire.

– PHILIPPA BEALE, Curator