Work continues in the gallery with the extension and re-clad of certain walls. Here’s Josh and Bruce fitting sound-dampening plasterboard to the left hand wall…
Work is well underway to extend some of the shorter walls in the gallery to the full ceiling height, along with a few more exciting measures. We feel this will help bring more visual consistency to the space and enhance the presentation of our forthcoming programme. Here’s our good old friend Bruce Asbestos getting to it…
As part of Icons of Rhetoric there is a segregated space within the Gallery which reveals more about the photographs and the theory employed behind the idea of reading North Korea through its own discourse. Including a range of publications on issues surrounding North Korea and photojournalism:
One of these publications is Visual Politics and North Korea: Seeing is Believing by David Shim. In a similar way to the main exhibition, his book questions what we know about North Korea and how much of this is based on what we see. You can preview the book online here.
“David Shim’s Visual Politics and North Korea has arrived and will be on show in the exhibition” @Rout_PoliticsIRpic.twitter.com/p360bhANDi
— IOR 북한의수사학아이콘 (@iconsofrhetoric) June 12, 2015
Another featured publication is Pyongyang, a graphic novel by cartoonist and animator Guy Delisle, which documents his two-month visit to the North Korean capital – giving the reader “an informative, personal, and accessible look at a dangerous and enigmatic country.”
You can find out more about Pyongyang here, and preview the book here.
Overcame the tube strikes last Thursday to visit Iain & Andrew Foxall of Foxall Studio in their workspace at Great Western Studios in London. They will be creating a project for the gallery next April which is looking & sounding incredibly exciting. Take a look at their website for further info about their previous projects, ‘Webcams’ and ‘Lagos Fanzine’ probably offer the closest indication of what might be in store for 2016…
Icons of Rhetoric opened today, and has been featured on several sites across the web (as well as being featured in ArtRabbit’s openings this weekand on their Instagram feed!). Check out the links below:
» London Korean Links
» Redeye: The Photography Network
» Dodho Photography Magazine. The original feature on Dodho, which explores the process of making the photographs (and more) can be found here.
Open until Friday 10 July, Monday – Friday 10 am – 5 pm. For more information, visit the Icons of Rhetoric exhibition page.
On 12 June, Castlefield Gallery (Manchester) opened their major Summer exhibition, Real Painting; a group exhibition curated by Deb Covell and Jo McGonigal, which “emphasizes the essential grammar of painting, considering not necessarily what a painting means but what it ‘does’.”
Following on from his solo exhibition Soft Painting here in the gallery in April / May this year,Simon Callery is exhibiting works which continue to focus on engaging the viewer on a physical level, rather than just a reaction to an image.
Installation view from Simon Callery: Soft Painting; Wiltshire Modulor Double Void, 2010 – 2015.
Other artists include; Adriano Costa, Deb Covell, Angela de la Cruz, Lydia Gifford, David Goerk, Alexis Harding, Jo McGonigal, DJ Simpson, Finbar Ward.
Real Painting will be on show until Sunday 2 August, 2015. For more information, visit the exhibition page on Castlefield Gallery’s website here, and be sure to follow Castlefield Gallery on Facebook and Twitter for more images from the show.
Following on from the #NTUDEGREESHOW, our next exhibition opens on Thursday this week!
Icons of Rhetoric is a project created by photographer Chris Barrett and writer Gianluca Spezza which gives us a unique look at “the most isolated country in the world”; North Korea. The exhibition includes over 40 images which are crafted from taking still images from North Korean television broadcasts by the country’s state news network. The pair use appropriated images developed on instant film, to comment on how the West uses such images to reinforce its own limited stereotypical views of the country.
“We’re exploring the idea of ‘seeing is believing’ in the digital age” says Barrett. “People’s concerns about human rights in North Korea are perfectly valid and important issues but it’s dangerous for us to entirely base our understanding on a narrow binary image of good and bad often focused on sensationalised information skewed in favour of click bait ridicule or ridiculous hearsay’. It’s true North Korea is a very difficult place to cover but this should not allow for the anything goes #rareglimpse reporting that seems to surround the country”
Take a look at a few photos of the set-up and exhibition below, and stay tuned for more info over the coming weeks. Be sure to follow @IconsofRhetoric on Twitter / Instagram and use #IconsofRhetoric to have your say.
Here is a selection of blog posts form Simon Callery’s recent solo show, Soft Painting
Soft Painting has begun! Come and take a look as the exhibition unfolds between now and the preview on Wednesday 29 April, when the paintings will be completed and on show for further two and a half weeks. Visit the exhibition page for more details.
Simon Callery has now been working in the gallery since Monday, along with a select group of BA (Hons) Fine Art students from here at NTU and Nottingham-based artists.
Here’s a quick recap of the week in photos:
Here are some progress shots from this week, taken by local artist and photographer, Julian Hughes:
Assistants: Yajie Jiang and Joshua Wheeler
For more of Julian’s work, be sure to follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
With just a few days to go until the preview, work on Soft Painting will continue through the weekend. Here’s a recap of the process from this week
From 13 – 29 April, Simon Callery worked in the gallery space with a selected group of Nottingham Trent University BA (Hons) Fine Art students, and a group of Nottingham-based artists to produce three large-scale works. These works will now be on display in the gallery until Friday 15 May. Come and take a look!
Here’s a few photos from last night’s midway preview – thanks to all who came along.
We are delighted to unveil the latest addition to the Nottingham Trent University art collection from artist Simon Callery. Simon joined us in 2015 for his solo exhibition Soft Painting. Wiltshire Modulor (small, 2010-2013) will be on permanent display in Bonington Gallery’s foyer space.
The recent opening of our new exhibitions also marked the un-veiling of the latest addition to the NTU art collection. This joins a host of works and artefacts on display in our foyer that relate to past exhibitions and we’ll be contributing to this selection going forwards.
Ahead of his show here at the Gallery in April / May 2015, Simon Callery invited us down to his studio just outside of London. Simon and Gallery Resource Manager Tom Godfrey discuss the process of creating a painting and Simon’s approach to colour, as well as thoughts on collaboration, experimentation and much more.
We would like to invite you to post your photos of our current show Made In Wood, using the hashtag, #madeinwood. Here is a couple of some of the photos that we have seen so far:
