We are delighted to welcome Birmingham based artist-educator Shannon Thomson for a ‘micro-residency’ during John Beck and Matthew Cornford’s exhibition, The Art Schools of the East Midlands. Shannon will explore Nottingham School of Art & Design’s architectural, social and cultural history through the process of personal and collective collage making.
For two days, Shannon will be working within the gallery, cutting and splicing source material from our archive with photography and ephemera gathered by the artist herself.
Visitors to the gallery will be welcome to join in with the activity and create their own collages, contributing to a collective dialogue about the subject of art school pasts, presents and futures.
Shannon will return to the gallery on Saturday 25th November, 10 am – 1 pm for a session with our Saturday Art Club group. Visitors to the gallery that day will be able to observe this activity taking place inside the gallery.
As an artist and educator, Shannon Thomson‘s current body of work delves into the intricate relationship between pedagogy and creative expression, shedding light on the transformative power of arts education.
Thomson’s work currently draws inspiration from art school archives, most recently Birmingham School of Art.
Through examining archival material, Thomson seeks to unravel the complex narrative of educational systems and their influence on shaping artistic identity.
Don’t miss the first UK exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Osheen Siva,entitled ‘Karuppu’ (கருப்பு – meaning darkness/black in Tamil). The exhibition includes drawings and paintings, collaborative tapestries crafted with local woman artisans, and the incorporation of leather, laden with political and caste contexts in India.
Originally from Thiruvannamalai in South India, and currently based in Goa, Siva is an acclaimed artist whose practice encompasses painting, drawing, performance and public art. As a digital illustrator they have collaborated with leading global brands including Apple, Gucci, and Meta.
Taking a cue from Afrofuturism, Siva’s work brings together science fiction, mythology, heritage, their love of comic books, and the vibrant, joyful colours of South India to create fantastical characters and dreamscapes, reclaiming and reinventing Indian folktales and myths to imagine a decolonised future.
Siva’s work is rooted in their Dalit and Tamil heritage. Dalit translates as ‘broken, divided, split, shattered’ and Dalits are among India’s most marginalised citizens, condemned to the lowest echelons of society by a rigid caste hierarchy. Karuppu – meaning darkness or black in Tamil – carries associations with ‘evil’ in Hindu mythology and is often used in reference to the lower caste and the ‘untouchables’. Siva navigates the complexities of Dalit history, offering a powerful and evocative exploration of identity, resistance, and the quest for a liberated future.
A self-taught illustrator and muralist from Thiruvannamalai, India, Osheen Siva imagines a brave new world of decolonized dreamscapes and narratives of queer power
Siva’s Dalit Futurism reclaims the word Karuppu, seeking to invert and transform the arbitrary structure of caste through a narrative of mutation and hybridity. The beautiful mutant characters serve as a metaphor, challenging assigned social status and established histories with non-binary fluidity, championing bodily autonomy, and highlighting queer and feminine power.
Central to the exhibition is the reclamation and reinvention of Indian mythologies. Siva’s work critiques Hindu scriptures and ancient Sanskrit texts that perpetuate the discrimination of lower-caste individuals. Deliberately countering the lack of positive imagery associated with Dalit communities, Siva creates progressive depictions, envisioning a future that transcends existing stereotypes.
Exploring their heritage in the farming communities of Tamil Nadu, nature is a recurring motif in Siva’s work. Acting as a dual symbol, the natural world conveys fruitfulness and abundance and also highlights the trauma associated with labour and bondage, creating a complex dialogue between nature and social hierarchy.
Images by Osheen Siva, 2024.
எதிர்காலம் நம்முடையது (Ethirkalam Namathathé), 2022, Embroidery on cotton.எதிர்பார் (Ethirpar), 2023, Embroidery on cotton fabric.இணைInai (Inai), 2021, Ink, acrylic and on canvas.நண்பர்கள் (Nanbargal), 2024, Acrylic on canvas.வளர்ச்சி (Valarchy), 2024, Acrylic on canvasInstallation detailInstallation detailInstallation detailபரிணாமம் (Parinaamam), 2023, Ink and acrylic on canvas.கற்பனயுலகு (Karpanaiulagu), 2023, Ink on lokta paper.ஒற்றுமை (Wottrumai), 2021, Ink and acrylic on paper.வணக்கம் (Vannakam), 2021, Ink and acrylic on paper.எதிர்காலம் (Ethirkalam), 2023, Ink and gouache on lokta paper.அழகு (Aḻaku) 01, 2023, Ink and gouache on paper.Installation viewInstallation viewஅழகு (Aḻaku) 01, 2023, Ink and gouache on paper.Installation viewInstallation viewInstallation view(Left to right) அமர், (Amar) 04, 2024, Acrylic on canvas.; நெருக்கம் (Warmth), 2021, Ink, acrylic and aerosol on paper; வலிமை (Valimai), 2021, Ink and acrylic on paperInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation view(Left to right) கற்பனயுலகு (Arcadia), 2023, and உருவம் (Uruvam) 01, 02, and 03, 2023Installation viewInstallation view(Left to right) அழகு (Aḻaku) 02, 01, and 03 2023, Ink and gouache on paper(Left to right) உருவம் (Uruvam) 03, 02, and 01, 2023, Ink and gouache on paper(Left to right) இளவரசி (Elavarasi) 1, 2, and 3, 2023, Acrylic on canvas.
எதிர்காலம் நம்முடையது (Ethirkalam Namathathé), 2022, Embroidery on cotton.எதிர்பார் (Ethirpar), 2023, Embroidery on cotton fabric.இணைInai (Inai), 2021, Ink, acrylic and on canvas.நண்பர்கள் (Nanbargal), 2024, Acrylic on canvas.வளர்ச்சி (Valarchy), 2024, Acrylic on canvasInstallation detailInstallation detailInstallation detailபரிணாமம் (Parinaamam), 2023, Ink and acrylic on canvas.கற்பனயுலகு (Karpanaiulagu), 2023, Ink on lokta paper.ஒற்றுமை (Wottrumai), 2021, Ink and acrylic on paper.வணக்கம் (Vannakam), 2021, Ink and acrylic on paper.எதிர்காலம் (Ethirkalam), 2023, Ink and gouache on lokta paper.அழகு (Aḻaku) 01, 2023, Ink and gouache on paper.Installation viewInstallation viewஅழகு (Aḻaku) 01, 2023, Ink and gouache on paper.Installation viewInstallation viewInstallation view(Left to right) அமர், (Amar) 04, 2024, Acrylic on canvas.; நெருக்கம் (Warmth), 2021, Ink, acrylic and aerosol on paper; வலிமை (Valimai), 2021, Ink and acrylic on paperInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation view(Left to right) கற்பனயுலகு (Arcadia), 2023, and உருவம் (Uruvam) 01, 02, and 03, 2023Installation viewInstallation view(Left to right) அழகு (Aḻaku) 02, 01, and 03 2023, Ink and gouache on paper(Left to right) உருவம் (Uruvam) 03, 02, and 01, 2023, Ink and gouache on paper(Left to right) இளவரசி (Elavarasi) 1, 2, and 3, 2023, Acrylic on canvas.
history is a living weapon in yr hand is a solo exhibition of new and reconfigured work by London-based artist Onyeka Igwe.
The exhibition will be centred around a new two-screen adaptation of Igwe’s dual timeline experimental film A Radical Duet (2023). The film imagines what happened when two women of different generations, but both part of the post-war independence movement, came together in London to put their fervour and imagination into writing a revolutionary play. The film depicts this process, and envisages what that play would look like, if staged today.
1947 London was a hub of radical anti-colonial activity. International intellectuals, artists, and activists like Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Sylvia Wynter, C.L.R. James, Kwame Nkrumah, and George Padmore were all in London at the eve of the end of British colonialism. Individually, they were agitating for their respective countries’ national independence, but did they meet? And if they all did, what did they discuss? What did they conjure?
The film will be accompanied by elements of the set design and props from the making of A Radical Duet, taking inspiration from Sylvia Wynter’s ideas on theatrical adaptation. Wynter builds on Brechtian principles of modern epic theatre and advises on how set design can support a theatre to ‘explode [social] fears by bringing them out into the light of day’.
For this exhibition, Igwe will be working with Collective Text, an organisation supporting accessibility in art and film through creative captioning, audio description and interpretation.
A Radical Duet was commissioned by FLAMIN Productions through FILM LONDON Artists’ Moving Image Network with funding from Arts Council England.
history is a living weapon in yr hand is produced in collaboration with Peer Gallery, London, where it will be presented in autumn 2024.
A Microsoft Word version of this information, including floor plan of space is available to download here.
Accessibility Guidance
This accessibility guidance was written in collaboration with Onyeka Igwe, Bonington Gallery and Collective Text.
Exhibition Information
history is a living weapon in yr hand is captioned and audio described. The two-channel film in the exhibition has animated captions which include sound descriptions.
There is an audio described introduction to the exhibition that can be accessed here.
There is an audio described introduction accompanied by imagery from the exhibition that can be accessed here.
At the gallery, audio description can be accessed via radio frequency headsets with two channels. A switch beside the volume slider enables you to flick between channel 1 which plays the audio described introduction linked above and channel 2 which plays the exhibition audio description synced to the film and props. There will be two listening stations for audio description, at the front entrance to the right of the stairs and at the back of the gallery next to the accessible lift entrance. An invigilator will provide you with headphones, you can remain at these listening stations or can be assisted to the viewing benches in front of the screens by an invigilator. There are tactile pathway guidelines that direct you to the props in the exhibition, assistance can also alternatively be provided by an invigilator.
Please note that the exhibition space is dark. The film and/or spotlights are the primary light source. Sound plays in the space at a high volume. Let us know in advance if you require the room to be brighter or a lower volume.
The props in the exhibition are illuminated by a timed lighting system. Each prop has a distinct lighting colour and is accompanied by the sound “ACTION” which is captioned on the screens the first time it happens in the sequence, afterwards you are encouraged to move around the space.
The total running time of the exhibition is 32 minutes. There will be large print exhibition guides available through the invigilators.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible. General Access Information for the gallery is available here
For any additional questions or access needs contact Tom Godfrey: tom.godfrey@ntu.ac.uk
Onyeka Igwe is a London-born and based moving image artist and researcher.
Her work is aimed at the question: how do we live together? Not to provide a rigid answer as such, but to pull apart the nuances of mutuality, co-existence and multiplicity.
Onyeka’s practice figures sensorial, spatial and counter-hegemonic ways of knowing as central to that task. For her, the body, archives and narratives both oral and textual act as a mode of enquiry that makes possible the exposition of overlooked histories.
She has had solo/duo shows at MoMA PS1, New York (2023), High Line, New York (2022), Mercer Union, Toronto (2021), Jerwood Arts, London (2019) and Trinity Square Video, London (2018). Her films have screened in numerous group shows and film festivals worldwide.
Currently, she is Practitioner in Residence at the University of the Arts London and she will participate in the group show ‘Nigeria Imaginary’ in the national pavilion of Nigeria at the upcoming 60th Venice Biennial in 2024. She was awarded the New Cinema Award at Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival 2019, 2020 Arts Foundation Fellowship, 2021 Foundwork Artist Prize and has been nominated for the 2022 Jarman Award and Max Mara Artist Prize for Women. Onyeka is represented by Arcadia Missa Gallery.
Peer is a not-for-profit free-to-access space for contemporary art, located in the neighbourhood of Hoxton in East London. They place artists, young people and local communities at the heart of their internationally recognised programmes of public exhibitions held in their street-facing gallery, an ongoing series of workshops, talks and events, as well as offsite artist commissions produced in the local area.
Join Bonington Gallery’s Director Tom Godfrey for an insightful gallery tour of our current exhibition, The Art Schools of the East Midlands by John Beck and Matthew Cornford, and the accompanying exhibition, Art [School] Histories in the Vitrines and foyer.
Find out how the exhibitions emerged as part of the Art School Project and uncover stories behind the work and its connections to Nottingham.
Free, open to all
Booking is required
Please meet in the Bonington Foyer at 12.55pm for a prompt start
The event will last up to an hour, within the gallery
Join us for a first look round a new photographic exhibition by John Beck and Matthew Cornford, focusing on the region’s art schools, and the vital role that they play in the cultural life of our cities.
Accompanying the exhibition, in our Vitrines you can discover archive materials and memories relating to the history of Nottingham School of Art & Design, established in 1843.
There is lift and stairs access and an accessible toilet.
Aphotographic exhibition focusing on the region’s art schools, and the vital role that they play in the cultural life of our cities.
This exhibition is the latest iteration of John Beck and Matthew Cornford’s ambitious Art School Project, to track down and document all of the UK’s art schools – including the iconic Waverley building at Nottingham Trent University.
Featuring new photographic work depicting all the art school buildings of the East Midlands, or the sites upon which they stood, the exhibition raises questions about the role of the arts in relation to education, community and history and offers a space to reflect on what the future may hold for cultural institutions in our towns and cities.
There will also be a programme of public events exploring the themes of the exhibition, that will be announced soon. In our foyer space, our Vitrines exhibition, Art [School] Histories will present materials dedicated to the history and future of the Nottingham School of Art & Design here at NTU.
Launch event
Come along to our launch night on Thursday 21 September, 6 pm – 8 pm for a first look round the exhibition. Book your free tickets
Installation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewDerby School of Art, Green Lane, Derby, 9 August 2022Loughborough College of Art, Frederick Street, Loughborough, 10 August 2022Boston School of Art, Market Place, Boston, 18 June 2023Nottingham School of Art, Shakespeare Street, 17 June 2023Nottingham School of Art, Waverley Street, 17 June 2023Detail of the table showing a map of the East Midlands
Detail of the stamp on the stoolsDetail of the map tables, showing CoventryStone Head (Flaxman), Nottingham School of Art, Waverley Street, Nottingham, 11 August 2023Stone Head (Wren), Nottingham School of Art, Waverley Street, Nottingham, 11 August 2023Stone Head (Holbein), Nottingham School of Art, Waverley Street, Nottingham, 11 August 2023Stone Head (Raffaelle), Nottingham School of Art, Waverley Street, Nottingham, 11 August 2023
Installation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewDerby School of Art, Green Lane, Derby, 9 August 2022Loughborough College of Art, Frederick Street, Loughborough, 10 August 2022Boston School of Art, Market Place, Boston, 18 June 2023Nottingham School of Art, Shakespeare Street, 17 June 2023Nottingham School of Art, Waverley Street, 17 June 2023Detail of the table showing a map of the East Midlands
Detail of the stamp on the stoolsDetail of the map tables, showing CoventryStone Head (Flaxman), Nottingham School of Art, Waverley Street, Nottingham, 11 August 2023Stone Head (Wren), Nottingham School of Art, Waverley Street, Nottingham, 11 August 2023Stone Head (Holbein), Nottingham School of Art, Waverley Street, Nottingham, 11 August 2023Stone Head (Raffaelle), Nottingham School of Art, Waverley Street, Nottingham, 11 August 2023
The twin Victorian engines of industrial ambition and social reform powered the British art school system, set up to deliver a skilled labour force for local industry – such as lace manufacture in Nottingham the few original art school buildings still actively used for teaching art and much needed educational opportunities to the newly enfranchised working class. Art schools combined practical training and exposure to culture, turning out skilled producers and discerning consumers well into the twentieth century.
By the mid-1960s there were still over 150 art schools in the UK, and ‘art school’ became a journalistic shorthand for creative innovation across arts, design, music and advertising. Yet at the peak of their influence on British cultural life, art schools in many towns and cities were already being amalgamated, reorganised and rebranded as part of a drive to reshape education in the arts. Most art schools have long since been absorbed into larger institutions or faded away.
Bonington Gallery’s presentation focuses on the art schools of the East Midlands and features original photographic images of all the region’s art school buildings alongside displays of archival material. The striking grandeur of Derby School of Art’s Gothic Revival building currently stands empty, whilst the Waverley Building, home to the Nottingham School of Art & Design, remains one of the few original art school buildings still actively used for teaching art – as part of Nottingham Trent University. The project is also, importantly, an investigation of our present moment, documenting the sites of former art schools which have been redeveloped or reused.
John Beck and Matthew Cornford studied at Great Yarmouth College of Art and Design (now social housing) in the early 1980s and have served time, as students and members of staff, in colleges and universities across the country. John currently teaches literature and visual culture at the University of Westminster (incorporating what was once Harrow School of Art), and Matthew teaches fine art the University of Brighton (formerly Brighton School of Art).
Their photographic survey of the art schools of the North West was exhibited at Liverpool Bluecoat (2018), Bury Art Museum (2019) and Rochdale Touchstones (2021). Recent work on the West Midlands was shown at the New Art Gallery Walsall (February – July 2023) and a public art work, commissioned by Meadow Arts and Hereford College of Arts, opened in Hereford June 2023.
This multi-channel video installation from internationally-acclaimed photographer Emily Andersen, explores the work and life of Ruth Fainlight (b.1931) – an American-born poet and writer.
Ruth’s intensely visual poetry and fiction touch on themes of psychological and domestic situations, time, memory and loss. Born in New York City in 1931, she moved to England when she was 15. In 1959 she married the writer, Alan Sillitoe, and her many literary friendships included Sylvia Plath, Jane and Paul Bowles, and Robert Graves.
Andersen’s work is an intimate portrait of Fainlight, now aged 91, presenting fragments of the poet’s life. Taking inspiration from Renaissance triptychs and their depiction of different elements of the same subject across three panels, Somewhere Else Entirely captures the poet and writer at her home in London, making notes, on her walks, and in the seaside town of Brighton where she spent her teenage years.
In Somewhere Else Entirely Fainlight talks off-screen, revealing fascinating insights into her life, her creative process, and how she is ‘in the hands of the poem’. In her voiceover, she movingly recites her poem ‘Somewhere Else Entirely’ composed after the death of her husband.
Alongside the exhibition commissioned an essay by Daniella Schreir, editor of the Feminist Film Journal Another Gaze, which can be read here.
Portrait of Ruth Fainlight by Emily AndersenInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else EntirelyInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else EntirelyInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else EntirelyInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else EntirelyInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else EntirelyInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else EntirelyInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else EntirelyInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else EntirelyInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else EntirelyInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else Entirely
Portrait of Ruth Fainlight by Emily AndersenInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else EntirelyInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else EntirelyInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else EntirelyInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else EntirelyInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else EntirelyInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else EntirelyInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else EntirelyInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else EntirelyInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else EntirelyInstallation view of Emily Andersen Somewhere Else Entirely
Launch event
Come along to our launch night on Friday 24 March, 6 pm – 8 pm for a first look round the exhibition, alongside Nottingham Women’s Centre in our Vitrines. There will also be free food from 6 pm. Book your free tickets
About the Film
Running time: 11 minutes
Alternate screenings are subtitled
Seating will be available
About the artist
Emily Andersen is a London-based artist and graduate of the Royal College of Art. Her work has been exhibited in galleries including:
BOOKMARC Gallery, Tokyo
LOWW Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
The Photographers’ Gallery, London
Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
China Arts Museum, Shanghai
A number of her portraits are in the permanent collection of The National Portrait Gallery, London. She has won awards including the John Kobal prize for portraiture. Her third book Another Place was published in 2023. She is a Senior Lecturer in theory and practice of photography at the Nottingham School of Art & Design at Nottingham Trent University.
Join Bonington Gallery’s Director, Tom Godfrey for a relaxed lunchtime tour of our current exhibitions, Somewhere Else Entirely by Emily Andersen in our Gallery, and Nottingham Women’s Centre in our Vitrines.
• The event is free to attend with limited capacity. • Booking is required. • Please meet in the Bonington Foyer at 12.55 pm for a prompt start. • The event will last up to an hour, within the gallery.
Join Bonington Gallery’s Deputy Curator Joshua Lockwood-Moran for a relaxed lunchtime tour of our current exhibitions, Somewhere Else Entirely by Emily Andersen in our Gallery, and Nottingham Women’s Centre in our Vitrines.
• The event is free to attend with limited capacity. • Booking is required. • Please meet in the Bonington Foyer at 12.55 pm for a prompt start. • The event will last up to an hour, within the gallery.
