For the 28th instalment of the Bonington Vitrines series, we’re delighted to present Someone’s Doing Something, a project by London based curatorial, research and archival platform Gestures, developed in dialogue with writer Isabelle Bucklow.
This project, featuring artists such as Stuart Sherman, Simon Moretti, and Yvonne Rainer, will present a selection of work that explores gesture as a form of artistic expression. Whilst some gestures are recorded through notation or residue, others survive only in documentation or retelling.
The works in Someone’s Doing Something reflect a broad range of these approaches, from the formal to the informal, the scripted to the instinctive, and considers these against shifting times and contexts.
In considering the location of the Bonington Vitrines, as a space that is moved through by 100’s of people each day going about their daily business, this quote by theatre director Peter Brook is considered:
“I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged” – Peter Brook.
About Gestures
Gestures is a London based curatorial, research and archival platform that has organised exhibitions, interventions and projects in locations as diverse as sidewalks in New York and Travelodge hotel rooms, as well as exhibition spaces such as the Postal Museum in London and 47 Bedford Street in London. Gestures is currently conducting long term research into Situation, a space in London that existed in the 1970s that did early exhibitions with artists including On Kawara, Bruce McLean and Bas Jan Ader. Along with colleagues WC2E9HA, The Everyday Press aka Bunker Basement and Whatever Anderson, Gestures will open the shared exhibition space Chequers in Summer 2025.
Installation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewAllan Kaprow, Assemblage, Environments & Happenings, 1966, Hardcover BookBruce Gilbert, Angela Conway, Michael Clark, This Way, 1984, Vinyl, LPYvonne Rainer, Work 1961-73, 1974, Paperback BookAnastasia Coope, Title Magic, 2024, Ink on PaperBruce McLean, King for a Day and 999 Other Pieces/Works/Things, Etc., 1972, Situation Publications, London, Artist Book and Original DrawingSimon Moretti, Interlude, 1999, Performance, Platform, London. Photo Effie Paleologu , Courtesy the artistRichard Schechner, Performance Theory, 1988, Paperback BookRicky Jay, Cards As Weapons, 1977, Paperback BookSue Tompkins, Untitled, 2024, Typewritten text on coloured A4 paperStuart Sherman, Thirteenth Spectacle (Time), 1983, Invitation CardMieko Shiomi, Audience Piece for Playbill, 2024, Published by Playbill, document in printed envelopeMieko Shiomi, Audience Piece for Playbill, 2024, Published by Playbill, document in printed envelopeNam Jun Paik, Charlotte Moorman, PERFORMANCES Invitation, 1982, Mailed InviteNam Jun Paik, Charlotte Moorman, Yoshi Wada
Music and Video Concert Poster, 1973, Mailed PosterCharlotte Moorman, Avant Garde Festival of New York Poster, 1980, Mailed PosterDetail of Allan Kaprow, Pose – Multiples Inc., 1970, Offset envelope, containing seven offset lithographs
Installation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewInstallation viewAllan Kaprow, Assemblage, Environments & Happenings, 1966, Hardcover BookBruce Gilbert, Angela Conway, Michael Clark, This Way, 1984, Vinyl, LPYvonne Rainer, Work 1961-73, 1974, Paperback BookAnastasia Coope, Title Magic, 2024, Ink on PaperBruce McLean, King for a Day and 999 Other Pieces/Works/Things, Etc., 1972, Situation Publications, London, Artist Book and Original DrawingSimon Moretti, Interlude, 1999, Performance, Platform, London. Photo Effie Paleologu , Courtesy the artistRichard Schechner, Performance Theory, 1988, Paperback BookRicky Jay, Cards As Weapons, 1977, Paperback BookSue Tompkins, Untitled, 2024, Typewritten text on coloured A4 paperStuart Sherman, Thirteenth Spectacle (Time), 1983, Invitation CardMieko Shiomi, Audience Piece for Playbill, 2024, Published by Playbill, document in printed envelopeMieko Shiomi, Audience Piece for Playbill, 2024, Published by Playbill, document in printed envelopeNam Jun Paik, Charlotte Moorman, PERFORMANCES Invitation, 1982, Mailed InviteNam Jun Paik, Charlotte Moorman, Yoshi Wada
Music and Video Concert Poster, 1973, Mailed PosterCharlotte Moorman, Avant Garde Festival of New York Poster, 1980, Mailed PosterDetail of Allan Kaprow, Pose – Multiples Inc., 1970, Offset envelope, containing seven offset lithographs
Image credit: Stuart Sherman, The Twelfth Spectacle (Language), photo by Nathaniel Tileston, 1980, as included in The Stuart Sherman Papers, 2025.
