Exhibition Archive

Inspired by Carl Sagan’s thirteen-part television series ‘Cosmos: A Personal Voyage’ (1980), the ‘Imagined Nebula’ works grapple with the problem of how to accurately represent something so vast that it is almost impossible to measure or understand, especially when we are a fundamental part of it. The paintings that make up this series portray scenes of an imaginary cosmos, complete with starry constellations and jewel-coloured nebulae. 

On public display here for the first time is a new work titled ‘The Cosmos Within’, which consists of 12 life-sized, anatomical models of the human brain. Each model has been painted with different coloured nebulae which Loz has chosen to represent the 12 traceable elements which make up the human body. Nebula are huge clouds of gas and dust that give form and life to everything on Earth. These 12 elements are found both in vast and unfathomable cosmic phenomena as well as the tiniest microscopic particles and forces that hold everything together. 

Running from 2021 until 2025 and supported by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Where we are… aims to help give young people agency within their own local communities by creating three cultural projects a year as part of the British Museum’s National Programmes. It encourages young people to interpret what arts and culture mean to them, their families and local communities thereby supporting and developing their skills and experience.

A fully funded programme, it also intends to help bridge barriers that prevent young people from engaging with arts and culture locally by working collaboratively with local organisations responding to a community need. Working in a four-way partnership with the British Museum, local charities and cultural spaces, Where we are… ultimately aims to connect with young people who are currently under-served by the cultural sector.

SEE ME AS ME features a mix of film, sculpture, creative writing and music – all created and curated by the team of young adults, with support from the creative team of Attenborough Arts Centre and Pedestrian. The exhibition explores issues of identity and the reality of LGBTQIA+ bodies, celebrating both the nuanced experiences and embracing the power of the collective. The team of young curators explain the concept as an invitation to see yourselves as you really are, with no labels, inhibitions or constraints.

Ama Dogbe is a British-Ghanaian digital artist whose work engages with a range of personal and societal themes through digital mediums including experimental film, animation and video games. Continuing her recent work using interactive virtual world building as a tool to explore modern challenges and dilemmas, Ama has been commissioned by Attenborough Arts Centre to respond to the theme of our current exhibition, ‘The World is a Work in Progress’.

Ama has constructed a gleaming circular platform, in which visitors can meander between five exhibits. Digital sculpture and experimental film invite us into the all corners of the internet, from trending articles on Wiki-how that serve as a snapshot of this moment in time, to a distorted version of the artist’s own search history that reflects on our relationships with and illusions of privacy and control. Peering down on Google Earth offers perspectives on remoteness, connectivity and randomisation, whilst other films show forms of human and machine labour. These clips are not only commonplace, view-generating newsfeed content, but – amid crises of housing and hunger and a cultural resurgence towards older, slower ways of working – a contemplation of what is man-made, what is machine made, and what is destroyed.

Visit our gallery space for the full exhibition, an audible and visual exploration into the idea of home.

Please pick up an audio player, sit down, relax and enjoy the short stories of the young people’s experiences of home in their own words.

After you have listened to MY LAND YOUR LAND, we invite you to fill in one of the cards from the booth. You can post it in a drawer or take your card to reception and we will then add it to the growing collection in the café.

Tell us what you think — @2destlang #MyLandYourLand @AttenboroughAC

MY LAND YOUR LAND is part of University of Leicester’s Centenary Celebrations.

The artists represented in the exhibition responded to these themes in markedly different ways, but their practices were connected by an interest in social and political activism, co-production and concepts of futurity. Some highlighted the inequalities and prejudice that exist in our societies today, acting as a call to action in the here and now. Other works explored a variety of possible futures and invited us to collaborate in imagining the future that we want for ourselves and our communities. If the world is a work in progress, what do we want to change? What might the next 100 years have in store?

The University of Leicester celebrated its centenary in Autumn 2021. It is no coincidence that the public fund that would go on to endow the University of Leicester was opened on Armistice Day in 1918. Then known as the University College for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, the University College was envisaged as a ‘living memorial’ to the sacrifices of local people in the First World War. Leicester was to have, as the local paper put it, “more than a mere artistic war memorial”. The University motto ’Ut vitam habeant’ (‘so that they may have life’) stands as a permanent reminder on every publication and degree certificate issued since. We are the only European university founded as a memorial to the First World War, and one of only two anywhere in the world.

Participating Artists

Ruth Beale, Michael Forbes, Khush Kali, Vince Laws, Bob & Roberta Smith, Kai Syng Tan, Jessica Voorsanger.

Yambe Tam (b.1989, US) is an artist based in London. She works across a wide range of media, from painting, ceramics and sculpture to video game design and virtual reality. Her practice is rooted in a deep interest in the evolution of consciousness which Yambe explores through the creation of contemplative, multi-sensory experiences. In the process of researching and making her work, Yambe regularly collaborates with specialists including composers, creative technologists and scientists.

In this exhibition, Metallic wormholes are suspended in the air above. They sing a ghostly chorus about the infinity of space: a faint siren song whose vibrations draw rippling columns that appear to grow from the mineral pool below. ‘Cosmic Garden’ is a birthplace of protean waveforms that shift between sound, light, and matter, and is a space that the artist invites us to enter and contemplate the transitory nature of things.

In creating ‘Cosmic Garden’, Yambe was particularly influenced by Japanese gardens, which are meticulously crafted according to particular aesthetics and philosophical ideas. These gardens are transitional environments designed to create a space for reflection upon the interconnectedness of life and the passage of time. Echoing the forms and function of the Japanese dry garden, ‘Cosmic Garden’ is a celebration of the formidable power and form of the natural world: from the depths of the oceans to the farthest reaches of outer space.

Mik Godley is an artist and art school lecturer based in Nottingham. He is a painter who makes work using both traditional analogue painting techniques and digital iPad technology. His ongoing body of work ‘Considering Silesia’ was initiated in 2003, and explores the artist’s Anglo-German heritage, cultural memory, displacement and migration.  

‘Considering Silesia’ observes the context of our evolving relationship with the internet, which increasingly enables us to virtually “visit” parts of the world and connect with strangers without leaving home. Despite having never visited his mother’s homeland, Lower Silesia, Mik’s work documents the landscape and architecture of the region through images, video footage and maps found online. 

”

When I found myself restricted and was told to stay in, I literally explored closer to home. The four walls didn’t seem so all consuming when I changed my attitude to look a little closer. My house is thriving with history and architectural influence, and I found myself weaving in and around the corridors, and eventually to the basement. From top to bottom, there are flecks of original pieces, such as doors, wallpaper, and some alluring statues that really embody and honour the scale of this 1886 house.

“Not only has this project helped to bring some interesting sections of my home from the shadows, it has also pushed forward new photography techniques and ideas as well. The synergy of my home and my camera emanated a deeper appreciation for where I lived: I had a horror movie set in my basement.”

Tim Neath has carefully crafted a sprawling model world using recycled cardboard and craft materials. The scenes are populated with dated vintage action figurines, set for an epic encounter on a miniature scale. Immersing the viewer in the imagery of Hollywood film, the piece unpicks the politics of the science fiction and Western genres, in particular the idea of Manifest Destiny: the belief that colonial expansion by American settlers was the will of God.

Tim Neath is an artist based at 2 Queens in Leicester and was commissioned by Attenborough Arts Centre to support him in the completion of this long-term project.

In connection with our main exhibition ‘Mariner 9’, local meteorite collector Graham Ensor has curated a display of meteorites and related artefacts in Gallery 3. With specimens from Mars and the moon, as well as local samples from the famous fall near Barwell village, these meteorites have stories to tell about the origins of the universe, and their disruptive descents to earth.

When a 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite exploded over the Leicestershire village of Barwell on Christmas eve in 1965, nine-year-old Graham gained a life-long passion for the subject. He now owns about 1,000 specimens, which experts believe could be the largest private collection in the UK. Many of the meteorites in Graham’s collection are of great scientific value and he regularly works with the Open University to make material available for research. He has generously loaned a selection for display in Attenborough Art Centre.

Created with software used by the film and gaming industries, and using data from NASA’s missions to Mars, Richardson has created a realistic representation of the Mars landscape covered by the debris of centuries of exploration. Despite the apparent abandoned state of the planet, some of the spacecraft continue to work, looking for signs of life.

Kelly Richardson (b. 1972, Canada) is one of the leading members of a new generation of artists using digital technologies to create hyper-real, highly charged landscapes. Recent solo exhibitions include Dundee Contemporary Arts, CAG Vancouver, VOID Derry and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York. Her video installations have been included in presentations at the Toronto Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival.

The group Reasonable Adjustment, or RAD, were formed in 1989 in protest at the treatment of disabled people, and were active during the late eighties and early nineties. What made RAD unique was the advocacy of armed resistance in the face of what they saw as unfair treatment of disabled people by the right-wing conservative government of Margaret Thatcher.

Between 1989 and 1994 they carried out a series of attacks including a shooting at the BBC and the bombing of Euston Station. Reasonable Adjustment modelled themselves on other historical armed resistance movements and are comparable to direct action groups such as the Animal Liberation Front, however, no one was seriously injured or killed in their campaign of violence.

At the time of Reasonable Adjustment, Justin Edgar was a student at Portsmouth Art College. He first noticed graffiti depicting RAD’s distinctive logo when taking photographs for an assignment on the city environment. He began to document the movement and this exhibition presents items from his personal collection of the last thirty years as well as borrowed items.

‘In My Shoes’ explores the ways in which artists based in the UK have represented themselves in their work since the 1990s. Encompassing a range of media including film, photography and sculpture, ‘In My Shoes’ draws primarily from the Arts Council Collection, with key loans from other UK collections, to investigate these dynamic approaches. 

This exhibition offers a timely opportunity to consider the legacy of a key aspect of 1990s British art. The show begins with key early works by so-called ‘Young British Artists’ including Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas and Gavin Turk, who received international attention for putting themselves in the frame with bold and confrontational works. The exhibition continues with the work of a younger generation of artists including Rachel Maclean and Bedwyr Williams who have each established an active role within their work. ‘In My Shoes’ concludes with some of the most recent works to enter the Arts Council Collection, some on public display for the first time since acquisition. 

Mann’s distinctive vision was deeply influenced by Bonnard and Cezanne but his paintings remain remarkably original.  Affected by failing vision from the age of 36, Mann was compelled to find new ways of seeing and working – this creative liberation produced a celebrated body of work that continued after his total loss of sight in 2005. This exhibition, which has been developed in close collaboration with the artist’s family, is the largest public showing of Mann’s work to date and draws from all periods of his career.  It includes an extensive collection of paintings and drawings, alongside never previously exhibited archival material, photographs and audio recordings that reveal fascinating insights into Mann’s practise.

The exhibition is centred around four groups of Mann’s work made over three decades – the Late Lyndhurst Grove Paintings, a series of works begun in 1988, depicting the interior of Mann’s home in Peckham and locations nearby;  Mann’s house and garden at Bungay in Suffolk which he moved to in 1990; the painting ‘The Family at Breakfast, Borgo Place’ (2004) accompanied by supporting material showing Mann’s process; and a group of later works which depict  scenes of figures, often bathers by infinity swimming pools.  From the late 1980s Mann made audio recordings of his subjects and visitors to the exhibition can listen to several of these ‘audio sketchbooks’, paired with the paintings they documented.

A section of the exhibition focuses on the moment in 2005-6 when Mann lost his remaining vision. It shows three paintings including ‘Frances in the Pink Chair, Yellow Background’ which started Mann on a new way of painting.  The works are shown alongside a film made by Mann’s son Peter during this time.  Also on show are smaller works, drawings and sketchbooks which explore Mann’s need to understand the world through the act of painting and drawing.  Material relating to his time as a teacher and his research into other artists is also on display.  Mann devoted considerable time to the study of other painters, most notably Pierre Bonnard whose quote ”Let it be felt that the painter was there; consciously looking at the objects in their light already conceived from the beginning” is the inspiration for the title of the exhibition.

This was Williamson’s largest solo project to date, featuring a brand new project ‘inspiration archives’, which had been commissioned by Attenborough Arts. Inspiration Archives brought together never before seen objects, artefacts, ephemera, film footage and photography, which document the lives of several historically overlooked personalities. Characters included; Deaf wrestler Cain in Chains; Charlotte Waterton, granddaughter of zoological illustrator William Waterton, and paraplegic traveller and explorer ‘Parachute Susan’ O’Sullivan, alongside various other inspirational historic figures of differing professions and backgrounds.

Accompanying the Inspirational Archive installation, Attenborough Arts Centre and Aaron Williamson also curate a retrospective of pas solo and collaborative projects including film, performance, objects, text and photography.

Talking Heads is rooted in a long period of research at the Department of Psychosis Studies at the Kings College Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, and the National Psychosis Unit at Bethlem Hospital, London. It explores the experiences of a national community of people living with and recovering from psychosis, and of the carers, nurses, neuroscientists, psychologists, occupational therapists, social workers and academics who work to understand and provide support.

Talking Heads is organised around a series of new works, highlights include:

UNGEZIEFER

The darkly comedic Ungeziefer focuses on a hapless voiceover artist in a recording studio attempting to make an abridged audiobook of Franz Kafka’s ’Metamorphosis’, directed by a bored producer.  The narrative of Gregor Samsa’s nightmarish transformation into a giant cockroach, and the inability of his horrified family to deal with it, is taken as a loose metaphor for the onset of schizophrenia and its frequently alienating effects. The actor performs and re-performs truncated fragments of Kafka’s text, following directions from the sound booth. To his confusion, intermittent auxiliary voices begin to appear, critiquing his performance, apparently unheard by the producer.  The catcalls and insults build to a yammering chorus of disapproval voiced by a cast of gibbering, shrieking voices competing for airtime.

XENOBATH

Xenobath is a collaborative work made with video artist Milo Creese, comprising collaged sampling of found audio and footage, CGI animation, filmed interview and performed action exploring accounts of the altered states of perception frequently associated with psychosis. A recurrent monologue at the centre of the piece takes the form of a collective hallucination articulated by an oscillating swarm of voices, all performed by actor David Cann. During her residency at Kings College Department of Psychosis Studies, Brimfield has had conversations with dozens of voice hearers and perceivers of phenomena unseen by the general population to gather ‘remembrances’ of unusual experience.

Her landscape paintings evolve from hard earned studies made while in the landscape, placing a board on the ground to make either a drawing or watercolour.

In contract, her self-portrait works are critical examinations, and reaffirmations of self. Encompassing strength, humanity and wit, they are statements as much about the human conditions as her own.

Jones studied at Camberwell School of Art, followed by the Royal College of Art, where she won a Rome scholarship in 1982.

The exhibition places this new work alongside seldom-seen examples of Adam Reynolds’ own practice, archival material, and interviews. The exhibition sees The Adam Gallery, the pioneering artist-run, labyrinthine, housed in an ex-cobbler’s shop in south London, is re-imagined within the walls of Attenborough Arts Centre – re-affrming AAC’s and Shape’s commiment to supporting disabled artists.

Alongside Adam Reynolds, IN OUT THERE artists include Sarah Carpenter, who has a background in dance choreography and theatre directing. Carpenter’s inspiration comes from her experience of mental illness, likening her artistic process to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Nicola Lane explores themes of fragmentation and absence, informed by her peripatetic childhood and experience of disability. She has worked as an artist since graduating in 1972, her practice evolving from painting into sculpture, installation and filmmaking. Catherine Clearys’ paintings are populated by a diverse range of references to film, myths and stories, animation, folk memory and historical artefacts and are loosely in conversation with the history of English Neo-Romantic painting.

Adam Reynolds

Adam Reynolds (1959 – 2005) was a pioneering curator, activist, gallery owner, mentor and advocate, but first and foremost, a successful and influential artist. Reynolds worked with many different materials including lead, copper, steel and glass and moved from predominantly figurative pieces in the 1980s towards more abstract, geometric and larger work.

Reynolds, a disabled person, drew on his lived experience of muscular dystrophy throughout his career, influencing both his art and his politics. Adam used this knowledge, and commitment to increasing access to the arts for disabled people buy serving on the Board of Shape as Chair (1990-97). He also served on the Arts Council’s art panel (1989-94) and as a Trustee of Chisenhale Gallery (1991-2000). Reynolds involvement with these major organisations ran parallel with a key period disability rights movement, which saw the passing of key legislation such as the disability discrimination act (1997).

During his childhood, Golding’s family moved house regularly, not only to various contrasting communities in London, but also overseas to Ghana in West Africa. These experiences of continuous fluidity and movement have undoubtedly influenced Golding’s artwork. Golding premiered two new films alongside his 2016 film Chainmail which forms a loose portrait of his younger brother, Solomon, the first black British male dancer of The Royal Ballet.

The exhibition is not about the hierarchy of taste as it manifests between high and low culture, but rather about the cultural and political manifestation of pattern within craft, sculpture, painting, costume design, film and photography. Criminal ornamentation celebrates the impolite and apologetic display of patter, repetition and colour as freedom from the elitism of good taste, rejoicing the radical deviancy of pattern.

For this exhbition, delGado travelled to Greece, North Macedonia and Calais to film, photograph, and record the journeys taken by Syrian refugees. delGado has not filmed these ‘invisible’ people who proliferate our media, but the places they have passed through. There are traces of their existence, fragmented experiences, fleeting moments and marks left on the land as they pass through to find safety.

Using video, photography, lighting and sound, Altered Landscapes encourages you to open up contemplation and discussion about the current situation in Europe, a place that has become filled with militarised border control.

Steffie Ricahrds’ work aims to visualise this and relates to the transient values of coastal Cornwall. She explores the constant yet subtle changes to the environment, both brought and erased by the tides, and asked us to think about out relationship with the magnitude of the ocean itself.

Laura Swanson examines the behaviour of looking at physical difference, working across media including drawing, installation, photography, and sculpture. Pulling from multiple sources – art history, commercial display, critical theory, personal experience, photography, popular culture, sociology – her visual language is simultaneously playful and serious, simple and intricate, inviting and disruptive.

The exhibition will take autumn 2017 in AAC’s new gallery, a space dedicated to international contemporary art. AAC is one of the largest public galleries in the midlands, producing high quality exhibitions and commissioning exciting new work. AAC is committed to supporting innovative, critically challenging, and socially engaged artists.

Through its examination of plant orientated artwork, Plant Culture will question the privileging of human experience (that of the artist) over the existence of a nonhuman subject. The exhibition looks at plant-human dynamics in a variety of different ways, for example the still life, where seemingly inanimate objects are impregnated with human symbolism.

The exhibitions design and layout will draw comparisons between botanic gardens, (collections of plants brought together for study and pleasure) and collections of contemporary art. The work will be organised around four perspectives: Allegory, Reality, Investigation and otherness.

The exhibition will be curated by, Attenborough Arts Centre. To accompany the exhibition, University of Leicester’s Department of Biology support talks and tours of the exhibition, and University’s Botanical Gardens, two organisations will also co-produce a series of creative learning classes and workshops.

Artists

Gilbert & George, Marc Quinn, Anya Gallaccio, Andy Goldsworthy, Janice Kerbel, Georgie Hopton, Simon Starling, Michael Landy, Hayley Newman, John Newling, Lois Weinberg and John Stezaker, Annie

The Ortas’ practice is driven by extensive research into the forces shaping our environment: the availability of food and water, the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and subsequent species loss, and global climate change.

This new solo presentation brings together artwork relating to the Ortas’ ongoing concern with human migration, escape and survival from environmental and political catastrophe. It includes many of their characteristic social sculptures, assemblages of functional objects such as customised buoyancy aids, water flasks, and individually made sleeping bags.

Drawing together works by artists’ Tony Heaton, Noemi Lakmaier, Aaron Williamson, Bobby Baker, and photographer David Hevey, the collection explored various aspects of disability politics. Using sculpture, performance, film, and drawing to address a diverse range of concerns, they explore political activism, the labour market, medical treatment, access, sexuality, and hidden history; they challenge the social, economic and cultural forces that characterise disability.