We Grown-Ups Can Also Be Afraid: Creativity in Times of Crisis

The times we are living through seem to be characterised by precarity and instability on multiple fronts: climate crisis, global conflict, genocide, mass migration, and the violence of Western imperialism. ‘We Grown-Ups Can Also Be Afraid’ explores how some of the most significant artists of our time are responding to the anxieties of our contemporary moment through their work.

Drawn from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection, one of the UK’s foremost private art collections, the exhibition encompasses sculpture, works on canvas, moving image and installation. The artists represented in the exhibition respond to these themes in very different ways, but their practices are connected by a sustained engagement with globally important issues that can often feel too big and too difficult for us to think about.

This is not an exhibition about art and activism. The artists represented may not consider their work as a form of political activism—indeed, there is no sense that we are being lectured to or told what to think. Rather, it seems that we are being invited to direct our attention to something urgently important, to look more closely at the world as it is now.

Art can help us to share stories, to reflect on individual and collective experiences of conflict, to process the unimaginable and empathise with the plight of others. The works brought together in this exhibition may not provide an easy solution to the things that keep us awake at night, but collectively they ask: What does it mean to make art now? Do artists have a responsibility to respond to our contemporary moment? And what responsibilities do we have to sit up and pay attention?

Participating Artists: Francisca Aninat, Fiona Banner, Phyllida Barlow, Nina Beier and Marie Lund, Huma Bhabha, Ayan Farah, Mona Hatoum, Jacco Olivier, Doris Salcedo.

Image – Artwork: ‘Hot Spot’, Courtesy of the David and Indrė Roberts Collection. © Mona Hatoum. All rights reserved, DACS 2020. Image courtesy of White Cube. Photo by Stephen White.

Gallery Opening Times:

Weekdays, 12pm – 5pm
Weekends, 12pm – 4pm

Exhibition Accessibility

• Our friendly team of volunteers and gallery invigilators can tell you more about the artworks and artists.
• Sound and light levels can be adjusted.
• Seating is available in all gallery spaces.
• Gallery interpretation is produced in large print as standard.
• A braille guide for the exhibition is also available from the gallery desk.
• Film and video artworks are subtitled, or where this is not possible a transcript will be available.
• Ear defenders are available from the gallery desk.

A full guide to accessibility and facilities information across our spaces can be found here.

If you require an adjustment that isn’t mentioned please contact us ahead of your visit and we will try to meet your request within our capacity.