EVILSPORT AND ULTRA RUN

1 - 31 March 2012

Dan Shipsides and Veronique Chance

Offering his collection of vintage Mountain magazines (1969 – 1992), Dan Shipsides’ project asks the viewer to explore the “sport” of climbing through an encounter with the aesthetics, philosophy, ethics and maverick social positioning of many of its protagonists. Radical lifestyles and belief positions embodied by certain infamous early mountaineers gave flesh to the quasi-spiritual, romantic and escapist tendencies resonant in the seductive images of the 20th century magazines. As climbing is being proposed for the 2020 Olympics, and as much of rock and mountain sport has succumbed to prescribed and commercial modes of physique, technique, equipment and branding, Evilsport expounds a friction to the wholesome Olympic ideal.

Relationships between the physical presence of the body and its representation on screen are explored in the work of Veronique Chance. In The Great Orbital Ultra Run the artist, wired up with film and sound-recording equipment, records the demanding physicality of running the 140 mile long journey along the outer Orbital paths of Greater London for subsequent relay in the gallery.

Both works test the point where sport crosses over to performative expression and examine its representation in broadcast and printed media.

GATEWAY GAMES

27 January – 24 February 2012

Atelier 11, University of Greenwich School of Architecture

An exhibition of speculative architectural models and drawings set in the Thames Gateway, investigating the wider context within which the forthcoming Olympic Games and its legacy is located. This story is told with the help of Charles Dickens, Georges Perec, JG Ballard, Iain Sinclair, and Angela Carter, starting with the moment when, in Dicken’s Great Expectations, Pip is turned upside down by the convict Abel Magwitch – a scene set on the Hoo Peninsula, the geographical centre of the Thames Gateway.

The architecture of the Olympics revolves around the body. Just as the rotation of Pip represents the metaphoric moment when past and future collide in the novel, the contemporary story of London’s shift to the east is both described and imagined in the exhibition where the body and its experience is at the centre of the projects presented.

Over the last seven years Atelier 11, in the postgraduate research of the School of Architecture at Greenwich University, has been speculating on the fictional and factual history and future of the Thames Gateway through drawings and models which have been presented at the Royal Academy and as part of the RIBA Presidents’ Medals.

Event - The BAM (Body Architecture Movement) Research Group will conduct a Pechu Kechu (series of short presentations) in association with the exhibition (date to be confirmed)

LINEAR B: A memorial project responding to works in the collection of Greek artist Nikos Alexiou

17 November – 6 January 2012 *

Curated by Christina Mitrentse & Jonas Ranson

The exhibition presents new works produced by seven contemporary London based artists, responding explicitly to a selection of international artists’ work in the idiosyncratic private collection of late Greek artist Nikos Alexiou. Incorporating diverse readings, the show explores the dialectical relationships between contemporary collector and artist, artist and artist, while it alludes to the larger conversation of the artist-as-collector and artist-as-curator.

ALEX BUNN  responder to REMY RIVOIRE

ALEX ZIKA responder to ADAM CHODZKO

CHARLOTTE BERGSON  responder to PANOS KOKKINIAS

CHRISTINA MITRENTSE responder to NIKOS ALEXIOU

MARSHA BRADFIELD responder to BERNHARD CELLA

MARTIN SEXTON responder to GIANΝOULIS HALEPAS 

JONAS RANSON responder to VASSILIS BALATSOS 

1. *Please Note: the gallery will be closed from
   

   23 Dec – 3 Jan 2011 inclusive.

IMAGINING IDENTITY

25 October – 12 November 2011

This exhibition presents carefully chosen works from an international project involving young people from different communities. Participants came from two centres; the Omid-e-Mehr rehabilitation centre in Tehran, Iran and the Iranian Youth Development Association based in Woolwich, London. The project was managed by Rosetta Art Centre and delivered in partnership with all three organisations.

Through photography the young people examine how they think about themselves and engage with the world around them. The exhibition celebrates and emphasises both how their individual identity is unique and the factors that shape their lives. It combines their genetic being, cultural diversity, religious and linguistic backgrounds; their interests and abilities. The fascinating selection of images and stories in this exhibition provide an opportunity to discern more about Iran from outside and within.

Associated Event: On Saturday 29 October at 12 noon there will be a film screening of The Glass House. Directed by Hamid Rahmanian and produced by Melissa Hibbard, this 2008 documentary follows four girls, who are attempting to pull themselves out of the margins of society by attending Omid-e-Mehr rehabilitation centre in uptown Tehran.

Followed by Q&A with Omid-e-Mehr Founder Marjaneh Halati, chaired by: Sanaz Amidi, Director of Rosetta Art Centre

 

THE PRESENT IS A POINT JUST PASSED

7 June – 11 July 2012

Curated by Lizzie Hughes

In the lead up to an event where records will be broken, races won and lost in a fraction of a second, The Present is a Point Just Passed brings together art works and artefacts that give a tangible presence to defined moments of time. Whilst some works carefully reposition empirical data and look at incidents of historical significance, others use banal observations and puerile gestures to render forever noteworthy otherwise unremarkable passing moments. The exhibition will include works by Martin John Callanan, Jan Dibbets, Aaron Koblin, Lizzie Hughes and Jonty Semper, alongside seismograms from the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.