Urban Dialogues

Welcome to the Urban Dialogues' online catalogue!

[urban-dialogues]

Walls Have Two sides, David Borrington and Aithan Shapira with Dr Aaron Rosen

Aithan Shapira and David Borrington met at the Royal College of Art in 2006 – both their work and lives have been informed by edges and boundaries. Their practice in seeing multiple perspectives led to the formation of a lifelong friendship. This collaborative project sees the two artists working together for the first time and aims to challenge our concept of walls. Borrington and Shapira write that “Walls have two sides, though we live in a world accustomed to seeing only one - at our homes, offices, hotels and underground stations without thinking what is happening on the other side”.

Exploring this idea Shapira and Borrington have built a wall installation whilst living on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

With Shapira living in the United States and Borrington based in the UK, the artists have each created one side of a wall - only revealed to each other after completion.  Subsequently, working together in London they have completed the installation by making The Mending Wall. 

In the artists own words “we build walls to separate differences rather than breaking them down to solve conflict”. This project challenges our notion of walls and what they mean in our lives.

David & Aithan have collaborated with Dr Aaron Rosen, Lecturer in Sacred Traditions and the Arts at King’s College London.

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I Will Make Your Paths Straight, Lucy Lauener

Still from Video Installation

The piece is influenced by the following piece of scripture:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3: 5-6

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White Knuckles, Antony Ward

Printed Polyester

This flag is like any other flag; in that it is a piece of rectangular fabric with a distinctive design with the intended purpose of being held as a symbol, as a signalling device and as a decoration. Ward has modified the design of Saint George’s cross to create this piece.

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#francesca-­‐revelation_icon.#relics#£&xxxomg€$vii from Icons., Eran Tsafrir

In December 2011, members of ‘Occupy Justice’, a faction of ‘Occupy London’ took over a disused historical court building in London’s East End, where they held a series of “trials of the 1%”. Tsafrir photographed, filmed and recorded the activists in the courtrooms and detention cells of the derelict building, and after their departure, continued to document them in other private and public buildings across London.

The resulting body of works – ‘Icons.’ presents an iconography and alternative aesthetic of ‘Occupy’, challenging public perception of the movement and testing the idea of the ‘aestheticization of politics’ in the current socio-political environment.

‘Icons.’ is part of Tsafrir’s diG.shaKe.riSe.andblEEed,myloVe. project - a hub for the creation of artwork questioning the potency of protest as an instrument for policy change in the UK.

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Studio Chamber, Tessa Brown

Brushed cotton, silk taffeta, polyester rods, nylon cord, pulleys.

As a bespoke clothes-maker for many years, Tessa Brown understands  the importance of dressing as a means of communicating identity. In the act of getting dressed we are participating in the cultural life of the places we inhabit, using dress to express our desire to blend in or stand apart from particular groups. We all know that cloth has the capacity to both mask and reveal, often at the same time. Humans have produced  and traded textiles for millennia, the cloth, by it's very nature, carrying traces of the landscapes and the peoples that have brought it into being.

It seems as though cloth itself has potency and a capacity to transform, and it is this quality that Brown is exploring with her piece 'Studio Chamber'. In this instance, a neutral fabric is used to create a soft, translucent and temporary enclosure,which is a place 'to be' in. Or perhaps, to hide.

[urban-dialogues]

Neither A Beginning Nor An End, Flora Bowden

Ink and acrylic on paper

Flora Bowden’s work explores the rock formations of the Siccar Point, Berwickshire. In the 1780’s preeminent geologist James Hutton used his findings from Siccar Point to confirm key theories concerning the creation of the earth. Hutton’s work consequently redefined modern thinking relating to the age of the earth, the history of time, and readings of the Bible. In his Abstract of the Theory of the Earth (1785) Hutton wrote that ‘with respect to human observation, this world has neither a beginning nor an end.’

This piece is a detailed study of the landforms of Siccar Point. It uses the same surface area as the original abstract and addresses the deep sense of age and expansion inherent in this site. Through her piece, Flora Bowden explores how Siccar Point changed our understanding of time and created new narratives about the history of the earth

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Punch & Judy: Tree of Jesse (Triptych), Helen Wilks

Graphite on paper with pine supporting poles

Using the archetypal figures of Punch and Judy, Tree of Jesse seeks to connect the quotidian to the grand. It is intended to portray a humanistic view of an ancient Old Testament story using a visual form often utilized across the centuries. The piece is influenced by other depictions of Old Testament stories, such as the mullion of the window at Dorchester Abbey in Oxfordshire.

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Temple Mount, Adam J B Walker

Mixed Media

Temple Mount is an ephemeral colonization of space exploring spatial and social politics. It shifts between the monumental and the make-shift, the individual and the social, the inviting and the exposed, the sacred and the mundane, the awkward and the comfortable.

Adam creates transient artworks inviting participation. His most recent works have explored the politics of space, and the people within it. He is particularly interested in constructing frameworks which allow slippage between the roles of viewer and participant. In physically engaging in and inhabiting the work, the viewer/ participant might then take on the ‘author’ role too as they inscribe their experience of it with meaning.

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Untitled, Romina Khanom

Rugs with geometric shapes cut out 

This floor installation is inspired by sacred text from the Qur’an, Arabic calligraphy and natural forms. Khanom was influenced by the grand patterns and geometry in Islamic art, which are used to convey the infinite nature of God. The depiction of patterns through patterns, looping through one another, embodies the spirituality which lies at the heart of the piece. Layers, arabesque, geometry, infinity—these are underlying themes that form the foundation of the installation.

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Walks With A Magic Painting: April Quarry, Tree 8, Tree 27, House [Beautiful]4, Sally Annett

Digital Print 

The Walks With A Magic Painting series examines the central themes of reflection and pilgrimage. The use of ‘magic mirrors’ are employed throughout the series to produce a series of images which allow us to view archetypal symbols of nature and pilgrimage from a number of angles and perspectives. The photographs are taken in the real geographic location of John Bunyan’s ‘Pilgrims Progress. April Quarry, Tree 8 and Tree 27 are all located in the ‘Slough of Despond,’ House [Beautiful] 4 is located at Houghton House. None of the images use photoshop or digital alteration of any kind.

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Pavilion Series 1, 2 & 3, andLost Pavilion, Said Adrus

Photo Panels

The Pavilion Series presents two key Islamic sites in Britain: the Muslim Burial Ground for Indian soldiers at Horsell Common in Woking, and the Woking Mosque (also known as the Shah Jehan Mosque). Built in 1889, the Woking Mosque is the oldest purpose built mosque which remains operational in Britain today. The Muslim Burial Ground is a listed building however in recent years it has been repeatedly vandalised, in some cases with racist graffiti.

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The Bridesmaid and Prosperine, Hannah Habibi Hopkin, in collaboration with Zarek Rahman

Photographic Print

The Bridesmaid and Prosperine are part of a series that re-imagines classic Pre-Raphaelite pieces. The images are intended to highlight the Pre-Raphaelite fixation with female beauty - an obsession that remains ever present in today's societies -  whilst also drawing attention to the reductive concept of the feminine ideal. Hopkin’s decision to cover the faces of subjects with burqas forces the viewer to focus on formulaic constructs of femininity, for example through dress and symbolism; in the case of The Bridesmaid the shapes created by the burqa perfectly mirror the auburn hair of the original sitter, and she is surrounded by trinkets used by brides to divine her future husband.

[urban-dialogues]

The Kittel Collection: The Modesty Kittel, The Maternal Kittel, The Mourning Kittel, The Torah Kittel, Jacqueline Nicholls 

Embroidery on cotton 

The Kittel Collection explores how clothing is used to convey meaning in Jewish tradition. The kittel is a burial shroud, and it’s customarily worn when standing before God, especially in prayer. 

The Modesty Kittel examines the way modesty literature gives a message of shame, scrutinising the body for potential sexual temptation, locking away the female body from the male gaze. 

The Maternal Kittel explores the theme of mothers clothing their children in biblical narrative, especially when saying goodbye. This extension of their nurturing keeps the mother present in her absence. 

The Mourning Kittel highlights the physical act of tearing ones' clothes as a mourning ritual, but also as a typical reaction depicted in the Bible upon hearing bad news. Thus making physical the inner emotional turmoil of grief. 

The Torah Kittel explores the recurrent comparison made between jewellery and clothing and the written Torah in traditional rabbinic texts

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The Surface Glittered Out Of Heart Of Light: Structure, Sarah Core

Glazed bone china, enamel, ceramic decals

Second in a range of tableware that acts poetically to celebrate the hidden kindnesses of everyday life. Made in consultation with the Princess Royal Trust’s Coventry Carers’ Centre, Core held cross-cultural creative workshops with a Milan group of family carers, all of Asian origin. Drawing upon these workshops, Core’s art explores the theme of care and the emotional impact of being a carer. The 2D artwork produced during these workshops was incorporated into the surface designs for the selected tableware.

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In God We Are Imagined and God Is Dead Now Pray, Christopher Clack

Pigment print on reflective sheet, floated on printed laid paper

Clack’s work examines the relationship between art and religion and the part this relationship plays in the contemporary world. Part of a larger series of work, both In God We Are Imagined and God Is Dead Now Pray are a influenced by the central ideas of Negative Theological thinking. Negative Theology attempts to describe God by negation; to think only in terms of what may not be said of God. 

Fundamentally, negative theology is an attempt to overcome the confines of language, it is a recognition that ideas of God and the Divine cannot be sufficiently addressed by human expression. Furthermore, it argues that attempts to do otherwise have been the cause of individual and inter-group conflict. The negative way is a process of removing that which causes conflict, so that we can look beyond and behind the words.

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The Fury Project, Zena Edwards, Katie Pearson and Cherrelle Skeete with Dr Althea Legal-Miller

Three female artists desire to create an arts installation piece reflecting on perceptions of anger, particularly that of women and girls. The physical installation is conceptually influenced by their respective art forms of poetry, live literature, of movement, images sketching and the arts craft of ‘binding’. Binding is a process of working cotton around recycled fabrics that transforms a flat piece of material into vines and floral impressions. The act of binding in relation to The Fury Project is the physical act of transformation - an alchemy to take an energy so often described as negative, toxic and destructive and transforming it into something useful, that tells an insightful story, that might even be beautiful.

The Fury Transformation Jukebox invites you to listen to ordinary people talk about their anger. The Fury Project has made a number of impromptu recordings with people sharing personal stories, without judgement, of how anger changed their lives. The Jukebox is a vehicle to share and provoke thought about anger, perceptions of anger, transformative solutions to anger through reflecting on diverse stories of mild to explosive anger. Some of these stories will be transcribed into poetry, bound in and around the installation. 

We believe through the telling of these stories there is constructive reflection, and through reflection comes transformation.

The Fury Project have collaborated with Dr Althea Legal-Miller, Teaching Fellow in African American Civil Rights at University College London – Institute of the Americas.  Dr Legal-Miller holds a PhD in American Studies from King’s College London, and her research interests include American protests movements, critical race discourse, girlhood and women studies, sexual violence and visual culture. 

[urban-dialogues]

Parkour 1, Jaykoe

Lab paper mounted on acrylic plexiglass

Parkour encompasses six timestretched samples of expressive movement through urban space. Demonstrating alternative utilisation of the space—movements outside the prescribed or planned use—thereby reclaiming it for positive, shared community use. Parkour represents the anarchic activity of running, climbing and jumping through urban space in the most efficient way possible. The piece simultaneously dynamically flows over whilst resisting the grid-like barriers of city space.

The foundation of Jaykoe’s practice is drawing and tracing movements in city space, encompassing a range of processes to sample and form interventions. The work stems from a fascination with the centres we construct, the forms they take and what they reveal about us. This is particularly relevant to Environmental concerns around city expansion given the fact that currently more than 50% of the world’s population live in cities, a proportion that is expected to rise to over 75% by 2050.