Recent: Culture_1
Welcome to our Recent series. A compilation of quick lists across our core themes: culture, sport, and lifestyle. It includes projects that have passed, things we love online, or tried-and-tested recommendations from trusted sources. We'll discuss things farther and wider under our curatorial eye.
Immersive experiences, quality, and community are key threads that we always look out for. We want to connect with the work or learn something new. Culture_1 looks at some exhibitions that stood out over the last year.
Taylor Wessing, Photo Portrait Prize (National Portrait Gallery)
[London, United Kingdom. 09.11.23 - 25.02.24]
The annual Photographic Portrait Prize, sponsored by law firm Taylor Wessing, returned to the National Portrait Gallery towards the end of last year and into 2024 – a gallery we don’t visit enough but is on our list to explore much more. The competition (and exhibit) promotes talented amateur and professional photographers across traditional and contemporary approaches, unified by their ability to convey powerful stories and messaging with one capture. Whether it’s the subject, the environment in which it was taken or the visual outcome, the selected images showcase a diverse collection of beautiful photography.
You can view all the exhibitors here. However, second prize winner Gilleam Trapenberg’s ‘Kisha and LaDarayon’ stood out for us. The shot is from his series Currents, which explores his relationship with his childhood home of Curaçao, Caribbean, after moving to the Netherlands at age 19. He explores the themes of identity, youth, heritage, and the search for belonging.
Coal Face (F Pit)
[Washington, United Kingdom. 04.09.23 - 30.09.23]
This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the Miners’ Strike 84/85. The strike ripped industries from local communities and pulled Britain apart. It’s a topic that holds great importance, so to see it represented sensitively in the public domain is vital.
We cannot sing the praises of Sunderland-based photographer Andy Martin enough through the care and dedication he brings to his work. He is the brainchild of Coal Face – an exhibition that explored the identity of Washington through the perspective of ex-miners in ‘F’ Pit throughout Heritage Open Days 2023, documented by his tintype portraiture and film photography. In addition, writer Dr Louise Powell created biographies and collective pieces through a series of sittings. It captured the last generation’s memories of an operational pit and a sense of belonging while villages had new towns imposed on top.
The project reunited miners and National Coal Board (NCB) workers after matching names to stories during the interview process and was supported by the Redhills Miners Association, The Cultural Spring, and UCL. You can listen to the podcast here and purchase the publication here.
The Visitors (Louisiana Museum)
[Copenhagen, Denmark. 09.06.23 - 22.10.23]
You know we love Louisiana. It was featured in The Guide: Copenhagen, and it’s a must-visit on every one of our Danish adventures. The Sculpture Park is a delight, alongside other works in the permanent collection peppered around the building, but we don’t tend to do much research into the temporary exhibits before going. Sometimes, discovery is part of the joy. Many moons ago, we wandered into the New Museum in New York and stumbled across Anri Sala: Answer Me. It transformed our approach to consuming art and became so much more three-dimensional for us, literally and emotionally. Composed music, multiple screens, layering and sound from every angle opened the doors to a new world of sound installation for us.
So, as we stepped into ‘The Visitors’ (2012) at Louisiana’s retrospective for contemporary multi-disciplinary Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson, we stopped in our tracks. The immersive nine-channel video installation features a group of musician friends and himself performing in a mansion in upstate New York. It's a one-hour one-take piece that shows an artist per room playing different instruments and some with vocals, all in sync. The title refers to ABBA’s last album before their disbandment and has strong synergies with the work as Kjartansson reflects on his divorce, reciting a poem entitled Feminine Ways written by his ex-partner, Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir.
Solo travel tends to do this, but we couldn’t help but get emotional. We stood (and sat) with the work for the entire hour. His work often uses repetition, frequently lingering on the phrase, ‘once again, I fall into my feminine ways,’ but 64 minutes later, we were still mesmerised.
You can source clips online, but we encourage you to keep an eye out for its next outing.
Credit: Elísabet David, Ragnar Kjartansson
One Year! (Martin Parr Foundation)
[Bristol, United Kingdom. 18.01.24 - 31.03.24]
From the North-East to the South-West, the whole country has been honouring the individuals affected by the 84/85 Miners’ Strikes. We visited the Martin Parr Foundation for the One Year! exhibit, curated by Isaac Blease, to look at photography that recorded the pit closures. It was one of Britain's longest disputes, with devastating and lasting effects.
Photos by prolific documentarians lined the walls of MPF. For us, the Durham Miners Gala captured by Chris Kilip was work we’d been keen to see for a while, especially due to its locality to our roots, and exploring the strike ephemera, from posters to publications, was objects and items we hadn’t seen before, even online. The photo albums compiled by a striking miner, Philip Winnard, were incredible to see and reminded us of the Coal Face project, where interviewees brought their own Davy Lamps and folders full of the bank, trade union and government-addressed letters which truly unveiled the pressures and severity of the year-long conflict.
Creative Boom looked at the exhibition more in-depth, which you can read here.
Credit: Philip Winnard, NUM Strike 2, 1984-85 Photo Album
Beautility (SERCHIA Gallery)
[Bristol, United Kingdom. 19.01.24 - 23.02.24]
A last-minute trip to Bristol meant we caught Beautility by Jethro Marshall on its last day. It was meant to be because not only did we get the pleasure of being in Christine's (Founder of SERCHIA Gallery) company for a few hours, but we also crossed paths with Jethro, who came for one final visit before the de-rig. A delightful conversation about architecture led to finding synergies between new towns, the West Country and Niagara Falls - all of which, we had personal connections to.
It’s a rarity to have the opportunity to chat exclusively with the curator, gallerist, and artist, even if it is accidental, and it’s a moment we were thankful for.
Jethro’s photography explores Wessex’s often-overlooked countryside, rural life and architecture. Under West Country Modern, his work has been self-published, distributed globally across galleries, fairs and stocked in/on Tate Modern, Margaret Howell, The Modernist and more. The exhibition was an accumulation of 4 years worth of work and his debut solo show, all with the aim of ‘sharing the beauty of the under-documented’ post-war architecture and utilitarian buildings that seamlessly blend into surrounding landscapes.
We had the loveliest experience. Not only for our love of modernism, and supporting independent businesses. But for the joy of meeting Christine, Jethro and co. We’re already planning a return to this beautiful gallery; Bristol is calling!
Credit: Artwork by Jethro Marshall / West Country Modern. Exhibition Photography by Will Moss. Courtesy of SERCHIA.