Century Gallery
ACAVA, 1-15 Cremer Street, Shoreditch, London E2 8HD
Contemporary fine art in an artist-run gallery
 
Nothing But A Pack Of Cards
Aug 21-31, 2002

Louise Alexander, Nat Breitenstein, Charlotte Freer, Philippa Hadley, Elizabeth Haines, Sarah Hart, Deborah Hoy, Dorothy Howard,
Cameron Irving, Nisha Thirkell
| sculpture, video, photography, installation | space 1,2

This exhibition previews up and coming work from a London Institute hybrid group formed by eager undergraduates of Central Saint Martins and Chelsea Schools of Art. These final year students want to bring ideas out of an institutional Art School context and into the public domain.

Having worked closely together over the past two years the group aims to share their fresh approaches to working through a show which offers a pleasant relief from the profit and pretence driven commercial market.

 

Together they are exploring themes of reality and unreality; the ways in which we can turn and transpose things that are real, that are apparent; provisos that stand, that may be undone; notions of gender, the boundaries of space, memory, and time.

 

All work has been specifically made for the exhibition and includes:

  • Nisha Thirkell's photography inspired by erotic dreams
  • Cameron Irving's sculptural interpretations of industrial agricultural architecture
  • Dorothy Howard's application of the 'artist in residence'
  • Philippa Hadley's translation of the ideals and deception of escape

 

“You're nothing but a pack of cards”

...
are Alice's last words in Wonderland. When she utters them, the Queen of Hearts and her sinister court are thrust into the air and flutter down around Alice's ears, stripped of their tyrannous power and Alice is transported back to the reality of a peaceful summer nap beneath the trees.

'Nothing but a pack of cards' mixes object installation, film, performance, and photography to create boundary interference at the threshold of fantasy and psychological space. Seeking to enliven the contemporary British art scene, here is a valuable preview of some names that are bound to circulate over the next few years.


Louise Alexander

 


Nat Breitenstein

 


Charlotte Freer

 

Philippa Hadley

Dorothy Howard
 

Deborah Hoy

Cameron Irving