Anglia Ruskin University

Reconstructing the Old House

Date: 8 - 30 October 2009
Time: 9am-9pm Monday to Friday
Private View: Wednesday 7 October 2009, 5-8pm

Artists: Jo Addison, Gordon Cheung, Adam Gillam, Julian Hughes Watts, Kounosuke Kawakami, Max Mosscrop, Steven Rendall, Danny Rolph and Benet Spencer

Curated by Benet Spencer

Reconstructing the Old House is a touring exhibition, and features artists who take the urban environment as a starting point. The approaches are multiple; some take architecture as an iconographic form, others sit on the edge of fully adopting architecture as a theme, yet freely and willfully plundering the territory for inspiration. Utopian fantasy landscapes sit next to experiments in playful construction. Mixed media collages of synthetic ephemera alongside a purity and elegance that echoes modernist ideals.

In essence, the architectural reference can be seen as a starting point for a broader investigation of materials, processes and ideas. The subjective nature of the artist's relationship to an urban context, and the diverse strategies that result, place an emphasis on the making of things - objects or images - and on the relationship between two separate areas of construction: the artist's studio and the man-made world outside.

Reconstructing the Old House ran at the Nunnery Gallery, London between 4 - 26 April 2009. A 32 page catalogue with an essay by David Ryan accompanies the exhibition, published by Anglia Ruskin University. Generous support has been given by Arts Council England, the Bow Arts Trust and the Nunnery Gallery, and Anglia Ruskin University.

More samples from the exhibition can be found below. Please click on the images for a larger version.