British Art Show 7 moves to Plymouth

The British Art Show 7 moves to Plymouth this weekend. This show aims to provide an overview of contemporary visual artists who, in the words of the curators, “have been chosen on the grounds of their significant contribution to contemporary art in the last five years”. Not exclusively British artists, but artists based in Britain, the exhibition comprises work across all mediums, by emerging and established artists, and travels to a total of four venues – this outing being the second stop on its tour. Each edition of the exhibition will feature mostly the same artists, but with new works and events added to the programme, allowing the curators to develop ideas with the artists involved, and investigate new relationships between works.

Curators Tom Morton and Lisa Le Feuvre have put together a bold exhibition, and have ascribed the show with a subtitle and motif; In The Days Of The Comet. Taken from an H.G Wells novel, in which green gasses from a passing comet bring about a change from corruption to honesty in all mankind, the tale is a utopian vision by the socialist Wells. Attributing ambiguous subtitles to exhibitions (and often this is the territory of the dreaded biennale narrative) is often problematic, the motif being required to effectively incorporate the ideas of numerous artists. In this case, however, this metaphor as a premise for the exhibition reveals more of the curators’ idealism, their enthusiasm for current trends, and their way of navigating apparent ideological shifts in new works of contemporary art than a successful way of tying together such diverse artists.

Some highlights of the exhibition include Spartacus Chetwynd’s proposition for a folding portable house sculpture on which she has performed and hosted a workshop on sustainable living, Brian Griffith’s dejected theatrical bear head, made from sagging canvas, as if left behind when the circus left town. Glaswegian artist, novelist, playwright and poet Alasdair Gray’s drawings and Juliette Blightman’s installation with lamp, and net curtain-covered window add a touch of the familial and domestic in contrast with the ‘other-worldly’ themes stemming from H.G Wells’ title.  

Forming a particularly strong constituent of the exhibition are artists such as Elizabeth Price, Anja Kirschner & David Panos, Emily Wardill, Duncan Campbell, Luke Fowler and Christian Marclay’s film works. If you are one of the few people not to have yet seen Marclay’s The Clock, try to see the film with plenty of time to spare, as it’s mesmerising. The highly acclaimed film features a full 24 hours of glimpses of clocks and watches in film clips, with the time on screen matching the time as you watch – including moments of tension as you approach the hour, and missed trains, lovers and meetings as you pass it. Duncan Campbell’s striking film Bernadette is a study of the charismatic Irish political activist and youngest-ever female Member of Parliament Bernadette Devlin. Less a documentary and more a portrait of Bernadette, Campbell acknowledges the levels of mediation through which she is represented, including that of the filmmaker, creating a complex yet sensitive film. The show is an excellent way to see a wealth of the best artists currently based in Britain in one venue.

As well as featuring in the British Art Show, Nathaniel Mellors is currently exhibiting in Francesco Bonami's Un'Expressione Geografica at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; ILLUMInations, the 54th Venice Biennial as well as showing new work in :Hypercolon: at SMART Project Space Amsterdam, which is a group show he co-curated with Chris Bloor. It features Robert Abel, Vito Acconci, Gladys Nilsson, Karl Wirsum, Brian Catling, Chris Bloor, William Hogarth, James Ensor, Tala Madani, Erkka Nissinen and others.

Sarah McCrory is Curator of the Frieze Foundation