Sanctuary Exhibitions
An introduction to the curatorial direction, working structure, proposal and ethos for all upcoming exhibitions:
July 2011
International Residency
Sanctuaryartists two week residency 5 UK/Irish and 5 Kenya Visual Artists make a collaborative work for the Exhibition Sanctuary: Home, Away, The Common Ground.
26th July - 30th September 2011
The National Museum of Kenya, Nairobi.
Sanctuary: Home Away The Common ground
Sanctuaryartists.org is proud to present its first international, collaborative, touring exhibition ‘Sanctuary: Home Away The Common Ground’. Curated by Annabelle Hulbert on behalf of Sanctuaryartists, it is the product of 10 artists, five from Kenya and five from the UK/Ireland.
The aim of the exhibition is to explore the cultural, political, social and environmental differences and commonalities that construct the concept of Sanctuary from the perspective of Home, Away and the Common Ground between Kenya and the UK.
The motivation for the exhibition is to create a platform for dialogue from both representative parties in an effort to highlight the work of the Metropolitan Sanctuary For Sick Children in Neyri Kenya, in the hope that it will bring awareness to the plight of the many terminally ill and seriously disabled children the charity work with.
However, The work that is produced is not a direct representation of the sanctuary for sick children and it is not yet more images of dying children in Africa. In stead, the artists will explore perceptions and realities of what the term sanctuary stands for in different locations, through different social groups and from a personal perspectives.
The selection of the artists has been made on their artistic merit. The choice demonstrates a diversity of visual practices which is mirrored between the Kenyan and the UK artists:
Madi Acharya-Baskerville - Oxford, UK - Installation
Lindsay Duncanson - Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK - Lens Based
Annabelle Hulbert - Belfast, Northern Ireland - Painter/Printmaker
Peterson Kamwathi - Nairobi, Kenya - Draftsman/Printmaker
Holger Lonze - Cork, Ireland - Sculptor/Lithographer
James Mbuthia - Nairobi, Kenya - Installation/Sculptor
Dennis Muraguri - Nairobi, Kenya - Sculptor
Prina Shah - Nairobi, Kenya - Installation/Lens Based
Michael Taylor - London, UK - Film Maker
Sanctuaryartist Cecilia Stephens, Printmaker/Papermaker from Northern Ireland, who has been very involved in the Papermaking Workshop at the Sanctuary for Sick Children, has been invited to exhibit a work made from paper. Its purpose is to compliment a work by the Women of the Papermaking workshop commissioned by Sanctuaryartists for the project.
The collaborative ethos of the exhibition is very important, and the 10 selected artists will undertake a 2 week residency at the Sanctuary in Neyri, just prior to the opening at The National Museum of Kenya Nairobi in August 2011, working alongside the papermaking workshop to produce a central collaborative piece for the exhibition, which will be the aculmination of all their practices and individual work .
Unlike other group collaborative exhibitions, that tend to conclude with the first exhibition on the tour and its final catalogue documentation which is transferred from venue to venue, for Sanctuaryartists the outcome and the process is of equal significance. The exhibiting is seen as the beginning rather than the conclusion of the project. The project is designed and intended as an open ended process. The finished works will function as marker and a record of a given time within the discourse on Sanctuary at each exhibition venue. This will then be reappraised and further work made at each exhibition stage. In this way the artists will be stretched artistically to explore more fully the concepts in their work and finding new ways to take their work forward. In this manner over the course of its tour it is hoped that the exhibition will mature and develop, drawing the viewer into the narrative and dialogue that is ‘Sanctuary: Home, Away, The Common Ground’.
March 2012
Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle, England
Artists Fourm/Sanctuary in Film
September/December 2012
The Brunei Gallery SOAS London.
Sanctuaryartists Exhibition ‘Sanctuary: Home, Away, the Common Ground.’