Barber Institute Dan Auluk draws influence from German spy film The Lives of Others – in his performance piece of the same name, he sits at a typewriter, recording overheard snatches of conversation. Jodie Wingham is concerned with surveillance of a different kind, with her manipulated photographs turning the viewer into a voyeur. Glenys Shirley’s work is a fascinating exploration of the faddishness of good taste and the volatility of the distinction between high art and low art. There are also stark dichotomies at play in the striking aesthetics of Kathleen Fabre’s sculptures – while speaking of striking aesthetics, Alexandra Darby’s photographic series Chrysophobia is a highly visual exploration of the fear of the colour orange.
Alexandra Darby, Chrysophobia #1 (2014)
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery Concerns of materiality abound, with Yasmin Rennie creating tangible objects out of scientific and mathematical data, while Jennifer Shufflebotham’s repurposing of old photographic slides calls into question the disposability of digital culture. James Turner is also in the business of repurposing, taking reproductions of 19th-century paintings from BMAG’s collection and turning them into sci-fi themed light boxes. Meanwhile, there are performance pieces from Emma Starkey, who explores endurance and the limits of the human body, and Sarah Thorley, who concerns herself with low-status jobs and the role of the artist.
Kathleen Fabre, What the Water Gave Me (2013)
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum
Glenys Shirley, Conspiracy to undermine II (2013)
Jakub Ceglarz’s installation H/S Conversations combines concepts of writing and filmmaking to investigate the limitations of the written and spoken word, while Josh Hazell’s film Man. Machine. explores our increasing dependency on technology. Megan Sheridan’s street photography makes for a light-hearted portrayal of British communities, while Amanda Pearce’s Probability 75 was originally a site-specific piece for Brum’s Pen Museum, referencing the fact that, at one time, 75 per cent of words written worldwide were etched with a pen made in Birmingham.
Jennifer Shufflebotham, Foremark Reservoir II (2014)
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Jade Blackstock, In, in, in (2014)
Shijie Hai, Catsmountain (2014)
Ephemerality is the order of the day in Wolverhampton. Sevven Kucuk’s intimate, highly symbolic photography seeks to capture fleeting moments, while Camilla Searle’s constructions combine video and found materials to explore concepts of entropy and precariousness. Jessica Holt’s sculptures are so minimal they’re barely there, while Shijie Hai’s books and comics directly oppose e-reader culture, with the main draw being the texture of the paper itself.
New Art West Midlands 2015 is open now at Wolverhampton Art Gallery. The exhibitions at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts and the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery open on February 13, and at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum on February 14. For more details, visit www.newartwestmidlands.org. February 2015
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