Ayse Erkmen , Tue Greenfort , Knut Henrik Henriksen , public works , Esther Stocker , Pieter Vermeersch , Leon Vranken
‘Beyond These Walls’ is an international group show of specially commissioned work prompting fresh perspectives on the SLG’s architecture, our negotiation and interpretation of its spaces, and its geographic context. For some artists architectural or spatial interventions are an important strand in their practice, while for others an exploration of social contexts is the primary impetus behind their work.
Site-specific works transform the gallery and present an inspiring variety of approaches to using space and/or architecture as media. Walk into Esther Stocker’s 3D version of a black and white op art painting and see the SLG’s main space transformed by Pieter Vermeersch’s enveloping wall painting, exploring ideas of moving within and through painting as opposed to passively observing it.
Other pieces relate to the gallery’s late 19th century origins and the marquetry floor panel bearing the words ‘The source of art is in the life of a people’. Ayse Erkmen transposes the inscription to helmets worn by builders of the SLG’s current expansion project while Leon Vranken’s work makes oblique reference to the arts and crafts origins of the SLG building. Four concrete sculptures by Knut Henrik Henriksen are inspired by the relationship between the current floor and the original beneath.
The social as well as physical reach of the gallery’s activities is the subject of London-based artist/architect collective public works’ live mapping process which sets out to give visual form to the various extensions of the SLG.
24th July – 2Oth September
Beyond These Walls is sponsored by Bloomberg.
Additional thanks to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, The Henry Moore Foundation, the Office for Contemporary Art Norway, the Danish Arts Council’s Committee for International Visual Art, The Royal Norwegian Embassy, The Royal Danish Embassy, the Austrian Cultural Forum London, Wooster & Stock, the Church Street Hotel, John Perkins Projects, Rob Prewett and first year students from the BA sculpture course at Camberwell College of Arts.
