Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Horizontal – Vaakasuora, 2011, at Among the Trees, Hayward Gallery, 2020. © Crystal Eye, Helsinki, 2020. Courtesy of Hayward Gallery. Photo: Linda Nylind
Hayward Gallery to reopen to the public on 1st August with Among the Trees exhibition and offering free tickets for NHS staff. After more than 20 weeks closed due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the Hayward Gallery will reopen five days a week with Covid-secure health and safety measures in place to keep visitors and staff safe.
The gallery will be open five days a week (11am – 7pm Wednesday – Saturday, and 10am – 6pm on Sunday) with free entry for NHS workers and tickets priced at £5 for Lambeth residents and those under 30.
All visitors will need to pre book ticket at southbankcentre.co.uk.
In line with government guidelines and best practice shared from colleagues at galleries and museums across the UK and Europe, the Hayward Gallery will reopen with fully assessed and implemented health and safety measures in place. This includes operating at a reduced capacity with timed entry slots, only accepting tickets that have been pre-booked online, a one-way system from entry to exit, physical distancing measures throughout the building, enhanced and regular cleaning procedures and hand sanitiser stations for visitors and staff, the Hayward Gallery strongly encourages visitors to wear their own face coverings. Our Covid-secure health and safety measures can be found on the Southbank Centre’s website and these may be subject to change in line with the latest government advice.
Ralph Rugoff, Director of the Hayward Gallery says:
“Nature has played a large part in our lives throughout the pandemic, and I am delighted that the public will once again have the opportunity to see this exhibition of inspiring works by 37 artists, all of which invite us to think about the inspiring roles that trees and forests play in our lives and imaginations. Our staff have worked hard to ensure that reopening the Hayward Gallery is first and foremost safe, but also that viewing the works remains a deeply engaging and delightful experience. Both art and nature can play a vital role in our sense of well-being, and we’re looking forward to welcoming the public back into the Gallery.”
Among the Trees celebrates key works of art that reimagine how we think about trees and forests. Illuminating their beauty and visually arresting character, the exhibition invites us to consider trees as both cultural symbols and living organisms. By turns poetic, adventurous and thought-provoking, it celebrates the tree’s enduring resonance as a source of inspiration for some of the most compelling contemporary artists of our time. Spanning the past 50 years, the exhibition brings together major works by 37 leading artists from across the globe.
Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Horizontal – Vaakasuora, 2011, at Among the Trees, Hayward Gallery, 2020. © Crystal Eye, Helsinki, 2020. Courtesy of Hayward Gallery. Photo: Linda Nylind
Among the Trees covers an expansive and adventurous artistic terrain with works ranging from immersive video installations to life-sized sculptures; from large-scale paintings and drawings to intimate black-and-white photographs. Participating artists are: Robert Adams, Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Yto Barrada, Johanna Calle, Gillian Carnegie, Tacita Dean, Peter Doig, Jimmie Durham, Kirsten Everberg, Simryn Gill, Rodney Graham, Shi Guowei, Hugh Hayden, Eva Jospin, Kazuo Kadonaga, William Kentridge, Toba Khedoori, Luisa Lambri, Myoung Ho Lee, Zoe Leonard, Robert Longo, Sally Mann, Steve McQueen, Jean-Luc Mylayne, Mariele Neudecker, Virginia Overton, Roxy Paine, Giuseppe Penone, Abel Rodríguez, Ugo Rondinone, George Shaw, Robert Smithson, Jennifer Steinkamp, Thomas Struth, Rachel Sussman, Pascale Marthine Tayou and Jeff Wall.
Among the Trees Reopening 1st August 2020 (30 & 31 July to Southbank Centre Members & Supporters) – 31 October 2020 Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX Prices: from £5 NHS Workers and Southbank Centre Members go free.
The Hayward Gallery new opening times: 11am – 7pm Wednesday – Saturday 10am – 6pm Sunday
Closed Monday and Tuesday Tickets and further information: www.southbankcentre.co.uk
Online pre-booking is essential for everyone, including Southbank Centre Members, Members of the press, NHS workers, Lambeth residents and under 30s. ID may be requested on arrival for discounted tickets. The Hayward Gallery Shop will be open, the Hayward Gallery Cafe will remain closed, however several restaurants, shops and cafes across the Southbank Centre site are open.
Everyday Heroes Southbank Centre site, free of charge September – November 2020
The Southbank Centre announces Everyday Heroes, a public art and poetry project that celebrates and highlights the invaluable contributions of all those key workers who have kept the country running during the COVID-19 crisis.
The original portraits the artists produce – whether in the form of paintings, drawings, photographs and texts – will be reproduced as large-scale posters and presented in a dynamic display across the Southbank Centre from September to November 2020. The portraits and poems will be spread across prominent places and popular walkways throughout the 11-acre site in a kind of outdoor gallery that is accessible to all for free. The Southbank Centre is commissioning new portraits of key workers and everyday heroes from some of the UK’s leading contemporary artists, including Turner Prize winners Lubaina Himid and Jeremy Deller, and rising international stars of painting including Michael Armitage and Ryan Mosley. Alongside these artworks, newly commissioned poems will celebrate and illuminate the often unsung lives of key workers, with contributions from Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, 2019 Ted Hughes Award winning poet Raymond Antrobus, Scottish Maker Jackie Kay, 2020 T.S. Eliot Prize winner Roger Robinson and rising stars including poet and nurse Romalyn Ante and Bristol’s City Poet Vanessa Kisuule writing poems which will be displayed around the site.
Participating artist include: Michael Armitage, Lydia Blakeley, Jeremy Deller, Lubaina Himid, Mahtab Hussain, Matthew Krishanu, Evan Ifekoya, Ryan Mosley, Janette Parris, Caroline Walker, Alessandro Raho, Silvia Rosi, Benjamin Senior, Juergen Teller, Laura Grace Ford and Barbara Walker. Poets include: Raymond Antrobus, Romalyn Ante, Simon Armitage, Jackie Kay, Vanessa Kisuule and Roger Robinson.
The artists selected to contribute to Everyday Heroes have been chosen because of their ability to produce deeply imaginative, vivid, atmospheric, and visually compelling portraits. It aims to highlight a range of inventive approaches to image-making that can capture salient aspects of this moment that lie outside the reach of photographic journalism.
In many cases the portraits result from close personal connections. A number of artists have chosen to depict family members who are essential workers. Barbara Walker, for example, is including a portrait of her daughter who works as a nurse, whilst Ryan Mosley’s painting depicts his brother, a train driver. Others have focused on front line hospital staff as well as key workers from their neighbourhoods – market stall workers, refuse collectors, and fruit-and-vegetable vendors. Wolverhampton based poet and rising star Romalyn Ante, herself a nurse, will write based on her own very personal experience of the pandemic. Multiple slam winning poet Vanessa Kirsuule – Bristol’s City poet – will write from her perspective, fresh from her poem on the toppling of Colston’s statue going viral. Recent winner of both the T.S. Eliot and Ondaatje Prizes, Roger Robinson contributes a powerful and tender ode to nurses, and the ways that they bear witness to all aspects of our lives. Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and multi award-winning poet Raymond Antrobus will also contribute with their own reflections on key workers and the often unsung work they do.
Ralph Rugoff, Director of the Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, said:
“This extraordinary period in our history demands that arts organisations find new ways of responding to the moment and bringing art to the public. Everyday Heroes aims to celebrate those people who have helped to hold society together in one way or another over the course of this year. At the same time it also highlights a range of ingenious and inspired approaches to image-making and poetry whilst bringing the unparalleled site of the Southbank Centre to life in an entirely new way. At this particular moment, perhaps more than ever, this kind of outdoor exhibition can play a crucial role in furnishing the inspiration which visual art and poetry provide to our collective imagination and civic life.”
The artist portraits are curated by Cedar Lewisohn, Site Curator, Southbank Centre and Ralph Rugoff, Director, Hayward Gallery and the poetry commissions by the Southbank Centre’s Head of Literature and Spoken Word, Ted Hodgkinson.
