ARTS COUNCIL SUPPORTED PROJECT & SOLO EXHIBITION by LORRAINE CLARKE
ARTS COUNCIL SUPPORTED PROJECT & SOLO EXHIBITION by LORRAINE CLARKE
“Nosce Te Ipsum” (Know Thyself)
Art and Design Gallery, UH Galleries, College Lane, Hatfield, AL10 9AB. 15 November - 21 December, 2006
Private View: Tuesday 14 November, 6.00 - 9.00pm David Medalla & Adam Nankervis will perform “Apples and Pairs” at 8.00pm.
Gallery opening times: 9.30am - 5.30pm Monday to Saturday.
Lorraine Clarke, in her first major UK exhibition since returning from Italy in 2000, explores the link between Magic, Medicine and Religion, from the ancient amulet to reproductive cloning, through installations, soundscapes and mixed media works.
Coach transport available for the PV evening: ?7 per person on a ‘first-come-first-served’ basis. Departing 6:00pm from York Way (next to St. Pancras Station). Departing the gallery at 9:00pm for the return to St Pancras. Send cheque “payable to Euroart Studios Limited” to: Nigel Young, Euroart Studios, Unit 22F, 784/788 High Road, Tottenham, London, N17 0DA. Also include e-mail address to receive confirmation of booking. Info: mailto:nayoung@euroart.co.uk Tel: 07802 502136
Travel Information: UHG is adjacent the A1M junction 3. Frequent WAGN trains depart from London Moorgate (40 mins) or Kings Cross (25 mins) to Hatfield. The gallery is a short bus ride from the station, bus numbers 603 or 341.
Map at: http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=521435&y=207482&z=0&sv=AL10+9AB&st=2&pc=AL10+9AB&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf
The work ranges from entire installations to small scale intriguing pieces in finely crafted presentations reminiscent of wunderkammers: strange, curious collections which seem to refer to religious and magical framings of the body in counterpoint to an underlying contemporary theme, the functional commodification of body parts.
The work goes further than this, however, in referencing current bio-scientific research into the very stuff of the human being, from stem cells to genetic material. In this way it questions the way in which our conception of humanness is changing. The strangeness of the work, its surreal quality, may derive on one hand from such fascinating source material as the book of eighteenth century Florentine medical waxworks which she keeps in her studio, but on the other brings the viewer insistently back to the unfamiliarity of our familiar flesh in contemporary scientific research contexts. Ancient rites and traditions, and medical practices discovered from years of research are woven into the work.
Clarke’s work is an excavation of the human being, a journey into the deepest layers of the mind and body, evoking the past as well exploring contemporary sensitive political, ethical and social issues, while seeking to subject the viewers to the beauty and vulnerability of their own physicality.
Info: http://www.euroart.co.uk
“Nosce Te Ipsum” is funded by Arts Council England’s Grants for the arts programme for individuals and organisations.
