Whitechapel Gallery
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28 March - 17 June
The films and photographs of British artist Gillian Wearing (b. Birmingham, 1963) explore our public personas and private lives. This Turner Prize winner’s remarkable works draw on fly-on-the-wall documentaries, reality TV and the techniques of theatre, to explore how we present ourselves to the world.
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17 September 2011 - 20 July
American sculptor Josiah McElheny (b.1966) transforms the Gallery into a kaleidoscopic hall of mirrors. Seven large-scale mirrored sculptures are arranged as multiple reflective screens on which he projects reconfigured abstract films.
McElheny is inspired by the history of Gallery 2, once a library reading room. Founded in 1896 to bring enlightenment values to impoverished Londoners, it became a crucible for the founding of British Modernism in the 1900s by émigré artists and intellectuals. McElheny gives a 21st century expression to this historic movement, plunging the viewer into a light-filled kinetic zone of geometric forms, biomorphic shapes and radiant colours.
The selection of films for McElheny’s reconfigurations is made by architectural historian Iain Boyd Whyte renowned for his work on the architects known as ‘The Crystal Chain’. Based in Germany in the 1910s, their fantastical architecture aimed to fuse the lucidity of glass with the transcendental qualities of the crystal. Their exquisite drawings and the writings of Paul Scheerbart, the poet that inspired this group, are a key reference for the work of Josiah McElheny and provide the context for this sculptural cinema.
This commission, generously supported by the pioneering arts sponsor Bloomberg, is accompanied by a fully illustrated book that tracks the genesis of the project and its complex historical referents.
Admission free
Supported by:
The Bloomberg Commission invites an international artist to create an annual site-specific artwork inspired by the rich history of the former library. Bloomberg’s support reflects its commitment to innovation, and its ongoing efforts to expand access to art, science and the humanities. Additional support provided by the Wingate Scholarships. With thanks to the White Cube.
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03 March - 02 September
It was the cost of decoration that prompted the use of art instead of wallpapers to cover the walls of government buildings in 1899. Today the Government Art Collection is one of the most important collections of British art, with 13,500 works dating from the 16thcentury to the present day displayed in over 420 government buildings worldwide.
On display for the first time from the Collection’s archives are rare documents, such as papers detailing the loan of Winston Churchill’s bust to the Oval Office in Washington from 1997 to 2008, and records of paintings hung in 10 Downing Street under Prime Ministers from the first Duke of Wellington to MargaretThatcher. A 1962 document records artist William Coldstream’s proposal that the Whitechapel Gallery hold an exhibition of the Collection, while a World War II photograph shows the bomb damage to the State Rooms at 10 Downing Street.
Admission free
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09 March - 10 June
Glimpse behind the scenes of 10 Downing Street as staff choose their favourite works from the Government Art Collection.
For thousands of years works of art have been used in politics and diplomacy to present an image of the state. Today the art on view in the official residence of the British Prime Minister tells a powerful story about British culture to its many UK and international visitors. But what do its staff think? This display gives the chance for everyone to be a curator, as 10 Downing Street staff including custodians, personal assistants and IT managers present their choice of the great paintings and sculptures they work round every day.
The works of art, many being shown for the first time in a public gallery, date from the 18th century to the present day. Highlights include the 1836 portrait of Lord Byron’s daughter Ada Lovelace, by Margaret Carpenter and the kitchen sink View from a Window, Dartmouth Row, Blackheath, (c.1954–6) by John Bratby, plus videos usinghumour to animate Minimalist art by theartistic duo Wood & Harrison.
This exhibition is part of the Whitechapel Gallery’s ongoing series of displays from the Government Art Collection.
Admission free
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09 March - 10 June
Each year the Whitechapel Gallery invites a writer to curate a programme of events, considering writing as art and writing as a lens through which to experience art - unfolding as a platform for experimentation and discussion.
Previous Writers in Residence Maria Fusco and Sally O’Reilly present new projects from 19 April–10 June. Fusco interrogates how and where writing is heard with a new sound work featuring extracts from her novel Sailor, which is narrated by a vervet monkey in Belfast vernacular. O’Reilly’s video essays meanwhile, examine writerly modes and methods; she will also be faxing the gallery space with regular updates and rewrites of Crude, a novel in progress about public speaking, flirting and oil.
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28 March - 16 June
This season of artists’ films meditates on ideas of migration, displacement and journeying through individual stories informed by wider socio-economic and political conditions.
Alejandro Cesarco’s recent film Zeide Isaac (2009) features the artist’s grandfather performing a script written by the artist but based on his grandfather’s personal story as a Holocaust survivor, allowing for the gap between first-hand testimony and third generation re-telling to be explored.
STANZE (2010) by Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio is based on the accounts of young political refugees from Somalia. Housed in a notorious former barracks in Turin, they re-visit through storytelling and re-enactment Italy’scolonial past in the Horn of Africa and itsongoing repercussions on their own efforts to fi nd a ‘home’.
In Gipsy Style (2009), Aleksandar Jestrovic Jamesdin uses a low-tech video camera to record an 80 day ‘vacation’ during which the artist swims his way through public fountains in major European cities, playing on ideas of tourism and travel, and in TheLast Tango (2011) records the moments in a plane just before take-off.
Admission free
Artists’ Film International showcases international artists working with film, video and animation, selected by 12 partner organisations around the world. Alejandro Cesarco is selected by Fundaçion PROA, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio by GAMeC, Bergamo, Italy and Aleksandar Jestrovic Jamesdin by Belgrade Cultural Centre, Belgrade, Serbia.
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For over a century the Whitechapel Gallery has premiered world-class artists from modern masters such as Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Frida Kahlo to contemporaries such as Sophie Calle, Lucien Freud, Gilbert & George and Mark Wallinger. With beautiful galleries, exhibitions, artist commissions, collection displays, historic archives, education resources, inspiring art courses, dining room and bookshop, the newly expanded Gallery is open all year round, so there is always something free to see. The Gallery is a touchstone for contemporary art internationally, plays a central role in London’s cultural landscape and is pivotal to the continued growth of the world’s most vibrant contemporary art quarter.
77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7QX
020 7522 7888
info@whitechapelgallery.org
www.whitechapelgallery.org -
The George Tavern Pub
The George Tavern is a legendary venue, public house and constant foundation for a thriving artistic community in the heart of London's east end. Originally a 700 year old tavern mentioned in the writing of Charles Dickens, Samuel Pepys and Geoffrey Chaucer, the renowned venue is a beacon for both emerging and established artists, musicians and creatives alike.
373 Commercial Rd, London, E1 0LA
020 7790 7335
georgetavernbookings@gmail.com
http://www.thegeorgetavern.co.uk/The Rhythm Factory pub
"..the barometer of London’s musical trends" - the guardian."
Ground Floor 16-18 Whitechapel Rd., City of London, Greater London, E1 1EW
020 7375 3774
INFO@RHYTHMFACTORY.CO.UK
http://www.rhythmfactory.co.uk/
