Helsinki Contemporary
HC Guest Curator Beaconsfield –
David Crawforth & Naomi Siderfin
30.11.2018–21.12.2018
BAW & Bruce Gilbert | David Burrows | Anna Bunting-Branch | Ioana Marinescu | Onya McCausland | Outi Pieski | Keith Piper | Phil Thompson | Thomas Yeomans
Landscapes of the Future refers to a range of physical and metaphorical landscapes that open up in a globalized, knowledge economy. Bringing together some of the artists currently depicting the new lie of the land, our landscape is one of uncertainty and mistrust of the future. All the works in this exhibition have evolved from long periods of research and some have been specifically commissioned for this exhibition, but all the British works have been produced in the climate of events surrounding 23 June, 2016. Brexit, may be the equivalent to the quiver of a butterfly’s wing in the global context: as we know small changes in the ecosystem can eventually be catastrophic.
The concept of ‘landscape’ is one of culturally appropriated territory – the found environment or ‘nature’ territorialized. Landscapes combine the geological features of a particular place – country or continent – with the trace of the humans that live in that place, helping to define the identity of peoples as much as they define, and have defined, the land. In the contemporary moment, the addictive dependency on natural resources key to a post-industrial lifestyle generates inbalances; of geology, economy and political power. It is the moment in which accelerated climate change, triggered by human excess, is shifting our relationship with the seasons, with the land and the way we consume it. Vast numbers of people flee the land of their birth to find refuge in unfamiliar landscapes. There are few places where these shifts are more apparent than in London, where all these UK artists are working.
In art, the landscape tradition is not only one of claiming nature through its depiction, but of imaginary future landscapes. Beaconsfield brings together a group of UK artists who touch on the theme in diverse ways, contextualised by one Finnish artist who is passionately engaged with narratives relating to the land of her birth. The artists in this exhibition expand the concept of landscape to reflectupon the contemporary moment and the changing ways we relate to particular spaces, places and nationality.The exhibition suggests a role in which the disciplined application of imagination (what artists do) might play in supporting a sustainable future.
Beaconsfield, November 2018
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Helsinki Contemporary
Bulevardi 10, FI–00120 Helsinki
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Beaconsfield’s curatorial residency was generously supported by Saastamoisen Foundation.