Simon Bedwell
Stephen Sutcliffe
15 May–22 June 2024
Wednesday–Saturday, 12-6pm
Preview Wednesday, 15 May, 6-8pm.
British artists Simon Bedwell and Stephen Sutcliffe collaborate in an exhibition of new ceramics, video and painting.
Bedwell’s new ceramics portray mainstream political figures from the last decade as slugs, inspired by satirists James Gillray and Steve Bell. These amorphous forms become the support for video works by Sutcliffe, which draw on an extensive archive of British television, film sound, broadcast images and spoken word recordings. Bedwell and Sutcliffe are of the generation and social class for whom mass, state-funded education, TV and the music press, served as introductions to experimental art and European philosophy, as well as pop music and fashion. They suggest that recent British governments have dedicated themselves to narrowing these possibilities.
This new collaboration responds to Beaconsfield’s unique gallery environment, where sculptural and painterly installation is understood as the critical process of trying things out.
With thanks to Goldsmiths College and The Elephant Trust.
Images:
Simon Bedwell, Sunak, 2024. Photocopy.
Stephen Sutcliffe, Cymbeline, 2020. Video still.
