Press Release

Artists’ Open House 2022

WAYS OF SEEING: GREEN

14th - 15th & 21st - 22nd May

@waysofseeing_green

Bell House will be hosting a new exhibition during the Dulwich Festival Artists’ Open House. “Ways of Seeing: Green” will be an exhibition of works of art exploring the meaning of “green” to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of John Berger’s iconic television series Ways of Seeing. Berger encouraged us to look at the world differently and to consider how meaning and ideology are conveyed through visual media.

Green plays a huge part in our lives, representing nutrition, renewal and our environment. It is linked with ideas of politics, relaxation, health and being fresh or unprocessed. At a time earn we are all encouraged to go green, it is the perfect colour for the curators Lucy Bainbridge, Dr Alison Green, Ky Lewis, Benjamin Rice and Kim Thornton to examine. More than 30 artists have been invited to present their view of green in all its different contexts using a variety of media.

Events

There will be a series of events during the exhibition including cyanotype taster sessions, a talk and performances.

Lucy Bainbridge - Hall

@lbainbridgeprint

I have brought together six artist printmakers who explore different ways of experiencing the landscape around them, both thematically and technically. From Heidi Borg’s subtle contemplative Nordic landscapes to Jo de Pear’s vibrant celebration of the Bougainvilleas plant. Between them these artists demonstrate a wide range of printmaking techniques; screenprint, photopolymer, cyanotype, photo lithography and digital print. I hope this curation showcases the breadth of artists who come to print at Bainbridge Print Studios and exemplify what the studio has to offer. 

Artists: Lucy Bainbridge, Sara Beazley, Heidi Borg, Rosalind Hobley, Jennifer Moore, Jo de Pear

Alison Green - MacAndrew Room

@alison_mck_green

The cue for this exhibition was to look into ways artists consider their relationship to nature, and how this gets integrated into their practice. This could mean that they listen closely to and depend on a tactile connection to the natural world, as does Gaia Redgrave, whose work invites participation. It could mean a commitment to considering critically the impact of humans on the planet’s resources, and a desire to find ways to communicate this and mobilise change, as with Elena Etter’s project about smart phones. Michael Pearce-Harvey’s work shows how with digital photography you can see into, or see better, a natural object, to appreciate, even wonder at its complexity. With Fiona Hingston’s work, there is a directness of making—using grown materials like hay that will inevitably degrade—and an unexpected beauty in forms that express strong relations to place and community.

As a curator, I put thought into making the exhibition ‘green’. Foremost, this meant the choice of the artists. It also meant limiting how much I used new resources in making the show. Exhibitions tend to be temporary and usually a lot of new materials are used to produce them. Mostly the audience doesn’t directly see these material costs but they expect a level of finish that drives certain demands, whether a new coat of paint or exhibition furniture designed for the place. I ask: can we do as much with less? Can we continue to be creative without taking resources from the planet that can’t be replaced?

John Berger’s seminal book and TV show from the early 1970s, Ways of Seeing was also a reference in putting together these artists. In it he wrote: the relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. In making a show about the climate emergency, I was thinking about different perspectives on the same problem, different people finding different ways of making sense of how to go forward.

Artists: Elena Etter, Fiona Hingston, Michael Pearce-Harvey, Gaia Redgrave

Ky Lewis - Lutyens Room

kylewis.co.uk

The Lutyens Room at Bell House brings together a group of well respected artists with diverse backgrounds specialising in photography, printmaking and drawing. The common themes of environment, sustainability and ecology respond to ‘Ways of Seeing Green’ with passion, humour and a keen eye for detail. A range of concepts and techniques have been employed to create the work with pieces ranging from traditional to experimental processes in both print and book form.

Artists: Wendy Aldiss, Tamsin Green, Liz Harrington, Gin Rimmington Jones, Ky Lewis, Lucy Ribeiro, Vanessa Short, Laura Ward, Mandy Williams

Benjamin Rice - Thomas Wright Room

benjaminrice.co.uk

Benjamin has had a long association with Bell House and its participation in Dulwich Festival’s Artists’ open House. For this year’s exhibition he has invited nine artists to interpret the subject Ways of Seeing : Green. Following Bell House’s ethos of encouraging and supporting nascent talents, three of the artists are showing their work for the first time, and others, although perhaps not ‘young’ are still emerging artists. The work on show is predominately photography based, but includes painting, and mixed media imagery.

Artists: David Caldwell, Christopher Clack, Philip Durell, Paul Gregory, Alan Marsh, Keith Parry, Benjamin Rice, Nicholas Rice, Jerry Young

Kim Thornton - Landing, Lucas Room, Gowan Room

kimthornton.co.uk

In the upstairs rooms Kim Thornton has invited 11 artists to join her in creating artworks that perform different connotations of green.  Their multidisciplinary responses include painting, photography, ceramics, sculpture, installation, textiles and live performance with unexpected objects re-presented in surprising ways.  Paintings flaunt green whilst viridescent ceramics explore spiritual and emotional matter.  Sculptural objects embody a green life and photographs present alternative narratives.  During the exhibition there will be live performance, rituals and a chance to explore different ways of seeing green.

Artists: Min Angel, Jackie Brown, Lèonie Cronin, Cadi Froehlich, Nicky Hirst, Monika Kita, Laura Moreton-Griffiths, Kim Shaw, Ella Soni, Lucy Soni, Charlotte Squire, Kim Thornton