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Exhibition Guide People Through the British Colonisation of Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and Exhibition Please Ask the Information Australia

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Exhibition Guide People Through the British Colonisation of Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and Exhibition Please Ask the Information Australia colony in Australia – the aspiration and the In 1.98m2, wild and cultivated plants from onto the green bed sheets that the prisoners Second Floor awfulness of it. The unintended consequence the prison grounds are suspended above sleep on at night, a time described by them Galleries of probably his only criminal offence, it a lightbox, the inside dimensions of which as ‘hard lock up’, when they reflect on the amounts to a compelling story that should correspond to the size of a cell at Grendon. narratives of violence, abuse and neglect be more widely known. Clark picked the flowers and leaves and revealed during daily therapy. pressed them between sheets of prison issue 6 This exhibition is organised in partnership paper towels under art books in his Grendon The material of the installation forms between Ikon and the Tasmanian Museum office. With permission from the Head of a stand-alone publication of the same and Art Gallery. Security, Clark took camera equipment into name, given to the prisoners and staff the prison for filming Vanishing Point, which who took part in the project, and sent to follows the journeys of prisoners and staff key individuals in the policy making and Resource 5 Find out more around the gardens, exercise yards and coverage of the criminal justice system. Room corridors. The videos, including one of the The exhibition is accompanied by a fully entire interior prison perimeter, the one The men’s responses to their pin hole 3 illustrated catalogue, with texts by Gaye journey never made by inmates, have been images, through words or by writing, Sculthorpe (Curator, The British Museum), redacted for security purposes. painting or drawing on prints of the Jane Stewart (Principal Curator, Tasmanian photographs, appear in the exhibition and 4 Entrance Museum and Art Gallery) and Hamish Psychodrama is one of the main creative catalogue. Since 2014, Clark has run art Maxwell-Stewart (Professor of Social therapies in which the prisoners, all men, groups at HMP Grendon. The work produced ↓ History, University of Tasmania). Available revisit events from their past under expert by the inmates has been displayed annually from Ikon Shop and online. supervision, including women staff. The in the prison, with specific works entered department agreed to collaborate with into the Koestler Awards exhibitions. Clark on a filmed psychodrama response Through the various exhibitions, publications 2 1 to Aeschylus’s Oresteia. The characters are and symposia, the residency has addressed Edmund Clark performed by the staff, whilst the prisoners how prisoners are perceived and discussed In Place of Hate identify with the perpetrators, victims or by the public, politicians and media in Britain 6 December 2017 – 11 March 2018 witnesses central to the Greek tragedy. The today. As Clark observes, Second Floor Galleries purpose of the mask is twofold: to ensure the anonymity of the prisoners and in In the binary of good and evil that afflicts the 1. 1.98m2, 2017 Visibility is a long standing theme in the history accordance with the customary presentation discussion of criminal justice, human beings are and theory of detention. People effectively of ancient drama. The two closer camera refracted into sharp stereotypes of victim and 2. Vanishing Point, 2017 disappear when they become prisoners. ‘We’ on angles have been redacted according to perpetrator. Once inside they become indefinite Longest video, 18 minutes 53 seconds the outside cease to see ‘them’ on the inside, as if Ministry of Justice requirements. The three presences. humanity stops at the exterior wall. Or the police screen film, fusing accepted representations 3. Oresteia, 2017 mug shot. Except, hopefully, to their family and of high art with narratives of incarceration, is Presented in partnership with HMP Grendon 74 minutes friends, but that may depend on the crime. shown as part of an installation comprising and the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky prison chairs, arranged in the typical circle of Charitable Trust. 4. Untitled Diagram 1, 2017 British artist Edmund Clark is Ikon’s artist- small therapy groups. Diagrams taken from a in-residence (2014–18) at Europe’s only prison corridor and group therapy room are 5. Untitled Diagram 2, 2017 entirely therapeutic prison, HMP Grendon. displayed alongside the film. Find out more Established in 1962, Grendon’s inmates make 6. My Shadow’s Reflection, 2017 a full-time commitment to intensive group The multi-projector installation My The exhibition is accompanied by a fully therapy and exercise a degree of control Shadow’s Reflection comprises a triptych of illustrated catalogue, with texts by Jamie Resource Room over the day-to-day running of their lives photographs showing prison architecture, Bennett (Governor of HMP Grendon), Liz Pinhole Image Interventions, 2017 through democratic decision-making. the picked and pressed plants and images of McLure and Noel Smith. Available from Ikon Clark – an artist with a longstanding members of the community. The latter are Shop and online. Second Floor Landing interest in incarceration and its effects – made with a pinhole camera, a device that Fish Tank, 2017 has produced a body of work shaped by has no lens to shape the image. Created in a Five videos, 1 minute each the prison environment, community and group situation each subject, including men therapeutic processes. Unable to make and staff, stands before the camera for six Ikon Reception work that identifies Grendon’s inmates, his minutes, answering questions about their Fish Tank, 2017 exhibition combines photography, video and criminal and personal histories. As they talk Five videos, 1 minute each installation in exploring ideas of visibility, and move they form a picture of themselves. representation, trauma and self-image. Here the resulting images are projected Associated Events Find out more Robinson (1791–1866), now in The British Museum. His drawing throughout is fine and The Art History of Thomas Bock Visit the Resource Room where you can find the likenesses probably very true, and having Tuesday 12 December, 6–7pm – £3 a selection of books, audio and film. them at the heart of this exhibition conveys Booking essential the tragedies suffered by the Indigenous Join Jane Stewart, Principal Curator at the If you have any questions about the Exhibition Guide people through the British colonisation of Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and exhibition please ask the Information Australia. The sitters – including Trukanini Trawlwoolway artist Julie Gough for papers Assistants in the gallery. (c.1812–76) and her husband Wurati (c.1784– and discussion on the art history and legacy Thomas Bock 1842) – have a demeanour that conveys both of Thomas Bock. How to book 6 December 2017 – 11 March 2018 pride and despair, thus suggesting that Bock, Book online at ikon-gallery.org or call us on First Floor Galleries being marginalised himself, closely identified Van Diemen’s Land 0121 248 0708. All events take place at Ikon with them. Wednesday 24 January 2018, 6–8pm – FREE Gallery unless otherwise stated. Ikon presents the first UK exhibition The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce dedicated to the work of convict artist In the 1830s, Hobart Town flourished as Wednesday 7 February 2018, 6-8pm – FREE Thomas Bock (c.1793–1855). Comprising a cultural place, with Bock establishing a Booking essential Stay in touch a selection of drawings, paintings and living as an artist alongside fellow convicts Ikon has programmed a series of film nights photographs, it demonstrates not only William Buelow Gould (1801–53) and Thomas to coincide with the Thomas Bock and Subscribe to our e-bulletin at Bock’s technical skill, but also his sensitivity Griffiths Wainewright (1794–1847). Bock was Edmund Clark exhibitions. This starts with ikon-gallery.org and find us on to a wide range of subject matter. commissioned to portray British colonists, a screening of Van Diemen’s Land (2009), ikongallery usually government officials, wealthy the story of Alexander Pearce, one of Bock was one of the most important artists farmers, businessmen and their families. He Australia’s most notorious convicts. Thomas Ikon Gallery working in Australia during the colonial advertised himself as a “portrait painter”, Bock sketched Pearce before and after his Brindleyplace, Birmingham b1 2hs years. Trained in Birmingham as an engraver but it is in his drawings (esp. crayon, chalk execution in 1824 and these portraits feature 0121 248 0708 and miniature painter, in 1823 he was found and/or gouache) that we see an evocative in Ikon’s exhibition. See Ikon’s website for ikon-gallery.org guilty of “administering concoctions of liveliness. The sketches he made in his further screenings. certain herbs ... with the intent to cause studio or at home, often of his family, and Open Tuesday – Sunday miscarriage”. Sentenced to transportation for sometimes outdoors, are like pieces in a Pinhole Portraits and Bank Holiday Mondays, 11am–5pm fourteen years, he arrived in Van Diemen’s jigsaw of social history. Another fascinating Tuesday 20 February 2018, 1–4pm Free entry, donations welcome Land (now Tasmania) where he was quickly side to Bock’s artistic practice is revealed in Thursday 22 February 2018, 1–4pm pressed into service engraving bank notes. his life drawing, a number of nude studies £4 per child Exhibition supporters An early commission was a number of that are as tender as they are well observed, Booking essential The Thomas Bock exhibition is supported portraits of captured bushrangers, before likely of his second wife Mary Ann (1818–98) Join us during half-term holidays for an by the Australian Government through and after execution by hanging, including the with whom he had five children. This was afternoon with artist Jo Gane as we make the Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grants notorious cannibal Alexander Pearce.
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