Larry Achiampong & David Blandy: The Grid
The Grid is a single exhibition held over two galleries in London, Copperfield and Seventeen.
Copperfield
Exhibition opening: Wed 5 June, 6 – 9pm
Runs until 21 July
Seventeen:
Exhibition opening: Wed 26 June, 6 – 9pm
Runs until 3 August
Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, Finding Fanon Trilogy, 2015-2017, installation view at Copperfield, London, Image credit: Eva Herzog
One picks over the detritus of the present digital age, with fractured identities, disposable bodies and disposable technology. The other concentrates on the mythologies of racism and conflict in the history of the development of science and in high fantasy. As the title suggests, both exhibitions site moving image within a literal framework, alluding simultaneously to the default virtual wireframe and the underpinnings of society.
The room at Seventeen will feature two films on the mythologies of racism, “The Wall and the Incongruous” and “A Terrible Fiction”. “The Wall and The Incongruous” uses Hadrian’s Wall as a key to examine the idea of the border, building a High Fantasy fable of a land that was so lost in its hubris that it sealed itself off from its neighbours, in the end starving itself. “A Terrible Fiction” references the history of the theory of evolution, and the relationship between Darwin and his taxidermy teacher John Edmonstone, a freed slave. The video combines animation, spoken word and text interspersed with microscopic topographies of varied shades of skin, digital renditions of skin from video games, and film footage of taxidermied bird life from Darwin’s collection at the Natural History Museum.
Copperfield will host a suite of works set in the Intersection, a space for the “unfinished conversation” around race, class and society, inspired by the lost plays of Frantz Fanon. For the first time these works will all be brought together in a single space, as part of a site-specific installation of detritus and monitors. “The Finding Fanon Trilogy” offers an inspection of race, class and its implications on the friendship of the artists, while the “FF Gaiden” works look at the wider implications of this discussion through testimony from groups at the sharp end of neoliberal policy, from army veterans now in the criminal justice system, to paperless migrants struggling to make a life in Europe.
‘A Terrible Fiction’ was commissioned by Arts Catalyst, London
‘The Wall and The Incongruous’ was commissioned by Baltic, Tyneside
‘Finding Fanon Part One’ was supported by Arts Council England
‘Finding Fanon Part Two’ was commissioned by Brighton Digital Festival, supported by National Lottery Funds through Arts Council England and Produced by Manick Govinda at Artsadmin.
‘Finding Fanon Part Three’ was supported by Arts Council England and Wysing Arts Centre
‘FF Gaiden: Delete’ was Commissioned by Praksis Oslo, Norway. In collaboration with Mennisker i Limbo (People in Limbo), in partnership with PNEK, Atelier Nord, and Notam.
‘FF Gaiden: Control’ was commissioned and produced by FACT. Supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation. With thanks HMP Altcourse, Liverpool.