Solo exhibition: 'We Ran Together', G39 Gallery, Cardiff, (Oct 27th - 23th Mar 2024)

Billingham, Richard ORCID: 0000-0002-6474-5656 (2023) Solo exhibition: 'We Ran Together', G39 Gallery, Cardiff, (Oct 27th - 23th Mar 2024). [Show/Exhibition]

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Abstract

'We Ran Together' comprised two consecutive exhibitions. The first exhibition (Oct 27th - Dec 16th 2023) was a solo show by Richard Billingham comprising his TV debut, ‘Fishtank’ (1998) and a number of his early short films made around the same time. This exhibition was the first time Billingham’s early moving image work had been exhibited together. Fishtank was a 47min video film commissioned by BBC2 and produced by ArtAngel and film maker Adam Curtis and first broadcast on BBC2 in 1998. The early short films were 'Bradford Trip' (1996, super 8mm); 'Ray Getting Out of Chair' (super 8mm, 1998); 'Swing' (super 8mm, 1998); 'Liz Smoking' (1999, video); and 'Ouija Board' (video, 1999). Fishtank was filmed almost entirely within the claustrophobic confines of Billingham's parent’s council flat in the West Midlands and moved between alienation, altercation and affection. Fishtank was Billingham’s first major film and a groundbreaking work for television. The second exhibition (10th Feb – 23th Mar 2024) comprised new works by three artists that responded to Billingham’s film Fishtank. Artists George H. Wale, Durre Shahwar, and Michal Iwanowski were invited to respond to Fishtank with mentoring and support from G39 and artist Sean Edwards. Each of the artists were drawn to different strands of the film’s content to follow new lines of inquiry developing new sculptural, photographic and text works. George looked at their relationship to work, to labour - thinking about alienation from nature and natural aptitudes or skills that may be inherited from parents that we adapt to support us financially. This led to thoughts about the aesthetic language of support and their father’s work as a floor layer. Floors, underfoot, as something made, as fundamental to living, as class indicators, literal support structures. From domestic spaces of home to public spaces. Durre brought a series of propositions and reflections. Her work crosses the boundaries between non-fiction, essay, and autofiction. In response to Billingham’s film, she reflected on her own experiences, belonging, and identity through familial language and materials. This work is developed in parallel with her research into autofiction and her Pakistani-Welsh identity and her book, ‘Gathering: Women of Colour on Nature’, (pub. 2024). Michal Iwanowski continued an ongoing project, ‘Minus The Mother’, with a new series of images. He and his mother watched the Fishtank together on a visit back to Poland, and the show at g39 is concurrent with his recently opened solo exhibition, Go Home Polish, at the National Museum Wales. Minus The Mother is not an easy project - to witness, or to do - but through it Michal encouraged viwers to think about loss and those close to us. Through the lens, in the space between countries and longer distance communication, a closeness between grows as the dynamic between parent and child changes. We Ran Together was the first project in a new, additional project space at g39 which encourages the production of new work and experimentation.

Item Type:	Show/Exhibition
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Creative Arts
Research Priority Areas:	Creative Practice and Theory
Depositing User:	Richard Billingham
Date Deposited:	18 Dec 2023 10:46
Last Modified:	19 Dec 2024 17:07
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/13340

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