City of Exeter becomes urban contemporary gallery for Exeter’s Curation students

Nine contemporary art exhibitions will open to the public in Exeter this month as part of an annual celebration of postgraduate student curatorial expertise.

Elsewhere(s) will bring photography, video, sculpture, textiles and a host of Chinese arts from international artists to venues such as the Guildhall Shopping Centre, when it opens on Friday.

The annual project showcases the work of students on the University of Exeter’s MA Curation programme, and this year, explores themes of ‘home’ and cultural identity in the context of global consumerism.

Visitors to the We Are pop-up shop in Princesshay, for example, will be able to browse pre-loved fashion while also taking in the art of Jeremy Hutchison and Wenyao Mao, whose work reflects upon extreme and wasteful shopping habits.

“The borderlines between a sense of belonging and not belonging are often expressed in terms of ‘domestic or foreign’, ‘safe or dangerous’, ‘desirable or abject’,” says Professor Tom Trevor, Programme Director of MA Curation: Contemporary Art and Cultural Management, in the Department of Languages, Cultures and Visual Studies. “These exhibitions explore what it takes to feel ‘at home’ in a place such as Exeter, including the personal experience of being an outsider within a dominant cultural context. And within that, there are some hugely topical themes including pollution, consumer behaviours, and living sustainably.”

At We Are – the former Topshop store – five separate projects will be installed over the course of the ten-day exhibition, featuring seven international artists.

In addition to Hutchison and Mao’s work, there will be a showcase of Michalle Sank’s documentary photos of the Burnthouse Lane community, the famous Exeter estate created in the 1920s to relocate impoverished people from the West Quarter. Along a similar theme, Settlements will feature the photography of David Spero, who has documented off-grid communities such as Steward Community Woodland on the edge of Dartmoor and Tinkers Bubble in rural Somerset.

The venue will also host Armoured Bodies, an exploration of clothing from a feminist perspective through the work of Stephanie Syjuco and the arts collective Calico, and considering how it can be both a form of expression and protection for vulnerable bodies. This includes art focusing on the issue of needle-spiking and prompts opportunities to consider relationships between the body, clothing, safety and agency. Likewise, Home Truths presents an immersive fabric installation by London-based artist, Jennifer Jones, where curtains serve as walls and gateways that enclose intimate and transformative moments.

At the former Body Shop in Exeter’s Guildhall Shopping Centre, Journey to the West will exhibit a diverse array of Chinese contemporary art, such as calligraphy, paper-cutting, shadow puppetry and traditional Chinese painting by artists including Zhou Chenlong and Ren Yinlai. Workshops on how to do Chinese calligraphy and painting will also be run throughout the exhibition.

The third and final venue is the community art space, Positive Light Projects, on Sidwell Street. Here, three exhibitions will include Delicious Poison, which showcases work by Pei-Ying Lin and Gyokee exploring how the pollution created by humans is entering our food chain and being consumed, as well as two solo shows: by the Bangladeshi artist Urmi Roy; and by Paris-based artist-filmmaker Duo Duo.

“We are delighted to be able to take the work of our talented students into our community, once again,” adds Professor Trevor. “It not only offers them valuable practical experience of what it takes to bring together art with a particular venue or location, but it also offers residents and visitors to Exeter a deeply thought-provoking, enjoyable and free contemporary art showcase.”

Elsewhere(s) will run from 6-15 June, and will be open 10.30am-5pm daily. For more information, visit the project website and follow on Instagram.