Aligning with the spirit of the season, the spring programme at the gallery, located on Queen Street, is always an opportunity to celebrate the ‘new’ by presenting newly commissioned art works, and by profiling artists whose work is exploring new ideas.
Paulette Brien, Curator of Grundy Art Gallery, said:
Exhibitions
20 April to 15 June - RA WALDEN : Object transformations through the coordinate of time
A solo exhibition of newly commissioned and existing works by the UK born, Berlin-based artist, RA Walden that mark and measure the passing of time. Spanning sculpture, installation, text and moving image, the works in this exhibition call on us all to consider how we use and value time from a personal, societal and ecological perspective. Drawing on reference points as varied as, quantum physics, the ecological crisis, ancient timekeeping and the life cycle of worms, Walden is asking us to consider time at both a macro and micro level.
More specifically, as an artist with lived experience of a disability, RA Walden also uses their work to explore and express non-normative experiences of time. From sculptures made from hacked office clocks, to texts that ask who and what defines, ‘work’, Walden’s exhibition also provides a poetic meditation on lives and bodies whose timekeeping does not always conform to the supposed ‘norm’.
This exhibition is presented as part of Hybrid Futures, and runs in parallel with a group exhibition at Salford Museum and Art Gallery from 23 March to 22 September 2024, which includes additional work, by RA Walden.
RA Walden is a transdisciplinary artist whose work centres a queer, disabled perspective on the fragility of the body. Their practice spans sculpture, installation, video and printed matter, all of which is undertaken with a socially engaged and research-led methodology. RA Walden has exhibited at Storm King Art Centre, New York, Grundy Art Gallery Blackpool, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, HAU, Berlin, The National Gallery of Australia, SOHO20, New York, and Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam.
20 April to 15 June - COLLECTION SPOTLIGHT: About Time
The next in an ongoing series of exhibitions that profile works from the Grundy collection in thematic displays. For this exhibition, works from the collection have been selected in response to the key themes of timekeeping, rest and fragility being explored in the work of RA Walden.
Works on display include The Amber Necklace by John Collier (1854-1934) and The Hourglass by Patti Mayor (1872-1962) wherein central to both is an object with strong symbolic meaning. In the first of these works, the natural gemstone amber, formed from the fossilisation of ancient tree resin and sometimes referred to as ‘frozen time’ takes centre stage, whilst in the second, a timekeeping device in the form of an hourglass reminds us of the passage of time, the inevitability of change and the cycle of life. Elsewhere, other works have been chosen to reflect other concepts of time such as work time, leisure time and seasonal time, including The Laughing Parson by Charles Spencelayh (1865 – 1958), and Message of May by Anna Airy (1882-1964).
Learning and engagement programme
The spring programme will be supported by a full learning and engagement programme including workshops, talks, and tours. Examples include a guided mindful coastal walk and workshop, led by locally based artists Tina Dempsey and Joseph Doubtfire and the Rest Reading Group led by artist Niki Colclough which will be regular collective reading sessions at the Grundy. Call The Grundy on 01253 478170, visit their website or follow Grundy’s social media for further details.