Blank Media Collective

Upcoming Event: /”Home/”

Saturday 13th February 2010 - Saturday 27th March 2010

Airspace Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent

Featuring: Kashif Nadim Chaudry, Samit Das, Chinmoyi Patel, Hetain Patel, Harminder Singh Judge

\”home\” is a group exhibition looking into how, when set in a comparable context with artists from South Asia, British artists of South Asian descent view their own origin and literal physical sense of location, alongside more figurative investigations and manifestations of the self and identity, locality and vicinity, foreign and foreignness, home and origin.

The exhibition will display established artists together with recent graduates at the beginning of their creative careers, including Kashif Nadim Chaudry, Samit Das, Chinmoyi Patel, Hetain Patel and Harminder Singh Judge. Presenting the growing and changing face of South Asia, the show examines the cross-cultural international relationships through visual interpretations. The artists are trying to make sense of their past, history and origin, whilst negotiating and comprehending the contemporary changes to South Asian society. Simultaneously, Rachel Marsden, the curator, attempts to bring the artworks out of their usual frameworks to be reconfigured, renegotiated and reassessed in a new context, providing appropriate socio-historic interpretations through which the public and viewer can understand an unknown and often unseen narrative.

The progressive urbanization and globalisation of India and Pakistan, its relationship to the West and the distance of the artwork and artist from its “home-country”, or origin, has presented a whole new set of questions. How is South Asian contemporary art interpreted, exhibited and understood when it is moved from its origin to the West, specifically the UK? How do South Asian and British artists of South Asian descent view and interpret their own origin? What happens to the notion of the “self”? By looking at artists in relation to the global context of South Asia, \”home\” aims to create international cross-cultural dialogues between local and regional diverse and dynamic communities in North Staffordshire and the West Midlands.

The public will be given an opportunity to respond to the exhibition by being questioned what their identity, location and ultimately their \”home\” means to them. Where have they come from to see the exhibition? Where do they live? Where is their origin? These responses will be recorded on postcards, which will be placed alongside the show.

The private view and opening event for \”home\” will take place on Friday 12th February 2010, from 6pm to 9pm, where refreshments will be provided. Furthermore, a limited edition publication has been produced in conjunction with the exhibition by the AirSpace Gallery, featuring an essay by the New York academic, artist and writer Basem Hassan, available to purchase from the Gallery at £5.

Event Contact Information

Opening Reception Friday 12th February, 6-9 pm
AirSpace Gallery – 4 Broad Street Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire UK ST1 4HL | Open Tues - Sat 11am - 5pm