Registered Charity Number : 275527
Current Exhibition from 8th October 2011 to 4th March 2012
The galleries currently show the work of 2 Suffolk-based artists and an interactive responsive installation. These multi-voiced displays take their inspiration from Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service's World "collection" and the wider world of "collecting".
Atrium, Gallery 1, 3 & 4 - BEHIND THE MASK, Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy MBE
Nigerian-born Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy's shows 'Behind the Mask', a body of new work made as a direct response to the Charles Partridge Collection, on show in Ipswich's High Street Museum. Charles Partridge was an Edwardian Suffolk Colonial Officer in Nigeria and his collection of the Ibibio is close to her own traditional cultural heritage as an Igbo. Chinwe has taken particular inspiration from one of the Ekpo masks Partridge collected from the Ibibio people to explore the theme of masks and 'masking'. Through her new paintings, drawings and 3D work Chinwe invites the audience to contemplate the notions of disguise and facade. Devices through which people have sought to articulate the complexities of everyday life, the African Colonial experience, and the contemporary conflicts over cultural identity that face the African diaspora.
Click to visit Chinwe's web sites > www.chinwegallery.com or www.chinwe-gallery.co.uk
Nigerian-born Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy's shows 'Behind the Mask', a body of new work made as a direct response to the Charles Partridge Collection, on show in Ipswich's High Street Museum. Charles Partridge was an Edwardian Suffolk Colonial Officer in Nigeria and his collection of the Ibibio is close to her own traditional cultural heritage as an Igbo. Chinwe has taken particular inspiration from one of the Ekpo masks Partridge collected from the Ibibio people to explore the theme of masks and 'masking'. Through her new paintings, drawings and 3D work Chinwe invites the audience to contemplate the notions of disguise and facade. Devices through which people have sought to articulate the complexities of everyday life, the African Colonial experience, and the contemporary conflicts over cultural identity that face the African diaspora.
Click to visit Chinwe's web sites > www.chinwegallery.com or www.chinwe-gallery.co.uk
Gallery 7, 8 & corridor - RETURN TO THE IPSWICH ART SCHOOL, Gareth Bayliss
Former Ipswich Art School student Gareth Bayliss shows retrospective and new work in 'Gareth Bayliss - Return to The Ipswich Art School'. Bayliss is a compulsive graphic artist with a broad interest in ritual display in contemporary youth culture, entertainment and social activity. He presents workings and ephemera from his commercial publication and packaging design for musical artists and record labels (including Mo'Wax, Dizzee Rascal, Honest Jon's), alongside his prolific personal outputs - drawings, print and zines (fanzine or magazine). His drawing-based work has evolved a signatory visual and conceptual repertoire "sampled" and "mixed" from a passion for the world of record collecting. Funk, Soul, Reggae, Nigerian Afro-Beat, Folk, Country, Rock, Hip Hop, Electronic Dance and Urban music provide an eclectic resource for his meticulous, handcrafted (drawn and digitised) compositions. Work results as "visual trademarks" and logotypes, recurring insignia and surface patterns, graphic language familiar in global branding but used here to communicate more intimate "tribal" association.
Both artists present well-defined thematic displays, yet there are common contextual roots to be found in their (visual and material) dialogue with cross-cultural exchange. African and African diasporic traditions and ritual being played out in popular culture through contemporary music and style.
Click to visit Gareth's blog site > garethbayliss.blogspot.com
Former Ipswich Art School student Gareth Bayliss shows retrospective and new work in 'Gareth Bayliss - Return to The Ipswich Art School'. Bayliss is a compulsive graphic artist with a broad interest in ritual display in contemporary youth culture, entertainment and social activity. He presents workings and ephemera from his commercial publication and packaging design for musical artists and record labels (including Mo'Wax, Dizzee Rascal, Honest Jon's), alongside his prolific personal outputs - drawings, print and zines (fanzine or magazine). His drawing-based work has evolved a signatory visual and conceptual repertoire "sampled" and "mixed" from a passion for the world of record collecting. Funk, Soul, Reggae, Nigerian Afro-Beat, Folk, Country, Rock, Hip Hop, Electronic Dance and Urban music provide an eclectic resource for his meticulous, handcrafted (drawn and digitised) compositions. Work results as "visual trademarks" and logotypes, recurring insignia and surface patterns, graphic language familiar in global branding but used here to communicate more intimate "tribal" association.
Both artists present well-defined thematic displays, yet there are common contextual roots to be found in their (visual and material) dialogue with cross-cultural exchange. African and African diasporic traditions and ritual being played out in popular culture through contemporary music and style.
Click to visit Gareth's blog site > garethbayliss.blogspot.com
Gallery 10 - here after this ... OBJECT EXCHANGE - Interactive Public Participation Installation
The 'there after this ... OBJECT EXCHANGE' public participation installation celebrates the phenomenon of cultural exchange, and the complexity and diversity of cultural traditions. On view will be 'curators' selection' of relevant objects from the Museum's collection providing a material and visual meeting-point between the two featured exhibitors.
Parallel to this is an interactive element that follows the ethos of 'letter-boxing' or 'geocaching'. Here visitors are invited to remove and donate their own ephemeral objects to an evolving and shifting display in response to their own ideas about cultural exchange, communication and display.
The 'there after this ... OBJECT EXCHANGE' public participation installation celebrates the phenomenon of cultural exchange, and the complexity and diversity of cultural traditions. On view will be 'curators' selection' of relevant objects from the Museum's collection providing a material and visual meeting-point between the two featured exhibitors.
Parallel to this is an interactive element that follows the ethos of 'letter-boxing' or 'geocaching'. Here visitors are invited to remove and donate their own ephemeral objects to an evolving and shifting display in response to their own ideas about cultural exchange, communication and display.
Gallery 9 - COMMON ROOM - Open resource space for audience-led events
A 'Common Room' has also been set up as a visitor resource. Here it will be possible to make broad responses to the exhibitions either by dropping-in and using the art materials provided or scheduling audience-Ied, informal time-based activity - performance, readings to demonstrations etc (until January 2012).
For detailed information contact, 01473 433681 or julia.devonshire@colchester.gov.uk
A 'Common Room' has also been set up as a visitor resource. Here it will be possible to make broad responses to the exhibitions either by dropping-in and using the art materials provided or scheduling audience-Ied, informal time-based activity - performance, readings to demonstrations etc (until January 2012).
For detailed information contact, 01473 433681 or julia.devonshire@colchester.gov.uk