Second Act Gallery, London
September - October 2024
Tools For Troubled Times is a series of wooden objects made in collaboration with woodworker James Ackerley. Exploring the materiality of our lived landscapes and featured in the BushCrafters exhibition, Second Act Gallery, London.
Exhbition Text -
Borrowing the term from hobbyist survivalism, Bushcrafters celebrates the frenzied sets of hands interested in taking whatever it is around them and turning it into something singular (useful or otherwise) through discernible, sincere, and straightforward actions. Just as those who take minimal supplies into the wilderness and forge what it is they need to get through their self-inflicted exile from modern society, this group of makers (six “local” from the UK and seven international) has been gathered for their shared impulse to cope with the world as it is today through seemingly ad-hoc yet deliberate production: each slice, stack, layer or remix to create something inherently familiar but always new, maybe even needed beyond the shadow of contemporary dread. The dividing line between their materials and forms of choice are split by the anthropogenic concept of locality - or what’s near; versus universality, what’s everywhere - raising questions around who has access to what, and whether creating is about living or merely about surviving.
Curated by Kellie Riggs with Artists; Adam Grinovich (US), Bernhard Schobinger (CH), David Clarke (UK), Fabio Giorgi Alberti (IT), Georgina Treviño (MX/US), James Ackerley (UK), James Tailor (UK), Kieran Leach (UK), Kostas Lambridis (GR), Lucia Massari (IT), Maisie Pritchard (UK), Niki Colclough (UK), Tamara Johnson (US) and Trey Burns (US).