Image: Serena Brown, Clayponds (2018) - Courtesy of the artist.
After the End of History : British Working Class Photography 1989 - 2024
October - December 2025 (Wednesday - Saturday, 12pm - 5pm)
Preview: To be announced
Launching in March 2024, Hayward Gallery Touring - the UK’s largest contemporary art organisation producing exhibitions that tour Britain - will present After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 - 2024. The exhibition will bring together working class artists who use photography to explore the nuances of life in all its diversity today, turning their gaze towards both their communities and out to the wider world.
After the End of History will offer a picture of working-class life today; from Rene Matic’s portrait of growing up mixed race in a white working-class community in Peterborough, to Elaine Constaintine's documentation of the Northern Soul scene, to Kavi Pujara ode to Leicester's Hindu community, and JA Mortram’s documentation throughout his life of marginalised people while working as a caregiver.
The year 2024 will mark 35 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the symbolic end of Communism. For the economist Francis Fukuyama, writing in the early 1990s, this celebrated triumph of Western Liberal Democracy as the only viable future for global politics represented the “End of History”.
The counter-cultural energies of the 1980s, very often powered up by the alternative ideologies embodied by Communism, and a reaction against Thatcherism, produced a collective, coherent and politically engaged generation of working-class artists. But after the so-called “End of History” was announced in the 1990s, what became of working-class culture and the working class creative? What kind of images has working-class life produced in the last 35 years? After The End of History aims to illuminate these questions.
Among the artists featured in this exhibition are Richard Billingham, Sam Blackwood, Serena Brown, Antony Cairns, Rob Clayton, Joanne Coates, Josh Cole, Artúr Conka, Elaine Constantine, Natasha Edgington, Richard Grassick, Anna Magnowska, Rene Matic, J A Mortram, Kelly O'Brien, Eddie Otchere, Kavi Pujara, Khadija Saye, Chris Shaw, Trevor Smith, Ewen Spencer, Hannah Starkey, Igoris Taran, Nathaniel Telemaque, Barbara Wasiak and Tom Wood.
Johny Pitts, Curator of After the End of History, says: “Developing a show with Hayward Gallery Touring, which pieces together complex and counterintuitive expressions of working class life through the lens, has been a deeply enriching process. I hope the extraordinary work included offers not only a celebration of the craft and creativity of working class practitioners, but also engages, surprises and inspires a working class audience, and anyone interested in art against-the-odds.”
Brian Cass, Senior Curator, Hayward Gallery Touring, says: “Thanks to the insights and passion of curator Johny Pitts, After the End of History offers a portrayal of working-class culture that doesn’t conform to expectation. It features a fascinating range of artists whose visually compelling images challenge the ideals of classic documentary photography while also saying something vital about class, community and creativity. We are delighted to be working with our exhibition partners on this project and we hope the exhibition offers audiences a thoughtful, relevant and affirming celebration of working-class creativity.”
Marguerite Nugent, Cultural Director, Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, adds: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be the first venue to host After The End of History at the Herbert this coming spring. The exhibition will represent the working-class story since the Thatcher era, told through the lens of working-class artists, and will offer audiences the opportunity to engage with themes about class and identity.”
Katharine Stout, Director, Focal Point Gallery, comments: “We are delighted to present After the End of History, which will explore the nuances of working-class life from 1989 to today as captured by the camera lenses of working-class practitioners, especially as this exhibition speaks to Focal Point Gallery’s origins as a specialist photography venue.”
Tom Godfrey, Director, Bonington Gallery, says: "We are extremely excited to be hosting After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 - 2024 and to be working with such wonderful partners. The exhibition will offer a timely platform for a group of practitioners with extremely valuable perspectives, offering insight into their worlds against the timeline of such a tumultuous and hard-to-quantify period of collective history."
After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 - 2024 is a Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition curated by Johny Pitts with Hayward Gallery Touring.