Nelly Ating, Audrey Albert, Ffion Denman, Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Exhibition Preview: Friday 8 March, 6 - 8pm
What does it mean to be altered?
Like clothes are altered by a tailor to fit the wearer, so too are the records of history. Fragments of histories crafted, maintained for specific purposes, often silenced. The suppression of histories has shaped ideologies, social systems. The alteration of history has altered the fabric of society.
Interrogating archival photographs and objects that centre a Western history of decolonialisation through alteration, the artists Ffion Denman, Nelly Ating, Audrey Albert, and Ariella Aïsha Azoulay consider the role that galleries and institutions play in the public discourse and interpretation of history. Specifically, the contortion of history regarding the Welsh Patagonia colonisation, the South African Afrikaans occupation, the Chagossian Islands under British colonisation, and the occupation of Palestine by Israeli forces are reinterpreted by the artists in the gallery space. As Conrad (2016) points out, global history aims to come to terms with the connections of the past. Therefore, from image circulation to the use of these material objects, the artists aim to draw from similar historical alteration as a marker that connects levels of distortion.
What has this got to do with the gallery as an institution?
As political concepts are not neutral, the gallery bears witness to many levels and forms of alteration. Can the gallery’s past be reimagined, interwoven with other pasts?
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Last year we were delighted to start working with Audrey Albert and the Imperial War Museums on a project as part of the IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund, a national partnership programme of over 20 artist commissions inspired by the heritage of conflict. Led by Imperial War Museums, the IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund was created following the success of 14-18 NOW, the official UK arts programme for the First World War centenary. Albert’s commission focuses on the Chagos Islands. We are looking forward to showing some of Audrey’s work in progress this Spring as part of the Interventions: Gallery Reset show Alteration, with the commission culminating in a solo exhibition at Ffotogallery in 2025.
Interventions: Gallery Reset is a series of gallery ‘takeovers' made possible with Art Fund’s ‘Reimagine’ grant, providing new opportunities for artists to experiment, challenge and ask provocative questions, with a focus on themes such as identity, migration, gender, social inequality and the environment.