Calling the City
I’ve been working with artist Donald Harding on his upcoming show Calling the City, showing in Bristol from 12 Oct 2023.
I’ve worked with Donald before and really enjoy it, partly because his work is so strong but also because he’s a great client who instinctively understands the benefits of tapping into my museum/gallery expertise. (Those benefits are to bring out the best in his work and to give the visitor a good experience.)
His work often explores the border between fact and fiction and, in the case of this show, how this can literally alter the course of history …
Not only is the content great, it’s in the new Kit Form Gallery. The building is Grade II listed, originally constructed as a carriage works in 1905, then subsequently housing the Royal Naval Reserve – very appropriate to the theme of the show as you’ll see.
If you’re in Bristol, it’ll be well worth a visit.
Here's some details about the show:
If a place exists where does it exist if not in our imaginations?
In a collaboration with the people of Bristol, Donald Harding cold-called public phone boxes across the city, asking the random passers-by who picked up, to describe their view from the box. A series of audio descriptions of the urban landscape emerges as a document of a place and its people.
The work incorporates the story of Hy-Brasil – an island that existed in the Atlantic for 550 years. Local mariners searching for the elusive land gained unique knowledge navigating the uncharted ocean – a knowledge that determined John Cabot’s choice of Bristol as a base for his landmark 1497 expedition.
The gallery becomes a place where a kind of fiction, and a kind of fact, trace an English city forged through narratives both real and imagined.
Kit Form Gallery 37–39 Jamaica St, Bristol BS2 8JP
Preview 12 Oct 2023 from 6.30pm
Artist talk Tues 17 Oct, 7pm
Exhibition continues Until 28 Oct
Opening times Weds to Sat 12–6pm
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Interested in commissioning or working with me? Get in touch via email at hello@tanyacornish.com
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