In archeological terms, a persistent place describes a meaningful location repeatedly visited and inhabited, sometimes for short durations of time, but over decades and centuries, for different tasks and reasons.
This exhibition presents the work of artists who have documented the social, physical and cultural importance of a place/places that have a personal resonance for them. With work from Zurich, Liverpool, South Wales, Surrey and Trench Town, Jamaica, the exhibition focuses primarily on architecture and social history and incorporates photography, video and drawing.
The show is a continuation of the exhibition of the same name which was held in Kunsthaeuschen Herrliberg, Switzerland, in May and June 2019. Both exhibitions have been curated by exhibiting artist, Charlotte C Mortensson.
A Persistent Place
3 - 13 June 2021
12pm to 6 pm, Thur to Sun
Also open Wednesday 9 June
The artists:
Pierre Kellenberger is a freelance photographer specialising in architecture and design. He studied at Zurich University of the Arts and the work in this show is from his series Facing Architecture which focuses on his home town of Zurich. 'I like to deal with the everyday and the transformation/abstraction to something new. The environment we see around us all the time is often overlooked or ignored. It is a pleasure for me to pay attention to these things.'
Pierre's photographs have been widely exhibited in Switzerland, and also in Germany. A Persistent Place at APT Gallery will be the first time that his work is shown in the UK.
www.pierrekellenberger.ch
Michael Kirkham's acclaimed project, Urban Goals, is a memento to lost youth and a stark reminder of the social inequalities still faced in Britain today. Now nationwide, the series started in and around his native city of Liverpool recording the goals painted on houses, factories, pubs and street walls when children still played football in the streets.
Several photographs from the series were shown in the exhibition, The Lie of the Land, at MK Gallery Milton Keynes in 2019 which marked the reopening of the gallery. As stated in the exhibition catalogue, 'The title Urban Goals speaks as much to the aspirations of kids whose kick-abouts happen against brick walls in Britain's inner cities as the makeshift targets themselves.'
www.michaelkirkhamphotography.co.uk
Instagram: @urban_goals
Amanda Loomes works with experimental documentary video to unearth the people who quietly shape and manipulate our landscape. Informed by her previous working life as a civil engineer, she considers the fragility and resilience of human endeavour.
In 2018, as part of a commission for Surrey Unearthed, she made repeated visits to film at two working sand quarries. With the workers, she playfully explored their relationship to tools, along with the geology and archaeology of these persistent places of work. Her film Whole (10 mins) reflects on the repetitive processes of sand extraction to draw attention to the pride and beauty within the industrial workplace at Moorhouse Sandpits. Persistent Place (16 mins 30 secs) weaves together the palimpsest of labour at North Park Quarry, from the Mesolithic hunters who struck flints found at the site, to today’s machine operators who now quarry the sand.
www.amandaloomes.net
Instagram: @loomesamanda
James Milne completed an MFA in Documentary Photography at the University of South Wales in 2014. Growing up in Newport, South Wales, heavy industry was a dominant presence. The removal of this type of functional architecture since the 1980s made a lasting impression on his artistic practice, which focuses on the interplay between drawing and the photographic document.
Most recently, James staged a solo exhibition of his work at Newport Museum and Art Gallery in 2019. Titled II*, the project focused attention on Newport's George Street Bridge (1964) which, when opened, became the UK's first cable-stayed cantilever bridge. ‘I see my practice as responding to architectural sites which have become culturally invisible or taken for granted. The more locations I visit, either home or abroad, the more parallels I find regarding preserved heritage in contrast to what’s in decline or scheduled for demolition.‘ James has exhibited his work throughout the UK and abroad. He lives and works in Newport.
www.jamesmilnephotography.co.uk
Instagram: @jamesmilne1980
Charlotte C Mortensson has been documenting the self-built architecture of Trench Town, Jamaica since 2006, working with local historians and long-term residents. Originally built as social housing in the 1940s and 50s, it was a sought after place to live with communal courtyards, parks, theatres. Since then, the population has expanded and homes have been extended out into the streets and courtyards often using recycled materials - corrugated metal, wooden pallets and boards, and aluminium printing plates from the local printers. Many homes have become striking works of art in their own right.
Also evident in the architecture are the years of sporadic political violence - the front line between Jamaica’s two main political parties dissects Trench Town.
Photographs from the series have been widely exhibited in the UK and Europe, and as part of Caribbean In/Securities & Creative Research, a touring exhibition in 2017/18 which included the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica.
www.charlottecmortensson.com
Instagram: @curate_ccebm