Alice Bucknell: Swamp City
Exhibition runs: 6 - 29 May 2022 / Wed to Fri 1-7pm, Sat & Sun 11-5pm Opening reception: Thursday 5th May 5-9pm / drinks sponsored by Asahi Super Dry EVENTS Guided exhibition tour with the Artist: Saturday 21st May 5-6 pm RSVP Artist talk + Q&A: Saturday 28th May 5-6pm RSVP HOXTON 253 is proud to present Swamp City, the debut UK solo exhibition by artist and writer Alice Bucknell.
The exhibition explores the crossovers between architecture, ecology, disaster capitalism, simulated environments and non-human intelligence through speculative fiction and game engines. Expanding upon late stage capitalism’s relationship to the climate crisis, and speculating on the possibilities of ecological survival in the rapidly changing landscape of the Florida Everglades, Swamp City takes the form of a mock real estate office vending luxury eco-tourism at the proverbial end of the world. Previously showcased at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, for the UK premiere of Swamp City, the speculative estate agency has been brought to life, temporarily transforming HOXTON 253’s gallery space into the offices of The Evergreen Group. It is complete with property listings, promotional pamphlets, 3D printed models, and slick metallic landscape prints, arranged inside a neon-tinted, houseplant-stuffed, copper-accented office space designed to lure in its millennial clientele and investors Read more about the exhibition |
Forthcoming
Book Launch: In The Social Network, Digital Exploitation and Collective Intelligence by Claudio Ceruti
Wed 1st June 2022, 7.30-8.30pm RSVP Please join us for the book launch of “In The Social Network” / “Nella Rete dei Social”, and a discussion with the author PhD Claudio Ceruti.
The book essay looks at social networks as a "social product", a result of a historical process that started a long time ago. Contrary to the narrative that portrays them as inevitable disruptive innovations, these technologies are believed here being explored how they might play a paradigmatic role in the system of domination and profit making of 21st century capitalism. The discussion is moderated by Sara Marchesi, non-fiction Editor-in-Chief at Prospero Editore. The first edition of the book has been published in Italian, the presentation and discussion will be in English. Read more |
Past
WE ARE MADE OF STAR STUFF
Exhibition runs: 4-27 March 2022 / Wed to Fri 12-7pm, Sat & Sun 11-6pm Opening reception: Thursday 3rd March / drinks sponsored by Asahi Super Dry WE ARE MADE OF STAR STUFF invites us to unearth the layered entanglements that exist between humans and their natural environment in the context of geological time. Held by rocks, minerals, ice and the crust of the ground we walk on – our busy surface world percolates the evidence of slow ‘deep time’ processes that have the power to pull us in and reconnect us with the vanished worlds that came before our own, and with those yet to come. Measured in millions of years, this timescale reveals Earth as a monument of destruction and disruption where boundaries between the concepts of the past, present and future blur. Geology is a long-term commitment. It is a way of seeing the world across multiple timescales whilst holding it simultaneously in the mind’s eye.
By proposing we re-think our relation to temporality, the exhibition positions deep time as a vantage point which is no longer bound to the dominating constructs of capitalist time, the brief time we live, or even to the extended time of our species. A geological worldview restores attention to the way in which human and non-human agencies are all wrapped together, and points towards a more plurally determined existence. Exhibiting artists: Lydia Brockless, Ilana Halperin, Geistė Marija Kinčinaitytė, Matthew Needham, Josephine Pryde, Georgia Somerville Watts and Maël Traïca. Curated by Berta Zubrickaitė. The exhibition and associated programme are supported by and part of HELLO AGAIN, HACKNEY, the borough's cultural reopening initiative. Read more about the exhibition |
There's no way I can know it, the object, or the body
A two person exhibition by Sophie Seita and Claire Zakiewicz Exhibition runs: 4-26 February 2022 This two-person show by Hackney-based artists Sophie Seita and Claire Zakiewicz explores the expressive possibilities of writing, drawing, and of writing-bodies, where expression or knowledge is always tied to a question of materiality. The works dissect forms of address, the possibilities for moving and being moved, through writing, painting, video installations, and performance. How can a work hold a moment, make it tangible, knowable?
Embedded in both ephemerality and abstraction, the multi-media exhibition featuring performance, painting, sound and moving image works also addresses ideas around immediacy and energy, time and motion, light and space, what’s observable and what’s imagined, what can be grasped and what remains projection. The exhibition and associated programme are supported by and part of HELLO AGAIN, HACKNEY, the borough's cultural reopening initiative. Read more about the exhibition programme |
The Great Escape
A duo exhibition by Christabel Forbes & Rory Browne Exhibition runs: 22 - 24 April 2022 / Fri & Sat 1pm-9pm, Sun 10am-5pm Opening reception: Friday 22 April, 5-9pm We are pleased to host ‘The Great Escape’, a duo exhibition featuring Christabel Forbes & Rory Browne, presented by MAPA Fine Art.
The two UK based artists have a unique and vibrant way of portraying landscape, inspired by their respective surrounding country sides, as well as foreign landscapes. In their own colourful and characteristic style, they explore the beauty and power of our natural environment. MAPA’s previous exhibition, Rectangle Roots & Paved Tongues, dealt with the concept of space in relation to an increasingly urbanised world, The Great Escape zooms in on the stunning natural spaces our planet has to offer - at a time when both nature and society seem to be gearing up for a new dawn. Landscapes exude a sense of calm and mystery that transcends time or place; no wonder artists of all cultures and styles have been drawn to these scenes throughout history. The juxtaposition of Forbes's colourist and slightly impressionist approach and Browne's bright realism provides a window into the subjective but shared realities humans experience in the natural world. Whether bright and playful or atmospheric and spiritual, Forbes & Browne contribute to this age-old artistic tradition with their individual but equally mesmerising takes on landscape painting. |
DECONSTRUCTED LANGUAGE:
From Five Perspectives Exhibition runs: 31 March - 3 April 2022 / Fri & Sat 10-8pm, Sun 10-4pm Opening reception: Thursday 31 March, 5-9pm The exhibition features five female East London based artists, from Caribbean/ Nigerian heritage. Deconstructed Language explores the many ways in which language can be expressed, shown through the artists' visual interpretations. Formulated and showing works by artists Latiya Nanton, Sarah Magras, Ronaé Fagon, Nancy Evbuomwan and Nefateri.
The work on show ignites the imagination, revealing ways in which important topics and issues in the community and the world today, can be told through alternative and beautiful ways. |
Featured series
ART+ECOLOGY
takeover series 🌱 ART+ECOLOGY is conceived in collaboration with artists from around the globe, whose work revolves around ecological subjects. Each artist will be taking our platform over for a week, illustrating ecological causes they care about in relation to their practice. DISCOVER THE PROGRAMME |