A group exhibition curated by Hannah Pierce bringing together six artists who are challenging the limitations of copyright through their practice and including three new commissions seen for the first time. Copyright has expanded exponentially over the past two decades in line with the unprecedented free-exchange of information and content that takes place over the Internet. In October 2014, in an attempt to make the copyright system better-suited to the digital age, changes to UK legislation came into effect allowing the parody of copyrighted works. This change allows individuals to make limited but reasonable use of creative content previously protected by copyright through ‘Caricature, Parody and Pastiche’ without having to gain permission of the rights holder, provided it is considered ‘fair and appropriate’.
Each of the three new commissions reflects a current and evolving artistic interest in ‘playing’ with copyright frameworks and associated issues. Digital artist Antonio Roberts’ work tests questions of creative ownership rights arising from today’s increasingly sophisticated digital technology. Owen Parry’s Larry!Monument is informed by his fascination with the phenomenon of fandom and the fan-art aesthetic. His life-size monument pays homage to the fictional romance between One Direction members Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, as dreamed up by the band’s infatuated fans. Hannah Knox’s work draws inspiration from the Magic Eye series of autostereograms. Popular in the ’90s these were 2D digital patterns which offered up illusory 3D images on prolonged viewing. Hannah exhibits a series of new painted and mixed media works based on Magic Eye posters, complemented by a vast original Magic Eye backdrop painted on the wall.
Alongside are three existing works from mid-career artists. Canada based Rob Myers’ Sharable Readymades project aims to return iconic art historical readymades to the public domain. He displays several examples of these works as 3D-printable models. Intentionally simulating the way in which DJs sample, distort and layer the music of others Edwin Burdis presents a new series of paintings entitled POLYTUNNEL-BANGERZ which sample and remix existing artwork including his own. Danish artist-designer-activists SUPERFLEX describe their work as tools; models or proposals which can be used and modified by their users. They exhibit Copy Right, a model of a chair referencing knock-off imitations of popular mid-20th century Ant Chair by Danish designer Arne Jacobsen.
Jerwood Encounters are one-off curated exhibitions which provide artists and curators with new exhibition opportunities and the chance to explore issues and territories in the borderlands between the main disciplinary fields of the Jerwood Visual Arts programme. They were first established in 2009.
