New commissions by artists with a moving image, performance and writing based practice, presented through a series of events.
The selected artists are: London-based artist-filmmaker, programmer and researcher Onyeka Igwe; Essex-based artist Rebecca Moss; and Cardiff-based multi-disciplinary artist AJ Stockwell. Birmingham-based curator and researcher Seán Elder has also been selected to curate an event as part of the series.
Seán Elder is a curator based in Birmingham whose research is concerned with queer relations acting within curatorial practices. They are currently undertaking a PhD and developing a research-based programme with Grand Union. In 2018 they curated Inherited Premises, a two person show by Rami George and Tako Taal which featured newly commissioned work by the artists, and as part of Grand Union curatorial team programmed Ways of Learning with Lucy Lopez in its first iteration. They have undertaken developed independent projects and writing with organisations including Cooper Gallery, Dundee, Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, LUX Scotland and LUX Moving Image.
Onyeka Igwe is an artist filmmaker, programmer and researcher. She was born and is based in London. In her non-fiction video work, she uses dance, voice, archive and text to expose a multiplicity of narratives. The work explores the physical body and geographical place as sites of cultural and political meaning. Her works have been screened at ICA, London, Guildhall Art Gallery, London; and at film festivals internationally including the London Film Festival, 2015; Rotterdam International, Netherlands, 2018 and 2019; Edinburgh Artist Moving Image, 2016; Images Festival, Canada, 2019, and the Smithsonian African American film festival, USA, 2018. Recent solo projects include a collaborative exhibition with Aliya Pabani, Corrections, Trinity Square Video, Toronto, Canada, 2018 and a solo exhibition, No Dance, No Palaver, Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival, Hawick, Scotland, 2018. onyekaigwe.com
Rebecca Moss is an artist based in Essex. Taking inspiration from slapstick and absurd comedy, she stages anti-monumental interventions on camera. While inspired by the site-responsive gestures and approaches of Psychogeographic and Situationist practice, she notes a distinct lack of feminist voices within these discourses. Her work manifests across a variety of media, but often takes the form of short edited videos documenting absurdist and humorous scenarios performed for camera. She was shortlisted for the Future Generation Art Prize in 2017 and is currently a PEER Notices commissioned artist, PEER Gallery, Hoxton, London. rebeccamoss.co.uk
AJ Stockwell is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work is rooted in sculpture. Her practice considers the slippage of materials through time and our bodily connection to these through acts of observation and making. Interpreting our contemporary human relationship with artifacts, she often borrows languages and processes from other disciplines (such as ceramics, dentistry, archaeology, mining and clog-dancing), initiating conversations with specific groups, experts and amateur enthusiasts as both sources of knowledge and collaborators in making. Her current work focuses on the relationship between human and geologic bodies as part of ongoing research into human-material entanglements. She is currently a lecturer in Critical Studies at Hereford College of Arts and an Associate Tutor at Cardiff School of Art and Design. aj-stockwell.com
Jerwood Staging Series is a curatorial project designed to provide a London platform for event-based presentations of work, including film screenings, performances, readings and discussion and was launched in 2016. It is led by Harriet Cooper, Head of Visual Arts, and Lauren Houlton, Gallery Manager.
