Rose Howey Cooperative Gallery: 02
Hello again from Rose Howey!
We write this off the back our first event ‘July 1, 2, 3…”; an introduction to the artists showing in The Event Room this summer. Although first and foremost a successful exhibition of politically charged, personally expressive artwork, the show also radically improved our main communal space and celebrated the coming together of friends and residents of Rose Howey cooperative. The exhibition sought to socially and artistically gather the residents of the cooperative and unite our local community whilst making us all aware of the importance of communal spaces.
Even the youngest dwellers got caught up in the artistic dynamic, embracing the moment and spontaneously producing artwork which was displayed in the corridor, creating a ‘fringe’ show of their own!
The exhibition was a great opportunity to introduce housing cooperation to an audience that may never have experienced or been aware of it before. Simultaneously, it was a chance to bring artwork to a public that may frequent cooperative spaces but not necessarily art galleries. It is these interactions that activate the space as an artwork itself and therefore blur the boundaries between private and public space by creating a community space – redefining what is “dwelling”. This can be understood in the light of Heidegger’s conception of dwelling; his philosophy argues that building, dwelling and thinking are actually one unique intellectual operation and that language throughout History has divided into different concepts, (Originally published as in Martin Heidegger’s ‘Building and Dwelling’, [Bauen und Wohnen].
The next exhibition to come to Rose Howey Cooperative Gallery will be ‘Chernobyl: 30 Years On’, which takes place at the end of this month. It will be the first exhibition of new works by 26:86 Collective, a group of artists of varying practices based in the North of England. The show features artistic output following their expedition to Chernobyl and Pripyat in Ukraine which investigates the site on the 30th anniversary of the biggest and most devastating nuclear disaster of the 20th century.
This weekend it is the turn of the MaMa group (Migrant Artist Mutual Aid), to leave The Event Room, their rehearsal space, and perform in the Atrium of the Open Eye Gallery. The cross-national, multi-lingual, multi-faith group of women will be singing a love song in Swahili, a lullaby in Xhosa, a Civil Rights song in English and of course a Bollywood song celebrating racial equality.
We look forward to seeing you there!
