Shock and Awe: Contemporary Artists at War and Peace

Back from the Front
Art, Memory and the Aftermath of War
Shock and Awe; Contemporary Artists at War and Peace

Royal West of England Academy, Queen’s Road, Bristol BS8 1PX
Sharples, Winterstoke & Milner Galleries from 16 July – 21 September 2014.

Back From the Front is part of the Bristol 2014 100th anniversary of the beginning of The Great War, and 75th anniversary of the Second World War.

The following artists have been invited to exhibit in the Sharples Gallery as part of Shock and Awe installation.

Stephen Bottomley - UK
Michael Brennan-Wood -UK
Kathleen Browne - USA
Helen Carnac - UK
George Coutouvidis – South Africa
Susan Cross - UK
Bettina Dittlmann - Germany
Tamar de Vries Winter - Israel/UK
Robert Ebendorf - USA
Kirsten Haydon – NZ/AUS
Rolf Lindner - Germany
Elizabeth Turrell -UK
Jessica Turrell - UK
Jonathan Ward - UK

‘The making of badges, medals and regalia, gives artists a means of portable communication: including subversive messages, pleas for peace, and satirical images’.
Elizabeth Turrell RWA

Curator Elizabeth Turrell has brought invited artists, designers, jewellers and makers together. The contributors are international, with representation from the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, and Israel. These artists work in a variety of media, including vitreous enamel, metal and textile. Turrell has been collaborating with majority of the exhibitors for over a decade.

For the artists, this was an opportunity to address the profound influence of remembrance and conflict through the making of a range of work that encourages narrative and remembrance.

The works take the form of badges or medals, wall panels and small installations that are effective methods of silent communication. The pieces examine powerful themes of war and conflict: some are political or anti-war statements others are peace medals. The artists addressed a range of conflicts: the human cost of contemporary conflict is the subject matter of a number of the pieces, while others commemorate more personal family wartime history.

The collection includes many new works, created especially for this exhibition marking the centenary of the start of the First World War.

http://www.rwa.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/2014/07/shock-and-awe/

exhibition catalogue:  Back from the Front: Art, Memory and the Aftermath of War. Editor Paul Gough.

Susan Cross page: 51

Stephen Bottomley: 44