Wunderkammer = Wunderful

Am pleased to write...

... that last night’s preview went very well indeed! The crowd was plentiful, the performers dramatic, the cabinet curious, my co-curator sparkling and the photos…I am yet to look at.

Thank you to all involved, particularly a couple of Crowd6-ers who helped with cabinet lifting/moving throughout the evening.

The central cabinet looked amazing and I would like to take it and everything in it home with me. The archival pieces were beautiful especially the three medals and two trophies. Also, the part of a painting frame seemed to optimise the oddities that are to be found within BIAD’s archives, as the painting and the other three sides of the frame are no where to be found…anywhere!

As for the current students Claudia Simm’s “Consuming Sartre” works, Tim Robottom’s “Cascade Series” and Ana Benlloch’s clock were all particular favourites.

As for the performance, former students Ed Wakefield AKA Cheeseface and David Miller AKA The Lace Gimp went down a storm. The restrained Lace Gimp causing a stir with its uncomfortable movements and Cheeseface with his total stillness. These performances becoming more extravagant as the evening went on, an hour and twenty into the show The Lace Gimp, inside a very steamy cabinet, was let out; the top of the case removed and a white sheet then covered him. After a perfect amount of time he arose and was guided away out of the entrance hall of Margaret Street. Cheeseface was soon to follow, less steamy but more irritated by people tapping the glass, leaning onto the tops of the case and putting their glasses on top (behaviour the art going audience should have known better not to do!). His exit more spontaneous, quick, he ripped off his mask and stood staring at his remains, the utensils etc he had been buried with in state.

Though both of their exits unplanned they were perfect!

I am really happy with the responses so far from this project and have loved every minute of putting this together with Miss Pennington-Wilson and Minda - our cleaning saviour and my hero!

Onto the next one!

Lots of love,
Your conscience

WUNDERKAMMER

Foyer space, Margaret Street, Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, B3 3BX

10th - 16th April 2008

Curated by Kate Pennington-Wilson and Charlie Levine


Wunderkammer steals its mode of display directly from the past in the form of museum display and the renaissance cabinet of curiosity, however it looks, imminently, towards the future; the uncertain future of contemporary curatorial practice, contemporary art forms as well as the school itself.

Birmingham School of Art is an untapped visual resource within the Midlands. Its corridors, staircases, archive and studios are laced with activity, excitement and intrigue. It is little wonder then that current and former curatorial students there have decided to expose this. Kate Pennington-Wilson and Charlie Levine, in collaboration with Birmingham Institute of Art and Design Archive, are presenting three cabinets of curiosity, housing previous and current students work.

The show is comprised of a combination of works from current students; the result of exploring the studios within Margaret Street, and pieces chosen from the archives which date back to the mid 1800s. This cabinet displays a collection of old and new curiosities, which directly examine how the school has grown and how the practice of ‘art’ and curation has progressed since its establishment over 100 years ago. This juxtaposition of objects suggests a rough time line and highlights certain patches of intrigue within Margaret Streets extraordinary history. Due to the works being mixed together the links and connections become abstract and entwined, it is not a chronology of Birmingham School of Art students, but rather a Wunderkammer; a cabinet of curiosity.

On the opening night two former students of Margaret Street, David Miller and Edward Wakefield, will be placed inside cabinets as if scientific specimens on display, reminiscent of the earliest forms of museum display. Both becoming characters inspired by their time at Margaret Street, they hint at immortality through two very different approaches but at the same time contradict this notion by ‘lying in state’ reaffirming the traditional view of the museum as housing ‘dead artefacts.’ Miller’s performance appears quiet, reflective, restrictive and intimate against Wakefield’s manic and loud self-installation. After the preview evening Miller and Wakefield’s empty clothes will be all that remains; an eerie echo of what once was.

By singling out specific works and allowing a viewer to examine the objects through a self-composed narrative Wunderkammer extends as a work of fiction; a tale that was once told and will be re-told for generations yet to come.

Contemporary artists include: Ana Benlloch, Bethany Giles, Chiara Gill, Rachel Mary Haines, David Miller, Karen Moore, Kieran Palmer, Claudia Simm, Matt Steele, Stuart Tait, Edward Wakefield and Mike Wheeley.

Wunderkammer: 10th - 16th April 2008* 10am till 5pm
Preview: 9th April 6-8 pm Critique: 16th April 6pm
*Not open on weekends