Artists: Josephine Baker, Débora Delmar, Adam Glibbery, HULFE (Daphne Ahlers & Lilli Thiessen), Alan Michael, Laure Prouvost, Deo Suveera, Sam Tierney
Exhibition title: well, well, well…
Venue: Sundy, London, UK
Date: August 22 – September 26, 2020
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Sundy, London
Josephine Baker (b. 1990, London, UK)
Using readily-available building and landscaping materials, Baker composes physical metaphors for how the natural earth is represented in a capitalocentric world. Factory standardised and processed almost beyond recognition, Baker forms these materials in turn into signifiers of the complex distancing of ‘nature’ from ‘culture’ in today’s markets and urban topographies. She relates this process directly to the anthropogenic conflation of natural and manmade catastrophe in its increasingly frequent manifestations across the globe. In invented languages of reconciliation, different materials and forms allegorise events to each other. They create microclimates of dependency and exchange, telling stories of labour and survival which unearth the histories of what (and where) their sources are, and the processes they have undergone.
Baker completed her undergraduate studies at Central Saint Martins in London in 2012, and her postgraduate in 2017 from the Royal Academy Schools, London. She was a 12-month resident award holder at British School at Rome 2017–18 (Sainsbury Scholarship in Painting and Sculpture), and was shortlisted for the 2019 Mark Tanner Sculpture Award. Her solo show The Land Lies at ChertLüdde in Berlin will open as part of Berlin Gallery Weekend this September. Recent exhibitions include: Wreck or Ruin, VO Curations, London 2020; Islands, Kupfer, London, 2019 (solo); Correction, Tintype, London, 2019 (solo); Drawing Biennial, Drawing Room, London 2019; Sheltering Sky, GAO gallery, London, 2019; Flood-tide, Love Unlimited, Glasgow, 2018; Trout Steel, Serpent and Shadow, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2018.
Débora Delmar (b.1986, Mexico City, Mexico). Lives and works between London and Mexico City.
She completed the Postgraduate Programme at the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 2019. Delmar’s work investigates the effects of globalisation on everyday life in relation to consumer culture and society, particularly focusing on issues of class, gender, cultural hegemony and gentrification. This is borne from the omnipresent influence of the United States in Mexico, and in the wider world. Within her practice she examines the contextual value of goods, analyzing their production, distribution, consumption and disposal. In her installations Delmar frequently references minimalist corporate architecture, non-places and multinational chain’s aesthetics. These are commonly composed of intervened mass produced objects, as well as outsourced locally crafted items. She often incorporates immaterial components within exhibitions such as sound, scent and situations.
Recent exhibitions include Mariposa, Peak, London, UK, 2020, [ ], Interface Gallery, Oakland, US, 2020, Propiedad/ Property, Syndicate, Material Art Fair, Mexico City, MX, 2020. She will be participating in the XIV Femsa Biennial, Michoacán, Mexico, 2020.
Adam Glibbery (b. 1991, Essex, ) lives and works in London.
Recent group exhibitions: You me and eveUKrybody else, Oneroom Gallery, London, 2019;
All in green went my love riding, Calle Zucchero, Venice, 2019; STP Group Show, Milk Gallery, New York, 2018; Inhale, Filet Space, London, 2018; The Reinvention of Love, Century Soho, London, 2018; Common Characters, Riad Biba, Marrakesh, 2017; Personal Space, Broadway Market, London, 2017; Serpentine Galleries, 89+ Marathon, London, 2013; Saatchi Gallery, Screen, 2013.
HULFE was born on a rainy day shortly before the year 2020.
HULFE is a design-studio that focuses on accessories that deal with support as well as with the extension and multiplication of bodies. Founded by the artists Daphne Ahlers and Lilli Thiessen HULFE created its place somewhere between sculpture, fashion and design to help create a cuter and more livable future.
HULFE is a hybrid of the German word Hilfe (help/support) and the Dutch name Hulpe – the bearded female martyr also known as Vilgefortis, Uncumber or Kümmernis. This female martyr tried to protect herself from the ball and chain of unwanted marriage with the help of a beard that she grew the night before her wedding. Her plan worked out and the husband-to-be refused to marry her as a bearded lady. Even though the rejection was successful, it did not go unpunished as her father crucified her for the willful ugliness.
This martyr functions as an allegory for the designers to fight for independence and visual as well as bodily expressions that fulfill and create new needs.
HULFE is in the business of support. HULFE has a 100-day cycle. HULFE is never busy. HULFE carries heavy. HULFE is a softball. HULFE is a side effect. HULFE is expecting.”
Alan Michael (b. 1967, Glasgow, UK) lives and works in London.
Solo Exhibitions include: 3236RLS/Le Bourgeois, London (2019), Cell Projects, London (2018), Jan Kaps, Cologne (2018), HIGH ART, Paris (2013), David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles (2011), Art Now/Tate Britain, London (2008)
Group Exhibitions include: Neuer Essener Kunstverein (2020), Kunstverein Bamberg (2020), Arcadia Missa, London (2019), Christian Andersen Gallery (2018), Galerie Gregor Staiger (2015), Cubitt, London (2013), Artists Institute, New York (2013), Marres Centre for Contemporary Culture, Maastricht (2009), Tate Britain, London (2006)
Laure Prouvost ( b. 1978, Lille, France) lives and works in Antwerp. She received her BFA from Central St Martins, London in 2002 and studied towards her MFA at Goldsmiths College, London. She also took part in the LUX Associate Programme. Recent solo exhibitions include: ‘Melting into one another ho hot chaud it heating dip’, Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon, Portugal (2020); ‘Deep See Blue Surrounding You / Vois Ce Bleu Profond Te Fondre’, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France (2020); ‘AM-BIG-YOU-US LEGSICON’, M HKA – Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Belgium (2019); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2018); BASS Museum, Miami (2018); ‘They Are Waiting for You’, Performance for stage at the McGuire Theatre, Minneapolis (2018);
Prouvost represented France at the 58th International Art Biennial Venice, May-November 2019 and is included in ‘NIRIN,’ the 22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020). June 2019 saw the artist’s first public commission in the UK through Transport for London’s Art on the Underground.
Deo Suveera (1991, Bangok, Thailand) recently graduated from MA Photography Royal College of Art 2019. His work was exhibited at Unseen, Amsterdam as part of European Photography Award in 2018, “With Monochrome Eyes” at Borough Road Gallery, London in 2019 and forthcoming solo show at The 5th Floor Gallery, Tokyo in 2021.
Sam Tierney (b. 1988, USA) is an artist living in London. He has appeared in exhibitions at Pozi Driv Two, Almanac, Lima Zulu and 3236rls, London; Rumpelstiltskin, New York; l’Atelier-ksr, Berlin; Glassbox, Paris and Podium/Grünerløkka Kunsthall, Oslo. He received a BFA from New York University and an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art and is pursuing an MA in Modern European Philosophy at the CRMEP, Kingston University.
well, well, well…, 2020, exhibition view, Sundy, London
well, well, well…, 2020, exhibition view, Sundy, London
well, well, well…, 2020, exhibition view, Sundy, London
well, well, well…, 2020, exhibition view, Sundy, London
well, well, well…, 2020, exhibition view, Sundy, London
well, well, well…, 2020, exhibition view, Sundy, London
well, well, well…, 2020, exhibition view, Sundy, London
Laure Prouvost, This print wishes to be on the other side of this wall, 2017, Embossed print, 59 × 45 cm
Sam Tierney, Rapt Shade, 2019, Brass, steel, wood, rubber, 215 x 28 x 15 cm
Deo Suveera, Soap, 2020, digital c-type print, 70 x 100 cm
Débora Delmar, Community/ Comunidad, 2020, 200 x 280 cm total (each panel 200 x140 cm), Digital print on Faux Suede Vision Fabric, Fire Rated (1 Layer), 40mm Eyelets (Silver)
Josephine Baker, Bird bath, 2020, mortar, pine, plywoods, preformed pond, plaster, marker on glass, pigments, black sand, steel section, screws, 92 x 58 x 55 cm
Adam Glibbery, Storage Devices, 2019, engraved acrylic on canvas, 59.7 x 42.4 cm
HULFE, Chairgown (Ashley), 2020, Cotton, Bikini Lining, Ribbon, dimensions variable
Débora Delmar, CHANGE CAMBIO WECHSEL, 2020, Vöslauer ohne Natürliches Mineralwasser (Water bottle), Sanct Bernhard mineral base tablets. Items purchased and transported via hand carriage from outside the UK, that are exchanged between the gallerists and the artist during the period of the exhibition
Alan Michael, Moods 2, 2010, oil and acrylic, silkscreen on canvas, 102 x 75cm
Josephine Baker, First floor flood (2020), plaster, glass, clay, pigments, 16 x 30 x 3 cm