‘Culina Artem’ (Kitchen Art) Contemporary Art Exhibition
The forthcoming group exhibition curated by second year BA (hons) Fine Art students studying at the University for The Creative Arts in Farnham is to be held in the Gridshell at the Weald and Downland Living Museum near Chichester, http://www.wealddown.co.uk between 13th December and 17th December 2017, these dates include the install and take down.
The title for the exhibition is ‘Culina Artem’ Latin for Kitchen Art. The initial premise for the exhibition is to interact with the museums rich history of domestic and agricultural heritage through the language of contemporary art. The context in which we aim to deliver this principle is the idea of the domestic kitchen and the usage and contents as used over the last 950 years of the museums remit.
Our curatorial project is based around the writing of Michel Foucault. The focus of this project is Heterotopia. Foucault uses this concept to describe spaces that have more layers of meaning or relationships to other places than immediately meet the eye. In general, a heterotopia is a physical representation or approximation of a utopia, or a parallel space, such as a museum, museums enclose in one place objects from all times and styles. They exist in time but also exist outside of time because they are built and preserved to be physically insusceptible to time’s ravages.
This will be a collaborative exhibition showcasing between 4 and 8 artists. We ask each artist to create or submit an existing work in response to the domestic kitchen paradigm, this could be to create a discussion, a comment or a critique on the utilitarian nature of the kitchen as a space or simply a response to a specific object found within the space such as a bowl, a cooking pot or knife, a utensil or tool which would be equally recognisable to an 11th century cook as a 21st century one.
The Gridshell is a very large award winning contemporary venue which fully lends itself to all aspects and mediums of contemporary art including painting, sculpture, performance, film and sound. The exhibition will use approximately one third of the available space. The Weald and Downland Living Museum is looking to increase its diversity and inclusivity of contemporary art and with full support of the Cultural Development team the anticipated attendance could be between 500 and 1000 people, this includes all age groups due to the Gridshell being open to the public visiting the museums other attractions.
As this is a student lead exhibition the funding unfortunately does not allow for artists fees to be paid, however art works may be available for purchase.
Michael Palmer
BA(Hons) Fine Art Student
Uca.ac.uk
Michael Palmer 