Future Exhibitions
Dinu Li, 'Family Village' (work in progress), 2007. Image courtesy of Dinu Li.
Ancestral Nation
ArtSway Galleries 2 and 3
20 September - 16 November 2008
Preview and Reception for the Artist: Saturday 20 September 2008 at 2pm
Family Village
The Gallery, The Arts Institute at Bournemouth
16 March - 17 April 2009
Dinu Li has been co-commissioned by ArtSway and The Arts Institute at Bournemouth to research and develop a new film entitled ‘Family Village’, the second in a trilogy of films which take their titles from the three most common ways to say the word ‘country’ in Chinese.
Li’s practice centres on the relationship between the personal and the political, the public and the private, and draws inspiration from the forces that shape and determine our social structures. Li, a filmmaker, photographer and video artist, was artist in residence at ArtSway in Spring 2008.
For his exhibition at ArtSway Li will be showing ‘Ancestral Nation’, the first instalment in the trilogy, accompanied by two large black and white photographs that resonate themes in the film of social gatherings and ritual-like movement, alongside works in progress and research material relating to the second film in this trilogy - ‘Family Village’.
Informed by cinematic traditions, Li’s productions are situated between documented facts, oral histories, chance observations and imagined scenarios. ‘Ancestral Nation’ was filmed during a research trip Li made to China in 2005 and focuses on the dichotomy between collective will and individual aspirations. In a country whose government exerts absolute control over such a massive population, and one that constantly refers to its cultural past whilst looking to an industrialised future, Li decided to film two Chinese ‘rituals’ involving thousands of people: a state run festival to mark the birthday of Confucius, and the daily commute at a provincial train station. The third film in the trilogy - ‘Nation Family’ - will be made in the near future.
‘Family Village’ once again sees Li visiting China, to explore at first-hand themes connected to urbanism, heritage, architecture and cultural values. This new film, to be exhibited for the first time at The Gallery at The Arts institute at Bournemouth, examines recent trends in Chinese urban planning where villages and towns have been transformed by desires to reflect British vernacular architectural sensibilities. In Chengdu, Sichuan Province, there is a new development called ‘British Town’, built by the British construction company Halcrow. It is modelled after a quaint Dickensian Christmas card depicting an image of Dorchester High Street. Li’s film explores the cultural differences between the Chinese and the British such as the fact that the Chinese buildings, (while echoing the British vernacular style) are built as multi-stories reflecting local needs based on size of plots and quantity of population.
A full-colour publication focusing on the newly commissioned ‘Family Village’ project, with two critical texts, will be published in April 2009 in association with text+work programme at The Arts Institute at Bournemouth.
Dinu Li’s ArtSway and The Arts Institute at Bournemouth exhibitions are kindly sponsored by 
Exhibition Associated Events:
Gallery Talk: Dinu Li in Conversation with Peter Bonnell
Saturday 20 September 2008 at 3pm
To celebrate the opening of his exhibition at Artsway, artist Dinu Li will discuss with ArtSway’s Curator Peter Bonnell the ideas behind his work, and his recent residency at ArtSway. Dinu will also discuss his work ‘Family Village’ which he recently researched and documented in China and Dorset.
FREE: Booking Essential.
Portfolio Day: Friday 7 November 2008, 10am - 4pm
Ten half-hour slots for artists from all backgrounds for critiques, portfolio reviews and career advice with Director Mark Segal and Curator Peter Bonnell.
Art in Context (Urban Planning): A Tale of Two Towns
A Lecture by Steve Pharoah, Regional Director (Masterplanning & Urban Design) for Halcrow Group Ltd
Wednesday 12 November 2008 at 7pm
Dinu Li’s recent residency at ArtSway, and works-in-progress, relate to his investigation of the recent trend by Chinese city planners to develop housing complexes based on traditional English countryside villages. Li was initially inspired by the story of Chinese developers basing a new development in Qingyang, near Chengdu in Sichuan Province on a Christmas card of an idealised Dorchester town.
This evening lecture by Steve Pharoah will contextualise the background to Li’s project, beginning with a brief overview of Halcrow, the international planning and design company responsible for the design of Qingyang and for many prize winning concept master plans, urban designs and architectural work throughout China. Pharaoh will give an overview of Halcrow’s planning and work in China to date, illustrating the diversity of their design projects – such as the Shanghai Bund Architectural Expo regeneration plan; Giant Panda Park ecological master planning; new city planning (population range 15,000 to 1.5 million people); and post earthquake reconstruction master planning.
Pharoah will focus on the comparisons and contrasts between Chinese and British design, and the relevance of a southern central historic English market town to a western central Chinese city. He will discuss the process of designing Qingyang, including how and why Halcrow's planners and designers were involved; as well as the adoption of key urban design elements and the importance of Qingyang in an emerging China.
FREE: Booking Essential.
To book a place on any of the above events please contact Jack Lewis on (01590) 682260 (extension 16) or email: jack.lewis@artsway.org.uk
Laura Green with her winning ArtSway Open07 work, 'Untitled: 001'.
Knowing and Not Knowing
ArtSway Gallery 1
20 September - 16 November 2008
Preview and Reception for the Artist: Saturday 20 September 2008 at 2pm
Exciting young British artist Laura Green will exhibit an installation of new paintings and sculpture at ArtSway this autumn. Laura was the winner of ArtSway’s Open07, and was awarded the prize of a solo exhibition in ArtSway’s gallery one. She was short-listed for the John Moores Prize in 2004 and 2006, a finalist in the Celeste Art Prize in 2007 and has exhibited widely both in the UK and internationally since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2004.
Her interest lies in the interpretation of her source material, often stripping away identifiable features from the objects (such as architectural drawings and found images) and places (such as buildings glimpsed around the city) she bases her paintings and sculptures on, deliberately taking them out of context. There is therefore a tension between the actuality of the sculptures (which possess a strange sense of clunky, yet sometimes elegant, minimalism) and the paintings, which allude to imagined and remembered scenarios.
Green comments, ‘the subjects of my works often appear ambiguous and alien to their surroundings, possessing a haunting sense of ‘displacement’ which suggest that they are not of this time, and raise questions of whether the objects reside in the past or in the future?’
Green’s works are concerned with notions of memory, solitude, dream, reverie and loss. Through choosing a variety of eclectic, yet often banal, materials - paint on canvas; cardboard tubes stacked one on top of the other; plaster casts of moulds; found objects and cast-off pieces of chipboard Green aims to encourage a sense of questioning in the viewer. As the artist states, ‘the works form collections of memories and experiences. My working process is concerned with the ‘wanting’ of an object - a longing to recreate the memory of the powerful impact the subjects of the work have had on me. The making of the work allows me to keep something of this powerful experience, and as a result the works are infused with a feeling of sadness and tenderness.’
Green explores our surroundings, trying to make sense of the world around her through examining and understanding disparate objects. She is interested in psychological and physical space; her work is one of constant enquiry: why do the objects she selects have such an impact on her psyche, on our collective psyche?
For more information on Laura and her work please see her website: www.lauragreen.net
Gallery Talk: Saturday 18 October 2008 at 3pm
Laura Green in Conversation with Peter Bonnell
Open 07 winner Laura Green will be in conversation in ArtSway’s Gallery 1 with Curator Peter Bonnell. Laura will discuss her themes and ideas, and her new work for ArtSway.
FREE: Booking Essential.
Portfolio Day: Friday 7 November 2008, 10am - 4pm
Ten half-hour slots for artists from all backgrounds for critiques, portfolio reviews and career advice with Director Mark Segal and Curator Peter Bonnell.
COST: £5 per person. Booking Essential.
To book a place on any of the above events please contact Jack Lewis on (01590) 682260 (extension 16) or email: jack.lewis@artsway.org.uk
Laura Green’s ArtSway exhibition is sponsored by Lashmars of Lymington. Lashmars, sponsors of the ArtSway Open, have contributed funds to assist Laura Green with her solo exhibition. For more details about Lashmars see www.lashmars.co.uk
Figuring Landscapes
25 November - 30 November 2008
Figuring Landscapes brings together artists' moving images from the UK and Australia around themes of landscape curated by Catherine Elwes and Steven Ball. Screening programmes will be complemented by an international symposium at Tate Modern and a series of workshops at ArtSway in the New Forest. The programmes will tour the UK before travelling to Australia where they will be exhibited at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art and the DELL Gallery in Brisbane. Figuring Landscapes is funded by Arts Council England.
Lianne Dawes, 'Dismantled Railway, Fochriw, South Wales', 2007.
6 December 2008 - 15 February 2009
This coming December will see the return of ArtSway's highly popular annual Open exhibition. ArtSway Open07 saw more than 300 artists from across the UK and Europe submit almost 800 artworks for consideration by selectors Mark Segal and Peter Bonnell of ArtSway and Michael Stanley, Director of Milton Keynes Gallery.
Once again there is no formal brief, artists are asked to submit work that reflects their current artistic direction making for an accessible and emotive showcase.
This years panel includes Camilla Brown, Senior Curator at The Photographers' Gallery, and Laura Green - winner of ArtSway Open07.
Application forms for ArtSway Open08 will be available for download from our website in September 2008.