Derek Tyman
Emma Rushton
Kwong Lee
Private View: Friday 6th October 2006, 6-8pm
7th October – 4 November 2006
Artists’ Talk: Monday 23rd October 2006, 2pm *
The centrepiece of Access Permitted is Emma Rushton and Derek Tyman’s large tent like structure, fabricated from a complex patchwork of handmade flags that represent a collection of imaginary countries. Sometimes exotic and at other times mundane, the many different fabrics used to make Flaghall combine to produce a work that is visually striking and something of an anachronistic intervention within a white walled gallery. Artist Brighid Lowe writes: “But what decade is the aesthetic of Flaghall? Is it 1950s Festival of Britain, is it the homework of a 1930s boy scout, or is it the saccharine seduction of a Benetton advert from the 1990s? Or, are the historical and cultural shifts represented by these aesthetics, inexorably tied together-one mutating into another?”
Previously shown in Manchester, Breda and Stockholm, Flaghall is a work in progress that offers an opportunity for a mutual exchange of ideas and experiences. With each showing, in addition to being adapted to a particular gallery space, Rushton and Tyman also invite an artist to present a work in response to Flaghall. For Access Permitted, the invited artist, Kwong Lee, presents two new video works. In turn, Rushton and Tyman have produced a new site-specific drawing of the Bauhinia blakeana plant, commonly found as emblem on the flag of Hong Kong.
Filmed in what might be regarded to many as the unfamiliar setting of rural Hong Kong, Lee’s short films are shot in the style reminiscent of documentary come tourist videos. A Guided Tour of Kak Tin Village (2006) involves the artist’s mother giving Lee a guided tour of his birth place. In contrast, Da Jiu Festival, Kam Tin 2005 (2006), follows a local ‘thanksgiving’ festival and parade which takes place once every ten years. With slowly unfolding narratives, Lee’s videos reveal various subtle tensions and contradictions integral to which is the artist’s apparent struggle to identify with aspects of his heritage. Such anxieties are, however, tempered by what Lee suggests to be, the precarious position of rural communities threatened by Hong Kong and China’s formidable and ever expanding economies.
Access Permitted considers the nature of different kinds of communities, whether they are real or fictional, inclusive or exclusive. Though exemplified by a process of genuine artistic reciprocity, ideas of access are however, less than straight forward, inflected at various turns, by the perennial and complex anxieties related to the quest of belonging.
Accompanying the exhibition is an illustrated poster/brochure featuring a
newly commissioned essay by artist Brighid Lowe
The exhibition has been supported by London Metropolitan University, Staffordshire
University and Photomonth 2006
For more information contact: Richard Hylton or Reuben Thurnhill at Unit
2 on 020 7320 1970 or at info@unit2.co.uk
*LMU 41 Commercial Road, 1st Floor lecture theatre In collaboration with the BA Fine Art Department (The talk is free but booking advised)
Biographies
Emma Rushton and Derek Tyman’s collaborative practice began in 1997,
when together with artist Roman Vasseur they co-produced The Mule, a project
that combined the publication of a ‘newspaper’, for just one
day (edition 150,000), along with an internet site to provide a context for
artists to focus on the way information is manufactured and presented in
the press. Many of their collaborative exhibitions/projects have included
free posters or publications and as part of a number of recent projects they
have invited other artists, including Geir Tore Holm, Mel Jackson, Kwong
Lee, Brighid Lowe and Paul Rooney to produce work in response to their work/to
occupy a ‘space’ within their publications/exhibitions. They
currently live and work in Manchester.
Kwong Lee lives and works in Manchester. As an artist Lee exhibits work in the UK and internationally, most recently contributing to Rushton and Tyman’s artists’ publication at Hong Kong’s 1a Space. He has exhibited commissioned work for Travelogue‚ at The Whitworth Art Gallery, Making It‚at Manchester Art Gallery, and Artranspennine 03. His work has been included in group exhibitions at The International 3, Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery, University of Derby, and Leicester Square, London.
Artist: Derek Tyman Emma Rushton Kwong Lee
Exhibition: Access Permitted
Opening Times: Tuesday - Friday 12-6pm and Saturday 1-6pm
Admission: Free Private View: Friday 6 October, 2006, 6-8pm
Exhibition: 7 October – 4 November 2006
