HOT NEW IT I
Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, November 14th 2019- January 14th 2020
The Spaghetti Factory presents the first in a series of three shows at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens. The focus of the project is contemporary art talent from Sunderland. Three artists have been selected from the University of Sunderland to complement the work in the rest of this gallery.
Sarah Winslett’s work depicts Washington : a modernist utopia. It is paired with the Victorian paintings on display at the back of the room, where the luscious green rolling hills, trickling streams and romantic skies depict local landscape from the 1800s. Washington is an idyllic invention of the post-war era.
Pyrex was made in Sunderland until 2007 and it is displayed here because of its important local heritage. Anthony Amoako Attah uses glass to speak about his own Ghanaian heritage through pattern and sculpture. Sunderland’s glass history was both functional and decorative, Pyrex started as something to cook your casserole in and now glass is used to make exciting contemporary art objects.
In Lowry’s Self Portrait II, the artist views himself as a lighthouse in the sea. This non-human portrait is linked with Elizabeth Griffith’s sculptural blobs, another kind of non-human portrait. Lowry has chosen to project himself as a lighthouse, Griffith’s work is about society’s projections on us and the idea of the perfect body.
The Spaghetti Factory is a curatorial project that originated in a house in Central Newcastle. There’s been eight solo show exhibitions in this location. The Spaghetti Factory was started to show experimental work in a non-formal setting and the project has expanded to include pasta making workshops and guest curation in other regional gallery and pop-up spaces. Co-founders Jenny Mc Namara and Eve Cromwell were awarded funding for this project through Sunderland Culture as a curatorial internship.
Sarah Winslett’s Washington: A Northern Utopia depicts images of Washington. Washington is a New Town - created under the 1946 New Towns Act, it was a post-war hopeful vision for a prosperous Utopia. The project was believed to be visually stimulating, aesthetically satisfying, economically viable and socially desirable. Winslett’s project raises questions about whether these ideals came to fruition in the years that followed.
@sarahwinslett
Anthony Amoako Attah depicts woven fabric in glass - Using glass as a “western material”, Amoako Attah’s work looks at cultural migration, dislocation and personal identity through the use of traditional Ghanaian Kente patterns and Adinkra symbols. These patterns and symbols have a deeper meaning, Amoako Attah’s interested in how these fabrics are made and what the say about the wearer and the weaver.
@kente_glass
Elizabeth Griffiths creates work about the parts of the body that could typically be viewed as imperfect and tackles issues surrounding body image. Griffiths uses hair and teeth in her work, making sculpture that could be viewed as repulsive, to challenge the way we see our bodies. The work addresses societal pressure and social influence around body image.
@beigcontnt
Sarah Winslett’s work depicts Washington : a modernist utopia. It is paired with the Victorian paintings on display at the back of the room, where the luscious green rolling hills, trickling streams and romantic skies depict local landscape from the 1800s. Washington is an idyllic invention of the post-war era.
Pyrex was made in Sunderland until 2007 and it is displayed here because of its important local heritage. Anthony Amoako Attah uses glass to speak about his own Ghanaian heritage through pattern and sculpture. Sunderland’s glass history was both functional and decorative, Pyrex started as something to cook your casserole in and now glass is used to make exciting contemporary art objects.
In Lowry’s Self Portrait II, the artist views himself as a lighthouse in the sea. This non-human portrait is linked with Elizabeth Griffith’s sculptural blobs, another kind of non-human portrait. Lowry has chosen to project himself as a lighthouse, Griffith’s work is about society’s projections on us and the idea of the perfect body.
The Spaghetti Factory is a curatorial project that originated in a house in Central Newcastle. There’s been eight solo show exhibitions in this location. The Spaghetti Factory was started to show experimental work in a non-formal setting and the project has expanded to include pasta making workshops and guest curation in other regional gallery and pop-up spaces. Co-founders Jenny Mc Namara and Eve Cromwell were awarded funding for this project through Sunderland Culture as a curatorial internship.
Sarah Winslett’s Washington: A Northern Utopia depicts images of Washington. Washington is a New Town - created under the 1946 New Towns Act, it was a post-war hopeful vision for a prosperous Utopia. The project was believed to be visually stimulating, aesthetically satisfying, economically viable and socially desirable. Winslett’s project raises questions about whether these ideals came to fruition in the years that followed.
@sarahwinslett
Anthony Amoako Attah depicts woven fabric in glass - Using glass as a “western material”, Amoako Attah’s work looks at cultural migration, dislocation and personal identity through the use of traditional Ghanaian Kente patterns and Adinkra symbols. These patterns and symbols have a deeper meaning, Amoako Attah’s interested in how these fabrics are made and what the say about the wearer and the weaver.
@kente_glass
Elizabeth Griffiths creates work about the parts of the body that could typically be viewed as imperfect and tackles issues surrounding body image. Griffiths uses hair and teeth in her work, making sculpture that could be viewed as repulsive, to challenge the way we see our bodies. The work addresses societal pressure and social influence around body image.
@beigcontnt
