Lanchester Gallery Projects announces an international exhibition of visual art in collaboration with Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. Including artists from Thailand, Ireland, Singapore, Taiwan and Britain – though many have transnational affiliations – Unspeaking Engagements was shown at the Art Center of Chulalongkorn University during 2009.

The artists in Unspeaking Engagements explore processes of physical and/or durational engagement as a means of constituting the artwork. Each address their own or the viewers’ awareness of their body in relation to time and space.  At issue are questions of how such awareness can be cultivated, felt, represented and ultimately proliferated through the work of art. Unspeaking Engagements showcases artworks as sites of shifting experiences, in differentiation from artworks that require detached observation and propose fixed or final interpretations.

This exhibition proposes a detailed understanding of major questions within international contemporary art practices – who does what, how, when, and to whom – and consequently links theoretical debates about the intersection of performance and performativity to more recent critical issues of relational or participatory art. Moreover, the international basis of Unspeaking Engagements highlights different terms for understanding common methods and aims. Theories and sensibilities developed in one part of the world can be radically tested in another, provoking unexpected intensities and new formations.

Works to be included are drawing, video, interactive media, site-specific installation, performance and objects.

Exhibiting Artists;
Tintin Cooper
Institute of Beasts
Adam James
Michael Lee
Tanya Madsen Mahon
Brigid McLeer
Ho Ming-Kuei
Be Takerng Pattanopas
Kamol Phaosavasdi
Nigel Power and Elias Wyber
Hester Reeve
Jonathan Shaw
Carl von Weiler

Note on the Curators
Dr. Brian Curtin is a freelance art writer and curator based in Bangkok, and is currently an adjunct lecturer on the PhD program in Design Arts at Silpakorn University.

Steve Dutton (RCA) is an artist and Professor in Creative Practice at Coventry University in the UK. His projects have been exhibited throughout the UK and internationally.

Gallery 13 seen here installed as part of the Time|Motion exhibition.

Gallery 13 is now back on show in gallery 20 at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. 7 years after it was originally commissioned, shot, exhibited and subsequently acquired for the Museums collection.

The full scale Crash at a staggering 60m x 3m installed at New Art Gallery Walsall

Sorry it has taken so long to get this slideshow of the show online (I blame the beautiful Spanish beaches!)

Crash from Jonathan Shaw on Vimeo.

Crash
A photographic installation by Jonathan Shaw

New Art Gallery Walsall, UK
10 July to 6 September 2009

For this exhibition, I decided to transform the gallery space into a site-specific installation which draws the audience into the chaotic and claustrophobic world of nightclub culture. Featuring images shot at Crash, one of the most decadent clubs in London, the photograph has been reproduced at high resolution using the latest digital technologies.

Deborah Robinson, Senior Exhibitions Curator says “We are delighted to present such a talented artist as part of our contemporary exhibition programme. This exhibition takes advantage of the unique spaces at Walsall and will immerse visitors with a single large-scale panoramic photographic image wrapping the length of the gallery.”

The viewer effectively becomes part of the sea of bodies, contorted by movement and flashing lights, as Shaw invites us to travel through the throngs, witnessing the melding of flesh and faces, only occasionally perhaps finding a moment of clarity within the chaotic mass.

Further information can be found on my website;

www.jonathan-shaw.com

Frenchgate Centre from Jonathan Shaw on Vimeo.

This piece was originally commissioned by the D-Frost festival of Ice, Fire and Light in Doncaster, England. Later this month this will be on show as part of the ‘Unspeaking Engagements’ exhibition, in Bangkok Thailand. The show has been curated by Steve Dutton and Brian Curtin.

The work will be shown for the first time as a linear film and specifically for this show I have worked closely with sound engineer Paul Adkins to construct a surround sound audio track. together with a newly designed surround sound audio track.

You can find out more about the work on my website;

www.jonathan-shaw.com/Work/french/french.html

Click here to read the full article on the Birmingham Post’s website.

Well the preview went really well, the work seemed to be well received. It was my intention to shoot a bunch of photographs but I am afraid there was too much chatting, drinking and eating india nibbles to remember to take photographs, so I am afraid these will have to do!

The final push! We managed to finish with a couple of hours to spare. John and Sam even managed to find time to have a read the catalogue…
A big thank you to all at Monster for their diligence and hard work in making this happen.

Monster sent in the re-enforcements (Sam & Ryan) today which so we are back on track! There are now only two walls left to paste and finish. It has been a very positive day and you can really begin to see how the overall piece will work.

Documentation photographs of John, Jo and Christian from Monster beginning the installation of Crash at Walsall. Feeling a little nervous as it has taken the whole day to complete three out of the thirteen walls in the gallery. It looks like we will be running it to the wire for Thursday’s preview!

Final Crash proofs on the print bed.

Signing off of the final proofs over at Monster Digital.