A protest against the white-walled gallery experience
A Rotherhithe artist’s exhibition will see its artwork destroyed on the opening night in a challenge to the conventions of contemporary galleries.
Trash is by a collective called Bad Art. Its founder, Anna Choutova, said: “Our shows are a reaction and protest against the hushed silence, white-walled gallery experience. We aim to challenge the contemporary art world through transgressive exhibitions that offer a different way of interacting with art.”
Trash features 25 emerging and established artists from the UK and around the world. The artists will one by one present work that they want to see Trashed, inviting audience member to assist them in this destructive yet cathartic process.
There will be hammers, ooze and broken fingernails, with theexhibition aiming to question how modern art functions, and reconnect art and viewer.
Choutova added: “By doing so we are prioritising art as a tool for experience and collaboration over art as a commercial product and market tool.
“Trash seeks to protest art as an imperishable, precious institution, focusing more on the transient and experiential. The artwork will be destroyed over the course of the evening, introducing, chance, chaos, sugar, spice and everything (not) nice into its fate.
“But when is the show complete? Is it before, during or after the destruction?”
Anna Choutova is a practicing artist since 2012, and is currently a Research Fellow at Slade School of Art UCL. She founded Bad Art in 2016. It exists as an alternative art space for those who love art but feel unable or even unwelcome in the contemporary art world. Born from Anna’s personal sense of un-belonging in the commercial art scene, Bad Art has grown in a world-wide artist community, led with positivity, on a mission to break down any notions of exclusivity within the art world. Some notable projects include ‘Hot Air’, a fully inflatable art exhibition and ‘Let Them Eat Fake’, a banquet of inedible food sculpture.
“I am inspired by people who push the boundaries of culture and self-expression, but do it in a way that isn’t arrogant or chauvinistic but sincere and accessible. To name a few inspirations, Joe Strummer, Ru Paul, Bowie, Philip Guston, Tupac. I’d say a lot of punk rock, pop art, drag culture, Hip & Hop, grunge and disco. Oh and Andrea Gomis!”
Trash is on at Greatorex Street Gallery, E1 next Tuesday (June 25) for one night only from 6-10pm, and is a group exhibition of contemporary artists who have created work for the purpose of its own destruction. It’s a free event, but ticketed.
Tickets at Eventbrite, search ‘Bad Art Trash’, or go to Instagram @BadArtPresents for link.
