30 Apr 2008 to 17 Aug 2008
Hours : Monday-Sunday 10.00-18.00.
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
South Shore Road,
Gateshead
NE8 3BA
Newcastle
United Kingdom
Europe
p: +44 (0) 191 478 1810
m:
f: +44 (0) 191 440 4944
w: www.balticmill.com
Raised in London, Bharti Kher studied Fine Art and Painting at Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne. Now living and working in New Delhi, she has a growing international reputation for creating fantastical, surreal environments
In her first UK solo show, the artist uses the symbol of a tree in her sculpture Solarum Series. The tree appears in the ancient mythologies of many cultures. Kher uses these references, including the mythical warnings of the speaking tree and combines them with contemporary references, such as the recent biological advances of cloning, and rejection personified in the fallen tree. Instead of leaves or fruit, the branches of Solarum Series bear the heads of hundreds of creatures.
Alongside these mystical sculptures is Virus, a series of richly created panels covered with thousands of bindi. The bindi is a spiritual Hindu mark applied to the forehead to represent the third eye. The religious token becomes secular in the densely pattered artworks. Kher uses the symbol to highlight the ordering of human societies, patterns of migration and landscape and the passage of time. In collaboration with ARARIO BEIJING
LAST OF THE DICTIONARY MEN - Stories from the South Shields Yemeni Sailors 2 April - 5 May 2008
BALTIC debuts Bridge+Tunnel Productions’ Last of The Dictionary Men. This multimedia exhibition is based around the lives and history of the Yemeni community based in South Shields, a coastal town in Tyne and Wear, England.
Featuring photographs of first-generation settlers by artist Youssef Nabil and a series of video portraits by Tina Gharavi, the exhibition offers a unique insight into the complexities of modern British immigrant history. The exhibition will be accompanied by The King of South Shields, a documentary on boxer Muhammad Ali’s little known visit and extraordinary wedding in the South Shields town mosque.
CUTUP COLLECTIVE From 29 January
CutUp are an anonymous group of artists whose practice incorporates collage, film and installation. They focus largely on the creative potential of the city as a site and inspiration for interventionist art and disruption. At BALTIC, they will create an installation in The Street using billboards, light boxes and reassembled bus shelter advertising posters. The exhibition alludes to the city's role in choreographing movements - both of the individual and the crowd amidst scenes of protest, celebration and modern spectacle.
