Private View: Adjacent Directly

Amy Cutler, Lewis Davidson, Kristina Pulejkova, Vivien Sansour Daniel Silva, Sanne Vaassen, Mileece*

Exhibition Dates: 5-28 September 2019

Private View: Wednesday 4 September, 6-9pm

A week of events, workshops and talks in conjunction with globalclimatestrike.net/

Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop is pleased to present Adjacent Directly, a group exhibition which examines the reality of humans living beside nature rather than with it, often exploiting nature to our own endangerment. At this critical moment of climate crisis, the gallery brings together artists, activists and inventors to encourage discussion and reflection.

Participating artists include Vivien Sansour, a writer, conservationist and filmmaker whose work brings to life stories around seeds and soil, which she recently discussed on BBC Radio 4. Daniel Silva creates sculptures that contain seeds, encouraging visitors to take them away from the gallery and to use them to grow plants for much-needed bee pollen. Artist Kristina Pulejkova will exhibit pieces incorporating artificial intelligence to explore whether these elements further distance us from our “natural” habitat. Dr. Amy Cutler is an artist, cultural geographer, curator, writer, and filmmaker who works with ideas of geography and nonhuman others. Lewis Davidson creates “new relics” or symbols of the manufactured world resembling an archaeology of the future that feels unliveable. Sanne Vaassen, a recent solo resident with the gallery, presents a conceptual piece, whereby she has let snails feast upon an encyclopaedia of national anthems altering and creating a ‘wild’ world anthem.

In addition, the composer, musician and activist Mileece will conduct a talk and fundraiser around ‘biophilic technologies’, zero-impact energy, network-based urban wilderness sanctuaries inside technologically augmented biodomes, which help to balance our modern lives with the needs and benefits of the biosphere.

Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop is also proud to partake in the Global Climate Strike on 20 September, and will be inviting local and international organisations to participate in a week of “Strike Party” events – details of the schedule to follow.

Amy Cutler is an artist, cultural geographer, curator, writer, and filmmaker who works with ideas of geography and nonhuman others. In her career in the GeoHumanities she has completed a PhD, a post-doc, and an ECR fellowship, and during this time she has exhibited her work or run live events with organisations including the BBC, Somerset House, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Sheffield Institute of Arts, the Wellcome Trust, the Horniman Museum, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, Late Junction, Tate Modern, the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, the Horse Hospital, the Natural History Museum, and Kew Museum of Economic Botany. She currently lectures in the Visual Cultures department at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.

Lewis Davidson (Stroud, UK, 1990) graduated with a BA in Fine Art at Chelsea School of Art and Design and a MFA Sculpture at Slade School of Fine Art, London in 2019, being an recipient of the Felix Slade Scholarship. Selected exhibitions include: Holiday, Arcade, London, UK, 2018, Catch of the Year, Dienstgebaeude, Zürich, CH, 2017, Crumble Town, SET Space, London, UK, 2017, ART ON CAMPUS, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, AT, 2016, The Observer Effect, GEMAK, The Hague, NL, 2015 and The Open West, The Wilson, Cheltenham, UK, 2014, London/Vienna Calling, Semperdepot, Vienna, AT, 2014.

Kristina Pulejkova (Skopje, MK, 1988) is a Macedonian London-based artist whose inter-disciplinary practice is informed by science and technology. She is currently artist in residence at Somerset House Studios, London. Kristina’s works have been shown at the Museum for Contemporary Art, Skopje, MK (solo show); MAK, Vienna, AT; Project Space Kunsthalle, Vienna, AT; Het Glaspaviljoen, Eindhoven, NL; Art COP21 Paris, FR; The Science Museum, London, UK; The V&A, London, UK; Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK and the Art Licks Festival, London UK, Lewisham Art House, London, UK, Royal College of Art amongst others.

Vivien Sansour (Palestine) is a writer, producer and photographer. She is the founder of The Palestine Heirloom Seed Library and the Traveling Kitchen project, both initiatives aim to bring seed heritage back to the dinner table. She holds a BA in Political Science with a minor in Theatre Arts, and an MA in International Studies with a focus in Anthropology from East Carolina University, US. Her feature film The People and the Olive received high acclaim from critics was selected for Chicago International Social Change film festival and the Unspoken Human Rights film festival. As an artist, scholar and conservationist Vivien presented in venues local and global, including SALT Art Center in Istanbul, Berlinale, Georgetown University, Qalandiya Biennale and Columbia University.

Daniel Silva (Bogota, CO, 1981) is a sculptor living and working in London. He graduated from Central Saint Martins with a top of the class distinction in 2014, was the recipient of the Daniel Ford Award for innovation, as well as nominated and shortlisted for the Saatchi New Sensations 2014 Art Prize. In 2015, he was one of the three artists selected to represent CSM in the UAL space at Art15. Selected Exhibitions include WE ARE EXPERIENCING SOME TURBULENCE – PLEASE STOW AWAY YOUR ELECTRONIC DEVICES LHR | HND | BOG | LAX at Baert Gallery, Los Angeles, USA in 2018 and at Outpost-81 in Tokyo, JP.

Sanne Vaassen (Maastricht, NL, 1991) graduated in 2013 from Maastricht Academy Fine Arts & Design, has recently been artist in residence at Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop and is currently the recipient of the Stipend for Established Artists by the Mondriaan Fund. In 2014/2015 she was a resident at the Jan van Eyck Academy. Since then she has contributed to exhibitions at the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, Marres, De Pont, Tilburg, Grey Noise, Dubai and 601 Artspace in New York, amongst others. She was nominated for the Sybren Hellinga prize in 2016 and was the winner of the Parkstad Limburg Prize in the same year. She lives and works in Maastricht, NL.

Mileece (London, UK, 1978) is a sonic artist, composer, designer, interactive ecologist and clean energy ambassador. Her debut album of algorithmic music ‘Formations’ (2003), heralded by the BBC as an “outstanding release, real musical science”, marked the beginning of her work as a pioneer in ‘organic electronic music’. In 2006, after creating a hardware bio-data processor and coded ‘aesthetic sonification’ system ‘PiP’ at her residency at the LSE, Mileece began touring her interactive immersive micro-ecology installations and performances at museums (MoMA, NYC, NHM, LA), festivals (Decibel Festival, Seattle, BHIF Festival, Bhutan), and venues (Kew Gardens, London, Sonos Studios, LA).

*Stay tuned for the dynamic workshop/lecture Mileece will be conducting as part of Adjacent Directly.

About Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop and the Workshop Foundation

Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop is Workshop Foundation’s exhibition and residency space in London. It supports a diverse range of emerging and mid-career contemporary artists by providing them with space and time to develop their practice, championing principles of integrity and rigour. Through its residency programmes and exhibitions, it gives artists, curators and theorists a platform to present work and share ideas as well as creating an environment for freethinking and exchange.

The Foundation seeks to progress artists’ careers and connect them to the public. It has now organised more than 25 exhibitions with over 100 artists and curators.

Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop was founded in 2015 by artist Stacie McCormick in a former builder’s merchant.