Out of SPACE | Care S1, E3: The message

In this episode of Out of SPACE’s Care series we will be examining to what extent we should exercise care when making and exhibiting work that has controversial or provocative content. Yoko Ono said that ‘controversy is part of the nature of art and creativity’ – so should we worry if audiences are offended by our work? And how do we make sure that our message is not misinterpreted? To examine this thorny subject are two artists Harold Offeh and Rhiannon Salisbury.

Listen to episode 3 here >

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Host
Cathy Lomax is a London-based artist, the founder of Transition Gallery and the editor of Arty and Garageland magazines. She is currently researching the role of makeup and artifice in the creation of the Hollywood female star image for a PhD at Queen Mary University of London. Cathy’s paintings and installations assimilate the seductive imagery of film, fame and fashion, juxtaposing it with personal narratives and the everyday. Her particular interests are femininity, masquerade and the way that popular culture is constructed, consumed and related to. In 2014 Cathy was an Abbey Painting Fellow at The British School at Rome and in 2016 she won The Contemporary British Painting Prize. Her 2017 solo exhibition The Blind Spot is profiled by Matt Price in The Anomie Review of Contemporary British Painting. Recent exhibitions include Star Bar, Broadway Cinema, Letchworth Garden City (ongoing), The Immaculate Dream, Collyer Bristow Gallery, London (2019) and Dear Christine, Vane Gallery, Newcastle (and touring) (2019).

Guests
Harold Offeh lives and works in Cambridge and London. He has exhibited widely including at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, South London Gallery, Turf Projects, Wysing Art Centre, Studio Museum Harlem and Art Tower Mito. Harold is Reader in Fine Art at Leeds Beckett University and a Tutor at the Royal College of Art. In 2019 he was a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists, the largest award of its kind in the UK. Upcoming commissions include a new video work exploring the redemptive power of joy through social dance for On Happiness at the Wellcome Collection and he will be taking part in Untitled, Art on the Conditions of Our Time, a major exhibition of British artists of African descent at Kettle’s Yard.

Rhiannon Salisbury lives and works in London and has a studio at SPACE’s Sara Lane studios in Hoxton. She graduated from the Turps Banana Studio Painting Program in 2018, having previously completed an MA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art. Recent solo exhibitions include Habitual Submission at Delphian Gallery, London, 2019; Darbyshire Prize for Emerging Artists at Darbyshire Ltd w. Turps Banana, London, 2018 and Accessorise With A Tiger at Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh, 2018. Rhiannon’s recent achievements include winning The Darbyshire Prize for Emerging Art, being awarded The John Hoyland Scholarship, and being selected to undertake a residency and exhibition in Guadalajara, Mexico.

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Out of SPACE is a podcast series featuring artists from across SPACE’s studios. Artists are in conversation with writers, critics and art professionals, offering a closer look into what happens behind closed studio doors. Out of SPACE is hosted by artist / curator Cathy Lomax. Over the next 8 episodes we will be exploring the theme of care from multiple viewpoints, ranging from artists and parenthood, to caring about the community and about the work itself.