exhibition

PUMP HOUSE ANTHOLOGY

28.Jan.09 - 15.Mar.09
OPEN: Weds, Thurs and Sun 11am-5pm, Fri and Sat 11am-4pm CLOSED Mon and Tues
£ FREE, FREE advance, FREE concession

Pump House Gallery
Pump House Gallery,
Battersea Park,
London,
London SW11 4NJ
(020) 8871 7572 / Fax: (020) 7228 9062
pumphouse@wandsworth.gov.uk
www.wandsworth.gov.uk/gallery
Tube Sloane Square; Bus 137, 19, 44, 49, 239, 249, 319, South London

Pump Hous Gallery Anthology,
Henry VIII’s Wives
28th Jan 2009-Sun 15th March

Preview: Tue 27 Jan 2009, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Artists’ Talk: Tue 27 Jan 2009, 5.30 – 6.30pm

Open Wed, Thurs & Sun 11am – 5pm
Fri and Sat 11am – 4pm
Closed Mon and Tues

Henry VIII’s Wives (The Wives) are a collective of artists founded in 1997, and include Rachel Dagnall, Bob Grieve, Sirko Knupfer, Simon Polli, Per Sander and Lucy Skaer. For their first exhibition in a London gallery they will present two time-based installations; Mr Hysteria, 2005 and The Returning Officer, 2007. Although both projects are very different in approach Mr Hysteria informed and inspired the development of The Returning Officer, paving the way to an experimental use of narrative.

Inspired by people and their relationships to specific places, The Returning Officer takes three fictitious stories, shot in 16mm film, in three key locations as its starting point; The Legacy House, Belgrade, Serbia - a house owned by the Museum of Contemporary Art (which was used as a casino and brothel during the Milosevic era), an organ builder’s adapted house and workshop outside Vilnius, Lithuania and an opium poppy field in rural Austria. Chosen by the artists for their peculiarity and resonance, each film delves into a hidden social and political history. Visually seductive, the films are accompanied by a live soundtrack of a church organ which will be installed in the gallery.

Mr Hysteria explores the changing meanings of Hysteria over the last century. Previously thought of as a solitary illness exclusively affecting women - the ‘wandering womb’, hysteria became a more social phenomenon, with instances of mass hysteria becoming more frequent in the 20th century. Mr Hysteria is filmed in a maternity hospital, a stock exchange trading floor, a police station and a newspaper archive. In each location, non actors recite a script compiled from interviews conducted by ‘The Wives’ on diverse themes, from memories of mass migrations and the fall of the Berlin Wall, to simple descriptions of objects no longer present.

The six members of Henry VIII’s Wives met at art college in Glasgow in the mid 90’s and are now based in various northern European countries. In the last two years they have been commissioned by Kunsthalle Bern Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade and NIFCA that also travelled to Frankfurt Kunstverein; The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and CAC, Vilnius.

The Returning Officer, was originally commissioned by Spike Island, Bristol.

For information, images or to arrange interviews please contact: Hannah Liley

Pump House Gallery, Battersea Park, London, SW11 4NJ
T: + 44 (0)20 7350 0523 F: +44 (0)20 7228 9062
pumphouse@wandsworth.gov.uk www.wandsworth.gov.uk/gallery