The Challenger’s Report
A Solo Exhibition by Irene Kopelman
10 February–15 April 2012
Preview:
9 February, 6.30–9pm
155 Vauxhall Street
London SE11 5RH
The Challenger‘s Report is the first UK solo exhibition by Argentinian artist Irene Kopelman, which looks at how relationships to landscape and the natural world are culturally conditioned and subject to change.
Kopelman’s work is rooted in drawing in situ and guided by laboured processes of copying and re-production which reveal a fascination with landscape and the act of looking. Borrowing patterns from nature or techniques of observation and classification from the history of science, her drawing, painting and sculpture is characterised by imperfections that foreground the conditions (cramped, dusty, rainy, etc.) of its making. Inspired by the expeditions of renowned explorers such as Ernest Shackleton, her work is founded upon empirical research carried out in the field or in naturalist archives and collections.
The Challenger’s Report centres on how acts of looking are mediated by culture, invention or circumstance. The title refers to the Challenger expedition of 1872–76, the discoveries of which laid the foundations of modern oceanography. The exhibition includes a newly commissioned series of large-scale paintings of microfossils brought back from the Antarctic plate following Robert Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova expedition of 1910, and now held at the Natural History Museum in London. These are presented alongside La morfologia del paisaje determina sus vistas (The Morphology of the Landscape Determines its Views, 2011)—an installation composed of drawings and a fired clay bas relief of canyons in Southern Brazil—and a hand-made replica of a graphic telescope, an early 19th century optical instrument. Kopelman has worked with outdated curiosities such as this for a number of years, keen to rediscover how they gave rise to particular conventions of seeing and ways of interpreting the natural world.
The exhibition is accompanied by a series of events and workshops taking place at Gasworks and at the Natural History Museum, London.
EVENTS
COLLECTIONS TOUR: The Natural History Museum
Friday 10 February, 11am and 2pm
Dr Giles Miller, Curator of Vertebrates and Micropalaeontology at the Natural History Museum, leads two tours of the Micropalaeontology collections, inviting participants to take a closer look at a world we can’t usually see. Booking is essential as places are limited. Please email booking@gasworks.org.uk. This event takes place at the Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD
TALK: Irene Kopelman
Thursday 15 March, 6.30–8pm
Irene Kopelman introduces her practice and speaks about the development of The Challenger’s Report at Gasworks, offering an insight into her research and working process.
WORKSHOP: The Graphic Telescope
Saturday 14 April, 2–4pm
Tiemen Cocquyt, Professor of Optics and Curator at the Museum Boerhaave in Leiden (The Netherlands), leads a workshop centred around the graphic telescope – an optical instrument developed by British artist and inventor Cornelius Varley in 1807 – a replica of which is displayed as part of the exhibition. Booking is essential as places are limited. Please email booking@gasworks.org.uk
VISITOR INFORMATION
Free admission. Opening times: Wed–Sun 12–6pm. Gasworks, 155 Vauxhall Street, London SE11 5RH. Nearest tube: Oval/Vauxhall. Open late until 9pm on the last Friday of every month, except bank holidays.
MEDIA INFORMATION
For further information, images, interview requests and other media enquiries, please contact Kristel Raesaar: call +44(0)20 7587 5202, +44(0)7828037931 or email kristel@gasworks.org.uk.
This exhibition is made possible with the generous support of Catherine Petitgas and the Mondriaan Fund, Amsterdam.
