Bathers

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Essay by Rodrigo Oranntia

Opening especially for the London Gallery Weekend, Sid Motion Gallery is pleased to present Bathers, a new installation by London-based artist Tom Lovelace, with collaborators Typhaine Delaup, Clémentine Bedos and Francesco Migliaccio.

In this exhibition, the latest iteration of Lovelace’s 'Living Pictures' series, photography and performance collide, presenting an installation which seeks to disrupt the traditions of viewing and display.

Performers will activate the installation and photographic works – slipped from their framed conventions – and presented on the floor as reflective pools.  Converging with the performers, the viewers are encouraged to interact with and reflect within these pools, creating a moment of quiet contemplation.  These ‘screens’ explore the interconnected themes of looking, touch and isolation, which we’ve all experienced during lockdown.

Lifting its title from Seurat’s Bathers at Asnières, a painting much admired by the artist during his time  working in the National Gallery in the early 2000s, the installation echoes an environment for the congregation of people for enjoyment – however,  and perhaps heightened by our recent enforced interior living, the environment also morphs us all into the subjects from the painting itself, alone and silent in our reflections and enjoyment of the scenario.

Timed performances will be hosted daily over the three days of the London Gallery Weekend.

'Living Pictures' is a collection of outputs developed by Lovelace over the last four years, where traditionally singular disciplines converge in dynamic and fluid ways. Previous displays include On Photographic Beings at the National Museum of Art (Riga 2020), Present Tense at Materia Gallery (Rome, 2019), Not Photography at Bankley Gallery (Manchester, 2019), Interval at Flowers Gallery (London, 2019) and On the heights at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2017).

This exhibition is made possible by the support of Metro Imaging.

Artist Biography

Tom Lovelace is a London based artist, working within the spaces between photography, performance and sculpture. Central themes to his research encompass the collaborative histories of photography, theatre, and the role of minimalism within contemporary culture. Lovelace’s work is underpinned by interventions and interruptions of the everyday and the unexceptional. Residencies include London South Bank University (2019-2020), Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2017), Allegra Projects, Switzerland (2017), Lendi Projects, Switzerland (2015), European Capital of Culture, Aarhus, Denmark (2013) and the Anna Mahler International Foundation, Italy (2012).

Recent exhibitions and displays include The Portrait in Focus, Alma Zevi (Venice 2021), On Photographic Beings, The National Museum of Art, (Riga, Latvia 2020), The Dancer and the Shadow, Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris 2020), Mirror Mirror, Atelier NŌUA (Norway 2020), The State of Things, Landskrona Foto (Sweden 2020), The Truth in Disguise, GESTE (Paris 2019), Present Tense, Materia Gallery (Rome 2019), Interval, Flowers Gallery (London 2019), Dazzle Site, Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2017-2019), Postcards from Prison, Sotheby’s (London 2018), On Board, Crispr (Bogota 2017), The High Low Show, Laure Genillard (London 2017), GROUNDWORK, The New Art Centre (Salisbury 2015), Mirage Valley, Lendi Projects (Switzerland 2015), To Camera, Golden Thread Gallery (Belfast 2015), PROJECT 05, Contemporary Art Society (London 2014) and Sweep, Victoria and Albert Museum (London 2014).