Palimpsest Projects

Featuring Tony Bowen, Steve Dutton, Gina DeCagna, Khushboo, M Lissoni, Stevie Ronnie, Oriane Stender and Christie Swallow. 

Curated by Gina DeCagna

Private View: Thursday 26 September, 6–8 pm. RSVP to gallery.

Talks, Workshops and Events: sign up at www.palimpsestprojects.org

Contact [email protected] to arrange a visit by appointment

How does the material status of our lived experiences affect how we move through the world, transgress certain boundaries, or stitch together ‘sense’ from pieces that otherwise could remain fractured? 

Bringing together an initial eclectic group who have been in correspondence with curator Gina DeCagna over the past 6 months, this exhibition features a variety of rewritten stories through visual, verbal or tactile language that is distinctive to each artist’s navigation of the world – and their negotiation with society.

Pulling from over 200 submissions in response to a call out for different articulations of ‘palimpsest’ in our society – a palimpsest being a parchment that has been rewritten over and partially erased, as well as a structural entity in architecture and literature – the artists are bold, thoughtful and playful in their multimedia reconstructions from existing social and power structures – using ‘found’ texts, objects, fabrics, maps and more. 

One of the best-known mentions of the concept of ‘palimpsest’ was by George Orwell in his iconic book 1984 while describing how history gets transcribed by the powerful.

By featuring 4 artists who are in early or emerging stages of developing their professional practices [Khushboo, Christie Swallow, M Lissoni and Gina DeCagna] in dialogue with 4 others who have been further along in their careers [Tony Bowen, Steve Dutton, Stevie Ronnie and Oriane Stender], this show initiates a generational and geographical exchange of lived experiences and approaches to making new stories from the old. A central aim is to indicate how contemporary art can be a form of expression for both holding onto and rejecting – remediating and restoring – in society, as part of a lifelong process of evolving one’s sense of self and identity.