Archive 2008-09
Laura Napier
- Venue: Fine Art Lecture Theatre
- Start: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:00:00 BST
- End: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:00:00 BST
A postgraduate of the Royal College of Art (MA Sculpture), Laura Napier is an emerging artist working primarily in architectural site-specific installations. Previous installations have been at the Natural History Museum, London and at the Zurich International Theatre Festival. She has exhibited at the Stables Gallery, London and at Act Art 3, London. She is a Fine Art graduate of the Chelsea College of Art and Design. She has an upcoming show at the Berwick Gymnasium Art Gallery 20th September till the 31st October 2008 Wednesday – Sunday 11am – 5pm
A deserted World War II pillbox, an obsolete British car manufacturer, and the 1920s heyday of seaside resorts are all re-interpreted to explore themes of modernity, heritage and regeneration in a new contemporary art exhibition running from 20 September to 31 October 2008 at English Heritage’s Berwick Gymnasium Art Gallery, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland.
Emerging artist Laura Napier was awarded an English Heritage Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship in 2007 and spent the winter months developing an imaginative and ambitious response to the border town’s unique history, architecture and identity. The exhibition will transform the Gymnasium Gallery creating a maze of specially constructed interiors – a gem shop, a mine, smugglers’ tunnel, and a car showroom – at the centre of which, in the words of Napier, “the viewer will be confronted by something magical”. Napier’s new work creates a fictional timeless place suspended between the past and present.
Central to Napier’s exhibition is our sometimes difficult relationship with England’s now obsolete industries. Destination, the first of six pieces, encapsulates these themes and provides the show with its title. ‘As Old As The Industry, As Modern As The Hour’ was the slogan for Riley cars, one of the most successful racing car manufacturers of the 1920s and 1930s before a gradual decline in its fortune.