Rob Crosse, Clear as a bell
2 April - 7 May 2016 - show extended until 21 May *
PV Friday 1 April, 6-9pm
Clear as a bell, 2016 Rob Crosse Photographer | Tim Bowditch
Clear as a bell, 2016 HD Video still Rob Crosse
Clear as a bell, 2016 Rob Crosse Photographer | Tim Bowditch
Clear as a bell, 2016 Rob Crosse Photographer | Tim Bowditch
The subjects of Rob Crosse’s films, often groups of older men, are bound into an intimate and supportive network through a collective activity. These activities often speak of another time, an age of former technological achievements, a time before digital communications, virtual relationships and cloud-based knowledge hubs. Social rituals are central to Crosse’s films. These secular rituals appear both strange and unquestionably necessary. Their stories and conversations allow Crosse access into the group to observe the smallest gestures, the subtlest movements and interactions, which take on a quiet significance in the films.
In Case of Death by David Nash was a text commissioned on the occasion of Clear as a bell and accompanied the exhibition. Download the text
Rob Crosse lives and works in London. He graduated with an MFA from the Slade school of Fine Art in 2012. Recent exhibitions include; Time and Space, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A, 2016; Family Politics, Jerwood, London, 2013; and New Perspectives, Katara Art Center, Doha, Qatar, 2013. Crosse has screened his films in a number of institutions both nationally and internationally including; the Institute of Contemporary Art, London; Chisenhale Gallery, London and 1Shantiroad, Bangalore, India. He has completed residencies at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A; Foundation Marcelino Botin, Santander, Spain; and Woodmill, London, UK.
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Film screening & discussion
On Saturday 16 April from 3-5pm, Rob Crosse screened a series of his films - two of which hadn't been shown in the UK before - followed by a discussion lead by Dr. Chantal Faust.
Dr. Chantal Faust is an artist, writer and academic. Chantal’s photographic, painting, video and installation works have been exhibited in the UK, Australia and North America. She is currently represented by Lychee One, London and had a solo show The Secretum at the Balfron Tower, London, 2014. Chantal writes for academic journals, magazines, exhibition guides and catalogues. Recent publications include; ‘Colouring in the Void’, catalogue essay for Random International: Studies in Motion, Sweden (2014) and a chapter in J. Graham, Anchor, Marmalade Publishers of Visual Theory, London (2015).
Chantal is also tutor in Critical & Historical Studies and convenor of the Research Methods Course and the Humanities Research Forum at the Royal College of Art, and is editor-in-chief of Prova – the RCA Humanities Research Forum journal.
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An afternoon of performance | Noah Angell and David Nash
On Saturday 7 May from 6pm we invited Noah Angell to perform a new work and poet David Nash to read excerpts from In Case of Death.
Noah Angell presented, a train going through the valley didn't wake him, but only entered his dream
A performance which alloyed the railway song in United States folklore, vocal signalling, and train dreams with private and historical digressions in an immersive hour of storytelling and song. Featuring recordings from Virginia, North Carolina, Louisiana, Arizona, Alaska, Sweden, and Central African Republic.
Noah Angell was born in the United States in 1980 and lives and works in London. He received an MA in Fine Art from Central Martin’s in 2006. Recent exhibitions and events include; Everything Gucci: the poetic and political economy of Gucci Mane, Res, London; In a cell lit by singing fireflies, Camden Arts Centre, London, Lofoten International Arts Festival, Svolvær and Kinisi Festival, Santorini; From home movies to Homs at Birkbeck Cinema, London; Home Recordings, noshowspace, London, The Green Parrot, Barcelona; Crying in the ethnographic field recording, The Green Parrot, Barcelona; Anomalies & Non-representative Instances in the ethnographic field recording, Duke University, North Carolina; The Politics of the Inaudible, Open School East, London, Arnolfini, Bristol and Right to Silence, Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam.
David Nash was born is Cork, Ireland and graduated from University College Cork with a BA in English and French literature in 2007. Nash currently lives in London and completed an MA in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths in 2010, where he won the Pat Kavanagh Prize for an outstanding portfolio.
Listen to the works here...
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Rob Crosse has created a series of 50 signed limited edition risograph prints on paper. Working with artist framers Lord and Du Plooy, the artist has selected a frame specifically for this print. Buy the print here
* Clear as a bell was open Thursday-Saturday, 12-6pm