BREAKING SHELLS

Curators

Justine Do Espirito Santo

Artists

Chelsea Culprit

Penny Goring

Rachel Jones

Jessie Makinson

Jala Wahid

Zoe Williams

The Koppel Project is pleased to present Breaking Shells, a group exhibition curated by Justine Do Espirito Santo. Bringing together nine contemporary artists, the show examines the body from a female perspective.

The exhibition takes over the two Koppel Project galleries, Baker Street and The Hive, to present two distinct but continuous explorations of this subject.

Part I, at Baker Street, explores narratives and representations of the body, both from a historical and a contemporary point of view. The artists examine subjects including the relationship between body and identity; how female bodies are represented in art, history, and pop culture; clichés surrounding black bodies; taboos and ideas about sexuality, sex work, and fetishism; the relationship between body and language. Together, the display takes the viewer into a universe merging past and present, where the body, omnipresent, is in turn scrutinised, idealised, objectified, and empowered.

In Part II, at The Hive, Breaking Shells creates a space where the body can set itself free from the social and cultural constraints examined in Part I. Through videos, installations, and immersive works, the artists invite us to embrace individual and collective sensorial experience and bodily expression. It is a celebration of flesh, emotions, sense, movement, and euphoria, advocating physicality and movement as acts of resistance.

The exhibition includes sculptures, paintings, drawings, videos, and installations never previously presented in London as well as specially commissioned artworks.

It is accompanied by an illustrated publication comprising an essay by Gabriella Pounds and images selected by the artists.

This exhibition was generously supported by:

DANCE THERAPY

14th February 18

6-9pm

Hive

Event