Temporarily Closed at ANNEX

Artists

Begum Berdan

Henry Burns

Ugne Dainiute

Asya Duru

Barbara Majder

Ursula Pelczar

Niamh Sheperd

Yunyi Ye

Gabrielle Travis Zemaityte

Between the place I live, and the grocery shop I went to pick up milk, I counted 3 uninhabited buildings and 4 blocks in renovation. I can’t tell for sure, but so it seems. I’m wondering what goes on with these places?

A quick look on the online map tells me ‘Temporarily closed.’ Traces of history, a shop or a pub.

Probably will come back as something else. Someone cared enough for whatever it was before to update the online presence. In real life not so much. The discrepancy between the real and the virtual. The virtual still upholding some kind of form.

I wonder what is behind these closed doors. Every few days I notice small changes. A bag of grovel has been removed, an empty container added.

Why am I so drawn and want to explore what’s inside, be held by the building?

I certainly can't relate to what it used to be, because I never saw it. I wonder what it will become. The change is ongoing, but the space is empty. It’s far away from being the new thing either, yet. I see the time passing being ingrained in the cracking plaster covering the steady walls. Wires growing out of holes.

The tree across the street stares at me. The moss that covers the bricks looks like a small universe. I can feel its eyes following me, telling me to enter.

Something takes shape.

‘Temporarily Closed’ is a mixed media exhibition where time and space become suspended, malleable conditions. Spanning installation, sculpture, painting and audio-visual works by a group of nine artists, the show loops around and in between reality and virtuality to capture the ephemeral states of contemporary existence and the systems that may one day outlive us.

What remains beyond urban infrastructure and its materiality undergoes an endless renewal process through Beg Berdan’s playful sculptures and Henry Burns’s iterative installations. Renewal and regeneration call for a reflection on the different stages of time and on what stays and what dissolves. Preservation, memory and grief are present in Barbara Majder’s practice, while Niamh Shepherd explores the consequential habits of collecting and hoarding. Beyond urban landscapes, materiality weaves complicated relationships with the natural world, as seen through Ugne Dainiute’s practice. But it also transcends into the ephemerality of human interactions, as framed through intimate residues in Asya Duru’s writing-based installations.

All these processes and systems we create for our surroundings are applied to our interactions as well, making them fragile and exposed. This tension is captured in the work of Yunyi Ye, inspired by digital resistance tactics. All these connections take place in a dimension populated by non-human entities, objects and technologies, personified in Gabrielle Zemaityte-Travis’ moving image installations. Finally, Ursula Pelczar’s video installations assemble together the pieces scavenged in this journey across ideas of time and the different regions of the liminal world – the virtual, the natural, the urban.

This is an artist-led exhibition project with the participation of Beg Berdan, Henry Burns, Ugne Dainiute, Asya Duru, Barbara Majder, Ursula Pelczar, Niamh Shepherd, Yunyi Ye, and Gabrielle Zemaityte-Travis. During the opening reception, the show will be activated by a series of performances and live soundscape compositions by Fraser Scowen, Tabitha Haynes, Josh Philpott and Yujie Duan. The live activations are part of a programme of events curated by Jael Arazi, expanding on the exhibition themes and sensations.