We chat with the fourth shortlisted artist in the run up to this week's unveiling of the group exhibition
Dazed and Converse proudly announce the five shortlisted artists chosen for the second annual Converse/Dazed 2011 Emerging Artists Award. From an overwhelming number of entries vying for a first prize of £6,000 and the opportunity to be exhibited in the group show at an exclusive venue near the Whitechapel Gallery in October, Kirsty Ogg, curator of the Whitechapel Gallery, artist Eva Rothschild, gallerist Sadie Coles, gallery director Darren Flook, curator Paul Pieroni and Dazed & Confused’s visual arts editor, Francesca Gavin came to their decisions at a final judging session at the Whitechapel Gallery.
The five artists who all receive £1,000 and will feature in the upcoming group exhibition are: Gabriele Beveridge, Ellie Harrison, Bruce Ingram, Levack Lewandowski and Richard Parry. Each week we will be speaking with the artists and it is the turn of Gabriele Beverage, the London-based artist whose celebrated and juxtaposing sculpture and design-led work can be found in the Tate St Ives collection.
Dazed Digital: What are your themes you are working with in your current work?
Gabriele Beveridge: Locations normally seen out of the corner of the eye. The happy themes of advertising removed to a slightly off centre context, where the falseness in the smile becomes foregrounded. Imagery from other eras where both the treatment of the subject and the physical elements of the photography (film stock, reproduction method, paper it’s printed on) are different from current convention. Evoking narratives and memories through the juxtaposition of objects and images, I strive to create work that is highly charged and simultaneously empty.
DD: How does your city affect your work and inspiration?
Gabriele Beveridge: In terms of the themes I think that London feeds into it as a space of broken narratives. Every day you walk past shop windows, literature and advertising that touch on conversations that you may not understand. London is an ecstatic critique of culture, it is a city of constant change, destruction, redevelopment, action, reaction. No one can ever truly understand, control or know London.
DD: How is it to be part of the upcoming London group exhibition?
Gabriele Beveridge: I feel honoured to have been shortlisted by Dazed and such an amazing panel of people and I am excited about the other artists. I welcome the chance to work alongside artists I haven't previously known. Of course, this is also a great opportunity to reach an audience I may not have been able to address previously.
The Converse Emerging Artists Award exhibition kicks off this Friday at our gallery just off London's Brick Lane: 37 Heneage St, E1 5LJ. More info HERE
