I Want to Show You What I’ve Learned from the Worst People I’ve Ever Known

About

We are prone to thinking of shame as a feeling; something that comes and goes, or something that we can work our way out of. Representationally, it’s a kind of grey cloud – unpleasant and manifest, yes, but something that ultimately dissipates. But what about shame as a condition? What happens when shame stops being a lingering sense of things and more of an ontology, something one embodies as opposed to feels? I Want to Show You What I’ve Learned from the Worst People I’ve Ever Known poses as a call and response, asking five artists this question and composing an exhibition from the resultant answers.

These answers occupy a range of positions. Branigan explores this question from position of the the ironist; dysfunction, paradox, and banality often define the sculptor’s work, usually coupled with an insouciant humour. Similarly, McEvoy explores shame’s association with class, interrogating her upbringing by producing emotionally caustic (and moving) ceramics that lampoon trophies and achievement. In turn, Pozniakow uses the historical shame associated with homosexuality as his foundation, making gilded portraits of himself and his partner as a kind of defiant revisionism, while O’Carolan investigates religious and cultural shame, stemming from the artist’s Irish Catholic childhood and education. Finally, O’Connell explores addiction; now a year sober, the northern photographer turns his lens on his own darkest moments.

For GROVE, I Want to Show You What I’ve Learned from the Worst People I’ve Ever Known begins the process of exploring more personal themes, while expanding the group of artists the gallery is working with. While the gallery has previously worked with both McEvoy and O’Carolan, the exhibition brings three new artists into the fold, all of which will hopefully continue their work with the gallery across London and their European location.