Sarah Taylor Silverwood | Crowd Show

About

Crowd Show is an exhibition at NN Contemporary that uses advertising methods to start conversations about the meaning and value of art and the art world. The show began with Sarah Taylor Silverwood placing a roadside billboard advertisement in Northampton bearing the phrase ‘artist seeking artists’ – effectively an open call, soliciting anyone visually creative to submit work for exhibition. This very deliberate act of ‘random curation’ has drawn together a disparate group of artists whose work will be exhibited at Crowd Show, the only common denominator being that each of them responded to the initial, enigmatic billboard advert.

Alongside this work, Sarah’s show includes other, similar adverts, introducing further ways of playfully reaching out to artists and gallery visitors, inviting them to participate in a public programme of events that interrogate the world of art and culture, asking questions around representation, diversity, how artists are paid, the role of regional art spaces and more, all of it ultimately addressing the status of art in the context of everyday modern life. The work seeks to form new networks and friendships, in the process considering broader ethical questions surrounding the curation and value of art itself.

Throughout the exhibition run, Sarah will continue to hand-make adverts that range in scale and form, from roadside billboards to bespoke ads made in response to visitors to the exhibition and participants in gallery events. Each of these events will be supported by its own call out to artists, allowing the exhibition to respond fluidly to the contribution of others, so that Crowd Show is continually developing and evolving.

NN’s previous Artistic Director, Catherine Hemelryk, invited artist Sarah Taylor Silverwood to collaborate after seeing the artist’s 2016 project, Small Ads, based on a similarly random, open-call premise, and the exhibition and supporting events have been devised by Sarah and NN’s current Artistic Director, Louise Clarke.

New Multiple to Purchase:
Sarah Taylor Silverwood will also be making a multiple, in the form of ceramics, which will be available to buy at NN. The ceramics will be produced throughout the exhibition period, taking their inspiration from conversations with visitors to and issues arising from Crowd Show. They will be placed in the gallery throughout the exhibition.