About
After a highly successful March 2012 launch with the inaugural show if not now when, CMR, Cornwall's newest voluntary artist-led Contemporary Art initiative based in Redruth, returns with its second show Save Our Placards!.
Save Our Placards! started as a project by Mark Teh, Guy Atkins, Lolo Galindo, Svein Moxvold and Hafiz Nasir from the MA in Art & Politics course situated within the Politics Department at Goldsmiths, University of London.
The group became interested in the Museum of London's collections related to that city's history of protests for example, the Suffragette movement and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. They wanted to see if it would be possible to create a dialogue between London's past and present protests.
The project had two parts: Eight hundred âhistorical' placards were distributed into the March For The Alternative on 26 March 2011. Using images from the Museum of London's archive, the placards formed a âmobile exhibition' of past London protests.
At the end of the rally, people were offered the chance to influence how the march would be remembered. By a tree in Hyde Park, hundreds of protesters left their placards, flags and costumes. Ten placards have now entered the Museum of London's permanent collection.
This is the first time the other placards have left London, and we are honoured that they are being shown here at CMR.
The work in Save Our Placards! is challenging, controversial, certainly timely and relevant.
A year on from the rally many of those looming Cuts and the economic results affect people's lives, now and into the future. The show suggests that we shouldn't lie back and accept.
As works of Art they are immediate, emotive, humorous and spontaneous. The messages are direct. They're politically charged and critical - though not necessarily created in a critical way as understood in terms of Art Theory. It is Art as a means to communicate anger, truth, distrust, hope. It is Art by people from all walks of life and profession, and by occasional artists and full-time artists.
These placards serve as documents for social, cultural and historical change.
Save Our Placards! continues to showcase the CMR vision of exhibiting adventurous work that not only responds to the building's physical spaces but which is also flexible in its attitude towards mixing and crossing forms, to present a thought-provoking, exciting and engaging show.
As well as the placards there will be supporting material, talks and workshops covering areas of installation, participation, text, digital media, photography, film and sound work.
