Exhibition

'Stuff Happens' by May Ayres

1 Sep 2016 – 6 Oct 2016

Event times

Open every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 12noon to 7pm

Cost of entry

Free

Save Event: 'Stuff Happens' by May Ayres

I've seen this

People who have saved this event:

close

St John on Bethnal Green

London, United Kingdom

Address

Travel Information

  • Buses: 106, 388, D3, D6, 8, 309, 254
  • Tube: Bethnal Green - Central line
  • Train: Bethnal Green or Cambridge Heath
Directions via Google Maps Directions via Citymapper
Event map

Fired Clay Sculptures from the series 'The War Of Aggression'

About

Shortly after the beginning of the second Iraq war, a war launched in the face of massive public opposition around the world, I started to make small sculptures based on stories and images from the conflict, as a way to process my anger. The works grew larger as did the misery and suffering exploding before our eyes, as the allied forces unleashed the full power of their state-of-the-art weaponry against this defenseless country in what state-controlled television coverage made look like a spectacular fireworks display.

In a world where Western governments and the corporate media are hell-bent on erasing our collective memory, I make the work I make because I don’t want to forget what is being done ‘in our name’.

I want to give a voice to some of those hundreds of thousands who have been silenced, or killed, or dispersed by first the illegal Iraq war and then the phoney, global ‘war on terror’. And perhaps I can help some others to remember too – and to question what is happening''.

May Ayres exhibition, 'God's Wars' in 2011 attempted to address the question of how we might retain our common humanity and our collective memory.

Her new exhibition 'Stuff Happens' gives a voice to just a few of the many who have been rendered voiceless.

Stuff happens and it's untidy and freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things’.

Donald Rumsfeld on the widespread looting in Baghdad in the wake of the US and UK’s invasion of Iraq, April 11, 2003

 

What to expect? Toggle

Comments

Have you been to this event? Share your insights and give it a review below.