Time After Time

About

Since being founded in 1979, John Hansard Gallery was located on the University’s Highfield campus in a building that was originally designed to house a tidal model of the Solent basin. During this time, the Gallery was marked by a consistent and focused programme, an element of which explored the legacy of the early conceptual art movement and its influence on succeeding generations of artists. Embracing the Gallery’s unique position within the University, new commissions were often created through mutually beneficial collaborations between artists and academics from a wide variety of disciplines. In 2018, after 39-years on Highfield campus, John Hansard Gallery relocated to a new purpose-built city centre space in Southampton’s Guildhall Square.

Bridging both its previous and new city centre homes, Time After Time re-examines some key site-specific installations that were shown at the Gallery between 1993 and 2016 by artists Caroline Bergvall, Victor Burgin, Hamad Butt, John Latham, Charlotte Posenenske, alongside a new work by Walter van Rijn. By remaking these works, the pragmatics of reimagining the ‘original’ temporary installation and the significance of ‘site’ are explored.

The exhibition Time After Time examines the long-term value of what are often initially conceived as temporary or transient works, helping to link the original John Hansard Gallery location with its new city centre home. The exhibition explores the nature of site-specificity in various ways, some of the works represented for Time After Time were made to be preserved, some have been adapted from earlier presentations, and some have been reimagined from their original showings.

Time After Time has been made possible through the generous support of the Henry Moore Foundation, who have also supported John Hansard Gallery’s exhibitions programme over many years, including some of the original exhibitions revisited for Time After Time.