Neither Use Nor Ornament: Everyday Objects Transformed
Fourteen artists explore how we use everyday objects to store our memories.
Photo credit: Stu Allsopp
OVADA Warehouse, 14A Osney Lane, Oxford OX1 1NJ, Sat 30 March - Sun 28 April 2019
Fourteen artists use a range of techniques including performance, installation, video, textiles, photography and sculpture to explore the way we use everyday objects to store memories. The precious things we choose to keep may seem quite ordinary to other people, but for us they create unique histories and hold powerful memories of happiness and grief. On a personal level, NUNO invites us to delve into our own personal memories, from the joyful to the traumatic, while the exhibition's broader sweep offers a historical perspective on family life, politics and social change. Serious and playful by turns, these works encourage reflection and show how the things we own affect us, and how they are transformed by the memories they evoke, and under the artist's hand.
Exhibiting artists: Neil Armstrong and Dave Edwards, Sonia Boué, Dawn Cole, Jenni Dutton, Ruth Geldard, Patrick Goodall, Kruse, Rhi Lloyd-Williams, Katherine May, Naomi Morris, Kate Murdoch, Hugh Pryor, Sonja Zelic.
Free events:
- Saturday 13 April, 2 – 4.30pm: Experimental Photography Workshop with Hugh Pryor
- Saturday 20 April, 2 – 4pm: Artists in Conversation and Exhibition Tour with Sonia Bouè, Jenni Dutton, and Dawn Cole.
NUNO is funded by Arts Council England and Oxford City Council Culture Fund, and presented in partnership with OVADA and Arts at the Old Fire Station.
The theme of this exhibition might be objects, but it is very much about people, family and personal connection, memento and memorial. Deeply personal, we are given an intimate look into the lives of each of the artists, and even though each of the installations is very different there is an overall sense of unity and cohesion, connections behind the superficial separation.
Utility or appearance, form versus function, use or ornament: these are often the ways we determine an object's value. But beyond these obvious traits lies meaning, and what an object means to us on a personal and emotional level matters far more. Each of the works in this exhibition carries such meaning, and therein lies the value.
