Gallery of Wonder on Tour
- Submitting institution
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University of Newcastle upon Tyne
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 214208-71603-1285
- Type
- M - Exhibition
- Venue(s)
- Northumberland County Show, Woodhorn Miners Picnic, Spittal Seaside Festival, Falstone Border Shepherd Show, Alwinton Border Shepherd Show, Newcastle University
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first exhibition
- -
- Year of first exhibition
- 2015
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- This extended research project is a long-form creative work with multiple components demonstrating sustained research effort over a full year (2015) conducted by a research team, two of whom are members of the Unit. The project involved commissioning, creating and exhibiting new artworks form a range of artists and exhibiting these in a specially designed marquee which was transported across fairgrounds and county shows in North East England. The project also involved researching and creating the architecture for the exhibition, display and transport systems.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Gallery of Wonder on Tour was an art exhibition, housed in a specially designed structure that toured six agricultural shows and a miners' gala in Northumberland in 2015. None of the venues had previously engaged with contemporary art. The project was researched, curated and produced by Irene Brown and Judith King in association with art agency Arts&Heritage. Brown contributed the original artwork Oculus Mundi.
The exhibition included new artworks commissioned from artists Aideen Barry, Mat Collishaw, Tessa Farmer, Polly Morgan, and the Quay Brothers. In addition, two loans were made from artists Mark Fairnington and AuraSatz. The project was funded by Arts Council England.
With its distinctive settings a key feature of the project, Gallery of Wonder on Tour explored the relationship between heritage, the making, curating and exhibiting of contemporary art and the notion of ‘wonder’.
Tracing historic links between Wunderkammern and travelling curiosity shows, the project explored the heritage of the side-show within rural fairs. Drawing upon critique of New Genre Public Art (Lacey, S. 1994), it examined these settings as a locus for 'wonder', and their relevance as a venue for a contemporary art exhibition.
It explored whether ‘wonder’ in contemporary art practice can be used as a strategy for engaging audiences not typically visiting art exhibitions via the stimulus of surprise and fascination. Rural communities have been identified as having low participation in the arts in ACE’s ‘Rural Evidence and Data Review’ (2014).
The artists interpreted the theme of ‘wonder’, including optical illusions, menageries and displays referencing original touring curiosity shows. Where new technology replaced time-served fairground apparatus, artists employed traditional techniques from original Wunderkammern and sideshows.
The project is discussed in Brown’s chapter in Mieves & Brown (eds) (2015), ‘Wonder in Contemporary Artistic Practice’, submitted as a separate output.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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