Air Matters. Learning from Heathrow
Group exhibition and public programme that sought to intervene in debates around airport expansion at London Heathrow.
- Submitting institution
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Kingston University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 32-31-0000
- Type
- M - Exhibition
- Venue(s)
- Watermans Arts Centre, London,
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first exhibition
- October
- Year of first exhibition
- 2019
- URL
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http://nickferguson.co.uk/air-matters/
- 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
-
-
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Air Matters. Learning from Heathrow (2019–20) was a group exhibition and public programme that sought to intervene in debates around airport expansion at London Heathrow. It asked two main research questions: What is the potential for curatorial practice to intervene in debates around Heathrow expansion? What might research in the Heathrow context contribute to art and mobilities research?
Building on Ferguson’s research into art and spatial politics, Air Matters expanded his practice into the curatorial through the commissioning of new artworks and curation of an exhibition that comments on the politics of the Heathrow expansion; and the creation of an artefact that manifests and enables discussion around these politics. Ferguson commissioned artworks by seven artists – Kate Carr, Nick Ferguson, Matthew Flintham, Hermione Spriggs and Laura Cooper, Magz Hall and Louise K Wilson. He curated a public programme that brought together contributions across multiple formats – presentations, debates, workshops, walking tours, symposium, generative dialogue and performances – and from multiple constituents – academics, activists, artists, community members and policy advisors. His artwork Capsule (2019) comprised a 0.7 scale model of the landing gear compartment of a retired Boeing 777 aircraft and photographs of findings from a forensic survey conducted on the original aircraft. In the exhibition context, the model doubled as an auditorium in which discussions around the politics of air were hosted.
Against the backdrop of a public interest matter whose ramifications span public health and environmental justice and whose impact registers locally and globally, Air Matters (2019–20) sought to link different types of expertise through the media of a community-centred exhibition and public programming. It embraced multiple modes of production across surveying, presentation, commissioning, pedagogy, knowledge exchange and exhibiting, testing art’s ability to bring new knowledge and processes to the long-term political struggle at Heathrow and aeromobilities research.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
