Album is an exhibition comprised of new and existing works by 17 artists currently studying on the Royal College of Art’s Photography MA course. Working across the disciplines of photography, film and video, new site-specific works, which seek to respond to the particularities of the surrounding area and Wolstenholme project space, will also be produced.
Whilst the exhibition does not seek to tie individual artists together via an overarching thematic structure, a unified intention to create and reconstitute existing works, in relation to the project space, is common to them all. Intrigued by the prospect of exhibiting in an unconventional gallery space, the decision to show at Wolstenholme was made, by the group, in order to allow a reciprocity of influence to take place.
For Rebecca Court this has enabled the development of a site specific work across the buildings exterior, and for Tom Pope the interior network of doors provides a framework for the production of a work in which the site visitor will be made to perform. For others presenting still or moving image works the removal of pieces from the context of an ostensibly neutral white cube, provides a unique opportunity for a renewed or unique reading to take place. Similarly, the site itself will, in hosting the collection, be subject to a process of transformation and re-reading.
Album is part of the Independents exhibitions programme that runs parallel to the 2010 Liverpool Biennial. On Saturday 18 September at 1pm, Album curator Morgan Quaintance, an MA student from the RCA Curating Contemporary Art (Inspire) course and the exhibiting artists will give a talk about the work in the exhibition.
The RCA Photography Department has a world-renowned reputation for providing a critical and educational environment in which students can develop as artists with photography at the core of their practice. Alumni of the course include successful practitioners working in both fine art and the commercial sector, including Alison Jackson, Bob Carlos Clarke, Sophy Rickett, Hannah Starkey, Paul Smith, Tom Hunter and Idris Khan.