2018

The Palestinian History Tapestry

13:00, Friday, 09 November 2018 to 17:00, Thursday, 29 November 2018

This November, the Glass Tank presents an exhibition featuring parts of the The Palestinian History Tapestry. The exhibition will be held in The Lab space and focuses specifically on the panels relating to Gaza. The Palestinian History Tapestry illustrates the history of the land of Palestine, from the Neolithic era to the present. It has been made by Palestinian women within and outside Palestine, many of them in refugee camps across the Middle East. The Palestinian History Tapestry is an expression of ‘sumud’ (steadfastness), and solidarity. It draws attention to the history and heritage of the Palestinian people and their land, and to their internationally confirmed right to return to the home from which they were expelled in 1948. The tapestry is likely the largest embroidered collection of illustrative work ever produced by Palestinian embroiderers.

The Door Opened: 1980s China

9:00, Friday, 26 October 2018 to 17:00, Friday, 30 November 2018

British photojournalist Adrian Bradshaw came as a student to Beijing in 1984 just as everyday life was in flux. Caught up in the ferment of the time he went on to spend three decades documenting the transformation of China as the vast nation reformed and opened up to the world.

Bradshaw, then in his 20s, was in the company of the young people who embraced this time of opportunity. The majority of China’s population then was under 25 and it was largely their energy and creativity that powered the changes now reverberating around the world: the artists, entrepreneurs, farmers and industrialists whose enthusiasm and positivity made things happen were, at the time these pictures were taken, just beginning to sense the possibilities.

ATLAS - An extended reality experience by Yann Deval & Marie Losseau

ATLAS is an interactive and scenographic exhibition in which the work sits between digital and visual arts. During this exhibition, the Glass Tank will host a mixture of real models and an interactive virtual world. Using the latest in augmented reality technology, Atlas invites spectators to interact with holograms in the world around them by building virtual cities. The growing houses follow some urbanistic rules, adapting to their environment. These cities take on a life of their own, with or without the interactions of users, just like living organisms...
As a whole, the work provokes a reflection on urbanism, architecture, and the influences of these things on our lifestyles.

The exhibition has been produced by artists Yann Deval and Marie G. Losseau, in collaboration with Dr Fridolin Wild from the Performance Augmentation Laboratory at Oxford Brookes University.

The Soul of the Black Earth

9:00, Wednesday, 25 July 2018 to 17:00, Friday, 31 August 2018

This summer, The Soul of the Black Earth, an exhibition of contemporary Chinese woodblock prints, will be presented to the Glass Tank by the Confucius Institute at Oxford Brookes University and the Heilongjiang Provincial Museum of Art in China. The exhibition, a One Belt and One Road project will provide a chance to look back on a momentous and critical 60-year history of the Heilongjiang province in China. The Soul of the Black Earth seeks to tell the story of four generations of printmakers. Each print in the exhibition is a document of modern Chinese history and is a reflection of the souls of their makers and the character of Heilongjiang, the Black Earth.

Get some chalk on your boots! The Sounding Cultures of Football

10:00, Friday, 15 June 2018 to 17:00, Friday, 13 July 2018

Get some chalk on your boots! is a project developed by Sound Diaries and led by Paul Whitty from the SARU (Sonic Art Research Unit) in the School of Arts at Oxford Brookes University. The purpose of the project is to investigate the everyday sounding cultures of football. The conference and exhibition will investigate football through an exploration of its sounding cultures. Football is a sonic spectacle; an auditory delight; a sport that thrives on the physical energy of sound. The sounds of football are part of our daily lives: the ephemeral grassroots soundings of parish council pitches; the buzz of late night radio commentary; the roar of the crowd seeping out into the night and spreading like a firm mist across nearby streets; the on-pitch communication of the players – stick it in the mixer!; corner flags whipped into sound-making action by the breeze; the crack as a ball strikes the crossbar; the thud of the football on boot then grass and soil as the goalkeeper sends it long down field; the incessant voice of the popular media; the rattle of the line-marker and the slosh of paint as the pitch is marked out; the clatter of football boots on concrete or the sounds as they are struck together to remove mud; the resonant corridors of the stadium; football talk at the pub – on the bus – in the cafe; the slam of plastic seats as the crowd stand – craning to see a corner; the conflict between the corporate stadium sound system and the oral culture of the ultras; the cries of joy and despair; the referee’s whistle; and the quiet calm – the void – of the stadium after the game, when the crowd has gone.

Hoi Polloi - Pulping Party with Eleanor Monk

Tuesday, 15 May 2018, 18:00 to 20:00

Join us for a pulping party! Hoi Polloi artist Eleanor Monk introduces pulping as an artistic practice. You are invited to bring your sentimental tickets, letters and receipts to be turned into beautiful paper confetti, blended into pulp and reborn as handmade paper. Create a beautiful blank slate from yuor memories, or if that feels a little bit too extreme, use some of ours!

Hoi Polloi - Introduction to Fine Art Cob Building with Jemima Hall

Monday, 14 May 2018, 17:30 to 20:30

Mud has been used to create structure since human beings started building shelters 10,000 years ago. Similar to the method swallows use to build their nests and by learning from them, we started piling up blocks of dried earth. What we now know as 'cobbing', is the process of mixing and massaging earth, water and straw together to create these blocks to build with. As an experimental process, it is now not so much about necessity for shelter, but exploring the fun side of working with cob!

Join Hoi Polloi artist Jemima Hall and be inspired to reconnect with what is beneath our feet, oneself and your fellow cobbers. Become acquainted with this ancient practice and get messy!

Hoi Polloi - Experimental Life Drawing Class

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Sunday, 13 May 2018, 13:30 to 15:00

The third year BA Fine Art students at Oxford Brookes University are running an exciting 'Experimental Life Drawing' workshop with a twist.

Join us for a refreshing, experimental approach to gestural drawing and mark-making capturing models in motion. During this dynamic we will respond to life in movement as models pose in a range of costumes, fashion and wearable artwork. This class promises to visually challenge the conventional life drawing class.

In this alternative workshop we will be showcasing exciting emerging talent in fashion and costume as well as re-energizing illustration and fine art drawing.

Hoi Polloi - Make your own Alien Creature with Kate Davis

Sunday, 13 May 2018, 10:00 to 15:00

Join artist Kate Lizzy Davis for a fun day of working with clay, exploring the beautiful grotesque and the wonderful.

Whether you are a practicing artist or an amateur arts and crafts addict, all are welcome to come along and share the Sci-Fi magic. You will spend the day making your own alien creatures using oven hardening FIMO clay.

The day will begin with a brief introduction, then straight into designing your alien creature followed by a tutorial from the artist whilst making your figure using wire, making tape and clay. There will then be an hour break where you can relax as your clay figures bake in the oven and then cool. When you return to the session you will be painting your figure using the paints provided, bringing your creature to life.

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Hoi Polloi - Creative Talks

Saturday, 12 May 2018, 15:00 to 18:00

Join us for an afternoon of intriguing artist talks with Aaron Williamson, Erica Scourti, Joy Miessi and Music Hackspace.

This series of short late-afternoon talks aims to bring together a group of exciting speakers to share insights and experiences from the creative industries to inspire and inform a new generation of creatives.

'Hoi Polloi' means the masses, 'the common people'. As a group of graduating Fine Art students, we feel that it is important to facilitate progressive conversations and spark debate using our position as creatives to proactively influence, inspire and implement change and positively impact on the wider society.

Hoi Polloi- Artist-led Exhibition Tour

12:00, Saturday, 12 May 2018 to 13:00, Thursday, 17 May 2018

Join us for daily artist-led guided tours of the Hoi Polloi exhibition, departing at 12pm from the Richard Hamilton Building. Tours will be given daily between Saturday 12 May - Thursday 17 May.

This experience offers an excellent opportunity to explore the exhibition in more detail, enrich understanding and gain insight into the work as well as the chance to engage with the exhibiting artists themselves.

Hoi Polloi: BA (Hons) Fine Art Degree Show 2018

9:00, Saturday, 12 May 2018 to 17:00, Thursday, 17 May 2018

The final year students studying fine art at Oxford Brookes University will be holding their degree show Hoi Polloi, a summative exhibition of their artwork as a collective. ‘Hoi Polloi' roughly translates to ‘the masses’ or ‘the common people’. In the sense, the exhibition is centred around a group of creative individuals coming together to showcase their finest artwork, encapsulating three to five years’ worth of hard work and ever-developing artistic practices. Spanning the Glass Tank gallery and the Richard Hamilton Building, you will be given an insight into some of the newest emerging artists.

Unnatural Histories

9:00, Thursday, 05 April 2018 to 17:00, Thursday, 03 May 2018

Unnatural Histories, an exhibition of fine art photography by Paul Kilsby, explores our relationship with nature, suggesting that it is far from straightforward. Our experience of the natural world, Kilsby proposes, is increasingly mediated by our pervasive televisual culture. Television series by David Attenborough and others, broadcast in high definition, always show nature at her most spectacular, often adding exaggerated artificial sound effects and intensely dramatic music. Kilsby argues that these immensely popular programmes have the cumulative effect of raising our expectations to the point where everyday nature can often seem dull and uneventful - even disappointing.

Identity: open mic poetry night

Tuesday, 06 March 2018, 19:00 to 21:00

Exploring the themes of this year’s Oxford Human Rights Festival (Identity) and LGBT History Month (Geography – mapping our world), we invite local poets and Oxford Brookes students to read and perform work inspired by the themes – either by themselves or by other poets.

This event is organised by Oxford Human Rights Festival, The Poetry Centre and Oxford Brookes LGBT+ Staff Forum.

Natural Artifice: Architecture, Photography and the Construction of Reality

9:00, Monday, 22 January 2018 to 17:00, Friday, 23 February 2018

Natural Artifice is a group exhibition which shows work by contemporary artists who explore photography’s subversive capacity to influence and question the construction of reality. The exhibition opens in the Glass Tank on Monday 22 January and runs until Friday 23 February.

DreaMFActory

9:00, Monday, 18 December 2017 to 17:00, Friday, 12 January 2018

‘DreaMFActory’ is an interim exhibition of work by students from the MFA Fine Art programme at Oxford Brookes. The show provides an opportunity for these students to test out a range of differing works and projects, some complete and some in progress. Participants in DreaMFActory come from varying disciplinary and cultural backgrounds and include artists from the UK, Chile, Iran, Portugal and the USA. Their work demonstrates a critical engagement with wide ranging concepts and interests ranging from: the authoritative power of text nostalgia and cultural appropriation in the era of Brexit, to the overlooked cultural value of carpet weavers in Iran and human bodies relative to architectural spaces. Other works demonstrate an interest in the curiosity of the everyday providing new ways to address familiar subjects, objects and materials, pushing these to extremes of creative possibilities through practices that ‘exhaust the subject’.