A Good Line. A Good Lie: 4 Cromwell Place (Wing Gallery)

A.I. is delighted to give a platform to this self-assembled group of interdisciplinary artists in response to the cancelled MFA degree show. A year on, their ongoing exchange and recent works exhibited here by the artists point towards their multiple realities, perspectives and co-existence within their own poetic itinerary. 

In the artists' own words -excerpts taken from their writings of each others works:

"...Webs, webbing, tangling, a complex system of interconnected elements weaving narratives, through spider’s webs."

-Sam Blackwood on Haffendi Anuar

"...That language is also delivered by a specific voice. Initially from a frustrated witch-ghost, exhausted from lopsided perspectives and a muggy atmosphere. After a much-desired move and nourishment from the warmth of the sun, she is now in a peaceful state, cackling and whistling with renewed force."

-Haffendi Annuar on Amy Bernstein

"...But there is also play, the detritus objects and interventions speak of boredom, of unemployment, frustration and nostalgia for a time passed as well as a maker of time passing."

-Laura Hindmarsh on Sam Blackwood

"Plunge.
Float.
The world around me blurs, but my visions are still in focus.
My body weightless buoy, the suspension of gravity a life raft, the blessed interiority and its possibilities, an embrace."

-Amy Bernstein on Laura Hindmarsh

About the artists

HAFFENDI ANUAR (b. 1985) is a multidisciplinary artist living and working between Malaysia & UK. Anuar’s practice includes sculpture, paintings, installations and drawings. His recent work looks at the construction of identity and postcolonialism through objects, history, iconography and architecture, more specifically centred around memories and histories documenting the garment kain pelikat. Recent exhibitions include: Condo Shanghai (2018), J:Gallery, Shanghai; The Foot Beneath the Flower (2020), Nanyang Tech University ADM Gallery, Singapore; Midday Stanza (solo) (2019), Richard Koh Fine Art, Singapore; head, heap, heat (2018), Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore and Powerhouse Commission (2017), Battersea Power Station and Cass Sculpture Foundation, London.

AMY BERNSTEIN (b.1980) is an artist and writer based in Los Angeles, California. For the last two decades, she has been dedicated to painting and writing, concerning herself with limitations, the liminal spaces intrinsic to and social functions of abstract languages and the possibilities of colour. Recent exhibitions include: Between The Dog and The Wolf (solo) (2018), Stumptown Artist Fellowship; Portland; (re)buffer (2018), Private Places; Portland; A Lover’s Race (solo) (2017), Nationale, Portland; I Am This (2017), Oregon Jewish Museum and Centre for Holocaust, Portland and A Lot, A Lot (2017), Galleri Thomassen, Gothenburg

SAM BLACKWOOD (b.1992) is an artist based in London, UK. Blackwood uses found material and imagery collected through personal experience and research as the starting point for his practice. Heavily influenced by happenings in his daily life and his time spent growing-up in Hartlepool in North East England, Sam’s practice explores the complexities of British identity and the class issues which exist in England through sculpture and photography which then are formed into installations. Recent exhibitions include: Hard Faced (2019), Enclave Project, London; Bound Book Fair (2019), Whitworth Gallery, Manchester; Paper Cuts, curated by Kristian Day (2018), Saatchi Gallery, London; Docile Bodies (2018), Vitrine, London and TURBO (solo) (2017), GOLDTAPPED, Newcastle. 

LAURA HINDMARSH (b.1987) is an artist living and working between Australia & UK. Hindmarsh’s practice is loosely focused on the moving image but using interdisciplinary approaches from analogue film to performance, drawing and writing. With a specific interest in cinema and storytelling, Hindmarsh’s work unpacks conventions of representation as a way of negotiating influence and the construction of identity. Using the presence of the body and the voice – mediated by recording and playback technology – Hindmarsh explores subjectivity through remoteness, proximity and temporal dislocation. Recent exhibitions include: Bloomberg New Contemporaries (2019) South London Gallery, London; Practising Concerns (2019), Underpinning, Artlicks Weekend, London; Finding Focus (2018), Istanbul International Experimental Film Festival, Istanbul; John Fries Award (2018), University of New South Wales Galleries, Sydney and Playback (2018), Dobell Australian Drawing Biennale, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney.