Potter and Holmes is sponsoring ‘Shelf Life – When art display drifts from physical to virtual’, an exhibition curated by MA Art Theory and MA Curating students at UAL’s Chelsea College of Art and Design.
The exhibition displays artworks from the Library’s Special Collection including Joseph Beuys, Mike Figgis, Peter Liversidge, Jasper Johns, Barbara Balfour and Martin Cree. It aims to establish a parameter and trajectory for the existing Special Collections archive. The question of whether of not archiving should be extended to digitalisation will be addressed in regards to the concepts of tangibility and nostalgia. The need for displaying items physically is just as valid as the need for displaying items digitally. By examining particular artworks, a common ground between the analogue and the digital experience will be highlighted through the notion of restricted interaction.
The comparisons between material archives and the digital catalogue that needs constant renewal will be the focus of our argument. It can be stated that digitisation is not a future proof form of data storage. New media culture imposes its own language and reality. The supposition of accessibility within Art needs allow for the public, inclusive and submersible. However restrictions, expirations and the hastening pace haunt the epochs of art.
The Library of Chelsea College of Art and Design is one of the most important college libraries of visual arts in Europe and include important collections of artists’ books and multiples, archives and ephemera.
The show runs from Monday 28th January until 21st February in the Old College Library with the private view on 28th January 5 – 7pm.
Visitor information
Free admission.
The Library. 16 John Islip Street, London SW1P 4JU
Mon – Tue 9.30am – 7.30pm
Wed 10am – 7.30pm
Thurs 9.30am – 7.30pm
Fri 9.30am – 5pm
Sat 10am – 3.45pm
Sun closed
www.newsevents.arts.ac.uk/event/shelf-life-exhibition/
Follow them on twitter @ShelfLifeUAL