EXHIBITION:

VENTRILOQUISM: The Lost Voice Spoken by Others . . .

Curated by Artist Curator, Mike Chavez-Dawson

Preview / Opening: 24 Aug 2024, 12:00 – 16:00

On Until: 10 Nov 2024

The Whitaker Art Gallery & Museum,

Rawtenstall,

Rossendale,

BB4 6RE,

United Kingdom

This group show will explore the idea of ‘Ventriloquism’ both directly and indirectly, drawing upon topical thematics including data harvesting, hyperreality, forgotten histories, misinformation, gaslighting, mediation, and artificial intelligence. 

The artists selected traverse a breadth of media and methods, from the traditional; painting, drawing, print and sculpture, to lens-based, digital, contemporary performance and conceptual practices. 

They also span demographics from recent graduate, mid-career to established international practitioners. 

The works, artists and artwork seek to resonate and draw out critical, playful, and insightful narratives with the collection at the Whitaker, both with the physicality of the Museum layout, on display and through archived collections. 

It aims to raise an informed debate around how information is both mediated to us by both the marketing & political forces via algorithms and how these act or speak on our behalf.

Featuring over twenty five artists including several collaborations with Mike Chavez-Dawson such as AI, Rebecca Davy, Brian Reed, Dave Beech, Axel Bottenberg, Louise Adkins, Adkins Purcell (Collaborative practice of Louise Adkins & Jonathan Purcell), Chris Alton, Julie Cassels, Jane Chavez-Dawson, Hilary Jack, Chris Leach, Nye Thompson, Brass Art (Collaborative practice of Chara Lewis, Kristin Mojsiewicz & Anneké Pettican), Jeffrey Knopf, Karen Densham, Alan Baker, Pat Flynn, David Alker, Peter Liddell, David Gledhill, Jake & Dinos Chapman  (from TCDFC*), Sarah Hardacre, Richard Shields, Kieran Leach, Liam Scully, Paul Vivian, and Evita Ziemele.

The exhibition has been kindly supported by: 

Rogue Artists’ Studios, Selfish, and Neal’s Yard Health Remedies

*The Chavez-Dawson Family Collection