Installation and conceptual artists Lee Baker, Catherine Borowski and Olivia Hegarty present You Get What You’re Given, a group exhibition of new work opening at Hoxton Arches on 17 November 2016 and running for three days.
The show’s title references a Beckettian theme of mortality and the work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human existence. With each artist boldly interpreting the space and bringing intensely personal stories to the viewer, themes of aloneness and the doomed desire to successfully connect with other human beings are expressed.
Catherine Borowski’s work relates to her upbringing in a London council flat and the recent death of her mother, a devout Muslim, on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Borowski describes an empty, liminal place with staircase spindles. Familiar and yet out of context, profoundly strange and new.
Referencing the Japanese concept of mono no aware or ‘pathos of things’, Lee Baker’s paintings are exquisite and delicate. Where the memento mori in Western art reminds us of our mortality, the symbol of a flower in Japanese art specifically highlights the sad beauty of the temporal nature of living things. Baker’s paintings, dislocate the dying flower from context, symbolically locating the moment where deterioration begins.
Olivia Hegarty creates themes around migration and movement. For this show Hegarty installs delicate and fragile porcelainesque forms that speak of human commonalities.
Acclaimed visual artists, each of the three contributors also have hugely successful careers in the worlds of production and design and collaborate in this group show for the first time.
You Get What You’re Given runs from 17 November 2016 to 20 November 2016 at Hoxton Arches.
Lee Baker, Catherine Borowski and Olivia Hegarty You Get What You’re Given
Hoxton Arches, Arch 402, Cremer Street, London E2 8HD.
Dates: 17 – 20 November 2016
Private View: 17 November 2016 6 – 9pm
About the artists:
Catherine Borowski is an artist and urban placemaker. Her work since finishing her degree at Nottingham University has taken inspiration from the notion of the non-place, such as an installation in the open plan offices of the Sunday Mirror and siting a tarmac’d bench in the carpark of an industrial estate on the outskirts of Nottingham. She is founder and director of Produce UK.
catherineborowski.com
Lee Baker is an artist and music producer. He has exhibited his paintings in London, New York, Dallas and San Francisco. In 1993 he went on to create a variety of site-specific installations in the North East and Scotland, notably a series of commissioned works at the Newcastle Museum of Science and Engineering. He has worked as a scenic artist and prop maker in West End theatres. Since 2002 his work has drawn on inspiration from travel and study of Japanese culture, exploring a deeper understanding of the theories, histories and ideologies behind Japanese creativity.
leebakerart.com
Olivia Hegarty is an artist and menswear designer. Having studied History of Art and Philosophy in Dublin, she has since pursued a London-based design career with projects around Europe. Her textile-based installations and costume collaborations have been included in shows at the Royal College of Art, Amnuden Da, The Serpentine Gallery, Royal Ballet and the ICA. She is founding member of clothing/art-collective The Grantchester Tailors Guild who have shown at Whitechapel Gallery.
oliviahegarty.com