A futuristic and interactive sci-fi exhibition is opening at Ferens Art Gallery this weekend.
Is This Planet Earth? features curious life-forms and strange landscapes created by nine artists. In their sculptures, paintings, sound-art, performance art and videos, every colour and sensation is heightened.
The exhibition is as an offering to aliens who visit us in the future. Instead of seeing nature in reality, this is what they encounter.
Angela Kingston, Curator of Is This Planet Earth?, said: “The theme of this exhibition of paintings, sculptures, videos, sound work and performance is part eco and part sci-fi – ‘it’s life, Jim, but not as we know it’.
“Many of the artworks are breathtakingly beautiful and there are also a few surprises and delights. I hope Is This Planet Earth? will help continue the conversation that’s underway in Hull about the steps we need to take to save this truly remarkable planet.”
A still from the Helen Sear, The Beginning and End of Things, 2015, video.
Artists in the exhibition include: Salvatore Arancio, Patrick Coyle, Halina Dominska, Dan Hays, Katherine Reekie, Helen Sear, Jason Singh, Alfie Strong and Seán Vicary.
Their diverse work includes oil paintings featuring creatures inspired by children’s TV character, large-scale plant-life that breathes as visitors approach and video projected onto the the gallery’s floor that becomes a teeming pool of luminous life that visitors can walk through.
Claire Longrigg, exhibitions officer at Ferens Art Gallery, said: “This is a unique exhibition that will appeal to a broad range of visitors, especially those with an interest in sci-fi and the environment.
“Staff have been excited by the opportunity to relate the exhibition to objects from our Museums collection, such as shells and tropical insects. These specimens, normally part of our stored research collections, are exhibited here for the first time.”
Dan Hays, The Walk to the Paradise Garden, 2017.
Dan Hays, The Walk to the Paradise Garden, 2017, Oil on canvas.The sensory, stimulating and interactive exhibition opens at Ferens Art Gallery on Saturday 4 May.
This free exhibition will run until 28 July 2019. Ferens Art Gallery is open from Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4.30pm, and Sunday, 11am to 4pm.
On Thursday 25 July, performance artist Patrick Coyle, who grew up in Hull, will conduct a tour of the city called ‘Kingstupon Hull Stumption’, which is set in the future.
The walking tour will last 45 minutes and will be wheelchair and pushchair accessible. Free Tickets will be available for this performance from early June here.
Is This Planet Earth? is a Ty Pawb touring exhibition curated by Angela Kingston.
