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A study group with artist Rose English and writer Jennifer Kabat to re-examine the subversive collaborative performance Mounting by Rose English, Jacky Lansley and Sally Potter that took place at Modern Art Oxford in 1977 amidst a Frank Stella painting exhibition. In the piece, the artists used language, character play and costume to question their role in art and its institutions. Through dialogue and readings, the study group will pivot on the artists’ book for Mounting that was produced in preparation for, and as an invitation to, the performance.
Rose English (b. 1950, Hereford, UK) is best known for her contributions to the development of performance art in Britain. Emerging from the conceptual art, dance and feminist scenes of the 1970s, English has developed an extensive interdisciplinary practice over the past 40 years; writing, directing and performing her work internationally in venues as varied as old music-hall palaces, ice rinks, Tate Britain, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Adelaide Festival and Lincoln Center in New York. Selected solo exhibitions include 'Remember This!' as part of Circus Originals at Somerset House, London, UK (2018); 'Rose English for the Grand Tour', Harley Gallery, Welbeck Estate, UK (2016); 'A Premonition of the Act', Camden Arts Centre, London, UK (2015–2016); 'The Eros of Understanding', Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark (2014–2015).
Jennifer Kabat contributes frequently to Frieze and her essays have appeared in Granta, BOMB, Harper’s, Virginia Quarterly Review and The White Review. She teaches at NYU and the New School, and her writing has been included in exhibitions at Arnfolfini (Bristol UK), Index (Stockholm Sweden) and The Poor Farm (Little Wolf, WI). As well as being a guest critic at Yale and giving talks on her own work, she's also given lectures on Isa Genzken in Vienna, chaired discussions on AIDs and activism in London at Frieze and given a talk with artist Liz Collins at the Tang Museum in Saratoga Springs. Recently she curated the show Beaver Fever featuring the work of Angela Dufresne, Pia Dehne and Elizabeth Bonaventura at the collective space Bushel in Delhi, NY.
This event is part of our current exhibition, Do you keep thinking there must be another way.
With Georgia Horgan, Lee Lozano, Howardena Pindell, Polvo de Gallina Negra, Raju Rage, Georgia Sagri and Emma Talbot.
Do you keep thinking there must be another way is a group exhibition that addresses strategies of representation, resistance and withdrawal. Including installation, painting, performance, text and video, the exhibition considers behaviours towards and in opposition to presiding power structures.
Do you keep thinking there must be another way is curated by Cicely Farrer, Daria Khan and Jessica Vaughan.
Generously supported by Arts Council England, Creative Scotland and Hauser & Wirth.
Thumbnail image: Rose English, Jacky Lansley, Sally Potter, Mounting, 1977, book page layout marked for printer. Courtesy Rose English Archive