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exhibitions: past
Lost Languages and other voices
Joy Gregory
24th Nov - 19th Feb 2011
Lost Languages and other voices is the first major retrospective of work by Joy Gregory, one of the most significant artists to emerge from the Black British photography movement of the 1980s.
Spanning twenty years the exhibition brings together fourteen bodies of work exploring race, history and gender, encompassing a wide range of photographic media from digital video installations to Victorian printing techniques. The title of the exhibition refers to the works Gomera (2008) and Kalahari (2010) in which Gregory draws attention to the cultural importance of marginalised African indigenous languages. Journeys feature recurrently in Gregory’s work, which has been made in diverse locations including South Africa, the Orkneys, Sri Lanka, and the Caribbean.
Cinderella Tours Europe (1997-2001) parodies the notion of the Grand Tour, with photographs of a seductive pair of gold high-heeled shoes travelling from the Caribbean to well-known sites in Paris and Venice; whilst Hoy/Hobart (2008) is inspired by the onerous journey from London to Hoy, a trip that took the same amount of time as one to Hobart in Tasmania. Assumptions about feminine beauty are also consistently explored. The Fairest (1998) and Bottled Blonde (1998) examine the desire to be blonde and its racial implications, whilst Objects of Beauty (1992 – 1995) critiques consumer products of the Western fashion industry. Many of the works have been fabricated specially for this show, and are being shown here for the first time in the UK.
Lost Languages and other voices is curated by Anne McNeill.
Exhibition resources
Click here to download an information sheet about the exhibition (pdf 68kb)
Click here to download a large print information sheet about the exhibition (pdf 84 kb)
Click here to download Lost Languages and other voices exhibition guide (pdf 3.9mb)
Publication
Joy Gregory's new publication Translating Place, published by Impressions Gallery is available to buy in the Gallery Bookshop £7.50. Translating Place contains work created by Gregory during her three month residency in Sri Lanka in 2004 and includes Narratives of Place an insightful and perceptive essay by Rohini Malik Okon. Click here to read more.
Listen again
What the papers say
The Guardian
The Independent
Dig Yorkshire
Aesthetica Magazine
Leeds Guide
Telegraph and Argos (pdf 708kb)
Guardian Guide (pdf 1.4mb)
- Events (8)
From 'Kalahari', 2009
Joy Gregory
Click on thumbnail below to enlarge
Comments
Stunning, clever, sophisticated, awareness-rising, educational, beautiful. Thank you.
Exhibition Visitor
Interesting, varied show. Thanks to India for the extra interpretation, much appreciated
Exhibitions Visitor
As a painter I usually scan any photographic exhibition without any real concentration. This morning I have been here over an hour. Visually beautiful and disturbing. Thank you for sharing so much of yourself, I am touched and grateful.
Exhibitions Visitor
Excellent Exhibition, love the diverse styles and formats. Especially love Cinderella Tours.
Exhibition Visitor
Visited Gallery Friday 26th November with my partner
After a welcome tea & cake
We had a tour round the Joy Gregory Exhib.
with the young lady "Indya"
We found this chat over each section and piece
very illuminating and helpful,in fact the whole afternoon was well spent.
Keep up the good work
Cheers HH
The self portraits were an excellent capturing of loneliness and fear when moving to a new country.
Exhibition Visitor
Very much liked Kalahari and Cinderella Tours Europe.. viewing them was taking a journey of sorts and even separately, they are stunning and beautiful images and distinct voices.
Exhibition Visitor
Your photos of Kalahari are very evocative, thank you.
It reminded me of somewhere i want to go back to..
Exhibition Visitor
It was enjoyable viewing etc your work; the use of audio visual and other forms of these expressions complimented each other well. Worth another visit.
Exhibition Visitor
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