The Box unveils 2022 programme highlights
Since it first launched in September 2020, The Box has cemented its status as one of the UK’s leading cultural institutions showcasing an extensive collection of art, natural and maritime history and extraordinary archives from film to photography. It has welcomed more than 125,000 visitors and appointed Victoria Pomery OBE (Founding Director of Turner Contemporary in Margate) as its new Chief Executive Officer.
Today, The Box reveals highlights from its 2022 exhibitions programme. Over the course of the year, the venue will celebrate local talent alongside international artists – including several Turner Prize nominees – through ground breaking and timely exhibitions that draw on its permanent collections and which bring new works and collaborators to Plymouth.
NEW AT THE BOX IN 2022
ANOTHER CROSSING – ARTISTS REVISIT THE MAYFLOWER VOYAGE
Ten international artists from the UK, USA, Wampanoag and Netherlands respond to the ongoing resonance of the Mayflower voyage. This exhibition is a partnership between The Box, Plymouth College of Art and the Fuller Craft Museum, USA.
BREAKING THE MOULD: SCULPTURE BY WOMEN FROM 1945 FROM THE ARTS COUNCIL COLLECTION
A major nationally touring exhibition challenging the male-dominated narratives of post-war British sculpture by putting ambitious works by women artists in the spotlight. This show will be delivered in partnership with The Arts Institute at the University of Plymouth.
DRESS CODE – FASHION STORIES FROM THE BOX
Highlights from The Box’s costume and textile collection.
ZADIE XA
A mythological and cosmological journey exploring the mysterious origins of the world, including works acquired with the support of the Contemporary Art Society.
BECAUSE THE NIGHT BELONGS TO US
A large-scale examination of Plymouth’s nightlife over the past 50 years, uncovering exciting stories of live music, club culture, people and identity.
BRITISH ART SHOW 9
A celebration of British contemporary artists who are defining new directions in contemporary art featuring Turner Prize nominees. This exhibition will be delivered in partnership with a range of Plymouth-based cultural venues and partners.
MORE ON THE 2022 PROGRAMME
ANOTHER CROSSING – ARTISTS REVISIT THE MAYFLOWER VOYAGE
26 FEBRUARY – 5 JUNE 2022
Another Crossing – Artists Revisit the Mayflower Voyage is a collaborative initiative between Plymouth College of Art, The Box and the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts. The exhibition addresses the ongoing resonance of the Mayflowervoyage for today’s society. It showcases ten artists including Sonya Clark (USA), Christien Meindertsma (Netherlands), David Clarke (UK) and Jonathan James Perry (Wampanoag), all of whom have created work in response to the 400th anniversary, utilising only technology - tools, materials, and processes - that existed in 1620. The exhibition highlights the sophistication of historic craft practices, like beadwork, joinery, metalsmithing, leatherwork, and pottery.
BREAKING THE MOULD: SCULPTURE BY WOMEN FROM 1945 FROM THE ARTS COUNCIL COLLECTION
26 MARCH – 5 JUNE 2022
Breaking the Mould is the first survey of post-war British sculpture by women. This exhibition explores the work of over forty sculptors in the Arts Council Collection. It provides a radical recalibration, addressing the many accounts of British sculpture that have marginalised women or airbrushed their work from art history altogether.
Breaking the Mould represents the strength and diversity of female sculptural practice. Many of the represented artists have challenged widespread notions of sculpture as a ‘male occupation’ by embracing new materials, subjects and approaches. In contrast, others have avoided institutional bias by producing work for alternative spaces or public sites.
Featured artists include: Barbara Hepworth, Elisabeth Frink, Kim Lim, Cornelia Parker, Veronica Ryan, Rachel Whiteread and Anthea Hamilton. The Plymouth presentation is delivered by The Box and The Arts Institute, University of Plymouth partnership and will be displayed as a dual-site exhibition at The Box and The Levinsky Gallery at the University of Plymouth.
DRESS CODE – FASHION STORIES FROM THE BOX
26 MARCH – 4 SEPTEMBER 2022
In the city’s first exhibition dedicated to fashion, highlights from The Box’s costume and textile collection will be displayed alongside paintings, drawings, film and archival material to tell important local and international stories about fashion and clothing. The exhibition spans the 1700s to today and speaks to contemporary conversations about identity, sustainability, shopping, design, making and craft. A paper dress from the 1960s foretells the future of fast fashion. A 300 year old silk gown tells the story of global textile trade. A subversive garment made locally, and worn all around the world, represents one of several of the city’s histories of garment production. From lace to latex, visitors will learn about Plymouth’s fashion pasts and futures.
ZADIE XA
2 APRIL – 5 JUNE 2022
Korean-Canadian artist Zadie Xa has a strong focus on making, combining and exploring her own identity through film and performance, textiles and painting. Xa investigates the issues of belonging and identity through an idiosyncratic lens, drawing influence from both the fantasy and the lived experience within the Korean diaspora. The Box acquired two works by Xa in 2018, through the Contemporary Art Society. For this exhibition, she will create a mythological and cosmological journey that creates dialogue with historical works from the collections.
BECAUSE THE NIGHT BELONGS TO US
18 JUNE – 4 SEPTEMBER 2022
From the Van Dike Club of the late 1960s to the world famous Union Street - Plymouth’s contribution to experimentation, self-expression, music and creativity has been distinctive, challenging and captivating. Because the Night Belongs To Us is the culmination of a five-year community engagement project called Plymouth After Dark,which has brought together a diverse range of previously unseen archive materials, film, images and new commissions to tell this story for the first time.
The Box has developed the exhibition with numerous contributions from the people of Plymouth. It has been supported by artist Keith Harrison (recent commissions include Jerwood Open, V&A Ceramics Resident, Outlands Network], award winning journalist, writer and critic John Harris (The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Melody Maker) and DJ, psychotherapist and broadcaster Nemone (BBC Radio 6 Music, Radio 2, Radio 1, BBC and ITV).
BRITISH ART SHOW 9
8 OCTOBER – 23 DECEMBER 2022
The British Art Show is a landmark touring exhibition that celebrates the vitality of recent art made in Britain. British Art Show 9 takes a critical look at art produced from 2015 to the present moment, a period that begins with Britain voting to leave the European Union and closes with the still unfolding Covid-19 pandemic. The exhibition was shaped after meeting with over 230 artists in 23 cities and will present work by 45 artists, including Turner Prize nominees Oscar Murillo and Hurvin Anderson.
In Plymouth, the exhibition centres on the migration of bodies, peoples, plants, objects, ideas and forms. It includes Cornwall-based Abigail Reynolds and Katie Schwab, who had a SouthWest Showcase residency and exhibition at Plymouth College of Art in 2019.
Since Plymouth hosted BAS7 ten years ago, the city has grown in maturity, confidence and reputation as a cultural destination and centre for contemporary art. Plymouth will be taking a very innovative approach to developing audiences, involving them in the planning process as they aim to dispel the myths around contemporary art. The exhibition will be delivered in partnership with Plymouth Culture and shown across four venues: The Box, KARST, The Levinsky Gallery at the University of Plymouth and MIRROR at Plymouth College of Art.
Until 27 February 2022, the critically acclaimed Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters continues. The blockbuster show from the National Museum of Australia is the largest exhibition of Aboriginal art ever staged in the UK. It features 300 paintings and objects by over 100 Aboriginal artists and combines state-of-the art exhibition and display technologies with art, song and dance to tell the epic story of the Seven Sisters.
The Box’s award-winning Mayflower 400: Legend and Legacy exhibition also continues until 2 January 2022. The show was created in partnership with the Wampanoag Advisory Committee to Plymouth 400 in Massachusetts, and with the help of over 100 museums, libraries and archives across the UK, US and The Netherlands, to mark the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower.
