In September 2018, a group of BA English students from the University of Southampton attended the Time After Time exhibition at the John Hansard Gallery. Find out what students Dominic Wilton, Faye Williamson, Grace Bryant, Louis Cox-King and Georgina Lago thought of the exhibition below.
Students were starting out on a module on ‘Contemporary Fiction and Visual Culture’, which looks at how contemporary novelists like Nicola Barker, W. G. Sebald, and Chloe Aridjis are writing novels in response to the visual world in which we live. And what better way to understand contemporary art than attending a retrospective of the most significant installations shown by the John Hansard Gallery over 30 years? The students wrote reviews of their experience of the exhibition, and here are some of their thoughts…
In his review, Dominic Wilton explores the varying conflicts of ideas inherent in art and the ways in which Time After Time introduces new ideas and difficult perspectives to its audience.
Focusing on Hamad Butt’s Familiars (1992) and Walter van Rijn’s Unconsumable Global Luxury Dispersion (2018), Faye Williamson discusses the plasticity of installation art and the ways in which art is imbued with both the personal and political.
Grace Bryant’s review explores identity and the role of installation art and the art gallery in modern Southampton through Caroline Bergvall’s CROP (2010) and Charlotte Posenenske’s Vierkantrohre Serie DW (1967-2010).
In his piece, Louis Cox-King explores Time After Time’s use of the ephemeral to problematize and discuss oft-neglected cultural conflicts.
Finally, Georgina Lago discusses the reworkability of art and the expansion of traditional art forms over time.
Image: Hamad Butt, Familiars, 1992, installation view, John Hansard Gallery, 2018. Courtesy Tate: presented by Jamal Butt, 2014. Commissioned by John Hansard 1992.
Arts Ambassadors is a paid opportunity, supported by the Careers and Employability Service’s Excel Southampton Internship programme, University of Southampton
