In a world where you’re told to make yourself small and blend in, the ‘Make Space’ exhibition encourages us to do the opposite.
Featuring no less than 44 artists, this exhibition, currently on display at Norman Rea gallery, contains a multitude of strikingly different pieces.
Inspired by Ai Weiwei’s ‘Making Sense’ exhibition and 20th-century artistic movements such as Dadaism, ‘Make Space’ showcases a range of unconventional ideas and attitudes. From paintings to placards and posters, each wall interprets the command ‘Make Space’ differently.
This exhibition challenges us to pay more attention to the miscellaneous objects that we ascribe value to in our everyday lives.
This exhibition rightfully admires those who have subverted or resisted the social norms, both on personal and systematic levels, specifically through the goth and socialist movements of the past. But this exhibition is also forward-looking, as it advocates for the right to protest in the modern day, against all ideologies which try to compartmentalise people into small boxes.
These artworks put forward the idea that we should re-open our minds to new ideas; and our hearts to all people.
I spoke to Eleanor Goodall, one of the Gallery’s Vice Directors, who said that she wanted to create space “for unconventional identities to be expressed.”
When putting together the exhibition, she wanted to ask ‘when you take different everyday objects and take them out of their utilitarian context, can they be presented as art?’
Jack Cattle’s hauntingly realistic portraits remind us to leave less space between ourselves and the camera, by offering up an almost microscopic analysis of the human face. Social media often entices us to skim over these facial details, but this exhibition reinforces the importance of intimacy and human empathy.
For instance, I found the poem ‘MySpace or MYFace’ by Kayode Aiavi to be particularly thought-provoking, especially its line ‘Don’t look at MySpace, look at my face’.
This exhibition is ideal for both novices and experts since it contains a universal message to make space in our lives for the people who give us joy and to maintain a distance from the things which harm us.
One of Heather Morgan’s prints commands us to ‘take up space’. With this provocative statement, she encourages us to be brave, proud and unapologetic – take up all the space in the world!
This exhibition will be running until the 8th December 2023, and is located above Courtyard, Derwent College.