Kupfer is proud to present Other Encounters, a multimedia exhibition featuring works by Oscar Farmer, Tabby Li, and the duo Meli Berney and Pheobe Law, in collaboration with curator Jesse Scott. Other Encounters is the result of a summer research intensive that set out without a specific goal, focusing instead on where uncertainty and collective, artist-led action can take us without predetermined outcomes. The exhibition presents various explorations of ego, identity, community, and exchange at the edges of these themes.
Encompassing painting, moving image and sculpture, these artists present (dis)connected investigations on what connection brings to our lives — the ways we grow, share or create as a result of connections with others, and the ways we differently construct ourselves with, and through, the presence of others. Sculpture and installation artist Tabby Li combines discarded, found objects with bodily silicone and latex constructions. Li’s compositions suggest potential corporeal lives that objects may live beyond human interaction, and which invite us to imagine alternate systems of extra-human interconnection. Examining the unseen labour and private lives of artists, Oscar Farmer’s oil paintings ask us to consider what motivates our impulses to create — whether to share our vulnerabilities, to find connection and catharsis, or perhaps to find acceptance within our communities. Finally, through application of specialist microphones to foods and cooking surfaces which capture sound beyond the register of human hearing, Meli Berney and Phoebe Law’s participatory sound and film works explore food as a means of connection, where personal recipes, stories, and traditions are exchanged and recreated.
We would like to extend special thanks to Arts Council England for their generous support in funding this project, and to Gasworks London for providing additional space, support, and creative direction.
