13 October – 22 December 2006
Out of nowhere is an exhibition of new work, which continues Conroy/Sanderson’s exploration of displacement and ‘the foreign’, through imaginative and evocative use of portraiture. Out of nowhere questions where the subjects are located, suggesting a fracture with location and a sense of being ‘out of place’. The artists will make portraits that play with absence and presence, or a ghosting, which calls into question where the subjects are. This not only indicates an experience of Chinese Diaspora, but also ideas of displacement as a commonplace experience in our mobile, migrant contemporary world.
Conroy/Sanderson’s work also investigates and demonstrates how two very different artists, from different cultural backgrounds can collaborate on work that explores identity. This work will continue their engagement with photography, drawing, video and mixed media.
Lesley Sanderson was the only artist of Chinese descent who showed in exhibitions associated with the Black Art Movement in the 1980s. She has shown in The British Art Show; New North, Tate Liverpool; Transforming the Crown, The Bronx Museum, New York; and New Contemporaries, ICA, London. Her work has been cited in many publications and on television. She is Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University.
As Conroy/Sanderson they have shown widely, including EAST International, Norwich; Strangers to Ourselves, London & Maidstone; Cruel/Loving Bodies, The Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai & 798 Space, Beijing; Lines of Desire: an International Touring Exhibition, The Bluecoat; their solo exhibitions include here we are, PM Gallery, London, and Elsewhere, Crawford Museum & Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland. They will be showing work in Galerie 5020, Salzburg, Austria later this year.
Neil Conroy and Lesley Sanderson have been collaborating since 1998. Born in England and Malaysia respectively, they use drawing, photography and mixed media to examine subjectivity and to question fixed cultural identity, suggesting a hybrid perspective.
In 2005 they collaborated with poet, playwright and critic, Gabriel Gbadamosi on a publication Sun-Shine, Moonshine, published by Artwords Press. They received a drawing commission for The Biggest Draw, The Millennium Galleries, Sheffield and were commissioned to make new work for Strangers to Ourselves.
