Free art exhibitions open across the city

Nine new contemporary art exhibitions opened across Exeter last week as part of Elsewhere(s), an annual showcase by postgraduate students from the University of Exeter.

The project, led by students on the MA Curation: Contemporary Art and Cultural Management programme, brings together works by international artists across a wide range of media – including sculpture, textiles, photography, video and traditional Chinese arts.

The exhibitions will take place across three city centre venues: We Are in Princesshay (the former Topshop), the Guildhall Shopping Centre (the former Body Shop), and community art space Positive Light Projects on Sidwell Street.

This year’s theme explores the idea of “home” – reflecting on identity, belonging and outsider experience against the backdrop of global consumerism.

Professor Tom Trevor, Programme Director, said, “The borderlines between a sense of belonging and not belonging are often expressed in terms of ‘domestic or foreign’, ‘safe or dangerous’, ‘desirable or abject’. These exhibitions explore what it takes to feel ‘at home’ in a place such as Exeter, including the personal experience of being an outsider within a dominant cultural context.”

Five different exhibitions will be on display at the We Are venue, including work by artists Jeremy Hutchison and Wenyao Mao examining extreme shopping habits, alongside Michalle Sank’s documentary photography of Burnthouse Lane – a historic Exeter estate built in the 1920s.

Other highlights include:

• Settlements, a photographic series by David Spero, documenting off-grid communities including Steward Community Woodland and Tinkers Bubble.

• Armoured Bodies, an exhibition exploring clothing as both protection and expression, featuring work by Stephanie Syjuco and the feminist collective Calico, with a focus on needle-spiking and bodily autonomy.

At the Guildhall Shopping Centre, Journey to the West will feature traditional and contemporary Chinese arts including paper-cutting, calligraphy, painting and shadow puppetry by artists such as Zhou Chenlong and Ren Yinlai. Free workshops will offer visitors the chance to try Chinese painting and calligraphy for themselves.

Meanwhile, Positive Light Projects will present three more exhibitions:

• Delicious Poison, focusing on environmental pollution entering the food chain

• A solo show by Bangladeshi artist Urmi Roy

• A film and multimedia installation by Paris-based artist Duo Duo

Elsewhere(s) runs until the 15 June and is free to attend. All exhibitions are open daily from 10.30am to 5pm.

Professor Trevor added: “It not only offers students valuable curatorial experience, but also provides Exeter’s residents and visitors with a thought-provoking and enjoyable encounter with contemporary art.”