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Haarlem Artspace is pleased to announce Archipelago, a solo exhibition by Tom Sewell.

 

Archipelago brings together a body of sculpture, assemblage and collage the artist has developed over the last four years. Found materials and travel are central to Tom’s practice with the materials in the works accumulated from journeys around the Atlantic Archipelago: from Ireland, Scotland, Northumberland, Cumbria and Derbyshire to Norfolk, Sussex, Kent, Cornwall and London.

 

The exhibition is an exercise in world-building, works are conglomerated together to imagine the artefacts of a speculative culture inhabiting an uncertain world full of strange, dislocated symbols and complicated, contradictory materials within a precarious changing environment. It draws energy from a trio of works of speculative fiction: Ursula K. Le Guin’s Always Coming Home, Angela Carter’s Heroes & Villains and Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker. The works in Archipelago may be maps, way-markers, relics or offerings.

 

The show is accompanied by the launch of a publication of the same name, consisting of a long form piece of prose and poetry that expands on the world within Archipelago and a new variable cyanotype edition developed for the exhibition.

 

Tom Sewell

b. Kent, 1983. Lives and works in London.

 

Tom Sewell’s work investigates human relationships with nature. He uses research into (pre)history, mythology, language, landscape and life to offer ideas of a space that can be used to transit the porous border between nature and culture; questioning that dualism and exploring how that border moves through time and space. Tom’s work touches on ideas of speculative fiction and utopian narratives, instigating a kind of imaginary archaeology. At the core of it Tom’s work is asking where are we?

 

Tom’s material practice is concerned with lowering his environmental impact. Works are often temporary and made from scavenged, found or repurposed natural and human-made materials.

 

Recent projects include: Realm of Dusk (two person with Sebastian Thomas) — 571 Oxford Road, Reading (2024) OD Arts Festival, OSR Projects, Somerset (2023); Through the Green Fuse, LOT Projects, London (2023); UVA Programme Residency, Italy (2023); Telepathic Visions (with Verity Birt) at Wilbury Radio Festival of Experimental Music, Letchworth (2022); Scottish Sculpture Workshop Residency, Scotland (2022); Hogchester Arts Residency, Dorset (2022); Gathering, Grays Wharf, Cornwall & Haarlem Artspace, Derbyshire (2021); Come to Naught, Kingsgate Project Space (2021); Wetland/Offering (Publication), Landfill Editions (2021); Energy Systems (Publication), Well Projects (2020); Crossings (two person with Verity Birt), Well Projects, Margate (2020); Glade, Potager Garden, Cornwall (2020); DreamsTimeFree: The End (publication), TACO, (2020); A Mountain is a Mountain, MPND, Loughborough (2019), Recreational Grounds V, Thurlow Street, London (2019); Wild Service, Kingsgate Project Space, London (2019); Orchard (Solo Show), Intercession Gallery, Northampton (2018); Cove Park Early Career Residency, Scotland (2018).

Private View 31 Oct 6-9pm

01 Nov – 01 Dec 2024

Haarlem Artspace Gallery

The Red Lion

Market Place

Wirksworth

DE4 4ET

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