Material World brings together the visual spheres of artists from Oxford and several European cities, namely Bonn, Grenoble, Perm and Leiden, all of which have a cultural relationship with Oxford through the history of twinning. Artists include Madi Acharya-Baskerville, Diana Bell, Brook and Black, Hanneke Francken, Susanne Krell, Eric Margery, Jonathan Moss and Inna Rogova. The source of inspiration for these artists already exists around us, either in nature or in our urban environment. At a time when we are constantly consuming and disposing of stuff the key question is ‘What do we do with all of this stuff?’ How do we process it and what will be its longterm affect on our environment.
The Anthropocene defines Earth's most recent geologic time period as being human-influenced, or anthropogenic, based on overwhelming global evidence that atmospheric, geologic, hydrologic, biospheric and other earth system processes are now altered by humans.
Relating to this, Diana Bell’s work contrasts discarded man-made materials with nature exploring the effect of such materials on the fragility of nature, whilst Madi Acharya-Baskerville’s work addresses the disintegration of objects and materials over time and how through a transformative process they can come to embody aspects of ourselves offering a space for mirroring and self-evaluation. For Susanne Krell imprints on surfaces of buildings act as traces of attitudes and hidden values stored over time whilst Jonathan Moss through his work creates spaces for quiet contemplation , a retreat from a world with sensory overload. Eric Margery specializes in performance and the ephemeral, creating a universe, which is poetic and dreamlike using multipurpose everyday materials such as paper.
Hanneke Francken drawings are also dream-like, whilst Inna Rogova draws inspiration from nature in her images of ceramic work based on nuts seeds. Artist duo Brook and Black work with made and found objects, light and sound and through their process of research and experiment, engage the viewer through intervention in the structure of space and sound.
Using a variety of sources and materials the participating artists create a rich and diverse range of works in media including painting, sculpture, ceramics and site-specific installation, photography, film and video in the atmospheric cloister gallery of historic building St John the Evangelist Church, Oxford.