I currently have an exhibition entitled Hearts at Access Space, Sheffield. The work in the exhibition comes from several different bodies of work, and has been selected to sit together because they have a similar, consistent look and feel about them. There are also a few new works made especially for the exhibition.
The Private View for the exhibition was on Friday 8th, and was really well attended. As always, Access Space put on a great event, but they really excelled themselves by providing appropriate refreshments in the form of communion wafers (unconsecrated, of course!) which gave those of us non-Catholics an interesting insight. It was a really good night.
At the Private View I was asked to say a few words. Although I’m comfortable with public speaking, I usually find myself talking about the themes or ideas behind a collection of work. This time however, there was no real common theme behind the work, except for my own artistic concerns which always drive me to make work. So I found myself talking about my fear of death and my lack of belief in God and an afterlife. My work seems to get people talking, which is great, and it also means that I get people from a range of backgrounds and beliefs telling me their thoughts, particularly towards religion. But to talk at people about my thoughts on the subject, rather than in conversation with people is a tricky thing to do. The worst thing about public speaking is that people listen to you as though you are some kind of authority on the subject, which of course I’m not. All I attempt to do within my own work is to explore and make sense of my own thoughts and ideas. Religious belief is a very emotive subject, and I would never attempt to tell other people that their own beliefs are right or wrong. Although my work is Atheist in its nature, I don’t intend for it to be either positive or negative in it’s relationship with religious belief. It’s just one Atheists struggle to come to terms with the nothingness that I believe awaits me.
Hearts runs until 29th January at Access Space, Avec Building, Sidney Street, Sheffield.
Exhibition open Tue/Wed/Thu/Fri 12th-29th January 2016
For more info email jake@access-space.org
Sharon Mossbeck 