Spike Island's Peggy Ahwesh exhibition to close this Sunday

Spike Island's Peggy Ahwesh exhibition to close this Sunday

Posted on: 12 Jan 2022

A series of works stretching over two decades of the acclaimed American artist's career has been on display since September 2021.

 

This weekend, Peggy Ahwesh's first UK survey exhibition, Vision Machines, comes to a close, marking the end of a near four-month stint at Spike Island.

 

Curated in collaboration with London-based Erika Balsom, the retrospective is comprised of single-channel films and video installations made between 1993 and 2021.

 

The exhibition is FREE to enter, with the gallery open to visitors from 12:00 until 17:00 Wednesday to Sunday. Head to Spike Island's website for more details and directions.

 

 

Born in 1954 in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, Ahwesh studied at Antioch College, Ohio, before forging a career as an experimental filmmaker and visual artist.

 

Though Vision Machines is Ahwesh's first UK retrospective, the acclaimed artist has hosted survey exhibitions elsewhere throughout her illustrious career, notably at Whitney Museum of American Art, Harvard University and Brussels' Filmmuseum.

 

Since the 1980s, Ahwesh has embraced improvisation, garnering her a reputation as an original and authoritative visual artist with a distinctive and easily identifiable portfolio of moving image work featuring a range of subjects and existing images.

 

Despite Ahwesh's rejection of the notion of style as an authorial signature, themes of sexuality and subjectivity and her concern for troubling the boundary between the animate and inanimate have remained constant through the years. 

 

Vision Machines at Spike Island is a curation of works that explore the relationship between the body and the technologized image, spanning issues and ideas as diverse as gender, climate change and war.

 

Again, Sunday 16 January is the last day to view the retrospective. Head to Spike Island's website for all of the details you need.

 

Main Image: Max McClure

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Article by:

George Boyle

 

 

George is a journalism graduate and writer passionate about music and culture. Get in touch via email at george@365bristol.com