Hydrachy: Power and Resistance at Sea

18 September – 7 November. Exhibition
Hydrarchy: Power and Resistance at Sea.
Gasworks Gallery, 155 Vauxhall St. London

Mathieu K. Abonnenc, Goldin+Senneby, Laura Horelli, Melanie Jackson, Anja Kirschner and David Panos, Paul McCarthy, Uriel Orlow, Femmy Otten, Christodoulos Panayiotou, and João Pedro Vale.

Group exhibition that approaches historical and contemporary examinations of the sea and the offshore as contested cultural, political, legal and socio-economic territories. Focusing on specific events, situations and mythologies attached to past and recent maritime history, the works address power relations at sea and the forms of resistance and survival developed as a response. Works in the exhibition include:

(1) Polly II: Plan for a Revolution in Docklands (2006) a satirical fictional video loosely based on John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. The work is set in the near-future where London has been flooded, high-end high-rises are being looted, financial speculation is spiralling and the dispossessed are literally adrift. In this context, a revolution against the ruling class led by lower class Londoners and dissidents is under way.

(2) The Middle Passage (2006) by Mathieu K. Abonnenc refers to the forcible journey of African people to the New World from the 16th to the 19th century, using a sequence of extracts from a range of Hollywood movies.

(3) Christodoulos Panayioutou's (Untitled) Act II: The Island (2008) is part of a triptych made of folded theatre backdrops about a ship possibly departing to and returning from the European colonies.

Further details on: www.gasworks.org.uk/exhibitions/detail.php?id=564. (See Note 4 – Editorial.)

18 September. 10am-5pm. Hydrarchy Conference. University College London. A one-day conference brings together speakers from the fields of theory, history, geography, politics and contemporary art to discuss the themes behind the exhibition, based on their own research and perspective. Offering a historical and theoretical framework, while expanding on the artistic propositions presented in the exhibition, the conference aims to further delve into the zone of exception and liminality that constitutes the sea and the offshore. With Amy Balkin (artist), Angus Cameron (human geographer), Lisa Le Feuvre (curator and writer), Marcus Rediker (historian, writer and activist), Shaina Anand and Ashok Sukumaran of CAMP (artists). Further details on: www.gasworks.org.uk/exhibitions/detail.php?id=564.