WAR?! WHAT WAR? - How does one achieve eternal bliss?
11.00am to 5.00pm, free drop-in
2 July
Photo by Vic Lentaigne
What if the Dada movement had started in 2020 in lockdown?
Is now a timely moment to resurrect the spirit and essence of Dada?
To mark the 102nd anniversary of the 1st Dada International Exhibition in Berlin, 31 d/Deaf, Disabled and Neurodivergent artists will stage Dada inspired interventions in 30 museums and galleries across Britain and Northern Ireland on 2 July 2022
The interventions cover a wide range of artistic practices including performative, time based, ephemeral, quirky, unusual, minimal, solo/duo/group, digital and much more.
At Towner, Andrea Mindel, a contemporary textile and multi-disciplinary artist based in the UK, will carry out their intervention: WAR?! WHAT WAR? - How does one achieve eternal bliss? Using the traditional embroidery technique of goldwork, they will incorporate a surprising and original approach.
Andrea Mindel’s needlework practice confronts themes of social injustice, grief and mourning within the context of climate crisis, illness, disease and genocide. Embroidering with conscience and creating materiality through the repetitive motion of stitch, Andrea’s work pays tribute, memorialising and making beautiful things from difficult narratives.
The event, with the title We are Invisible We are Visible (WAIWAV), is presented by DASH, the Disabled led visual arts organisation, and was awarded the 2021 Ampersand Award.
Andrea Mindel, Another One For Sorrow, 2021. Photo by Vic Lentaigne.
Andrea Mindel, Work in progress of the series Another One For Sorrow, 2020. 75cm x 50cm (30″ x 20″). Wool on Linen Twill. Photo by Vic Lentaigne.
Andrea Mindel, I walk the Sussex Downsland. Leonard Cohen sings “Hineini, Hineini”. I stop. I look to the path behind me. I look ahead. I cry out loud. And then I cry some more. Not long ago and not far away. I remember. Every day. In each stitch a requiem. I cry for the animals burnt in the blaze of an arsonists flames. And one last time, before Virginia Woolf’s house comes in to view, I stand in the empty path and cry for humanity. I look at the map of the world showing which countries have vaccinated most of their people against Covid, and it looks like an essay in 18th Century colonial imperialism. “Who the fuck are you to be so privileged?” Mea Culpa, 2022. Photo by Vic Lentaigne.
Andrea Mindel, Vxnxs in Repose by Goldendean, Shell Pink, 2021. Photo by Vic Lentaigne.