Click on the artist names to read my pieces on Michael Armitage, George Condo, Anselm Kiefer, Danh Vo, and Ai Weiwei. My poem inspired by Anselm Kiefer's 'Palm Sunday' installation can be read here. My review of an earlier exhibition drawn from the Roberts Institute of Art can be read here.
In Other Worlds: Acts of Translation, Wed 25 Jun to Sat 13 Sep 2025 - Big Screen Southend
Focal Point Gallery
This summer, Focal Point Gallery presents a major exhibition developed in collaboration with the Roberts Institute of Art. This exhibition brings together over 25 works, some of which have never been shown in a public gallery before, from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection, one of the UK’s foremost private collections. The exhibition engages with the theme of translation – through storytelling and myth, history and memory, language and materiality – and features a newly commissioned installation and performance by Haroon Mirza.
With works by Horst Ademeit, Michael Armitage, Frank Auerbach, Charles Avery, Jonathan Baldock, Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press, Neïl Beloufa, David Birkin, Louise Bourgeois, Mark Bradford, Ulla von Brandenburg, Miriam Cahn, George Condo, Martyn Cross, Romany Eveleigh, Simon Fujiwara, Ellen Gallagher, Jim Goldberg, Pierre Huyghe, Anselm Kiefer, Haroon Mirza, Francesca Mollett, Nika Neelova, Antoni Tàpies, Danh Vo, Ai Weiwei.
In Other Worlds: Acts of Translation considers translation as an act of movement and transformation. At a time when anything can seem open to interpretation, yet nothing appears to hold the exhibition asks: how do we engage with multiple perspectives without collapsing into relativism? How can we communicate across distances while still recognising differences? How do we engage with others – people, histories, ideas – without assuming full knowledge or easy equivalence?
The works in this exhibition show that to translate is not only to carry something across (the root meaning of the word), but also to expose its limits, its gaps and its generative possibilities. Translation is always partial, always unfinished, and in never being complete, it offers an ongoing commitment to the world and to others.
Haroon Mirza’s sound commission explores translation through sound, rhythm, performance and communal participation. His work translates binary code into the infinite variety of the human voice, revealing how even the most structured systems remain open to interpretation. By weaving together voices from the local community, Mirza’s installation makes translation a live and participatory process, one that engages difference rather than erasing it.
Translation shapes how we engage with the past, how we navigate inherited narratives and how we attempt to understand one another. Anselm Kiefer, Michael Armitage, George Condo and Ellen Gallagher, amongst others, explore how myths and stories shift with each retelling. Their works invite us to reconsider how stories, from oral traditions to the Bible, are continually reshaped, revealing that meaning is never fixed but always in flux. Here, translation is not about preserving a singular meaning but about keeping stories alive, expanding their possibilities rather than resolving them.
Other artists, including Nika Neelova, Jonathan Baldock and Louise Bourgeois, consider translation as a way of engaging with history, memory and loss. Their work examines how histories are fragmented, buried and resurfaced, where what is lost in one form might reappear in another. These works remind us that history is not simply a fixed narrative but an ongoing act of responsible interpretation, shaped by what is remembered and what remains untranslated.
Beyond stories and history, the exhibition questions the limits of language itself, looking at how experiences can never be fully captured. Pierre Huyghe, Antoni Tàpies, Simon Fujiwara and others explore moments where gaps in understanding become spaces for invention. Artists including Romany Eveleigh and David Birkin extend this beyond words, revealing how meaning moves through gesture, rhythm and touch – forms of communication that exist outside dominant linguistic structures. Their works suggest that what remains untranslated is not necessarily lost but becomes another way of carrying experience across cultures, generations and histories.
In a time of misinformation, contested histories and unstable narratives, this exhibition reminds us that translation is never neutral. It is an active, interpretive process that shapes how we relate to the past, to others and to the world around us. Rather than dissolving meaning into infinite perspectives, the artists in this exhibition show that translation, whether of a text, an image, a sound or a memory, is always an act of making, of bringing something into a different form where new possibilities emerge. Translation is not a way of making everything the same, but of making differences communicable – however imperfectly, however incompletely. As the artists in this exhibition show, to translate is to commit to the world and to one another, even and especially in the face of uncertainty.
The Thames Group of Artists Present 'The Scene by the Sea'
Beecroft Art Gallery
24/5/25 to 26/10/25
To mark the tenth anniversary of the Thames Group, the Beecroft Gallery is hosting The Scene by the Sea—an exhibition that celebrates Southend’s rich and rebellious pop cultural heritage. Inspired by the fold-out map conceived by Will Birch, Kosmo Vinyl and Jules Balme, this show charts the clubs, record shops, fashion boutiques and music venues that once made the town a creative epicentre by the estuary.
Alan Sorrell 'Nubia'
Beecroft Art Gallery
From 1st February 2025
This exhibition features Sorrell's 1962 commission for The Illustrated London News, documenting archaeological treasures from Nubia, a region in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. These works captured iconic sites like Abu Simbel at a time when many were at risk of being submerged during the construction of the Aswan High Dam. This is the first major display of his rare Nubian works in over 25 years.
Sorrell's artistic journey began locally at the Southend Municipal School of Art, where he developed the skills that earned him a scholarship to the Royal College of Art. During World War II, he served as an official war artist, producing works that recorded the human and physical landscapes of the conflict. After the war, Sorrell became renowned for his historical reconstructions, illustrating sites such as Stonehenge and Hadrian's Wall in exquisite detail. His ability to bring history to life has left a lasting impact on both art and archaeology.
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In Other Worlds: Acts of Translation, Wed 25 Jun to Sat 13 Sep 2025 - Big Screen Southend
Focal Point Gallery
This summer, Focal Point Gallery presents a major exhibition developed in collaboration with the Roberts Institute of Art. This exhibition brings together over 25 works, some of which have never been shown in a public gallery before, from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection, one of the UK’s foremost private collections. The exhibition engages with the theme of translation – through storytelling and myth, history and memory, language and materiality – and features a newly commissioned installation and performance by Haroon Mirza.
With works by Horst Ademeit, Michael Armitage, Frank Auerbach, Charles Avery, Jonathan Baldock, Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press, Neïl Beloufa, David Birkin, Louise Bourgeois, Mark Bradford, Ulla von Brandenburg, Miriam Cahn, George Condo, Martyn Cross, Romany Eveleigh, Simon Fujiwara, Ellen Gallagher, Jim Goldberg, Pierre Huyghe, Anselm Kiefer, Haroon Mirza, Francesca Mollett, Nika Neelova, Antoni Tàpies, Danh Vo, Ai Weiwei.
In Other Worlds: Acts of Translation considers translation as an act of movement and transformation. At a time when anything can seem open to interpretation, yet nothing appears to hold the exhibition asks: how do we engage with multiple perspectives without collapsing into relativism? How can we communicate across distances while still recognising differences? How do we engage with others – people, histories, ideas – without assuming full knowledge or easy equivalence?
The works in this exhibition show that to translate is not only to carry something across (the root meaning of the word), but also to expose its limits, its gaps and its generative possibilities. Translation is always partial, always unfinished, and in never being complete, it offers an ongoing commitment to the world and to others.
Haroon Mirza’s sound commission explores translation through sound, rhythm, performance and communal participation. His work translates binary code into the infinite variety of the human voice, revealing how even the most structured systems remain open to interpretation. By weaving together voices from the local community, Mirza’s installation makes translation a live and participatory process, one that engages difference rather than erasing it.
Translation shapes how we engage with the past, how we navigate inherited narratives and how we attempt to understand one another. Anselm Kiefer, Michael Armitage, George Condo and Ellen Gallagher, amongst others, explore how myths and stories shift with each retelling. Their works invite us to reconsider how stories, from oral traditions to the Bible, are continually reshaped, revealing that meaning is never fixed but always in flux. Here, translation is not about preserving a singular meaning but about keeping stories alive, expanding their possibilities rather than resolving them.
Other artists, including Nika Neelova, Jonathan Baldock and Louise Bourgeois, consider translation as a way of engaging with history, memory and loss. Their work examines how histories are fragmented, buried and resurfaced, where what is lost in one form might reappear in another. These works remind us that history is not simply a fixed narrative but an ongoing act of responsible interpretation, shaped by what is remembered and what remains untranslated.
Beyond stories and history, the exhibition questions the limits of language itself, looking at how experiences can never be fully captured. Pierre Huyghe, Antoni Tàpies, Simon Fujiwara and others explore moments where gaps in understanding become spaces for invention. Artists including Romany Eveleigh and David Birkin extend this beyond words, revealing how meaning moves through gesture, rhythm and touch – forms of communication that exist outside dominant linguistic structures. Their works suggest that what remains untranslated is not necessarily lost but becomes another way of carrying experience across cultures, generations and histories.
In a time of misinformation, contested histories and unstable narratives, this exhibition reminds us that translation is never neutral. It is an active, interpretive process that shapes how we relate to the past, to others and to the world around us. Rather than dissolving meaning into infinite perspectives, the artists in this exhibition show that translation, whether of a text, an image, a sound or a memory, is always an act of making, of bringing something into a different form where new possibilities emerge. Translation is not a way of making everything the same, but of making differences communicable – however imperfectly, however incompletely. As the artists in this exhibition show, to translate is to commit to the world and to one another, even and especially in the face of uncertainty.
The Thames Group of Artists Present 'The Scene by the Sea'
Beecroft Art Gallery
24/5/25 to 26/10/25
To mark the tenth anniversary of the Thames Group, the Beecroft Gallery is hosting The Scene by the Sea—an exhibition that celebrates Southend’s rich and rebellious pop cultural heritage. Inspired by the fold-out map conceived by Will Birch, Kosmo Vinyl and Jules Balme, this show charts the clubs, record shops, fashion boutiques and music venues that once made the town a creative epicentre by the estuary.
The Thames Group artists respond with new work that is both playful and poignant, capturing the spirit of a scene that continues to echo along the seafront and through the generations. 31 artists and 9 guest artists including Billy Bragg, Ian Dury, Wilko Johnson, Phill Jupitus, Humphrey Ocean RA and Vivian Stanshall have created a body of mixed media work inspired and informed by some of Southend-on-Sea's iconic pop culture locations.
Alan Sorrell 'Nubia'
Beecroft Art Gallery
From 1st February 2025
This exhibition features Sorrell's 1962 commission for The Illustrated London News, documenting archaeological treasures from Nubia, a region in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. These works captured iconic sites like Abu Simbel at a time when many were at risk of being submerged during the construction of the Aswan High Dam. This is the first major display of his rare Nubian works in over 25 years.
Sorrell's artistic journey began locally at the Southend Municipal School of Art, where he developed the skills that earned him a scholarship to the Royal College of Art. During World War II, he served as an official war artist, producing works that recorded the human and physical landscapes of the conflict. After the war, Sorrell became renowned for his historical reconstructions, illustrating sites such as Stonehenge and Hadrian's Wall in exquisite detail. His ability to bring history to life has left a lasting impact on both art and archaeology.
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