Cabinets of Curiosity
Curated by Jacqui Chapman, Jeni McConnell and Louise Hesketh, Arts Development Officer, The Brindley.
An exhibition of curious artworks and objects opens at The Albert Dock, Liverpool on 11 September 2014. Markmakers artist collective bring their show ‘Cabinets of Curiosity’ to the city as part of the Liverpool Independents Biennial following its successful premiere at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery earlier in 2014.
Markmakers art collective are based in Halton and in 2013 were invited to explore the ethnography collection of intriguing objects at Warrington Museum. Artists are typically curious about the world around them so sources of inspiration from fake mermaids to willow patterned plates, a child mummy to gas masks have resulted in an eclectic collection of new sculptures, drawings, prints and paintings.
Cabinets of Curiosity takes place at the unique cultural setting of the Albert Dock’s Colonnades during The Liverpool Independents Biennial which runs alongside the 8th Liverpool Biennial exhibition A Needle Walks in to a Haystack, and provides the opportunity for Markmakers to showcase their work to the international audience the Biennial attracts. Running for just under 2 weeks, this is a great opportunity to wonder at both the traditional historic objects in our museum collections and at how the artists evoked new meaning in the creation of their works.
This method of responding to places and objects is typical for Markmakers, artist Jacqui Chapman explained ‘when the Markmakers group was invited to explore the ethnography collection at Warrington Museum, with a view to creating new work in response to the objects, a sense of anticipation and excitement was palpable. Collections within museums have long fascinated artists, particularly the early format of Wunderkammers in Renaissance Europe, which is where our exhibition title comes from.’
The exhibition takes place just past Tate Liverpool at the Albert Dock, C7 the Colonnades.
Written by Claire Weetman, Member of Markmakers
