The touring exhibition ‘Show Me The Money: The image of finance 1700 to the present’, which features several of my works, is now exhibiting at the People’s History Museum in Manchester until 24 January 2016.
More details here: http://www.phm.org.uk/whatson/show-me-the-money-the-image-of-finance-1700-to-the-present/
This group exhibition featuring a series of my works from Let This Be A Sign, is now touring. The first venue is John Hansard Gallery in Southampton.
Show Me The Money: The Image of Finance 1700 to the Present poses the question, what does money really stand for, and how can ‘the market’ and the world of high finance be made visible? The exhibition charts how the financial world has been imagined in art, illustration, photography and other visual media over the last three centuries in Britain and the United States, and asks how artists have tussled with the intangible nature of money, from the South Sea Bubble of the eighteenth century to the global financial crisis of 2008.
The exhibition features works ranging from satirical eighteenth-century prints by William Hogarth, to newly commissioned pieces by a range of contemporary artists in an array of media: paintings, prints, photographs and videos. Here on the south coast, the exhibition will be shown simultaneously across the John Hansard Gallery and Chawton House Library; the latter once owned by Jane Austen’s brother, himself implicated in a financial scandal of the 1810s.
It showcases many works created since the 2008 financial crash, including Molly Crabapple’s surrealist oil painting Debt and Her Debtors (2012-13), through to Goldin+Senneby’s installation Headless (2008), detailing the search for an offshore company that forms the basis for a ghost-written novel commissioned by the artists. There is a new version of Simon Roberts’ Credit Crunch Lexicon (2012), a wall-based text work that alphabetically lists words and phrases collated from political speeches, Bank of England papers, newspaper headlines and economic reports as a vehicle for political comment.
More information here.
I will be exhibiting a selection of work from Let This Be A Sign, including the Credit Crunch Lexicon, in this group show opening at the Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art in June 2014.
Show Me The Money: The Image of Finance, 1700 to present asks what does ‘the market’ look like? What does money really stand for? How can the abstractions of high finance be made visible? The exhibition charts how the financial world has been imagined in art, illustration, photography and other visual media over the last three centuries in Britain and the United States. The project asks how artists have grappled with the increasingly intangible and self-referential nature of money and finance, from the South Sea Bubble of the eighteenth century to the global financial crisis of 2008. It features works ranging from satirical eighteenth-century prints by William Hogarth and James Gillray to newly commissioned works by artists Goldin+Senneby, Cornford & Cross, Immo Klink, Simon Roberts, and James O Jenkins, as well as the first UK exhibition of international artists such as Molly Crabapple. The exhibition includes an array of media: paintings, prints, photographs, videos, artefacts, and instruments of financial exchange both ‘real’ and imagined. Indeed the exhibition also charts the development of an array of financial visualisations, including stock tickers and charts, newspaper illustrations, bank adverts, and electronic trading systems.
Photograph: Brokers with hands on their faces, 2007 – 2011 (Digital collage) © Simon Roberts
Show Me The Money demonstrates that the visual culture of finance has not merely reflected prevailing attitudes to money and banking, but has been crucial in forging – and at times critiquing – the very idea of ‘the market’. The exhibition tours three distinct regions of the country, beginning at Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, close to the HQ of Northern Rock, where in an English context the financial crisis of 2008 began. It is then shown across two sites simultaneously: John Hansard Gallery, part of Southampton University, and Chawton House Library in Hampshire, which was owned by Jane Austen’s brother, himself implicated in a financial scandal of the 1810s. In 2015 the show continues to the People’s History Museum in Manchester, a national museum that houses material history from the union and co-operative movements.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated 164pp book, published by Manchester University Press and edited by Peter Knight, Nicky Marsh and Paul Crosthwaite. The publication provides a wider set of contexts – professional, intellectual, political, literary and artistic – that inform the exhibition. The authors examine the history and politics of representations of finance through five essays by academic experts and curators alongside five commissioned contributions by notable public commentators on finance and art. The writers include Andy Haldane, the Executive Director of Financial Stability at the Bank of England, who asks us “What do you think about when you think about a ‘market’?”
Initiated with Dr Peter Knight, Manchester University, Professor Nicky Marsh, Southampton University, Dr Paul Crosthwaite, Edinburgh University, and Dr Isabella Streffen, Manchester University with NGCA.
The website for the exhibition is now live. Find out more about the themes and content of the show by following…http://www.imageoffinance.com/
TOUR DATES
Chawton House Library in Hampshire, Friday 19th September until Saturday 22nd November 2014
John Hansard Gallery in Southampton, from Tuesday 7th October until Saturday 22nd November 2014
People’s History Museum in Manchester, from Saturday 11th July 2015 until Saturday 28th February 2016
The current edition of Colors Magazine, Issue 88 themed Protest, has published a series of my work from Let This Be A Sign, including a gate-fold of my protest poster photographs (see below).
You can buy the magazine online here.
Over the past three years, people in more than 80 countries across the world have taken to the streets to protest
against their governments. But only in six of the above countries did governments finally fall.
COLORS 88 – Protest tells stories of how protests start, spread, triumph, are repressed and sometimes become revolutions. From South Korea’s anti-uprising volunteer corps to female drivers in Saudi Arabia; from Mexico’s labor rights superheroes to fully-armed guns rights demonstrators in the United States; from the pigs left to roam the main square of Nairobi, Kenya, to Palestinians dressing like blue aliens from Hollywood film Avatar, we’ve interviewed, photographed, and illustrated popular uprising across the world. Plus, Occupy, Tahrir, FEMEN sextremists and a series of illustrated DIY protest techniques and strategies: how to use a mattress as a shield, chain yourself to a tree, and hold your breath until it’s all over.
Photo: Esa Naseem with his banner © Bradford Telegraph & Argus
Dear Chancellor, please consider the impact of the comprehensive spending review on 26th June 2013 on the National Media Museum in Bradford. Further government cuts to the Science Museum Group’s annual funding will most likely result in the closure of the National Media Museum. This loss will be a devastating blow to the City of Bradford and a tragic outcome on an international scale.
Please sign the online petition here.
Why is this important?
The forthcoming government cuts to the Science Museum Group’s (SMG) annual funding will have a massive impact on the daily running of four of the UK’s most visited Museums. Led by the Science Museum in London, the SMG also includes the National Railway Museum in York, the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester and the National Media Museum in Bradford.
Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum Group has stated that a further 10% cut in funding in the next round of government spending proposals meant “almost certainly” one museum would shut. Out of the four Museums the National Media Museum in Bradford has the least visitors annually and is the most at risk to closure.
Read an article by Alexandra Jones ‘I found my inspiration in Bradford, but future students might not be so lucky’ on the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/07/bradford-national-media-museum
BBC News – Science Museum Group says cuts put museums at risk: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22781573
Revealing interview with Ian Blatchford on Radio 4’s The World at One: http://audioboo.fm/boos/1433319-science-museum-director-ian-blatchford-on-the-world-at-one-bbc-radio-4
Protest signs from Let This Be A Sign installed in Derby’s Silk Mill, March 2013, as part of Format Festival.
Photograph: Placards from demonstrations across the UK, 2010 – 2012 (Digital collage) © Simon Roberts
As part of this year’s Format Photography Festival I will be exhibiting an eclectic collection of original protest placards collected from UK demonstrations against economic cuts.
The placards form part of my Let This Be A Sign series and will be exhibited in Derby’s stunning Silk Mill building, which stands on the site of the world’s first factory and is the gateway to the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Trade Union artefacts from The Silk Mill collection will also be on display.The museum is the location of the historic ‘Derby Turn Out‘ when the silk workers, supported by their colleagues in other trades, left work from November 1833 to March 1834 to defend the right to combine in a Trade Union.
For more information, visit http://www.formatfestival.com/artists/simon-roberts
As part of the exhibition, we’ve also organised a Placard Making Workshop. So what would you protest about? Taking inspiration from ‘Let this be a sign’ you can make your own placard, photograph yourself and upload the images to Derby At Work. The event is being run in collaboration with Guy Atkins from Make The March and 50K Club.
The workshop will take place on-
16 March 10.00 – 16:00
17 March 13:00 – 16:00
You can find out more here- http://www.formatfestival.com/events/make-your-own-placard-workshop.
My installation of Let This Be A Sign as part of the FotoDoks exhibition in the Münchner Stadtmuseum museum in Munich, Germany. The exhibition runs until 25th November.
In the build up to 20 October, MAKE THE MARCH will be sharing protest material that people are making for the rally.
Make The March is an independent project set up to support the March For A Future That Workson 20 October 2012. The march is a major mobilisation of trade unions, community groups and individuals, all concerned about the dead end of austerity that our government are leading us down. The march, along with a rally in Hyde Park, is being organised by the TUC, and you can find out more about the march at the TUC’s official website for the day: AFutureThatWorks.org
You can read a short article I’ve written about photography and protests here.
Made something great? A placard, a banner, a video? Upload it here and share it with everyone! Need some inspiration? Have a look at what others are making… and then tweet and share the ones you like.
Cutting, witty and often darkly beautiful. The anti-cuts protests have at times been staggeringly creative. Clegg as a naked Cameron’s fig leaf (*shudder*), the campaign of TEA CUPS AGAINST KETTLING, Claire Rayner’s beyond-the-grave promises to protect the NHS…
We know people will again be making great stuff for October 20. This site is a way for as many people as possible to see the banners, placards and costumes.
It’s a chance to cut through mainstream media to show material off. And explain how and why it’s been put together.
We hope the project will inspire more people to make things, and to come on the rally. Don’t worry if the last time you did art involved crayons. Or if all you’ve got to hand are a biro and a postcard. Just have a go, and share what you come up with!
We’re also interested in any pics and videos showing how you’re making things. Whether you’re in a workshop or stenciling on the kitchen floor, it would be great to see you as well as your works of art.
Finally, there is a little sweetener. We’ve five £100 prizes for our favourite placards and online graphics. Cash will go to individuals or protest groups and could help make more great anti-cuts material.
See you on the Embankment on 20 October!
I will be exhibiting work from Let This Be a Sign at the Fotodoks festival in Munich.
This year’s FotoDoks 2012 exhibition will be displayed in the acclaimed from 17 October until 25th November.
The festival brings together the work of fifteen photographers-
Polly BRADEN (GB)
Marcus BRANDT (D)
Edmund CLARK (GB)
Thomas GALLER (CH)
Jocelyn BAIN HOGG (GB)
Kai LÖFFELBEIN (D)
Robin MADDOCK (GB)
Henrik MALMSTRÖM (D)
Dawin MECKEL (D)
Simon NORFOLK (GB)
Dana POPA (GB)
Simon ROBERTS (GB)
Gregor SCHLATTE (A)
Kai WIEDENHÖFER (D)
Mathias ZIEGLER (D)
The theme this year is ACHTUNG?! – respect, control, change. The German word “Achtung“ (attention, or “take care!”, “careful!”) is much more than a command or a warning. Striped off its exclamation mark it stands for thoughtful co-existence or the act of valuing or respecting something or someone.
In the context of this year’s exhibition and award, the title ACHTUNG?! – respect, control, change demands answers to the predicaments that face today’s documentary photography and its protagonists: What responsibility does a photographer have for both, the medium and his or her subjects? Which topics deserve a photographer’s focus? Who controls pictures and how do pictures control the world?
FotoDoks is an organisation promoting and developing the field of contemporary documentary photography and bodies of work that deal with political and social issues facing the world we are living in.