Bethlem Gallery is delighted to announce the first UK presentation of Sara Haq’s drawings Things I did that nobody noticed (but that changed everything) commissioned for the 10th Berlin Biennale in 2018. The exhibition also features Putting paper in her ears, new photographic works and objects from Haq’s recent journeys in consciousness.
Grounded in practices of healing and alchemy, Haq’s works are at once both visceral and immediate whilst inviting us to take the plunge into complex ideas and in unraveling metaphysical conundrums; described by the artist as ‘delicate equations of energy and matter’. Haq is adept at turning our attention from the minutia of daily experience and personal narrative to urgent questions relating to the mind and body, to society, nature and medicine as well as our agency within them.
Over the course of the exhibition, we will be releasing details of events as well as the launch of a newly commissioned book to accompany metaphysical conundrums, produced by Book Works and featuring contributions from Asiya Wadud, Paul Goodwin, Tamar Yoseloff and Yvette Mutumba.
Bio – Sara Haq (b.1976) is an artist, photographer, sacred medicine practitioner, writer and workshop facilitator, based in London, UK. Her work is multi & interdisciplinary in approach. Drawing on a lifetime of experiential research, it explores the relationships between creativity, healing, sacred medicine and (cultural) psychosis.
Sara has exhibited both nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions. Recent notable commissions include: 10th Berlin Biennale, Wellcome Collection, Bethlem Gallery, Institute of Inner Vision, London College of Communication, Laure Genillard, Tate Modern, The British Library, Daily Life Ltd and Bromley By Bow Centre, Alexia Goethe Gallery, Artangel, Studio Voltaire, National Maritime Museum, Anxiety Festival, and digital visual dairy project #1000 Happy Days (2014-2017) to be shown this summer at The Wellcome Collection.
This exhibition has been made possible with support from Arts Council England.
About Bethlem Gallery
Since 1997, Bethlem Gallery has worked with artists, communities and cultural venues to deliver a range of exhibitions and collaborations both on-site within the grounds of the Royal Bethlem Hospital and off-site with partner organisations. Managed by a small, artist-led team, Bethlem Gallery presents an annual programme of exhibitions and events throughout the year by contemporary practitioners in a wide range of media. The exhibition programme focuses on developing solo exhibitions, group exhibitions, collaborative opportunities and residencies for artists who have a connection to the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.
Recent exhibitions and collaborations include Welcome to the New Fragile (2020); Art & Protest: What’s there to be mad about? (2019), curated by Dolly Sen; Switching Perceptions (2019) by Eleanor Minney; It’s how well you bounce (2017) with Grayson Perry, Sara Haq and Corali Dance Company, for the Gallery’s 20th anniversary; What remains: Anatomy of the artist (2017) by Mr X, Michaela Ross and Olga Masleinnikova at Siobhan Davies Dance Company; Redefining Bedlam (2016) in collaboration with Wellcome Collection as part of their curated exhibition Bedlam: The Asylum and Beyond; Behold Continues to Retreat (2015), curated by Mark Titchner including works by Paul Noble, Chantal Joffe and Anna Barriball; and Sanctuaries (for Anxiety Festival 2014 in collaboration with Gasworks) with a collaboration by Christina Kral and ‘Patient X’.
About Bethlem Royal Hospital
Bethlem Royal Hospital was founded in 1247 and was the first institution in the UK to specialise in the care of people experiencing mental ill health. The hospital continues to provide in-patient care as part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and has been based in south London since 1930. Situated within the grounds of Bethlem Royal Hospital, in an Art Deco building is the Bethlem Museum of the Mind and the Bethlem Gallery.
IMAGES FOR PRESS PLUS CREDITS are here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11aHCZ9GtP90ttQ0IizvvmlxIMQTcmwdQ
Bethlem Gallery
Bethlem Gallery
Bethlem Royal Hospital
Monks Orchard Road
BR3 3BX
020 32284104
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