Rachael Champion | 1 Godley VC House | Griffin Gallery

Hales is delighted to announce the inclusion of works by Rachael Champion in the upcoming exhibition 1 Godley VC House, curated by Tim A Shaw, Emma Smale and Niamh White at Griffin Gallery. 
 
Using the floor plan from his own London apartment (1 Godley VC House), artist Tim A Shaw will construct a skeleton timber framework of his living space to scale within the gallery. Tracing out each room, the structure offers a suggestion of domesticity that provides the setting for a collection of art-works that furnish its interior. Rather than being a stable or fixed piece of architecture, the formation is much more akin to a psychic, virtual or imagined shell through which every ‘room’ is visible.
 
 Using the floor plan from his own London apartment (1 Godley VC House), artist Tim A Shaw will construct a skeleton timber framework of his living space to scale within the gallery. Tracing out each room, the structure offers a suggestion of domesticity that provides the setting for a collection of art-works that furnish its interior. Rather than being a stable or fixed piece of architecture, the formation is much more akin to a psychic, virtual or imagined shell through which every ‘room’ is visible.
 
As a responsive site with the ability to instil feelings of sanctuary, warmth and familiarity, ‘home’ is also the place where our vulnerabilities and anxieties surface at their most palpable. The idea of the home is deeply embedded in human consciousness, where objects can be containers for memories, scents can be comforts or antagonists, architecture can present a means to frame the world. Homeliness can be tangibly felt. 
 
This exhibition also functions as an investigation into the intangible qualities embedded into particular architectural spaces. It will inform the co-curators, who run the mental health and arts charity Hospital Rooms, where they commission world class artists to transform residential secure and locked residential mental health units in NHS hospitals. Each artist works in genuine collaboration with service users and staff, and responds to their thoughts and experiences to make creative and imaginative environments.  As a separate location from the mental health units they ordinarily work in, this exhibition offers the freedom to draw out the potential in carefully, radically and candidly thought out living spaces.
 
After the close of 1 Godley VC House, there will be a Hospital Rooms exhibition of images of artworks created for their current project at Eileen Skellern 1, a psychiatric intensive care unit for women, with a private view event on 25 April, 6-8:30pm and opening hours 26-27 April 10am-5pm. You can read about the project at Eileen Skellern 1 here.
 
Artists include: Rachael Champion | Karen David | Jon Emmony | Alexandra Lethbridge | Steve Macleod | Cameron Morgan | Rose Pilkington | Charley Peters | Tim A Shaw | Esna Su
 

 
Rachael Champion
1 Godley VC House
Griffin Gallery
The Studio Building
21 Evesham Street
London
W11 4AJ
 
8 March - 20 April 2018
March 6, 2018