25 Apr ‘Unstable Condition’ Rebecca Moss – 28th June to 16th September 2023 – Focal Point Gallery
‘Unstable Condition’
Rebecca Moss
28th June to 16th September 2023
Launch: Saturday 24th June 2023
6pm to 8pm
This first solo institutional exhibition in the UK by Rebecca Moss will include new and recent works. The exhibition will explore notions of ecological and economic instability featuring moving image, sculpture, photography and installation.
The main gallery will feature a series of witty short format videos, where Moss performs to the camera, staging interactions between her body and the landscape. These works explore an embodied and feminist relationship with the natural world in particular the Thames Estuary. In the window space, there will be an installation that uses the language of slap-stick humour to comment on the precarity of British seaside resorts, especially those around the UK under threat from sea levels rising due to the climate crisis.
The final project will be a comprehensive installation of materials that tell the real-life absurd story of when Moss became stuck on a bankrupt container ship in 2016 whilst undertaking an art residency in the Pacific Ocean.
About the artist:
Rebecca Moss (b.1991, Essex) lives and works in East London and Essex. Moss makes videos inspired by slapstick performance: precarious scenarios that emphasise an interaction between the human gesture and elemental forces, where an absurd idea or gesture is earnestly played out, to a point of futility, chaos or crisis. In 2016, Moss was shortlisted for The Future Generation Art Prize with PinchukArtCentre, Kiev. Solo exhibitions and events include From The Sublime to the Ridiculous (Bunkier Sztuki Gallery, Krakow, 2019) and Jerwood Staging Series (Jerwood Arts, London, 2019). She has participated in group shows including BEANO: The Art of Breaking the Rules (Somerset House, London 2022); Survey II (Jerwood Arts, London, 2021-22); The Sea is Glowing (Exportdrvo for Rijeka 2020 European Capital of Culture, 2020); 24 Gabrovo Biennial of Humour and Satire in Art (Museum of Humour and Satire, Gabrovo, 2019) and was nominated to propose work for The High Line Plinth (2020). Moss graduated with an MA Sculpture from the Royal College of Art in 2017.
About Focal Point Gallery:
Focal Point Gallery (FPG) supports the production and presentation of new and recent contemporary art that challenges us to think and feel differently about locality, our sense of self and the importance of communities. Our wide-ranging and pioneering artistic programme is relevant to local and national audiences alike, through exploring current concerns that also resonate internationally. Based in Southend-on-Sea on the Thames Estuary, FPG’s activities take place in locations across the region with our reach extended by working collaboratively with like-minded partners.
FPG is located on the ground floor of The Forum in Elmer Square, 100 metres from Southend Central Station. As South Essex’s only public funded gallery for contemporary art, FPG receives regular funding from Arts Council England and is part of Southend-on-Sea City Council.
Opening hours: Wed to Sat 11.00am to 5.00pm
Focal Point Gallery, Elmer Square, Southend-on-Sea, SS1 1NB
01702 534108, focalpointgallery@southend.gov.uk
www.fpg.org.uk
