Exhibitions | Andy Hughes

Installation view: See Through, Gapado Island
Direct print on Polycarbonate, 100 cm diameter

Jeju Biennnale 16.11.22 - 12.02.23
Gapado Island, South Korea

During Hughes's stay at Gapado AiR, several innovative multimodal projects were developed, including commissioned works for the 2022 Jeju Biennale titled 'Flowing Moon, Embracing Land'. Four commissioned video works, including two large circular polycarbonate photographs, were exhibited at the Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art. These installations were situated on Gapado Island, offering a See Through view of the ocean towards Japan.

Artistic director Park Namhee described the theme for the biennale as "artistic practices for global symbiosis in the era of climate crisis when new geological concepts such as the Anthropocene and the Capitalocene are raised". The biennale invited artists to participate in commissions based upon the theme 'Flowing Moon, Embracing Land', 60 artists and collectives from 16 countries, including Korea.

Installation: Green Barley Eye (single channel video, 2022), Runtime 02.35

Gapado AiR Open Studios, October 2022

Gapado AiR hosted an open studio event to show the work of the six resident artists in 2022. It was an opportunity for the public and other visitors to explore and understand the artist's working processes and artwork created whilst living on the island for six months.

Supported by - Jeju Foundation for Arts and Culture & Jeju Self-Governing Province.

For many decades plastic waste has been in our peripheral vision - recently this has changed. This video work continues Hughes’s fascination with this material, over many decades his vision has been tuned into its materiality and increasing presence. In this short video artwork, the human eye becomes linked to the inner space of a plastic beer bottle. Its structure delicately balances atop a barley crop, intermittently disrupted by archival surgical film footage. A peculiar, cyclic sound produced by the Earth reverberates, connecting the microscopic with the astronomical.

Image video screen grabs: Polyethylene Terephthalate (single channel video, 2022), runtime 00.45

Jeju Biennnale 16.11.22 - 12.02.23
Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art, Jeju, South Korea

In the introduction of Timothy Morton's book Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World he writes -

'In The Ecological Thought, I coined the term hyperobjects to refer to things that are massively distributed in time and space relative to humans. A hyperobject could be a black hole. A hyperobject could be the Lago Agrio oil field in Ecuador or the Florida Everglades. A hyperobject could be the biosphere or the Solar System. A hyperobject could be the sum total of all the nuclear materials on Earth; or just the plutonium, or the uranium. A hyperobject could be a very long-lasting product of direct human manufacture, such as Styrofoam or plastic bags, or the sum of all…'

Morton, T. (2012) The ecological thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Video stills from Plastic Occultation, 2022, single-channel video, runtime 01.26

Jeju Biennnale 16.11.22 - 12.02.23
Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art

The title of the work refers to the term occultation. This word is often used in astronomy to describe when a planet passes in front of another object, as seen by an observer. It can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks the view of an object in the background.

Upon close observation of the film, one can discern minute insects in flight, alighting, and taking off from the interior of the plastic bottle, each seeking an escape route. Additionally, the sun gradually emerges from behind the plastic object, causing the brightness to intensify towards the bottom right. When viewed in its entirety, the circular element generates a feeling of rotational vertigo—a sudden perception of spinning or a sensation akin to the interior of one's head spinning. Typically, this sensation arises from particular shifts in head position, but in this instance, it is achieved through visual techniques

Installation view of one section of Mysterious Clean Island, Gapado Village Hall, AiR Exhibition, 2022

Mysterious Clean Island
Gapado AiR Exhibition, 2022

This exhibition presents a selection of works in progress from Hughes' artist residency at Gapado AiR. Whilst living on Gapado, he noticed and observed many similarities to his home in Cornwall. The action of wind and waves on the land, oceanic and marine ecologies and increased levels of tourism are very present here and in Cornwall. Effects associated with increased globalisation are also present, with large volumes of plastic waste and debris washed ashore daily.

The title of the exhibition comes from a sign on board the Gapado ferry. It reminded Hughes' of J G Ballard's novel Concrete Island, the story examines the importance of literal debris (the wasteland) and figurative debris (outsiders of society) through the character of a car crash victim stranded on a motorway traffic island. There are many kinds of islands of course both physical and metaphorical. For Hughes the search for meaning in all manner of things, like places and signs, is one part of his practice, thereby raising the question of what the wording Mysterious Clean Island might mean?

Installation: Printed cotton covered wall with framed photographs.

앤디 휴즈 Andy Hughes〔Mysterious Clean Island〕 2022 가파도 마을강당 Gapado Village Hall

이번 전시는 ‘가파도 아티스트 인 레지던스’ 활동을 아직 완성되지 않은 작품의 형태로 일부 선별하여 소개한다. 가파도에 거주하면서 느낀 점은 고향인 영국 잉글랜드 남서부의 콘월과 가파도가 여러 면에서 유사하다는 점이다. 바람과 파도가 빚은 흔적, 바다와 연안의 생태계의 특성, 점점 많아지는 관광객들 등 가파도의 요즘 모습은 콘월에서도 본 모습이다. 또한, 확대되는 세계화의 상호작용은 가파도에서도 예외 없이 해변으로 매일 쓸려오는 상당한 규모의 플라스틱 쓰레기와 폐기물로 우리를 마주한다.

이번 전시의 제목은 가파도 여객선에서 발견한 JG 발라드 소설 〔콘크리트 섬〕을 연상시킨 표 지판 문구에서 아이디어를 얻었다. 소설은 고속도로 구조물인 교통섬(traffic island)에 고립된 교통사고 피해자의 이야기를 통해 ‘쓰레기’라는 존재의 중요성을 다뤘다. 소설은 말 그대로의 의미로써 ‘쓰레기’를 폐허로 나타냈고, 비유적 ‘쓰레기’로 사회에서 소외된 사람들을 등장시켰다. 세상에는 다양한 ‘섬’이 존재한다, 물리적으로 실재하는 섬, 그리고 비유적 섬. 예술가의 역할은 다양한 곳에서 의미를 찾는 것이며, 개인적으로 특정 장소와 안내판 및 간판 등을 자주 탐구한다. 그렇다면 “Mysterious”와 “Clean”이라는 영어 단어의 조합이 섬을 표현할 때 여러분은 어떤 의미로 이해되는가?

[ON AiR] Gapado AiR Lounge
Related Program 2 // Video Screening
Video Screening of artists' films

An Jungju+Jun Sojung
The Ghost in the Machine

Transforms, variates, fragments, and loops sounds and images collected from mass media and everyday life, creating video works with a distinctive narrative structure. Sojung Jun constructs nonlinear time-space dimensions to stir up new awareness of the history and the present or deals with the experience when material borders shift and penetrate our daily senses.

Andy Hughes [Plastic scoop]

Andy Hughes studied at the Royal College of Art, London. He was the first Artist in Residence at Tate Gallery St. Ives. His photographic artworks focus on the littoral zone. For more than thirty years a preoccupation with the 'thing-ness' of plastic, watery worlds and coastal habitats has driven his work his, which interfaces with scientific research, gamification, ruinology, philosophy, literature, art and film, including archival film.

Agnese Galiotto [Miracoli (Miracles)]

Agnese Galiotto is an Italian painter and filmmaker living in Chiampo, a valley of the Small Dolomites. She graduated from Städelschule Frankfurt (DE) in 2021, and previously gained a BA in painting at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. Her practice combines the ancient technique of fresco painting and cinema: both mediums are for her tools to engage in elaborating narratives and developing immersive installations, while her research she revolves around the relationship between human identity and the natural world.

Installation view of Red Cree at Porthmeor Studios, St Ives, Cornwall, November 2021

Red Creek
Peggy Atherton & Andy Hughes
Borlase Smart Rooms, Porthmeor Studios,
St Ives, Cornwall, 2021

Red Creek is a ‘pop-up’ show of work engaged with environmental politics and poetics. Haunting photographic work by artist/environmentalist, Andy Hughes, comes together with a mysterious sculptural installation by Peggy Atherton in response to the site of Frenchman’s Creek, Cornwall; its complex entanglements: ecologies, histories and fantasies. Both artists explore the poetics of waste matter, themes of ruin and entropy, weaving together fairy-tale elements with contemporary critique and wry humour.

RAW TRUTHS:PLASTIC
Royal Geographic Society, London, 2017

Two parallel worlds, many thousands of miles apart, each with its own particular relationship with the material which has rapidly come to define the modern age: plastic. On one side, the remnants of a Festival depict an almost apocalyptic scene: piles of garbage, dirt fields scattered with crushed plastic bottles, bags, balloons, single-use cups, and cheap, disposable furniture. A column of polystyrene fast food containers piled high, emerges triumphantly from a packed litter bin, while the bright lights of the festival's famous music scene beam away in the background. On the other, the lush greenery of rural Africa. An elderly lady pours water from a small stream into a number of large plastic carrying containers. A child thrusts a dirty plastic bottle, covered in grit but very much intact, towards the camera. And, in the larger urban centres,

Photo-Pioneer
William Arnold, Melanie King, Andy Hughes, Oliver Raymond-Barker
Porthmeor Studios, St Ives, Cornwall, 2016

From William Arnold's beautiful sequence of cameraless botanical prints to Melanie King's astronomical cyanotypes that 'draw from the heavens'; from Andy Hughes iconic Plastic Photo-Totem to Oliver Raymond-Barker's visceral prints exploring the nature of stone - this show is an exploration into landscape and the material potential of photography. It will be a rare chance to see contemporary photography in Cornwall and is part of an ongoing concern to develop new audiences and opportunities for the photographic arts within the county.

Installation view Mark Dion [left], Andy Hughes [right], Anchorage Museum, 2014

Gyre: The Plastic Ocean
Anchorage Museum, Alaska, USA, 2014

Gyre: The Plastic Ocean exhibition explores the relationship between humans and the ocean in a contemporary culture of consumption. For decades artists have created works that address the relationship between community and environment. In the later part of the 20th century, artists gave a voice to the environment. Artists such as Robert Smithson, Michael Heizer, Christo and Jeanne-Claude and others became interested in the social value of art.

Funded by: Anchorage Museum Association, Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership, Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation Giles W. and Elise G. Mead Foundation, Leonard and Tannie Hyde, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Endowment for the Arts, North American Marine Environment Protection Association, Ocean Foundation, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Rasmuson Foundation, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation , Surdna Foundation, Wells Fargo, The William Randolph Hearst Foundation.

Making Time, St Ives, Cornwall, 2014

Making Time is a photographic art collective based in Cornwall interested in the engagement of science, ecology and history in contemporary photo practice.

The aim of the group through research, exhibitions and workshops is to act as a catalyst for future development in Cornwall, engaging both artists and the wider community to provide a platform of support for photographic arts.

The group formed in 2014 and that autumn presented its inaugural exhibition Making Time: New Photographic Constructions at the historic Penwith Society gallery in St.Ives. An exhibition of South West based photographic artists: William Arnold, Hannah Guy, Nicholas Hughes, Andy Hughes and Oliver Raymond-Barker, the show demonstrated the breadth and diversity of the contemporary photographic medium. Each artist's work is informed by an exploration of contemporary issues such as: the hybridization of analogue and digital, the engagement of science and ecology in the practice of image making and the manifold histories of photography.

'Surf, Civilization and Barbarism'
Casa Cultura Okendo, Donostia, Spain, 2015

“The importance of beauty and the enjoyment of a wave, of nature vs. the economy facts and the short term development. The utopian vision of an alternative future vs the contra la razón impuesta de una modernidad irracional" - Gibus de Soultrait introduction to Surf, Civilization and Barbarism.

From Jack McCoy´s personal collection of his first photos in Uluwatu, where a virgin headland is a painful contrast to today´s chaotic development, the juxtaposition of Kai Neville´s excerpt from Dear Suburbia of the Japanese rivermouth perfection to Taishi Hirokawa´s nuclear plants, the man vs nature section which starts with Ron Stoner´s 2 photos of Killer Dana before and after the marina is built, the Superbank´s perfection created by the artificial pumping of sand, Wavegarden´s example of man replicating nature as a recurrent theme in mankind… to the virgin beauty of both Bruno Garrudo´s landscapes and finally Punta de Lobos that can be preserved of radical use of cement… . Hanging on the walls works from artists Taishi Hirokawa, Alan Van Gysen, Andy Huges, Bruno Garrudo, Craig Peterson, Jack McCoy, Iker Basterretxea, Kai Neville,

Dominant Wave Theory, Maritime Museum, 2011
San Sebastian, Spain
San Sebastian Surf Film Festival , Spain
Sponsored by Patagonia
Poster designed by David Carson

'Sancho Rodriguez, founder of the San Sebastián Surf Film Festival, shares how they brought together art, activism and audacious stunts to shake up surf culture. Now approaching its fourteenth edition, the festival was the first of its kind anywhere in the world when it was founded in 2003. It's a celebration of cinema and independent-minded surf culture, but most importantly a place where art and music come together with surfing and activity. The festival's success hasn't stopped Sancho and his crew frequently using their platform to put a big middle finger up to everything they dislike in wider surfing culture – but always with a smile'...

THE BASQUE SURFERS WHO TOOK ON THE INDUSTRY BY FOUNDING A FESTIVAL OF THEIR OWN
World's first surf film festival — Sancho Rodriguez, founder of the San Sebastián Surf Film Festival, shares how they brought together art, activism and audacious stunts to shake up surf culture.

https://www.huckmag.com/ outdoor/surf/basque-surfers-took-industry-founding-festival/

Installation view Andy Hughes [right], Chris Jordan [centre back] Mariners Museum, Newport News, USA, 2009

Message in a Bottle
Andy Hughes & Chris Jordan
Mariners Museum National Maritime Museum, Virginia, USA, 2009

'Both artists explore the phenomenon of mass consumerism and its environmental impact. Andy Hughes' work focuses on the accumulation of garbage washed up on the shores where he surfs. Chris Jordan's composite photos explore the "pervasiveness of our consumerism." These visually compelling and provocative works serve as a back drop for the sometimes challenging relationship between man and his environment'.