BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.4.5//EN TZID:Europe/London X-WR-TIMEZONE:Europe/London BEGIN:VEVENT UID:1372@artinliverpool.com DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London;VALUE=DATE:20161028 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London;VALUE=DATE:20170123 DTSTAMP:20161019T141448Z URL:https://www.artinliverpool.com/events/bluecoat-keith-piper-unearthing- bankers-bones/ SUMMARY:Bluecoat: Bluecoat: Keith Piper\, Unearthing the Banker’s Bones DESCRIPTION:This October\, artist Keith Piper will return to Bluecoat\, Liv erpool’s centre for the contemporary arts\, with a major solo exhibition presented in partnership with Iniva (Institute of International Visual Ar ts).\nUnearthing the Banker’s Bones (28 October 2016 - 22 January 2017) \, will comprise three new large-scale works spanning installation\, dig ital works and drawings that address current anxieties about the impacts o f globalisation. It will be the most substantial presentation of the artis t’s work in nearly two decades and celebrates the longstanding relations hip between Piper and the two institutions which began over three decades ago.\nLending its title to the exhibition\, the centerpiece of the show wi ll be a new Arts Council Collection 70th Anniversary commission comprisin g of three synchronised high definition video projections\, which depict a narrative of economic and social collapse — Unearthing the Banker’s Bones (2016). Drawing on extracts from apocalyptic works by Octavia Butle r and Mary Shelley\, the film employs a science fiction device which invi tes viewers to imagine the excavation and dissection of modern life from a future point in time. Alongside the film\, ‘physical evidence’ such a s ledgers belonging to the banker of the title\, will be displayed. These objects play off against the unfolding narrative of the film.  \nAfter pr emiering at Bluecoat\, Unearthing the Banker’s Bones (2016) will beco me a permanent part of the Arts Council Collection where it will available for loan to museums\, galleries and other spaces nationally and internati onally. \nSpeaking about the commission\, Keith Piper said: “Unearthing the Banker’s Bones is a work emerging out of a period of research into science fiction as a space in which metaphors around social\, racial and c lass anxieties are played out.\n“Weaving together references drawn from a diverse range of classic novels\, films and other texts\, I am attemptin g to employ visual montage to play with notions of landscape and history p ainting\, to devise a narrative played out across a triptych of video scre ens. The story that unfolds will be one of exploration\, excavation and au topsy as a way of examining the present from an imagined future.”\nOther highlights of the exhibition at Bluecoat include Robot Bodies\, Piper’ s 1988 seminal interactive digital work – updated and re-programmed for this exhibition – in which the robot\, android and cyborg are examined a s metaphorical carriers of contemporary anxieties around racial difference \; and a series of mixed media works on un-stretched canvas\, ‘future pr ojected history paintings of the present’\, that reference 19th century history painting and have been commissioned by Bluecoat and Iniva. \nUne arthing the Banker’s Bones is a continuation of the social and politica l concerns that have informed Piper’s practice\, from the very beginning s of his career as part of Britain’s BLK Art Group in the 1980s. The gro up fought to raise the profile of black artists through exhibitions and co nferences\, a contribution whose significance is only now being recognised in the development of 20th century British art. Other artists associated with the group included John Akomfrah\, Eddie Chambers and Marlene Smith. \nThe collaboration between Bluecoat and Iniva in bringing the exhibition to fruition celebrates the close relationship that both institutions have had with Piper since the start of his career in the 1980s.\nPiper first e xhibited at Bluecoat in Black Skin\, Bluecoat in 1985. He returned in 19 86 as part of New Contemporaries (which later went on to become Bloombe rg New Contemporaries)\, when Bluecoat’s Artistic Director\, Bryan Biggs \, was a selector\, and again in 1992 with the groundbreaking commissioned project\, Trophies of Empire.\nIniva first worked with Keith Piper on hi s first major solo show Relocating the Remains in 1997 and it toured inter nationally. It was accompanied by a monograph of the same name with a sign ificant essay by renowned art historian Kobena Mercer. Later\, Iniva and P iper collaborated on the Keith Piper Club Mix\, a digital media interventi on in nightclubs across the UK. He has also featured in a number of key In iva exhibitions and publications including Boxer (1995) and Exiles\, Stran gers and Diasporas (2008). ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.artinliverpool.com/wp-content/upload s/2016/10/Keith-Piper-Left-Sequence-09.08.21-e1476529801914.jpeg LOCATION:Bluecoat\, School Lane\, Liverpool\, L1 3BX\, Liverpool\, United K ingdom GEO:53.404542;-2.984173 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=School Lane\, Liverpool\, L 1 3BX\, Liverpool\, United Kingdom;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Bluecoat:geo :53.404542,-2.984173 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20160327T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20161030T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR