Block 336 presents two concurrent exhibitions: Pup & Blubber by Hazel Brill and Nervous Systems by Teresita Dennis. 

PV: Friday 29th November 2019, 6-9pm
Exhibition: 30.11.19 – 14.12.19 | 09.01.20 – 18.01.20

Pup & Blubber

Pup & Blubber is a solo exhibition by Hazel Brill, commissioned by Block 336. Brill works across film, sound, animation, text, sculpture and installation. Her theatrically staged video installations feature multiple protagonists, both human and non-human, who enact plural narratives. In Pup & Blubber, the exhibition’s central characters (from which the show takes its title), are a quiet TV presenting duo, like the sombre ghosts of Ant & Dec or Sooty & Sweep. The double act attempt to explore brain-machine interfacing, taking us from the largest tech conference in the world to a tiny puppet theatre. The video considers the possibility for quotidian and staged ways of travelling outside of the body, in a process whereby an individual can insert their consciousness into non-living ‘hosts’, like cuddly toys, puppets, robots and data. This ‘astral-projection’ can be viewed as an allegory for the literal commercialisation of health-based neurological research. Through a process of compression and collage, Brill creates an intimate world that questions and dissolves notions of the private internal and public external.

Hazel Brill has presented solo exhibitions at the Zabludowicz Collection, Baltic 39 and Turf Projects. As well as being selected for a FLAMIN fellowship, 2019- 2020 she was selected for a major new survey exhibition by Jerwood, presenting new works by 15 early-career artists from across the UK. In summer 2019, she also conducted a residency with Agorama at Raven Row, London.

Nervous Systems

Nervous Systems is an exhibition of paintings by artist Teresita Dennis. Dennis’ painting, deeply underpinned by theory, explores how the body engages with and is affected by personal (internal) and impersonal (external) events. The works are painted primarily using her own body, with brushes as a secondary tool. Dennis is interested in the body not only as a physical presence but also as a composition of systems; nervous, somatic and linguistic. 
 
Through painting, connections, parallels and relations are drawn, between hand prints made by prehistoric peoples; the ‘all over’ painting spaces of abstract expressionism; grids; op-art; performativity and gesture. Engagements with bodies of matter and thought have been considered more recently alongside the lexicons of touch in technology; the marks and smears found on touch screens such as the swipes, drags, pinches, taps and scrolls that lie, like remains, as we gaze past the screen towards a future, about to appear.
 
Teresita Dennis has been working as a painter for more than 30 years. Dennis has presented solo and group exhibitions internationally at Lychee One, Broadbent Gallery, Sartorial Gallery TAT arts Barcelona and more. She received an MA from the RCA in 1998 (Distinction) and a BA in Fine Art & Critical theory from Goldsmiths in 1995 (First class). Alongside her studio practice, Dennis is a Senior Tutor at City & Guilds of London Art School. She has been a visiting Painting tutor at the RA Schools, RCA, Central Saint Martins, Middlesex and more.

Restraint Restrained
Kat Anderson

Thank you to everyone who visited Restraint Restrained, the first solo exhibition by Bristol artist Kat Anderson, was commissioned by Block 336 in partnership with Black Cultural Archives (BCA). The artist conducted a residency at BCA where she accessed specific materials, developing her ongoing research project: Episodes of Horror which explores the horror of trauma experienced by and projected upon Black bodies in literature and lens-based media. On 12th October, we hosted a symposium on Race and Inequality in Mental Health in partnership with Lambeth Mind. Chaired by Cllr. Jacqui Dyer, the panel comprised Kat Anderson, Dr. Errol Francis, Aji Lewis, Marcia Rigg and Patrick Vernon. To watch, please click here. 

Free to apply

Deadline: 15th November 2019, 11pm GMT

Interviews: 21st November 2019

Residency period: 25th November 2019 – 25th February 2020

For more info, please click here.