Event start date: 07/02/2025
Location: Spike Island, 133 Cumberland Road, Bristol BS1 6UX
Join us for an evening preview of new Spike Island exhibitions by Danielle Dean and Dan Guthrie.
Friday 7 February, 6-10pm.
Free entry, booking advised.
Exhibitions continue until 11 May 2025.
DANIELLE DEAN – THIS COULD ALL BE YOURS!
Dean’s exhibition at Spike Island centres around Hemel, a new film that serves both as a personal essay and a portrait of Hemel Hempstead, where she grew up. The film explores the town’s history as a planned community established under the New Towns Act of 1946. Archive footage and images of the town today interweave with references to a 1957 sci-fi horror B-movie shot there about the arrival of a non-human entity that infiltrates the minds of residents and endangers life with a toxic black slime. In the film, Dean takes on a composite role inspired by both herself and the movie’s detective protagonist, blending real and imagined worlds to examine the town’s past and present.
Accompanying Hemel is a series of drawings that capture the dystopian atmosphere that permeates the film and its characters, further immersing viewers in the unsettling world Dean constructs.
DAN GUTHRIE – EMPTY ALCOVE / ROTTING FIGURE
Empty Alcove / Rotting Figure is a new commission and solo exhibition by artist Dan Guthrie. Working primarily with moving image, Guthrie’s practice explores representations and mis-representations of Black Britishness, with a particular interest in examining how these manifest in rural areas. His latest commission continues his ongoing exploration of the Blackboy Clock; an object of contested heritage publicly displayed in his hometown of Stroud, Gloucestershire.
To book your free tickets visit here.
End date: 6:00pm on Sunday May 11th, 2025