28th September - 9th November 

Isabel Albrecht, Morrissey & Hancock, Silvia Lerin, David Batchelor, Rana Begum, Eleanor Wood, Thomas Vinson, Nathan Cohen, Mikael Fagerlund, Andy Harper, Michael Samuels, Jyll Bradley, Mark Francis, Eric Butcher, Eric Cruikshank. 

Perpetual Arrival conceives of the creative process as a continuum punctuated by a series of moments – or arrivals – when circumstances converge to result in something which is generally agreed to constitute a work of art. We pursue our lines of enquiry, research our subject matter, marshal our evidence, manipulate and explore our materials. Periodically we arrive at something which is often treated as though it were a conclusion, but the reality for many of us is actually that it is just one point of arrival among a lifetime of similar arrivals and departures. We move on to create other points of arrival. Arrivals can act as a break, a chance to take stock, to stand back and learn from the intervening time and process. Then we move on. 

For most people, travel has a beginning and an end, a departure and an arrival, the terminus of our journey, an objective attained. But refugees often talk of being in a state of perpetual arrival, of departing, travelling, arriving and moving on. A journey without end or clear parameters. This sense of perpetual arrival offers a powerful analogy with the creative practices gathered together in this show. 

Arrivals can, of course, take many forms. For some the development is cerebral and the physical making of the work is largely about implementation of a plan. But things can change in the making and the artist remains alive to the possibilities of the unplanned and the haptic. The arrival might be anticipated but art rarely turns out the way we expect. The arrivals of others are often temporary; works come together for a moment, are then disbanded and reconfigured for a different site or purpose, the ‘arrival’ is a moving target and often impermanent. Sometimes what constitutes an arrival is arbitrary or ephemeral. 

Processes take place; the division of a shape, the use of a numbering system, the continual use of a tool to make a mark, the subtle changes made to alter a visual outcome, the accumulation of experience passed from one object to another. Perpetual Arrival is about an investigation that never ends, sometimes linear, sometimes circular and the points of arrival and departure on the way. It is about the process, repetition, development and tentative conclusion, not a full-stop, more of a ‘working hypothesis’ and the inevitable moving on. 

Curated by Eric Butcher, Hans Hancock and Patrick Morrissey.  
 

Bio 

Eric Butcher is an artist and curator. He studied philosophy at Cambridge University and painting at Wimbledon School of Art. He has exhibited internationally for more than 20 years and curated exhibitions including Definite Article (London/San Francisco, 2005/6), The Devil Finds Work for Idle Hands (San Francisco, 2012), A Machine Aesthetic (co-curated with Simon Granell, Newcastle, Norwich, Bournemouth, Lincoln and London, 2013/14) and Die Wat Spaart, Die Wat, Heeft (Hanover, 2023). He currently shows with Galerie Robert Drees, Hanover, Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London and Nancy Toomey Fine Art, San Francisco. 

Patrick Morrissey and Hanz Hancock work collaboratively, both as systems artists and as a curatorial team responsible for the continued direction of 'Saturation Point‘, a London-based project space and online editorial which they founded in 2014. They have shown their own works worldwide, and have established this project to support and encourage the promotion of systems, non-objective and reductive art in the UK. They have curated and collaborated on international exhibitions and in the UK : Determinant, Angus –Hughes Gallery London 2013, SLUICE Art Fair, NYC 2016, Imperfect Reverse, Camberwell UAL,and Anglia Ruskin gallery University of Cambridge 2016, Orthogonal co curated with Georgi Dimitrov, Red House, Sofia Bulgaria, the United States 

(New York, Ohio, Chicago) and Ukraine, Hard Painting 2, Brighton2020, Revisions , Imprints Galerie curated by Matthew Tyson (two man show), Natalie Dower: A constructivist artist and her contemporaries, Eagle Gallery/EMH Arts Project curated by Emma Hill at the London Art Fair 2020. The New Accelerator, Anglia Ruskin University of Cambridge 2023 .They are actively engaged in the development of projects for 2023 and beyond.