David Kohn Architects has designed a major exhibition for the Wellcome Collection

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Photos
Will Pryce

David Kohn Architects has designed an exhibition for the works of photographer Jo Spence (1934-1992) and artist Oreet Ashery (1966-). Running at the Wellcome Collection in London until 26 January 2020, ‘Misbehaving Bodies’ explores the representation of chronic illnesses and experiences of care. Spence’s work documents her diagnosis of breast cancer and subsequent healthcare regime throughout the 1980s. Her raw and confrontational photographs are shown alongside Ashery’s award-winning mini-series Revisiting Genesis (2016), which explores death and dying in the digital era. Through their work, the exhibition foregrounds health diversity and challenges our understanding of ‘untypical’ bodies. It also reflects on how illness can disrupt and shape the way we think about the body, family and identity. Together, the artists question how we look beyond a patient’s diagnosis and articulate a more complex understanding of illness and life-limiting conditions.

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“It has been a great pleasure working with Oreet Ashery, curator George Vasey and the Wellcome Collection team on this challenging exhibition”, comments David Kohn. “The design of the show seeks to create a calm, intimate and sensorially rich environment to encounter Jo Spence and Oreet’s profound but often playful work that wrestles with questions about death and life in contemporary society.”

The exhibition design begins by addressing the often clinical environment of white cube gallery spaces. The walls are draped in coloured and tie-dyed fabrics to create a more provisional and intimate interior. The experience is intended to disrupt visitors’ expectations of art exhibitions and provide a welcoming and comfortable setting for the display of what is at times challenging work.

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Tent-like booths of tie-dye fabrics provide smaller spaces within the show to view Ashery’s films, while soft furnishings invite visitors to spend time contemplating the work and processing the emotional content. The fabric walls and carpeted floors achieve a soft acoustic which contributes to the atmosphere of the room.

As the exhibition design evolved through conversations with Ashery and Vasey, an approach emerged that seeks to establish dialogue between the artists’ work, and convey the black humour with which they treat the subject matter. Tombstone-like white piers support Spence’s photographs while her name in block capitals form a table plinth. In response, Ashery’s name in script, font cut from polished brass, hangs on chains from the ceiling like a necklace.

‘Misbehaving Bodies’ is the latest in a series of exhibition-based projects by the architect. The practice is currently working with artist Pablo Bronstein on a major installation for the National Trust (due to open in 2020), and is on the shortlist to design the subterranean Past Time gallery – the first exhibition space to be commissioned within the Museum of London’s new West Smithfield headquarters.

‘Misbehaving Bodies’
Wellcome Collection, London, NW1
Until 26 January 2020

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