Casting the spotlight on Chisenhale Editions with Zoé Whitley
We are honoured to work with the esteemed Chisenhale to present a curated selection of fantastic editions created to support their ongoing programming and maintain free access to their programme.
Becoming Alluvium, 2020 by Thao Nguyen Phan
Chisenhale Gallery has an award winning, 39-year history and is known to commission and produce immersive and progressive contemporary art exhibitions supporting international and UK-based artists to make their most ambitious work to date.
Ché Zara Blomfield, curator at Shoreditch Arts Club, asked Chisenhale Gallery director Zoé Whitley a few questions about the importance of supporting their programme through art editions.
Editions as seen at Shoreditch Arts Club
CZB: Chisenhale editions typically range in size, material, and price, often capturing elements of the associated artist exhibition. How do you go about working with artists to produce editions?
ZW: At Chisenhale Gallery, we pride ourselves on transforming the gallery space with each artist’s commission. Typically, we do so four times a year with major new works on site which we present to the public free of charge. But truly, our editions form another utterly exciting series of transformative artworks where each is totally different from one that came before. Artists from the current and historic programme generously agree to make an edition – and even calling it an edition is often a misnomer as works like Anthea’s and Lotus’ (to name only two) are each handmade by the artist and no two are alike! Resulting in 100% of the proceeds supporting forthcoming exhibitions with artists. We have the most giving artist alumni community in the world.
Can you tell us when Chisenhale started producing editions and about the importance of art editions as a revenue model?
Chisenhale works very hard to maintain its longstanding status (and is fortunate to be) an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation. This means we receive regular government funding 2023-2026. In real terms, our ACE grant accounts for 18% of our annual operating costs. It is my job as Director to ensure that the other 82% is covered by persuasive asks to charitable trusts, foundations and philanthropically minded individuals.
Freshly Cut Grass, May Blossom, Stinging Nettles, Bluebells and Lady's Bedstraw, Picked in the Spring and Exposed in the Darkroom, 2019 by Josephine Pryde
We fundraise for 100% of the commissions programme which is no small task! We always start from wanting to enable an artist’s greatest vision rather than to limit the scope of their work. The artists who’ve benefited from this ethos have been committed to paying it forward by making stunningly sought-after editions for us. Our patrons get first access and some sell out before we are even able to make them available publicly.
Our patrons' circles are lively and inclusive. One can join as a Friend from as little as £250 per annum. Our Director’s Circle patrons enjoy regular outings, events and, biassed though I may be, what I’ve been reliably told by a dozen artists and musicians is the most fun summer art party in London! In July 2023, Azekel performed live and the menu of cocktails, suya bar and other pan-African fare provided by The Future Plate kept us all dancing to Olukemi Lijadu’s DJ set late into the night. If you’re reading this interview, consider this your invitation to join our supporters at Chisenhale!
What are your favourite editions? Many have sold out, please include both sold and unsold favourites!
You ask this question at the most opportune time because we’ve gone deep into our archive and are releasing some of the archive editions we’ve held onto so that we can share them with our eager audiences who may have missed out the first time around.
It’s so hard to select a favourite when working with each artist brings its own unique joys and challenges. But editions I personally own are: Ravelle Pillay’s, Sonia Boyce’s, Lotus L. Kang’s, Rachel Jones’s and Yu Ji’s.
I bought Lisa Milroy’s for my mother last year. I have my eye on numerous others including Benoît’s, Nikita’s and Rindon’s… talk about a circular economy! It’s safe to say that I’m one of the biggest fans of what we produce. I get to see firsthand the time, intention and care that artists pour into every single piece.
A comprehensive list of Chisenhale editions currently on view at the Shoreditch Arts Club are:
Jane and Louise Wilson
approach substitute, 2022
Archival pigment print and screen-printed varnish on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm, 30 x 30 cm
Jane Wilson and Louise Wilson RA Elect (b. 1967, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) are identical twin sisters and YBA artists who work together as a duo in London. They are known for their work with photography, moving image and installation in an expanded form of cinema and lens-based media. In 1999 they were nominated for the Turner Prize. They are represented by local gallery Maureen Paley.
Discover more and purchase:
Paul Maheke
Unresolved Shadows (Ibis), 2022
3 colour silkscreen on Peregrina Classics Metallic Gold 305gsm, 32.5 x 43cm
Paul Maheke (b. 1985, Brive-la-Gaillarde, France) is a London based artist using drawing, installation, video, sound and performance to explore the body as the site of an archive. Maheke’s “research is grounded in decolonial and emancipatory thought with a focus on how history, memory and identity are formed and constituted.” Exhibitions include at South London Gallery; Tate Modern and the 57th Venice Biennale, Italy.
Discover more and purchase:
Rindon Johnson
Sparrow sings new song, 2021
Digital print on Vellum, 20 x 23cm
Rindon Johnson (b. 1990, San Francisco, USA) is an artist and poet based in Berlin. Johnson’s work spans physical, object-based works and immersive, virtual space to cut through assumed realities and examine “how virtual and physical spaces are intimately aligned” exploring in the ways that “language fails, contradicts or empowers”. Exhibitions include at SculptureCenter, New York; Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington and FACT, Liverpool.
Discover more and purchase:
Josephine Pryde
Freshly Cut Grass, May Blossom, Stinging Nettles, Bluebells and Lady's Bedstraw, Picked in the Spring and Exposed in the Darkroom, 2019
Colour Photogram, Each edition is unique and handmade by the artist, 56.5 x 86.5 cm
Josephine Pryde (b. 1967, Alnwick, Northumberland, UK) lives and works in London and Berlin. Pryde “explores and interrogates the creation and consumption of visual culture, with a specific focus on photography and its associated modes of production”. Her works challenge typical photographic styles and subjects to call into question dominant visual languages. Exhibitions include at Museum of Modern Art, New York; Serpentine Gallery, London; the Turner Prize at Tate Britain and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
Discover more and purchase:
Thao Nguyen Phan
Becoming Alluvium, 2020
Pigment print onto Somerset enhanced Satin 330gsm, Set of three prints, 24 x 32 cm each
Thao Nguyen Phan (b. 1987, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) trained as a painter and works across video, painting and installation. “Drawing from literature, philosophy and daily life, Phan observes ambiguous issues in social conventions and history.” Exhibitions include at Pirelli HangarBiccoca, Milan; Venice Art Biennial; and Tate St Ives.
Discover more and purchase:
Hannah Black
Untitled, 2017
Screen print on Somerset soft white 300gsm, 42 x 60 cm
Hannah Black (b. 1981, Manchester) is an artist utilising installation, performance and moving image works. Black's practice “deals primarily with issues of global capitalism, feminist theory, the body and sociopolitical spaces of control." according to Hatty Nestor via Art in America. Exhibitions include at Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin; mumok, Vienna and she has performed at PS1 MoMA, New York. She is represented by the London gallery Arcadia Missa.
Discover more and purchase:
Ahmet Öğüt
People’s Park, 2015
Digital and lino print onto Somerset Photo Satin 300g, 38.5 x 29.5cm
Ahmet Öğüt (b. 1981, Diyarbakir, Turkey) is a Kurdish sociocultural initiator, artist, and lecturer working across a variety of media, including photography, video, and installation. “Öğüt often uses humor and small gestures to offer his commentary on rather serious or pressing social and political issues.” Exhibitions include at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; 17th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul and Kunstverein Dresden, Germany.
Discover more and purchase:
Camille Henrot
Untitled, 2016
Lithograph and digitally printed collaged elements on Somerset Satin White 300gsm, 54.6 x 42cm
Camille Henrot (b. 1978, Paris, France) produces artwork in a variety of mediums, including film, sculpture, installation, and painting to reflect her interest in philosophy, literature, and anthropology. Her work for Chisenhale, The Pale Fox “articulates our desire to make sense of the world through the objects that surround us.” Exhibitions include at the 55th Venice Biennale; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston and Palais de Tokyo, Paris.
Discover more and purchase:
James Richards
Untitled, 2011
Giclee print on 210gsm MPS Satin Paper, 56.3 x 42.1 cm
James Richards (b. 1983, Cardiff, UK) is a London-based artist predominantly known for his work in moving image, sound and sculpture, he “often merges these forms within individual works to interrogate the experience of what it is to view and be viewed”. Richards’ work “transcends the usual constraints of film and video projection by accumulating imagery in a manner that resists completion” – LUX. Exhibitions include at the Turner Prize at Tate Britain; 55th Venice Biennale; The New Museum, New York and ICA, London.
Discover more and purchase:
