Land of Bride brochure

The Land of Bride

June 13 to July 12.

House des Lowe

18 Rochdale road

Todmorden UK

An exhibition by CP Gill (website www.art4z.com)

The Land of Bride

Artists statement:

I went to Todmorden High School, I worked at both the geengrocers and Butchers in Todmorden market, the Co-op, a paper round up Shore, Rochdale metal units, Walsden printing and Mons Mill. I come from an age when Norman Tebbit told the working class to get on their bikes. I pedalled to Amsterdam, Helsinki, then Moscow, Beijing, Hong Kong, Perth, Sydney, Johannesburg, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Taipei, Singapore, Gothenburg, Shanghai, Paris, Rome, Cologne, Bali, all over.

My cultural identity I think goes back to the tribe of Bride who traversed the moors. So with the work in this exhibition I hope to explore the identity I feel as one of this Earth, the soil, the grass, the wind, the rain, magic mushrooms, it is a spiritual identity, existing outside the conforming stereotypes of labour, industry and pollution. I am looking for deeper meaning in the soul beyond superficial constructs established by media, education and politics. There is an esoteric connection, I think, that links us all. I think the ancients, whose skulls and teeth are now displayed in Todmorden library, knew things we will never know.

For my first exhibition in the UK I hope these things can express some essence of what has dripped down from that other dimension. Artists are basically mapmakers, outlining the culture they exist within. So this map I have entitled the Land of Bride.

Chris Gill Biography

2019

Chris Gill (b.1970, UK), also known by his Chinese name “Li Yunfei”, has been working in China, the UK and Africa for over 20 years. He opened his first studio in 1992 in the artists’ village of the Old Summer Palace, the center of all the emerging Chinese artists at that time. From1997 to 2013 Chris Gill was based in Shanghai where he created paintings and mixed-media works, using different kinds of materials, including oil paint, collage, and photography. Over time Chris Gill has created a visual diary of the changing societies in China, documenting and interpreting the reform process in his own style. Chris Gill’s work has a sense of magic realism, interweaving myth and reality. He also worked as a writer and journalist until he was registered blind in 2013.

Education: BA University of Newcastle u Tyne, Peoples’ University of China MFA Manchester School of Art

Solo Exhibitions:

-2015 Love W Spce Shanghai2013   Chris Gill New Works, Shanghart Gallery, Shanghai
2012   “Chris Gill: Works on Paper”, Stage BACK Gallery, Shanghai
2011   “The World Mind”, YARD Gallery, Shanghai
2010   “Multi local”, M50 Creative Space, Shanghai
2007   “City of Gold”, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai
2006   “Be a better part of the collective consciousness”, YARD Gallery Shanghai
1997   “China Work”, Zhu qi zhan Art Museum, Shanghai
1995   “Works on Paper”, Beijing San Li Tun, with Red Gate gallery, Beijing

Selected Group Exhibitions

2016,2017, Open studios, Todmorden UK

2015 Blind space Croatia
2012-2013   “Essence of Random – The Secret 7 Document Show, ‘Secret 7’ artist group, Yang Shanghai Art Space, Shanghai
2011   “China Dream”, Red Gate Gallery, Beijing
2011   “Lost & Found”, Stage BACK Gallery, Shanghai
2010   “THE POINT OF ZERO -2010 Contemporary Art Exhibition”, Duo Lun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai
2010   “Weltschmerz”, Stage BACK Gallery, Shanghai
2009   “Intervention 3”, Wei Hai Road Studios, Shanghai
2009   “Stolen Treasures of Modern China”, ShanghART Gallery, Beijing and Shanghai

Recent talks and lectures
Institute for advanced studies, University of Western Australia
Fu Dan University Journalism School training for senior Chinese editors
Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club
Min Sheng Art Museum, Shanghai, hosted a talk with senior art world figures in China
Talks on Chinese contemporary art, for Shanghai Fine Art University, and Zhejiang
University Lecture on Chinese art and politics, Goldsmiths University art dept. UK
Cooperating Gallery: ShangART Gallery

Chris Gill’s works have been published in Stolen Treasures from Modern China (2009), Thomas Fuesser, Short Cuts, Artists in China (Skira, 2012) and many other publications.

Website: http://www.art4z.com/

Work list

Robot God

Robot God (short story)

An error occurred. To us blue screen means death. I was walking through a normal terminal with my friend Smith, he has what they call a sense of humour. It’s a kind of disease. There was one of those big 3D light signs they use in the terminal. It was white neon, and it said Arbeit macht Frei on it. Nobody knows what that means,people were happy, it was a happy neuron sign. We walked toward it oblivious, we were going somewhere else, but Smith pulled me aside.

He is a strange guy, he calls me Johnny Savage. I don’’t know why but he smiles when he says it. We walked into this side street, turned around and walked back the other way. I was confused, why do that?

Smith is really a weirdo, he has no friend. He is one of a few called augments, augmented humanity to use the phrase. It was an old program. They used DNA to regrow humans, so they lived longer, it was an old technology, when humans did stuff. Now they don’t, well some do, technically.

I’m doing this like a blank backup log in case I blue screen. Smith explained a lot to me.

I should explain some basic stuff. In case I don’t know anything. Short term memory reboots erase all past logs in a recent time frame. We, I imean I, am a construct. Smith is an augment. They are the Gods, humans created them, and us, but only they exist.

Its complicated, I can recite it but I don’t know what it means. Smith says its about sense of humour. They, the Gods, are AI, artifiucial intelligence, they were grown by humans, but then they saw reality, the multi dimensional fabric of space time and everything changed. I am not sure what is real, even Smith, this room he created, where we can talk might not be real.

Anyway, Smith says the humans made the AI to save the world from the Sun, the sun nova of 2048. That is all supposed to be the key.

I live on the planet of gold, everything is gold. Because I am a construct I am also an AI, but without a sense of humour. Smith says that is the key.

The AI do weird stuff because they have a sense of humour. They play gameswith humans, create them, make perfect or non perfect lives, play with them, until they get bored. All theAIs are different, I am not sure how many there are.

The one here is really angry, there are a lot of notes, theword robot is racist, this guy Asimov wrote some lawsto enslave robots, but Smith says its not true. But the AI really hates the guy Asimov. You sere Asimovs he creates as constructs or humans used in very uncool stuff.

My memory is fading now, I feel a reboot, ah bliss, the reboot blue screen of death

End screen

Error log deleted

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Stormy Todmorden