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An art installation in aid of Street Child
Africa
In June 2010 we
created a dramatic art installation addressing the issue of rising
global population which filled the atmospheric Crypt Gallery under
St Pancras Church.
Gregor Harvie’s wall of 50
abstract paintings representing humans as a biological proliferation
and Alex Harvie’s 50 elegies for societies whose drive to grow had
catastrophic consequences was both compelling and extremely
well-received. Texts can be read on the project blog.
For every painting sold,
Street Child Africa offered a vulnerable child in Ghana a year’s
apprenticeship including accommodation, food, medical care and
support, to help lift them out of poverty. The show’s impact will be
much appreciated this year. The installation was part of GENE MEME,
art events addressing the issue of rising population, including a
public debate, online resources and an educational programme.
Aubrey
Manning OBE said, “I’m very pleased to see contemporary artists
tackling social issues, and particularly a subject as important as
population. There hasn’t been enough debate about population issues,
and contemporary art is a great way of reaching a new audience.”
Carolyn George, Director of Street Child
Africa said, “The need for not-for-profit organisations to be
creative and resourceful has never been greater. Contemporary art
enables us to access audiences we may not have otherwise reached,
and at Street Child Africa we are delighted to be working with
Gregor Harvie because he understands the issues and his work is
accessible, commenting on issues which are genuinely important.”
Rupert Maas from the Antiques Roadshow and
Maas Gallery said, “Primeval gods haunt the painter Gregor Harvie -
Khaos, and Eros (love, the life-bringer). Spread across the fifty
intense paintings of his new show, Eros has triumphed - life has
proliferated so fast that Gaia is exhausted. Logic predicts that,
full circle, Khaos will prevail in the future, but all we can see in
The Crypt Gallery (the underworld!), where the fifty paintings are
densely hung, is exponential cellular division evolving through to
teeming crowds. A glimpse of what may be the fate of all this life
is given by his partner, writer Alex Harvie, in a series of elegies
for past societies that have collapsed under their own weight.”
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