Exposition

Necessary Amendments (2020)

Stuart Whipps
open exposition

About this exposition

During the passing of the New Towns bill in 1946 the minister for Town and Country planning invoked Moore’s Utopia only to be dismissed, ridiculed and lampooned by opposition politicians in the UK parliament. Whipps’ artistic research takes this moment's crude dichotomy as a starting point to investigate the places that were built and the people who live in them 70 years later. The outcomes (films, exhibitions and publication) allow for the different reading of historical materials from the perspective of memory and community. Whipps’ creates a change to the way we remember and think of ‘new towns’ today by both; representing the stories of people who lived and live in those ‘new’ places and by reflecting upon what happens when idealism and optimism is confronted by bureaucracy and the status quo. This research utilises historical and archival materials from Milton Keynes City Discover Centre and vintage educational videos from The Open University that were presented alongside newly created photographs, films and personal testimonies. Whipps developed a new body of work that centres around a series of films ‘Necessary Amendments’ (2014 - 2020) supported by community engagement events (e.g “Cycle Tour” around Milton Keynes public art displays, 2018), new photographic and film material from the sculpture garden created by a Harlow New Town architect Sir Fredrick Gibberd, and commissioned writing by Dr Honor Gavin (The University of Manchester). His findings in a form of films, contemporary art exhibitions, public talks and publications were supported by MK Gallery, The Open University and the University of Hertfordshire. The project was exhibited nationally in MK Gallery, and internationally in CURRENT Athens. “Necessary Amendments: Homes for the People” film was commissioned and exhibited as part of New Geographies (funded by ACE). Whipps published a peer-reviewed paper in ‘Art & the Public Sphere’ journal (2017).
typeresearch exposition
keywordsArt and design 2021
date23/06/2020
published18/12/2020
last modified27/03/2023
statuspublished
copyrightStuart Whipps
licenseAll rights reserved
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/938605/938606
doihttps://doi.org/10.22501/rc.938605
published inResearch Catalogue, Birmingham City University
portal issue1. self-published


Copyrights

nameScreenshot 2020-12-14 at 15.54.11
copyrightStuart Whipps
licenseAll rights reserved
usagespicture
nameSelected Exhibitions
copyrightStuart Whipps
licenseAll rights reserved
usagespdf
namehonor
copyrightHonor Gavin
licenseAll rights reserved
usagespdf
nameSelected Publications
copyrightStuart Whipps
licenseAll rights reserved
usagespdf
nameSelected Art Works
copyrightStuart Whipps
licenseAll rights reserved
usagespdf

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