MUDLARK
Mudlark brings together a variety of works – ranging from installation to jewellery – that investigate the post-human body in the context of an increasingly imbalanced world economy dominated by AI, digital manufacturing and online control.
Curated by Bailey and Katrin Hanusch
Works by Bailey, Katrin Hanusch, Hongxi Li, Nuka Nayu, Adam Leach and Leo Carlton
In the artists’ practices a prioritised material awareness finds kinship with that of ‘mudlarks’ — street children who survived by scavenging and trading valuables they could find on the banks of the River Thames, during the 19th century. Getting to the river banks to forage was not without risk; it implied descending over slippery steps and slopes at low tide to comb through junk, bones and broken crockery.
The artists apply themselves likewise, descending into the mud and silt of collective experience to extract fresh aspects and potentialities. They use images that communicate estrangement, develop tools and methods to adapt to the environment and derive an essence from the mud that might just be an elixir.