The Gallery of Everything- Journeys Into The Outside

On a trip to London I visited the Gallery of Everything's Outsider Art show: Journeys Into the Outside. I have already written about it in my essay, so I will take what I wrote there into here rather than writing a new review for the sake of it!

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The Gallery of Everything describes itself as exhibiting “non-academic artists and private art makers”[1] and from September to November 2016 held an exhibition titled ‘Journeys Into The Outside’. The temporary exhibition was based on Martin Wallace and Jarvis Cocker’s 1998 documentary series of the same name, displaying work of Outsider Artists featured in the series, including Howard Finster, Nek Chand Saini and Karl Junker.

On a visit there it was noted how the pieces were displayed in the environment. The pieces were separated into groups dependent on the artist, with a small description of the artist and their intention from a small gallery flyer. There did not seem to be an unnecessary fixation on their identities as Fine et al were concerned about. The screening of the accompanying series did give the opportunity to learn more about the artists’ biographies, but largely kept this brief.

There were some concerns however. To see Chomo’s sculptures in the context of the gallery setting was jarring with the knowledge that they had once inhabited his forest home (see: fig.1) that had been his very sanctuary from the art environment. To view these pieces without such context as many viewers do would, with assumption, not solicit the same response.