Cell Project Space

Sunday July 5th 2015 4pm–5pm

For the final part of Columbidae, Laura McLean-Ferris has invited Sophie Collins, Megan Rooney and Kathy Noble to read directly from Barbara T. Smith's Xerox Poetry Sets (1965-66), and to read a set of their own writing. The event will take the form of a poetry reading in the gallery amongst Smith's works, and will include an introduction by McLean-Ferris. Smith's works were made when she leased a Xerox machine and installed it in her home while she was looking after a family in Pasedena. As well as formal and material experiments with new forms of business machinery and image distribution, the works are also experiments with the artist's voice, which would be later developed in the performance works for which she became well known.

Sophie Collins is co-founder and editor of tender, an online quarterly promoting work by female-identified writers and artists. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Poetry London, The White Review, Ploughshares, Poetic Series (Sternberg Press), The Best British Poetry 2014 (Salt), and elsewhere. Reviews and essays are published in Prac Crit, Poetry Review and Dazed & Confused. In 2014 she received an Eric Gregory Award, and was a poet in residence at the LUMA/Westbau exhibition space in Zürich. She is now editing Currently & Emotion, an anthology of translations to be published by Test Centre in late 2015.

Kathy Noble is a writer and curator based in London whose recent work includes a performance-text with David Raymond Conroy presented at Camden Arts Centre and an on-going series of interviews with a generation of feminist artists who began working in the 60s. She was a Curator at Wysing Arts Centre in 2014 where she worked with artists including Cécile B. Evans, David Raymond Conroy, Rachel Maclean, Shana Moulton, Rachel Reupke and James Richards; prior to this was Head of Exhibitions at Nottingham Contemporary where she worked on exhibitions with Asco, Geoffrey Farmer, Mark Leckey and Tala Madani. From 2007-2012 she worked as a Curator at Tate Modern where she organised numerous commissions, exhibitions and events including The Tanks programme and Tate Modern Live. She has published numerous essays in magazines, catalogues and books.

Megan Rooney is a Canadian artist, based in London. Recent exhibitions include, Okie Dog on Santa Monica, Almanac Inn, Turin, (2015); Till the stars turn cold, Glasgow Sculpture Studios (2015); Tilia Americana, Opening Times Digital Commissions (2014); Der Leone have Sept Cabeça (with Quinn Latimer), CRAC, Alsace (2014); Pleasure and Charity - sharing in the experience, Art Gallery of Ontario (2014). O labor, Sister Continent (with Quinn Latimer), Frieze evening of performances at David Roberts Art Foundation (2014). This summer she will present, Last Days. Last Days. Last Days. a newly commissioned performance at the Serpentine Gallery.

The exhibition Columbidae: The Poetry Sets can be viewed Thursday - Sunday 12-6pm and continues until 5th July 2015

Notes:

Columbidae is the name for the bird family that includes doves and pigeons.

Columbidae, part one was a group show of work by Essex Olivares, Mélanie Matranga, Barbara T. Smith and Dena Yago that considered some recent collapses of work into life 

Generously supported by FLUXUS and The Arts Council Of England