Carefully selected artists, based in Hackney and the east end exhibit fresh new work in conjunction with Hackney Empire’s Spice Festival. Painting, sculpture, drawing, screen-prints, photography, performance, video and computer generated images from twenty five artists come together in a show that warrants your undivided attention.

Work from Peter Ainsworth, Henrietta Armstrong, Emilie Bell, Claire Brewster, Angela Corcoran, Nicola Cunningham, Charlie Danby, Joel Ely, Kirsty Harris, Richard Hubner, Cheryl Lane, Harry Logan, James Manning, Tracy Neal, Johanna Nilsson, James Ormiston, Cara O’Keefe, Scott O’Rourke, Emily Power, Fiona Przybylski, Sophie Ruderman, Lucie Russell, Ben Twiston-Davies, Liam Williams and Mike Young will be for sale, with a percentage of the proceeds donated to Hackney Empire.

Theme Park Charlie Danby’s woodland constructions tell the story of that which is lost, and that which is to be discovered. Remnants of roller-coasters, references to theme parks, ruins, castles, bridges and fortified walls that separate nothing and safeguard even less. Myth and fairytale bring them into a landscape of synthetic idyll, where objects are both visible and invisible. The works are built on platforms that float like islands, scale and reference shift constantly and mirrors present optical recess and provide strange vistas.

Joel Ely’s paintings have been selected for the BP Portrait Award for the second consecutive year. His practice involves researching and combining disparate elements of the histories, theories and fictions surrounding food, nature and figurative art. This is realised through a bastardised approach to painting, performance and installation.

Kirsty Harris’ breakfast scene installation becomes quite unsettling when a closer look at the egg’s shell reveals it was broken by a bullet. Waking up, every day, to the carefully edited images and news reports is the way we gauge how the rest of the world exists. Reliance on corporations to transmit the truth suddenly seems naïve.

Empirical Emily Power manipulates the surface of wallpaper to include words beneath its pattern. Intermarried with the codes and regulations of the pre-made paper, the text looks towards linguistics and habit forming systems of communication, adopting a freeze-frame of gridded language to suggest an arresting of circumstances.

PRIVATE VIEW: SUNDAY 10th JULY 2005 6-9pm
Performance – 8pm Nicola Cunningham
Photography and Disc Jockeys in the Marie Lloyd bar, 8pm till late

OPEN DAILY 11th–14TH JULY 2005 5-9pm
Hackney Empire’s Exhibition Space
291 Mare Street
Hackney, London E8 1EJ