World Capital
Felicity Hammond
Opening Thursday 25 April 6-9pm
Exhibition runs until Saturday 18 May, open Tuesday - Saturday 12-6pm
Part of our 2019 programme home
EXHIBITION IMAGES | panel discussion part 1 + part 2 | EXHIBITION BOOKLET
Installation view of World Capital, Felicity Hammond, 2019, arebyte Gallery, London. Image: Christopher MacInnes
Public Programme:
Panel discussion: Clare Melhuish, Monica Degen, Adam Brown and Felicity Hammond
10th May, 6.30 - 8.30pm, free: book tickets here
Reading Group
11th May, 3-5pm, free; book tickets here
Walking Tour of Canning Town and the surrounding area, led by Debbie Kent
18th May, 1-3pm (tbc) free; book tickets here
arebyte Gallery is pleased to announce World Capital, a new installation by Felicity Hammond.
Conversations about the homogenisation of the built environment have taken many forms. From Walter Benjamin’s writings about the effect of capitalism on nineteenth century Paris, to Ian Nairn’s scathing review of the growing ubiquity of town planning, the crisis surrounding urban identity has been and will continue to be widely contested.
In World Capital the conversation turns towards the way that digital technologies have influenced the global image of the city. Offering a commentary on the role that the computer generated architectural proposition plays in the increasing uniformity of the urban realm, the work outlines the ways in which the proliferation of the virtual world has contributed to urban indifference.
Combining images used to market contemporary housing alongside relics of the industrial past, the work collides local history with the global image that supersedes it. Re-imagining the Great Thames flood of 1928 which destroyed much of the site of the exhibition (now known as London City Island) World Capital recalls the area’s industrial and troublesome past, propelling its history into the near future.
Felicity Hammond is an artist and educator based in London. She is currently undertaking TECHNE funded research in the Contemporary Art Research Centre at Kingston University on digital representations of the built environment and their relationship with site. She has worked with major institutions including Tate Modern, The Whitechapel Gallery, The Photographer's Gallery and The Saatchi Gallery, and her work is held in international collections.
