'After the end of history: British working class photography 1989 – 2024’ - Bonington Gallery
Celebrating working class photography from the last 35 years, the exhibition includes photographs of Leicester's Hindu community by Kavi Pujura and work by Kelly O'Brien, raised in an Irish community in Derby. Also on show is a new display 'Donald Rodney in Nottingham' which explores the period in the 1980s when the acclaimed artist lived and worked in the city.
By Sarah McLeod | Published on 18 September 2024
Categories: Press office;
Dates: 27 September to 14 December 2024
Preview: 26 September, 6-9pm
Bonington Gallery presents the Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024.
The group exhibition brings together working class artists who use photography to explore the nuances of life in all its diversity today, turning their gaze toward both their communities and out to the wider world.
After the End of History offers a picture of working-class life today; from Rene Matic’s portrait of growing up mixed race in a white working-class community in Peterborough, to Elaine Constantine's documentation of the Northern Soul scene, and JA Mortram’s documentation throughout his life of marginalised people while working as a caregiver.
Artists from the East Midlands include Kavi Pujara whose photographic project This Golden Mile is an ode to Leicester's Hindu community and Kelly O’Brien, raised in an Irish community in Derby, who explores themes of class identity, family and gender in her work.
2024 marks 35 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the symbolic end of Communism. For the economist Francis Fukuyama, writing in the early 1990s, this celebrated triumph of Western Liberal Democracy as the only viable future for global politics represented the “End of History”.
The counter-cultural energies of the 1980s, very often powered up by the alternative ideologies embodied by Communism, and a reaction against Thatcherism, produced a collective, coherent and politically engaged generation of working-class artists. But after the so-called “End of History” was announced in the 1990s, what became of working-class culture and the working class creative? What kind of images has working-class life produced in the last 35 years? After The End of History aims to illuminate these questions.
Artists in the exhibition include Richard Billingham, Sam Blackwood, Serena Brown, Antony Cairns, Rob Clayton, Joanne Coates, Josh Cole, Artúr Čonka, Elaine Constantine, Natasha Edgington, Richard Grassick, Anna Magnowska, Rene Matic, J A Mortram, Kelly O'Brien, Eddie Otchere, Kavi Pujara, Khadija Saye, Chris Shaw, Trevor Smith, Ewen Spencer, Hannah Starkey, Igoris Taran, Nathaniel Telemaque, Barbara Wasiak and Tom Wood.
After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 - 2024 is a Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition curated by Johny Pitts with Hayward Gallery Touring. The exhibition is organised in collaboration with Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry; Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea; and Bonington Gallery, Nottingham. It will continue at Stills, Edinburgh, from 21 March to 28 June 2025.
Bonington Vitrines #25
Donald Rodney in Nottingham
Dates: 27 September to 14 December 2024
Preview: 26 September, 6-9pm
Donald Rodney, c.1985 Courtesy NTU Fine Art Administration files
Donald Rodney (b.1961 – d.1998) studied at Nottingham Trent Polytechnic, now Nottingham Trent University between 1981 and 1985. Here, he shifted from making flower paintings to a more experimental approach across a range of media addressing issues around racial identity, Black masculinity, chronic illness, and Britain’s colonial past, establishing his artistic language.
The display brings together archival materials that show a snapshot of what was happening in Nottingham while Donald was here. We get a glimpse of the social and political discourse Donald was part of while he was a student. From 1982 onwards sketchbooks were an integral part of Donald’s practice, containing preliminary studies for new artworks, records of past exhibitions, and various writings, bringing together diverse personal, cultural, social and political influences.
Visit Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker at Nottingham Contemporary, which has brought together all surviving artworks of Donald’s, featuring painting, drawing, installation, sculpture and digital media, from 28 September until 5 January 2025.
This exhibition has been developed with the exhibitions team at Nottingham Contemporary.
Notes for Editors
Press enquiries please contact Sarah McLeod, Corporate Communications Manager, on telephone +44 (0)115 848 8735, or via email.
About Bonington Gallery
Founded in 1969, Bonington Gallery has been at the forefront of Nottingham’s rich and vibrant visual arts community for over fifty years, offering an innovative and dynamic programme of local, national, and international significance. Situated at the heart of Nottingham Trent University’s School of Art & Design, our ‘art school’ context is reflected throughout our multi-disciplinary programme of exhibitions and events – presenting and exploring practices related to visual art, fashion, film, music and design. Beyond our building, our connections with colleagues in academic subject areas help ground our programme and thinking within past, present and future cultural and societal discourse
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