Bag Lady

To launch a new studio block, Cell founder Richard Priestley uses the factory as location for a group warehouse show, prior to building work commencing. Following the Cell ethic to show emergent artists alongside established ones, a generous cross-fertilisational dialogue is nurtured between generations of artists through recontextualisation of new works.

This ex bag factory sweat shop made items which scattered across the globe with their unique and autobiographical contents within. If this dilapidated factory reminds us of a ‘bag lady’, then the contents of the show would be her precious, bizarre, rare, revolting and wondrous possessions.

Central to the dialogue within ‘Bag Lady’ is the notion of the inevitability of transience, and many of the artists have been encouraged to present site-specific works which will be erased, with sentimental mourn, as the new studios are constructed in the exhibition space a few short weeks after they are created. This approach reflects the temporary treasures buried in the bag lady’s junk and jumble luggage, which will inevitably be lost forever, but are exhumed temporarily for the length of the show, as if a bag had split, and the weird and wonderful contents spill onto a piss stained corner of back alley tarmac, noticed together fleetingly before being abandoned. Pressetext

Bag Lady

mit Allison Gill, Bob & Roberta Smith, Chris Jones, Edgar Schmitz, Gavin Turk, Kevin Gray, Marcus Sendlinger, Milika Muritu, Neil Zakiewicz, Norwegian Lady, Richard Hughes, Richard Priestley, Sam Basu, Simon Faithfull, Susanne Kohler, Mark Titchener, Luke Dowd, Sean Dawson, Matt & Ross, Ian Monroe