The Red Mansion Art Prize Exhibition 2019

Exhibition of the winners’ work at the Weston Studio, Royal Academy of Arts

Open daily from the 18th to 29th May 2019

Royal College of Art, Weston Studio, Royal Academy of Arts, W1J 0BD (Entrance via Burlington House)

The Red Mansion Art Prize was established to promote artistic exchange between China and the UK. Seven of the UK’s foremost art colleges take part in the annual competition: Royal Academy Schools, Royal College of Art, Chelsea College of Art, Central Saint Martins, Slade School of Fine Art, Goldsmiths and The Ruskin School of Art. Each college shortlists six students, from which The Red Mansion panel of judges selects seven winners, one winner from each college.

The winners travelled to China for one month where they lived and worked alongside other artists. The exhibition is a showcase of the works created by the finalists as a result of their experience.

Ibrahim Cisse Royal College of Art
Paula Morison Slade School of Fine Art
Alistair Debling Ruskin School of Fine Art
Rachel Cheung Goldsmiths College
Joe Richardson Central Saint Martins
Ant Hamlyn Chelsea College of Arts
Debora Delmar Royal Academy Schools

The 2018 panel of Judges was composed of:

Lisa Panting Director at Hollybush Gardens
Ceri Hand Director of Programme at Somerset House
Andrew Renton Independent Curator and Lecturer at Goldsmiths
Sonya Dyer Artist
Nicolette Kwok Director of the Red Mansion Foundation.

Artist statements

Rachel Cheung Goldsmiths College

Rachel Cheung is a performance and interdisciplinary artist based in London. Her practice investigates the futurologies of humans and technology in conjunction with science fictions within contemporary art. Cheung’s live performances look at the role of the human body within a science-fictional performance space; playing between ‘hard’ (physical) and ‘soft’ (virtual) spaces by using choreographic and improvised movements to activate installations, sculptures and objects.

Rachel-Cheung
Grid Games: The World Is Your Oyster, 2018.
Performance installation. 3 hours. Image credit: Gwil Hughes.

Ibrahim Cisse Royal College of Art

Poet and editor, Ibrahim Cisse created Lost in Timein 2017. Lost in Time is a publishing venture dedicated to recording and documenting Cisse’s surroundings, notably artists’ reflections and practices. As an artist, Cisse embraces the poetic as a means to expand his writing beyond the literal. These experimentations are leading to scripts, visual art (installations, photography, collages) and performances. Cisse is involved in educational programmes and initiatives taking place between Europe and the African continent. With these endeavours, Cisse aims to further the potential for art to emancipate and create realities grounded in imaginations.

Untitled, December 2018. Photomontage. 5 x 5 inches. Image credit: Ibrahim Cisse

 

Paula Morison Slade School of Fine Art

Paula Morison (b. 1985, Swindon) is a conceptual artist working in a variety of media. Her practice is broadly focused on how we, as humans, try to order the world around us. She looks at the systems people create and the behaviours we exhibit that help us exert perceived control over our existence. Her interests include data, quantitative information and translation (in the widest sense of the word).

Learning to Read (the 79 characters I know on the front cover of The People’s Daily), 2019.

 

Joe Richardson Central Saint Martins

Joe Richardson’s work examines male behaviour in pubs, cartoons, and film, dealing with anxiety surrounding success and the performance of ‘masculinity’. The works operate as commentators, facades, and stages for masculinity to be played out on, examined, and ridiculed, questioning whether failure can provide cathartic liberation from masculine norms.


DINNER WITH MR MACHINE, 2018. Video.

Ant Hamlyn Chelsea College of Arts

Ant Hamlyn (b. 1993, Northampton) lives and works in London. Hamlyn’s work draws on stagecraft, magic, arcades, the body and our relationship with modern technology to explore our shifting enthusiasms towards contemporary life. Hamlyn offers up sculptural objects, texts and kinetic installations which aim not to act as hyperbolic motivational offerings but attempt to delve into surreal, transient and sometimes humorous states of being.

I’ve Got Itchy Feet about the Future, 2019.

 

Debora Delmar Royal Academy Schools

Débora Delmar (b. 1986, Mexico City) lives and works in London where she is completing the Postgraduate Programme at the Royal Academy Schools. Through her work Delmar investigates consumer culture, capitalist lifestyles, and aspirational aesthetics. She is particularly focused on the societal effects of globalisation such as class issues and cultural hegemony. Delmar creates multi-sensory installations that commonly are composed of elements such as fabricated and appropriated objects, reproductions of iPhone photographs, and elements such as scent, sound and performance, as well as online interventions.


Table Line (Mayfair, London), from the series iPhone Photo Archive (Cafés), 2019.Image courtesy of Gallleria Pìu and the artists. Photo credit: Stefano Maniero.