Working Lives

25 Apr-18 Apr 2024

Kev Howard, (Carpentry Hook) 1/3 2021 Chromogenic print on brushed aluminium composite and plastic sheet.

Overview

Working Lives brings together artworks dating from the 1880s to 2024 held in the Middlesbrough Collection and are shown alongside loaned pieces by contemporary artists connected with Cleveland Art Society. The exhibition examines the creative lives of artists working in the Tees Valley and highlights the importance of artist groups and the support structures that have been built by artists in the region. A new film made using Artificial Intelligence (AI) asks questions about what collections mean to different people.

A display of artwork by members of the Cleveland Art Society celebrates the group’s 140-year anniversary from its foundation in 1884 as the Cleveland Sketching Club. The group played a pivotal role in laying the groundwork for the Middlesbrough Collection and the inception of MIMA in the 2000s. To this day, this artist-led society convenes, shares and forges creative connections that support its artist members. The display includes early paintings and drawings made by Cleveland Art Society artists held in the Middlesbrough Collection and contemporary pieces made by its current members.

MIMA supports, collects and champions artists within the Tees Valley. This exhibition showcases work by ten artists based in the region whose artwork has been brought into the Collection since 2020. Through painting, photography, textile and drawing, these pieces present the ideas and creative drives of artists working in the region.

A new film, Until the End of the World by Professor Sarah Perks and Dr Paul Stewart from Teesside University, has been developed from a series of creative workshops using AI technology. It stems from the question: if an artwork could dream, what would it dream? Perks and Stewart invited three groups of people connected with the Tees Valley to imagine the dreams of the Middlesbrough Collection using exercises in creative writing, meditation and observation as starting points. The resulting material was translated by AI technology into a script and then a film that offers an alternative vision of the Collection.