Palimpsest

In collaboration with the Society of Fine Arts and Post Datum.
Metro Arts, 2019

Pronounced : Pal-im-sest

‘palimpsest’ is a cross-institutional, grass-roots, student-run exhibition. It aims to relay the interlaying effects of time, history, place, and experience.

The exhibition considers the archaeological term “palimpsest,” meaning “something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.” This commonly refers to a manuscript which has been erased and reused. In this context it relates to artworks being a “multilayered record” of history, constantly being effaced and reworked.

With this framework, palimpsest creates an environment to understand the artist, and art as a complex accumulation of layers, revealing embedded and imbued traces of its past conceptions of history. The term’s potential is ambiguous and left purposely open, posing many questions. We simply aim to challenge artists to respond to the palimpsest and pursue traces of space.

Artists: Ella Callander, Zara Rose Dudley, Joaquin Gonzales, Bayley Hegerhorst Mahony, Nicola Holtham, Lucy Nguyen-Hunt, Abigail Rutter, Nicholas Tossmann, Lily Whitaker and Keemon Williams.