Transformer: A Rebirth of Wonder will open in October presented by The Store X The Vinyl Factory, with new and debut work by some of today’s most exciting artists
Dazed Media co-founder Jefferson Hack has curated a group exhibition titled Transformer: A Rebirth of Wonder, which is set to open in London at the beginning of October. Coinciding with Frieze London, the exhibition will take place at 180 The Strand, and follows previous group exhibitions commissioned by The Store X The Vinyl Factory (last year’s Strange Days: Memories of the Future brought together artists working in video and film, and in 2017 the group show Everything at Once was staged in the labyrinthine space).
A study of social transformation via the individual, the communal and the spatial, Transformer: A Rebirth of Wonder will debut new work by the likes of Doug Aitken, Sophia Al-Maria & Victoria Sin, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Donna Huanca, Juliana Huxtable, Evan Ifekoya, Dozie Kanu, Quentin Lacombe, Lawrence Lek, Jenn Nkiru, Chen Wei and Harley Weir & George Rouy. The exhibition borrows its title from the 1958 Lawrence Ferlinghetti poem I Am Waiting: “I am waiting for my case / to come up / and I am waiting / for a rebirth of wonder / and I am waiting for someone / to really discover America.” Ferlinghetti, who is now 100 years old, wrote the poem as a hope-filled call to arms.
“The artists in Transformer look deeply into the present and see the future,” says Hack. “Each artist is a powerful mediator of their community and culture, using storytelling, poetics, and ritual to author new narratives and expand our field of vision. They are world-makers, inviting us to access altered states of consciousness as we step beyond reality into a series of highly authored, staged environments.”
A programme of performances, talks and workshops titled Alchemical Realms will also take place over the course of the exhibition’s two-month run, featuring artists like Chaos Magic and Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley. Bringing together an impressive roster of artists whose works muse on contemporary visions for new futures, Transformer: A Rebirth of Wonder promises immersive, engaging new pieces by some of today’s most exciting practitioners.
Transformer: A Rebirth of Wonder is at The Store X Vinyl Factory, 180 The Strand, from October 2 – December 8, 2019.