Eddie Otchere, Goldie: Metalheadz at the Blue Note in Hoxton Square in 1996. Courtesy the artist
Presenting over 120 works across a 35-year period, After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024 brings together contemporary working class artists who use photography to explore the nuances of working class life in all its diversity.
Launching on Thursday 26 September, 6 pm – Book free launch tickets
The exhibition, curated by Johny Pitts, emphasises the perspectives of practitioners who turn their gaze towards both their communities and outwards to the wider world.
Instead of looking at working-class people, the exhibition will explore life through the lenses of working-class practitioners, who have not only turned their gaze towards their own communities but also out towards the world.
The year 2024 will mark 35 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the symbolic end of Communism. The weakening of the Soviet Union in the 1980s prompted economist Francis Fukuyama to announce the triumph of Western Liberal Democracy as the only viable future for global politics.
The counter-cultural energies of the 1980s, very often powered up by the alternative ideologies embodied by Communism, produced a collective, coherent, politically engaged generation of working-class artists. But after the so-called ‘End of History’, what became of working-class culture? Who identifies as such, and why? What of the working class creative? What kind of images has working-class life produced in the last 35 years?
After The End of History aims to illuminate these questions.
Artists in the exhibition include; Richard Billingham, Sam Blackwood, Serena Brown, Antony Cairns, Rob Clayton, Joanne Coates, Josh Cole, Artúr Čonka, Elaine Constantine, Natasha Edgington, Richard Grassick, Anna Magnowska, Rene Matic, J A Mortram, Kelly O'Brien, Eddie Otchere, Kavi Pujara, Khadija Saye, Chris Shaw, Trevor Smith, Ewen Spencer, Hannah Starkey, Igoris Taran, Nathaniel Telemaque, Barbara Wasiak and Tom Wood.
After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 - 2024 is a Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition curated by Johny Pitts with Hayward Gallery Touring.
The exhibition is organised in collaboration with Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry; Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea; and Bonington Gallery, Nottingham. It will tour to Stills, Edinburgh, from 21 March to 28 June 2025.
The Nottingham show details:
Preview on the 26th Sept, 6pm - 8pm - Nottingham rapper Cappo performing.
Then from Fri 27 Sep 2024 - Sat 14 Dec 2024
Monday – Friday, 10 am – 5 pm
Saturday, 11 am – 3 pm
Serena Brown ‘Clayponds’ 2018