Artcore – Present Tense, Future Perfect?

Present Tense, Future Perfect?
Artists: Kelly O’Brien and Thomas Wynne
Exhibition Launch: Friday 23 July 2021, 5-7pm
Exhibition Dates: Saturday 24 July – Saturday 7 August 2021
Opening Times: Monday – Saturday, 11am-5pm

About the Exhibition
Present Tense Future Perfect? Is an exhibition featuring the work of two of our artists in residence: Thomas Wynne and Kelly O’Brien.

In October 2020, Kelly O’Brien and Thomas Wynne undertook an artist residency with Artcore for a duration of two months titled Present Tense Future Perfect? Through this residency, we wanted to give the artists an opportunity to make new work dealing with the tensions caused by current uncertainties, whilst looking forward to a brighter future.

Kelly O’Brien is a Midlands-based artist with a background in documentary photography. The artist describes her working process as a collaboration between photography and clairvoyance to uncover information about her estranged and deceased father. Influenced by subjective-truth, Spiritualist churches and online clairvoyants, Kelly constructs a narrative around her father, a story that would otherwise cease to exist.

Thomas Wynne is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Derby. As part of his residency with Artcore, the artist has considered the human intention to inhabit another planet, particularly Mars. Through his practice, Wynne draws similarities between the duration of the COVID pandemic and the hypothetic 9-month manned mission to Mars.

Within this exhibition, both artists use a wide range of materials and techniques to construct their visual frameworks. These include photography, sculpture, found objects, archival images, video, automated writing, psychic drawing and installation.