‘Of Paradise and Other Places’, Saad Qureshi
HS Projects is delighted to present Of Paradise and Other Places, an exhibition of recent works by Saad Qureshi that have not been shown in London before. Described by Laura Cumming in the Observer as “one of our most pensive and poetic artists”, Qureshi’s sculptures give form to the ideas or stories by which we lend meaning to human existence.
The exhibition includes a striking element of his monumental sculptural installation Something about Paradise, commissioned for the Chapel at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2020. Saad travelled around the country talking to people of faith, as well as atheists and agnostics, about what the concept of Paradise represents or looks like to them. Descriptions of indistinct and imagined places, as recalled from their memories or envisaged in their dreams, were then interpreted and woven together into sculptural forms. These towering and sprawling organic forms are punctuated by a diverse range of landscape features and architectures drawn from across the world. From temples and churches to modernist houses, these structures reveal the spiritual and the earthly in unison and without geographical borders. The monochrome palette gives the work an otherworldly feeling that is further emphasised by a fanciful and inconsistent use of scale to create fantastical and dreamlike mindscapes. Opposite the lifts, the ornate, hand-cut, wooden Gates of Paradise II – VII evoke the often referred to threshold or gateway to the heavens. Something About Paradise and Gates of Paradise are an invitation to reflect on areas of commonality in our frequently polarised society and to open up possibilities for a profound and hopeful dialogue between people.
Flanked by foliage, Abaabil, 2020, made of painted bronze, speaks of the universal human desire to fly and the fascination with feathered beings. Birds took root in Qureshi’s imagination through the myths of his childhood. According to an ancient tale, the abaabil birds are a divinely-inspired flock, who defeated a large army by dropping burning pebbles upon them. The abaabil can be said to combine matter and aura, existing in two different dimensions – one physical and one cultural. Abaabil also alludes to metaphorical flight: that of the mind through imagination and learning, activities which we engage in both privately or collectively and which hold a special fascination for Qureshi as an artist.
Saad Qureshi received his BA in Fine Art from Oxford Brookes University in 2007 and an MFA in Painting from The Slade School of Fine Art, London, in 2010.
Recent solo exhibitions include: The Djanogly Gallery (at Lakeside Arts, Nottingham University) (2024); Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival (2024); Nature Morte Gallery, New Delhi (2022), Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield (2020). Group exhibitions include the Aga Khan Centre Gallery, London (2023); Kunsthall 3,14, Bergen (2021); Museum Arnhem, Netherlands (2020); I’Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris (2019); Drawing Room, London (2019); White Project Gallery, Paris (2014).
Winner of The Frieze & The OWO Sculpture Prize, Convocation is on view at Raffles London. In 2023, Saad Qureshi was commissioned to realise a permanent Organ Donor Memorial for the Royal London Hospital at Whitechapel. He was shortlisted for the 2021 SkyArts LANDMARKS public art prize, and has realised public commissions at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford and for LandSec at Victoria, London.
‘Of Paradise and Other Places’ is at Howick Place from June 2024 to December 2024.
‘The Book of Sand, Julie F Hill
HS Projects is delighted to present The Book of Sand by Julie F Hill, an edition of prints from an ongoing series of works on paper exploring crystal growth generated by a machine learning algorithm trained on a dataset created from an encyclopaedia of crystals and minerals. The work contrasts the time of lived experience with the geological and technological.
Images are generated by sampling points in a machine learning model’s ‘latent space’ – the potentially limitless and unknowable space of the algorithmic imagination. The unfolding and refolding of geological material – or fundamental matter – through deep time cycles, is also potentially infinite.
Titled after the short story by Jorge Luis Borges that features a book with infinite, incomprehensible pages: ‘The Book of Sand … because neither the book nor the sand has any beginning or end.’
The Book of Sand
Digital print on archival paper
100 x 100 cms
unique edition print (left)
unique edition print (right)
Hill studied at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art, and was Fellow in Digital Print at the Royal Academy Schools (2017–20). She took part in Land Art Agency’s Sustainable Futures: Outer Space residency series where she was partnered with environmental anthropologist Dr Valerie Olson (2021). In 2020 she was awarded the inaugural Annie Maunder Prize for Image Innovation as part of the Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year, Royal Museums Greenwich with her work being exhibited at The National Maritime Museum (2020–21), Jodrell Banks (2021) and Fox Talbot Museum (2021–22).
Hill was awarded an Arts Council Developing Your Creative Practice grant for her project Through Machine & Darkness, which has been looking at the use of AI and machine learning in examining astronomical datasets (2019–21).
Hill’s solo and 2 person exhibitions include: A Stone Sky, Thames-Side Studios Gallery, London, (2023); Earth, Water, Night, The Stone Space, London (2023); Uncertain Ruins, commissioned by Camden Council for Swiss Cottage Gallery (2019–2020), The Space Out of Time, Terminal Creek Contemporary/Capture Photography Festival, Vancouver, CA (2019); Of Stars and Chasms, ArthousSE1, London (2019).
Group shows include: Seeing Stars, The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds, UK (2022); Aora VI: Light curated by Jen Ellis online (2021); The AI Gallery, National Gallery X & National Gallery, online (2021–); Pokey Hat, VERBureau at Glasgow International Festival, Glasgow, UK (2016) and Single-Shot, Tate Britain, London, UK & touring (2007).
‘The Book of Sand’ is at 5 Marble Arch from July 2024 to January 2025.
‘Office Party’, Fabio Lattanzi Antinori
HS Projects is delighted to present ‘Office Party’, an exhibition of new and recent work by Fabio Lattanzi Antinori that raises questions around the production and consumption of data.
‘Office Party’ explores power dynamics, beliefs, and the way our perception of reality is collectively shaped and disseminated within society. Lattanzi Antinori’s work delves into the narratives of data, the agency of digital technology, and how these elements shape the future of society. The artworks in the exhibition are inspired by keywords, a term often used in digital marketing to describe words and phrases searched for by people online.
Every time we look for something online, our search terms are recorded and combined to build a personality profile for each one of us. This data is then used to forecast our future behaviours, predict the products or services we might want to buy, as well as understand and influence our political preferences and social behaviours. Behind the scenes, there exists a vast market that commodifies keywords. These keywords are gathered through elusive intelligent algorithms, creating profiles for everyone, which are then sold to advertisers and private companies. This business model has become dominant among companies, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo, that bring disruptive proprietary technologies to the masses.
The ‘Keywords Karaoke Machine’ is inspired by the way digital technology is shaping our notion of reality, our idea of history, and the way we interact with each other. The artwork plays songs with lyrics and music generated by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) model, using collected geo-localised (to 12 Hammersmith Grove) keywords. The work will be constantly changing with new text and music experienced through headphones. We can also organise an artist led Karaoke event, when speakers and microphones will be added to allow viewers to actively perform. The objective being to engage with the tenants of the building and any other desired audiences. With a touch of humour and irony, this work aims to reflect upon the issues our society currently faces.
‘Highly Predictable’ presents the price of a selection of keywords, displayed on a custom- shaped screen made of bright LED lights. These are the result of online searches that the artist has found on Google and other platforms, which are relevant to the surrounding area of Hammersmith. The keywords and their prices are constantly changing on the sculpture’s display screen.
‘Fat Fingers’ alludes to the fact that secret extraction won’t leave anything unexploited and presents mistyped keywords, together with their prices. These words are selected from among those initially presented by Raymond Williams in his 1988 seminal book on particularly important words (now better known as keywords) which have been used to understand developing aspects of society over time.
‘Another Sign’ 2024, is part of series where specific quotes found in books, newspaper and web media, are isolated and then cut from security screens. The quote lends itself to different interpretations, it could be reminiscent of the incessant extractive and unsustainable nature of the current economic framework. A comment on overconsumption or an exhortation to try and overcome one’s limits. The security screen has become synonymous for vacant properties and the fear of risky investment, but also one that is transitory by nature, and which only exists for a limited time, between different chapters, one that waits patiently during difficult times, knowing that new opportunities will arise soon.
Fabio Lattanzi Antinori (Born 1971 Rome) studied MA Fine Art Computational (distinction) at Goldsmiths College and attended MoMA PS1 Summer School with Marina Abramovic. His recent exhibitions include Chronicles of Future Superheroes at the Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest and Kunsthalle Bega Timisoara, Chased by Unicorns at Pi Artworks London and Istanbul, and Frieze Sculpture at Regent’s Park, London. He has been awarded the Lucas Artists Fellowship and the First Plinth Award by the Royal Society of Sculptors and was selected for the MMCA International Artist in Residence Program in Seoul.
‘Office Party’ is at 12 Hammersmith Grove from April 2024 to October 2024.