Last Sunset / New Sunrise

An exhibition I co-curated and participated in, as an artist-member of the Alter Us Collective, from 1st to 31st July 2021. Alter Us is a London-based, multi-disciplinary art collective that questions, and attempts to offer solutions to, pressing issues at the forefront of our contemporary context. Our concerns include capitalism and inequality, individualism, connection and disconnection in human relations, sustainability, and the relationship between nature and new technologies in the age of the Anthropocene. 'Last Sunset / New Sunrise' takes its theme from one of the questions which form the collective's manifesto: "Are we moving towards the last sunset or a new sunrise?" Each participating artist reflected on this question, exploring the complexities of our species' survival, which were made especially pertinent by the backdrop of a global pandemic. The exhibition took place at St. John on Bethnal Green Church and was divided into two distinct spaces: a dark room, containing mostly black artworks, simulating the twilight of the last sunset, and a light room, containing mostly white artworks, evoking the brightness of a new sunrise. The opposition of the spaces allowed for a dialogue between the contrasting possibilities of our potential extinction and sustained future existence. As well as contemplation on the influence of our species as a whole, we invited reflection on the impact of our individual actions and their role in the planet's future. Artists: César Baracca, Lorenzo Belenguer, Lois Bentley, Tere Chad, Mandeep Dillon, Paul Hindle, Margaret Jennings, Maritina Keleri, M. Lohrum, Nathalie Mei, Tom Norris, Teresa Paiva, Christopher Pearson, Ana Luiza Rodrigues, Ludmila Sigismondo, Aleksandr Tishkov and Giuseppe Mario Urso. Curators: Tere Chad and Christopher Pearson. Photographer: Ewa Koziol

The venue: St. John on Bethnal Green Church, 200 Cambridge Heath Road, London. E2 9PA

Nathalie Mei

Giuseppe Mario Urso

Teresa Paiva (left) & César Baracca (right)

Nathalie Mei

Installation view

Nathalie Mei

Lorenzo Belenguer

Ana Luiza Rodrigues

Christopher Pearson (left), Lorenzo Belenguer (middle), Nathalie Mei (right)

Christopher Pearson ('Looking at Space II')

Margaret Jennings

Installation view, including (from left to right): Teresa Paiva, César Baracca, Paul Hindle, Christopher Pearson, Giuseppe Mario Urso, Ana Luiza Rodrigues, Lorenzo Belenguer, and Margaret Jennings

Teresa Paiva

Mandeep Dillon (left) & Paul Hindle (right)

César Baracca

Tom Norris

Tere Chad

Christopher Pearson (left), Nathalie Mei (middle), Ludmila Sigismondo (right)

Ana Luiza Rodrigues

Tere Chad

Installation view, including (from left to right): Tom Norris, Mandeep Dillon, Paul Hindle, Lois Bentley, Maritina Keleri, Ana Luiza Rodrigues, Christopher Pearson, Nathalie Mei, and Tere Chad

Lois Bentley

Maritina Keleri (left) & Aleksandr Tishkov (right)

The Alter Us Manifesto

Tere Chad

The venue: St. John on Bethnal Green Church, 200 Cambridge Heath Road, London. E2 9PA

↑Back to Top