Ben Cain is a multidisciplinary British artist whose practice focuses on the effects of changing work conditions on the contemporary individual. In the post-industrial era, human labour has transformed on many levels, and Cain specifically examines how these changes influence the human body, self-identity, and interpersonal relationships. His artistic work is characterised by an exceptionally broad spectrum of media, encompassing installation, sculpture, photography, video, performance, text, and sound. In his first solo exhibition in Split, titled “At the Edge of Work,” he turns the exhibition space into a sort of “pseudo-factory” using sculptural objects, spatial installations, textile works, and sound. The specific layout does not provide concrete depictions of post-work but invites the audience to reconsider what work means in today’s world and, ultimately, explores the potential of the artist / artistic work in generating insights into key aspects of contemporary society.
In this respect, textile works that refer to traditional work clothes are especially interesting. The artist himself explains the context: “When I was an art student in the North of England in the 90’s some of my tutors wore faded cobalt blue French worker’s jackets. [In fact, I bought one myself in France when I was in my early teens, and I still wear it now]. No doubt attracted by cut, colour, comfort, high-quality long-lasting material, but also perhaps because of a desire to align with ‘the worker’, and therefore with the idea of art being a physical process, i.e. the ‘labour’ of art being quotidian, non-rarefied, part of everyday spaces of making and producing that constitute or more importantly invent or realise the most basic requirements of society?”
(from the text by Jasminka Babić)
Ben Cain is a contemporary British artist who lives and works in London and Zagreb. He was born in 1975 in Leeds and completed his BA in Interactive Art in Manchester in 1997. He completed his MA at Jan van Eyck Akademie, Post Graduate Centre for Art, Design and Theory in Maastricht, NL. His work has been exhibited internationally including Manifesta 9; Weils, Bruxelles; Turner Contemporary, Margate; Supplement Gallery, ICA, London; Galerija Forum, Galerija Greta, Zagreb; Busan Biennale South Korea. Together with Tina Gverović he has created works for the Croatian Pavilion at 56th Venice Biennale, KM – Kunstlerhaus, Graz and public sculpture for reading University Campus, UK. He also works as a theatre scenographer. He is a tutor in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins and Metropolitan University, both in London; he also teaches regularly at ISIA Urbino in Italy.
The exhibition is financed by the City of Split, the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia:
Acknowledgements:
E.M.gra d.o.o; Etnografski muzej Split; Galeb d.d.; Marana d.o.o.; Obrtnička škola Split
