Things we didn’t have before

For the exhibition, ‘things we didn’t have before’, Pump House Gallery transforms into a cabinet of curiosities. Each of the gallery’s floors serve as different compartments, a treasure trove of wondrous artworks and objects that await discovery.

Supported by curator Hannah Conroy, local recovery group CDS Wandsworth have selected artworks and objects to form a new public collection that tells the unique and unexpected stories behind objects and their creators or collectors.
Each year Pump House Gallery works with a different Wandsworth community-based group for its annual Open Call exhibition, with the aim of providing contemporary art experience, knowledge and practice through the development of a public exhibition.
Over 100 arts practitioners and collectors submitted their unusual and intriguing objects and artworks for consideration. Over six sessions, the curatorial group made its final selection of pieces by 20 artists and collectors and determined how to present these within the Pump House Gallery setting.
‘things we didn’t have before’ is an exhibition that presents both a collection of objects and a collection of the stories that accompany them, and how these are read is unique to each gallery visitor.
Fisher presented his ongoing series ‘Homemade Devices’ working with the curator to explore and reconsider the methodologies of display and staging for the works by showing the works on a specially constructed shelving unit within one of the central gallery spaces.
Included artists; Terry Barber, Tom Buchanan, Maria L. Felixmüller, Craig Fisher, Matt Gee, Paolo Giardi, Greta Hauer, Kevin Hunt, Scott Joseph, Morwenna Lake, Mindy Lee, Sonia Levy, Jammie Nicholas, Marina Rees, Sue Ridge, Cyrus Shroff, Hazel Stone, Julia Zastava, Willow Rowlands, Yoke and Zoom.

Fisher was invited by Pump House Gallery to contribute to an in-conversation event, ‘When an object becomes a thing’ on 5 December 2015 alongside artists, Lauren Godfrey, Greta Hauer and curator, Hannah Conroy.
Using this ambiguous statement as a starting point, the event aims to delve deeper into conversation instigated by the exhibition itself: the point at which an object transcends its inanimate status and is imbued with significance beyond its immediate visual quality or utilitarian function.

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