The House of Words is an exhibition of interventions and installations by seven contemporary artists: Caroline Broadhead, Jason Cleverly, Robert Dawson, Chris Kenny, Jane Prophet, Clare Twomey and Era Vati, in collaboration with external curators Tessa Peters & Janice West. The House of Words has been commissioned by Dr Johnson's House in celebration of 300 years of Samuel Johnson.

The artworks ranged from extraordinary domestic objects to new-media installations. Responding to the rich history of the House, its collections and its location within a maze of courts and passageways to the north of Fleet Street, each work reflects the vibrancy of contemporary visual culture in a house that was a centre of creativity in the eighteenth century.

The Artists

	Caroline Broadhead has developed a multi-disciplinary practice. She works across the fields of the fine and applied arts and regularly collaborates with choreographers producing installations for live performance. She was awarded the Jerwood Prize for Applied Arts in 1997 and was winner of the Textiles International Open in 2004. Her work is included in numerous public collections internationally. She is Course Director of Jewellery at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.
	Jason Cleverly trained at Crewe & Alsager College. He has produced interactive works for museums throughout the UK including the Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro (2007); the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham (2006); the Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent (2004); as well as public artworks such as The Green Man (2003) for the Midlands Transport Authority, Birmingham. He is Course Director of Contemporary Crafts at University College Falmouth.
	Robert Dawson trained at Camberwell College of Arts and the Royal College of Art, London. Clients for his design work include the Churchill Hospital, Oxford (mural) and Josiah Wedgwood & Sons (tableware). He has won numerous awards including the Tableware category of the Elle International Design Awards in 2006. Public collections which hold examples of his work include the V&A, London; Manchester Art Gallery; and the National Museums Liverpool.
	Chris Kenny studied art history at the Courtauld Institute, London. He has been exhibiting since 1985, initially as a painter but since the early 1990s he has worked almost exclusively with collage and constructions. His collage books are represented in several public collections including that of Tate, London. His constructions can be found in the collections of the V&A and the Museum of London.
	Jane Prophet works across disciplines and has been involved in a number of internationally acclaimed initiatives that have broken new ground in the collaborative practice of art, technology and science. Her artworks range from large-scale, site-specific projects to digital prints and limited edition objects. She is a Professor at Goldsmiths, University of London specializing in interdisciplinary research in the Computing Department. To see details of Jane Prophet's work in progress, click here.
	Clare Twomey trained at Edinburgh College of Art and the Royal College of Art, London. Her recent site-specific works include Trophy (2006), for the Cast Court at the V&A; Blossom (2007) for the Eden Project, Cornwall; and Monument (2009) a large scale installation comprising thousands of shards of domestic china and antique ceramic tiles for the Zuiderzee Museum, Enkhuizen, The Netherlands. She was a Jerwood Prize winner in 2008.
	Era Vati studied painting at the University of Fine Arts, Budapest and was awarded an MA in Art and Media Practice from the University of Westminster in 2007. Her video works have been exhibited in festivals in Ferrara, Italy and Karlsruhe, Germany and she collaborated with sound artist Simon Longo, aka Dithernoise, on the Flux project in 2008.

EVENTS

A lively events programme will be running alongside The House of Words exhibition, including free talks and tours by curators and artists, a free family history workshop and more. Click here for more details.

THE HOUSE OF WORDS PUBLICATION

The exhibition is accompanied by a beautifully illustrated publication priced at £6.50
Edited by Tessa Peters and Janice West
ISBN 978-1-899284-08-5, Published 1 June 2009
64pp, 25 illustrations including photographs of the House by Philip Sayer

To order a copy call 020 7353 3745, email curator@drjohnsonshouse.org or pop into the House shop.

 

Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and the Golden Bottle Trust.