Wreckers Downstairs is an archival exhibition by Amelia Mcleish, featuring new work by Phaedra van Wersch.
Drawing on conversations, objects, historical ephemera and the artist’s voice, Wreckers Downstairs explores the archive as both artwork and living history. This exhibition is a celebration of the space and the artists who have been part of Wreckers over its 8 year history. It aims to remind us that we, as a community, not only feature in this history but are the agents, narrators and substance of it.
Continuing its ongoing mission to support and exhibit experimental artists, the archival redisplay of the downstairs space houses new work by Phaedra van Wersch. Repurposing glass from the building, van Wersch’s intuitive, site-responsive practice pushes materiality past function and historical specificity into excessive formlessness.
Barely free-standing, the former downstairs gallery must now exist as part of the collective memory. Upending the hierarchy of upstairs-downstairs, Wreckers Downstairs reminds us of the precarity we in the artworld have become so accustomed to: we lose spaces, we lose artists, we lose time, we lose money, we lose.