GROUP EXHIBITION

In his Proverbs of Hell, the visionary poet and artist William Blake wrote: ” the cistern contains; the fountain overflows” For Blake, the fountain symbolised exuberance and the generative logic of relations built from empathy and love. Its baroque, gushing flow celebrated life beyond systems and categories, dogma and cynical rationalism. The cistern, by contrast (contained, still, rational) embodied restriction. For Blake, life was movement and exuberance; its restraint was death.

This exhibition takes Blake’s couplet as a departure point to reflect on exuberance beyond categories and names while also considering Blake’s baroque and overflowing fountain as an allegory of the ‘too-muchness’ of contemporary life, whereexcess fractures our ability to hold any sense of order.Ranging from an exploration of identity as moving and relational rather than fixed, to the ever shifting relationship to materials and making, the exhibition celebrates the vital power of creativity and poetry as a ceaseless act of responding to and working with the world around us.

About the curator

Yates Norton is a curator and writer based in London (UK) and serves as Strategic and Curatorial Advisor to Knotenpunkt. His work explores the relationship between artistic practice, interdisciplinary research, and social commitment. Previously, he was curator at the Roberts Institute of Art (RIA), where he worked with the residency programme, commissioned new performances and curated exhibitions with the David and Indre Roberts Collection. Norton is committed to disability justice, collaborating closely with David Ruebain, the current Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Sussex (UK). Together, they have presented their work at various arts and educational settings, including the ICA and the Serpentine in London (UK). Educated at the University of Cambridge (UK), Harvard University (US), and the Courtauld Institute of Art (UK), Norton has guest lectured at both Boston and Cambridge Universities. He has written regularly on artists’ practices and has published with Phaidon, The Chicago Review, Chisenhale Books and others.