'Sites of Conversation'
17 - 31 July 2017
Winchester Gallery, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton
Jane Bennett | Bevis Fenner | Yvonne Jones | Belinda Mitchell | Yonat Nitzan-Green | Noriko Suzuki-Bosco
17 - 31 July 2017
Winchester Gallery, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton
Jane Bennett | Bevis Fenner | Yvonne Jones | Belinda Mitchell | Yonat Nitzan-Green | Noriko Suzuki-Bosco
Sites of Conversation is an exhibition and symposium by the Phenomenology and Imagination Research Group (PIRG), exploring the notion of material practices and contexts as sites[1] of expanded conversation. The works represent process, contingency and the unfolding dialogue between materials and phenomenological thinking, which expands the possibilities of what conversation can be and can become. In the light of these ideas, the exhibition and symposium center on works – and the wider practices and contexts that surround them – as ‘sites’, not only on and around which conversation can take place, but also as conversations in and amongst themselves.
Each member of the group has focused on making ‘works’ as a catalyst for conversation; not as finished representations or end points but as ongoing stories about material and immaterial qualities and processes. The group hope that the exhibition will serve as an invitation to connect with these conversations and explore their diverse ‘sites’ including: everyday aesthetics and the relationship between labour and value, walking as connecting, the dialogue between the human and non-human, matter of architecture, the relationship between medical subjects and objects, the ethics of material thinking, and of course the gallery itself.
The Phenomenology and Imagination Research Group (PIRG) is an independent research group, whose aim is to develop a research-active fine art collaboration. The group have all taken or are undertaking practice-based doctorate studies in fine art. Current members are Jane A. Bennett, Bevis Fenner, Yvonne Jones, Belinda Mitchell, Yonat Nitzan-Green and Noriko Suzuki-Bosco.
[1] Site, in this context, means more than just place but includes any spatial, temporal, material or social context on which to situate practice, extend the possibilities of conversation and utilise material thinking as a way to open out discourse beyond the constraints of language and other representations.
Each member of the group has focused on making ‘works’ as a catalyst for conversation; not as finished representations or end points but as ongoing stories about material and immaterial qualities and processes. The group hope that the exhibition will serve as an invitation to connect with these conversations and explore their diverse ‘sites’ including: everyday aesthetics and the relationship between labour and value, walking as connecting, the dialogue between the human and non-human, matter of architecture, the relationship between medical subjects and objects, the ethics of material thinking, and of course the gallery itself.
The Phenomenology and Imagination Research Group (PIRG) is an independent research group, whose aim is to develop a research-active fine art collaboration. The group have all taken or are undertaking practice-based doctorate studies in fine art. Current members are Jane A. Bennett, Bevis Fenner, Yvonne Jones, Belinda Mitchell, Yonat Nitzan-Green and Noriko Suzuki-Bosco.
[1] Site, in this context, means more than just place but includes any spatial, temporal, material or social context on which to situate practice, extend the possibilities of conversation and utilise material thinking as a way to open out discourse beyond the constraints of language and other representations.

'More and Less Than Conversation'
1-3 September 2016
Winchester Gallery, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton
Jane Bennett I Bevis Fenner I Belinda Mitchell I Yonat Nitzan-Green I Noriko Suzuki-Bosco
About the exhibition:
Building on PIRG’s successful event, ‘That Which Remains Nameless…’, at ’10 Days – Chalk’ Winchester biennale (2015); exhibition, ‘In dialogue: Material Imagination’, at the Link gallery, University of Winchester (2015); and continuous on-going monthly sessions (since 2013), the opportunity to create an exhibition/event at Winchester School of Art’s gallery will allow the group to test and develop its unique methodology through sharing with the wider public.
PIRG methodology is centred on conversation as a collaborative research method. It is supported by Gaston Bachelard’s philosophy of imagination, as well as ‘new materialism’, educational, phenomenological and other thoughts, including Allan Feldman, ‘Conversation As Methodology In Collaborative Action Research’ http://people.umass.edu/~afeldman/ActionResearchPapers/Feldman1999.PDF.
PIRG extends the method of conversation to include making and exhibition. It understands making and exhibition as aspects of conversation, as they emerge from and are entangled with each-other.
Over three days the gallery will become part of an experimental-experiential ‘field’ in which conversation as methodology will be tested and developed through exhibition, actions, conversations and workshops.
click here for images from the three day event
1-3 September 2016
Winchester Gallery, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton
Jane Bennett I Bevis Fenner I Belinda Mitchell I Yonat Nitzan-Green I Noriko Suzuki-Bosco
About the exhibition:
Building on PIRG’s successful event, ‘That Which Remains Nameless…’, at ’10 Days – Chalk’ Winchester biennale (2015); exhibition, ‘In dialogue: Material Imagination’, at the Link gallery, University of Winchester (2015); and continuous on-going monthly sessions (since 2013), the opportunity to create an exhibition/event at Winchester School of Art’s gallery will allow the group to test and develop its unique methodology through sharing with the wider public.
PIRG methodology is centred on conversation as a collaborative research method. It is supported by Gaston Bachelard’s philosophy of imagination, as well as ‘new materialism’, educational, phenomenological and other thoughts, including Allan Feldman, ‘Conversation As Methodology In Collaborative Action Research’ http://people.umass.edu/~afeldman/ActionResearchPapers/Feldman1999.PDF.
PIRG extends the method of conversation to include making and exhibition. It understands making and exhibition as aspects of conversation, as they emerge from and are entangled with each-other.
Over three days the gallery will become part of an experimental-experiential ‘field’ in which conversation as methodology will be tested and developed through exhibition, actions, conversations and workshops.
click here for images from the three day event