Brighton graduate displays work in solo Brussels show

A University of Brighton alumni is displaying his work in a solo exhibition at the prestigious Centrale for Contemporary Art in Brussels.

Edward Liddle, who received a first-class honours degree in Fine Art Painting in 2012 at the University, is presenting his Carrement! show.

According to the exhibition’s blurb, Liddle “questions the meaning of creating artworks, particularly objects that can be considered as paintings”.

The artist uses objects that he has found on the streets of Brussels, including painted fragments of doors, tables, chairs, floor tiles and remains of wallpapers. Put together, these items form a collection of artworks that “speak and stem directly from Brussels”.

Speaking about what inspired Carrement!, Liddle said: “Walking. Being in Brussels, looking at old buildings, being at markets and going through bins. Things like these [the objects] are everywhere, sometimes discarded and at other times polished and revered.”

Liddle explained that his use of everyday items can be traced back to his childhood and helping his dad out with household DIY – “repairing things, or adding pipes to new places or painting and decorating rooms or furniture. Every art object I have ever made has been informed by those experiences”.

He added that with Carrement!, his aim was not “to destroy artistic hierarchies but to encourage viewers to re-look at the things around with them”.

After graduating from the University of Brighton, Liddle received funding from Arts Council England for his solo exhibition Wowzers!, which was held at Brighton’s Community Arts Centre in 2013. His works have also been exhibited in group shows in London and Cardiff.

Liddle was chosen to participate in a collaborative residency at Hypercorps in Brussels in January 2017, where he worked for three weeks with French artist Lucie Lanzini on a series of new collaborative sculptures.

He will shortly complete a Masters degree in Cultural Theory at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Of his time at the University of Brighton, Liddle said: “One of the biggest skills I learnt from my time at Brighton was the need for time to reflect.

“Painting can be a very physical, active art practice; making, doing, being hands-on. My time at Brighton taught me the benefits of critical reflection, placing into motion the beginnings of starting to understand why I make the things I do and offering strategies to pursue the ideas I have.”

He added that Brussels has also been crucial to his development – Liddle spent time there after leaving Brighton.

He said: “The second formative period of my artistic practice was spent in Brussels. In Brussels I was able to explore ideas that I had already begun to have but in a location where other artists were also experimenting with how works of art relate to the location, building or space they were exhibited or created in.”

Carrement! By Edward Liddle runs at the Centrale for Contemporary Art in Brussels until Sunday, 18 November. For more information on the exhibition visit: http://www.centrale.brussels/en. For more on Liddle’s work, visit: http://www.edliddle.org/

If you have some news or a story you would like to share in one of our blogs, get in touch: alumni@brighton.ac.uk.