The First Humans

Touring Group show curated by Angela Kingston.
Started at Pump House Gallery in London (22 January – 29 March 2015)
Travelled to Plymouth Art Centre (15 January - 2 April 2016)

Caroline Achaintre, Salvatore Arancio, Vidya Gastaldon, Andy Harper, Ben Rivers and Jack Strange

The First Humans looks at contemporary art with a prehistoric feel. Often incorporating synthetic colours and materials and a sci-fi look, many of the artworks are spoof or tongue-in-cheek. An installation by Andy Harper has an ancient, tribal quality, and Caroline Achaintre’s wall hanging evokes primitive cave-dwelling. There are primeval landscape ceramics by Salvatore Arancio, and ape-man meets 2001: A Space Odyssey in a papier-maché boulder by Jack Strange. Vidya Gastaldon’s watercolours mix stories of evolution and creationism, while in a film by Ben Rivers, a man tells how humans and fire first came into being.

This exhibition identifies and questions a trend among artists to evoke the very distant past. Could dramatic new archaeological findings explain it? Is society suffering an identity crisis? Do we wish we could start again? We’ll be inviting visitors to supply answers to these questions.