Seven Billionth Citizen Exhibition

2 May - 15 June 2013 - CPC and the Winchester School of Art have come together to produce a thought provoking new exhibition on the Seven Billionth Citizen, which was launched on 2 May.

The video project, conceived in response to the United Nations announcement of the birth of the seven billionth citizen, has been created by artists from the five major population zones of the world: the Americas; Europe; the Middle Eastern and North African region; sub-Saharan Africa; and Asia and Oceania.

Inspired by the nineteenth century paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, showing a lone figure facing away from the viewer and gazing upon a sublime landscape, the five global artists replicate the formula developed by Friedrich. The work seeks to achieve contemporary relevance to issues of pressing societal concern by offering artists strict parameters within which to articulate a response to the announcement of the birth of the world's seven billionth citizen. It addresses the fact that our time is poised between a past of short and brutal lives, in which seemingly limitless resources were inaccessible and inequitably distributed, and a future of thoroughgoing material scarcity for a super-abundance of long-lived people. This is an age of both unprecedented population growth and remarkable recognition of the value of individual existence.

The exhibition was launched on 2 May at the Solent Showcase Gallery, Southampton Solent University. CPC Director Professor Jane Falkingham gave an opening speech.

The exhibition continues 3 May to 15 June, open Monday to Friday 11:00-18:00 and Saturday 11:00 to 17:00.

View the opening event flyer

Posted 24/04/2013 14:56