Soho Projects: FrenchMottershead
Over the Threshold

The Photographers' Gallery 

Temporary Location: 1 Berwick Street, Soho, London W1F 0DR
Exhibition Dates: 19 – 22 May 2011
Opening Times: Thu – Sun 12.00 – 18.00 (Friday: 12.00 – 0.00)

Admission Free

Nearest Tubes: Oxford Circus/ Piccadilly Circus

Tel: 0845 262 1618
Email: info@photonet.org.uk

http://www.photonet.org.uk


For the first of The Photographers’ Gallery’s Soho Projects, London based artist duo FrenchMottershead present Over the Threshold, a series of photographs resulting from their six month residency in London’s Soho. Inspired by the people who live in Soho, Rebecca French and Andrew Mottershead have gone beyond street level and stepped over the threshold, meeting residents in their homes and uncovering the invisible social networks that unite them.


FrenchMottershead, Our challenge is to keep things growing, 2011 © the artists, photo: FrenchMottershead & Adrian Wood


Working collaboratively and performatively with groups of residents, FrenchMottershead have produced eleven narrative works recall classical tableaux and the storytelling devices adopted by artists such as William Hogarth and Pieter Brueghel. Each work encapsulates a common theme including the challenges of urban gardening, coping with the pressures of living in a small space, the ongoing battle to defend residents’ rights, as well as the joy of being able to walk everywhere and the evocative early morning experience of hearing the Household Cavalry exercise their horses through the Soho streets.

FrenchMottershead, We've lived here our whole lives, 2011 
© the artists, photo: FrenchMottershead & Adrian Wood


Over the Threshold provides a unique insight into the everyday lives and domestic spaces of those who call Soho home. Frequently overlooked as a residential area, Soho houses up to 5,000 people, many living in social housing. During their residency, FrenchMottershead met people from all areas and social backgrounds in Soho and witnessed the strong sense of community found there.
The exhibition at 1 Berwick St represents just one aspect of Over the Threshold. The eleven works will also be presented as a limited edition book and a series of postcards, as well as on the hoardings outside The Photographers’ Gallery’s redeveloped building at 16 – 18 Ramillies St.

FrenchMottershead, We put them to bed every night, 2011
© the artists, photo: FrenchMottershead & Adrian Wood

Soho Projects is a series of commissions that use photography to explore and document London’s Soho area. Presented by The Photographers’ Gallery and supported by Bloomberg it will comprise three bodies of work. Starting here with FrenchMottershead, followed in the Summer by the work of the Swedish documentary photographer Anders Petersen and completed with the artist Fiona Tan’s London installment of her Vox Populi series.
FrenchMottershead are Rebecca French (UK, b.1973) and Andrew Mottershead (UK, b.1968), London based artists whose predominately site-specific work looks at the conventions of social exchange and its relationship to the public and private realms in which they are played out. Their work aims to reveal often ignored acts or communities and to invite people participate in the creative act of producing these works, as demonstrated in their approach to Soho in Over the Threshold.


FrenchMottershead, We hear the clatter of hooves as the Cavalry passes by, 2011
© the artists, photo: FrenchMottershead & Adrian Wood


The Photographers’ Gallery is currently undergoing a major £8.7million redevelopment project to transform its building at Ramillies St, just off Oxford St. Reopening late this year with three dedicated gallery spaces, an education floor as well as its much loved Bookshop, Print Sales and Café, it will be a dedicated place for photography in the heart of London. Commissions such as Soho Projects allow the Gallery to continue its activities during this time and to maintain its links to the Soho area, which has been an integral part of the Gallery’s 40-year history.

Bloomberg is committed to improving the quality of life for people around the world. Its collaboration with The Photographers’ Gallery on Soho Projects aims to inspire artists and audiences to engage with photography in new ways around London.