In his works, artist Steve Bishop explores feelings, moods, and memories. They shape and guide us throughout our lives. As an artist, Steve Bishop asks how these inner feelings are influenced by the outside world. By society. By culture. And by buildings. And he wants to know: what do spaces do with these inner feelings?
Steve Bishop’s works are installations—works of art in space. Visitors can experience his art with all their senses. He combines sculptures, photos, video art, and audio works. [Audio works are works you can listen to.]
He usually designs spaces. This allows visitors to enter into a complete scene. His spaces seem unreal but familiar at the same time. His installations play with the fine line between fiction and reality. [Fiction means something that is made up, that is not real.] He uses his installations to examine common life goals and dreams in a poetic way.
Steve Bishop’s solo exhibition On the Street Where You Live is on display at the Kunsthalle Osnabrück. He has created a new installation here. It focuses on the idea of timelessness. Belonging to a community and what this involves. And how family status symbols relate to this. [A status symbol shows that a person has a lot of money. For example, an expensive car or an expensive watch can be status symbols].
The installation is made up of three parts. The different parts symbolise the links and breaks between childhood and adulthood.
The details of the exhibition make us remember and tell stories. Toy worlds and amateur photographs of holidays to places such as Disneyland also find their way into the exhibition. [Amateur photography means that the photos were not taken by a professional.] A car is parked on the driveway. The artistic works show that we all long for images and memories of a “beautiful” childhood. And these images and ideas are copied and passed on again and again.
At the same time, the artistic works are also about getting older. How does getting older change our perceptions? Are our wishes and dreams broken?
The exhibition On the Street Where You Live invites us to think about similarly remembered and imagined childhoods.
The exhibition by Steve Bishop is supported by PLAN.CONCEPT Architekten GmbH, Hörmann KG Verkaufsgesellschaft, Tilebein beratende Ingenieure, Wolfgang Strieder Stuck- und Innenausbau GmbH, Fußboden-Krause GmbH and Helmut Barlag Malerbetrieb GmbH.
Steve Bishop (UK/CA) lives and works in London. He has recently realised solo exhibitions at Carlos/Ishikawa, London (2022/2015/2013), The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2021), Galeria Jaqueline Martins, São Paulo (2020), Kunstverein Braunschweig (2019) and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2018). His works have been shown in group exhibitions at Kunst Raum Reihen, Basel and Galerie In Situ / Fabienne Leclerc, Romainville (both 2023), Gems, New York and Chateau Shatto, Los Angeles (both 2021), Praz Delavallade, Los Angeles (2019) and Bureau Des Réalités, Brussels, Van Eyck, Maastricht and Talion, Tokyo (all 2018), among others. In 2024, Bishop will present a new production at the Bauhaus Foundation in Dessau.