The fifth recipient of the annual £100,000 Freelands Award is MK Gallery who hosted Ingrid Pollard: Carbon Turning Slowly across its galleries from 12 March – 29 May 2022.
The award enabled MK Gallery to stage the first exhibition to span Pollard’s practice, which explored different perspectives on the human figure, as it passes through landscape, history and printed material, using photography, film, collage, sculpture and installation.
The exhibition was accompanied by a comprehensive monograph that provides the first overview of works by the British artist and photographer.
‘This was a transformative opportunity for me to develop my practice and to reach much wider audiences and critical attention.’
Ingrid Pollard
Installation view of Ingrid Pollard: Carbon Slowly Turning, MK Gallery, 2022. Photo: Rob Harris
For four decades, Pollard’s important photographic collages have offset traditionally idyllic representations of Britain with unseen legacies of xenophobia and exclusion. Pastoral Interlude (1988) places the Black figure within an imagined picturesque setting, undermining perceptions of ‘urban’ and ‘authentic rural’. Seaside Series (1989) combines cyphers of coastal tourism with stories of historic and contemporary immigration to the UK. More recently, Seventeen of Sixty-Eight (2019) documents how the African body is represented in popular signwriting. Pollard developed new work for the exhibition that looked at different choreographies of the body, including rowing, bowing, dancing, boxing and rambling.
The award announcement came alongside the Foundation’s fifth research report into the ‘Representation of Female Artists in Britain’ which shows a steady decline in the number of solo exhibitions by female artists in public galleries outside London over the last three years. Written by Dr Kate McMillan, the report includes essays by art historian and writer Jennifer Higgie on women in art history and art critic and writer Hettie Judah on art and motherhood.
Selection Panel
Elisabeth Murdoch (Founder and Chair, Freelands Foundation), artist Monster Chetwynd, curator and writer Juliana Engberg, Jenni Lomax (independent curator and former Director, Camden Art Centre) and Zoe Whitley (Director, Chisenhale Gallery).
Shortlist
Firstsite, Colchester
MK Gallery, Milton Keynes
Modern Art Oxford
Towner Eastbourne
Turner Contemporary, Margate
the Whitworth, Manchester
Award 2019
The fourth recipient of the annual £100,000 Freelands Award is The Hepworth Wakefield who will present a major survey exhibition with artist Hannah Starkey.
Award 2018
The 2018 Freelands Award winner was Spike Island who presented Along a Spectrum from 19 May to Sunday 5 September 2021, Veronica Ryan's largest and most ambitious solo exhibition to date.
Award 2017
The Freelands Award was won in 2017 by Nottingham Contemporary who presented a major exhibition with artist Lis Rhodes, open from 25 May – 25 August 2019. A publication accompanied the exhibition.
Award 2016
The inaugural Freelands Award was won by The Fruitmarket Gallery in 2016 with Glasgow-based artist Jaqueline Donachie. The culminating solo exhibition was open from 11 November 2017 to 11 February 2018. A monograph publication of Donachie’s work and practice accompanied the exhibition.
