metaphysical conundrums
19th May – 28th August 2021
Bethlem Gallery
Open 10am-5pm Wednesday – Friday. Including first and last Saturdays of the month
Bethlem Gallery is delighted to announce the first UK presentation of Sara Haq’s drawings Things I did that nobody noticed (but that changed everything) commissioned for the 10th Berlin Biennale in 2018. The exhibition also features Putting paper in her ears, new photographic works and objects from Haq’s recent journeys in consciousness.
Grounded in practices of healing and alchemy, Haq’s works are at once both visceral and immediate whilst inviting us to take the plunge into complex ideas and in unraveling metaphysical conundrums; described by the artist as ‘delicate equations of energy and matter’. Haq is adept at turning our attention from the minutia of daily experience and personal narrative to urgent questions relating to the mind and body, to society, nature and medicine as well as our agency within them.
Over the course of the exhibition, we will be releasing details of events as well as the launch of a newly commissioned book to accompany metaphysical conundrums, produced by Book Works and featuring contributions from Asiya Wadud, Paul Goodwin, Tamar Yoseloff and Yvette Mutumba.
Bio – Sara Haq (b.1976) is an artist, photographer, sacred medicine practitioner, writer and workshop facilitator, based in London, UK. Her work is multi & interdisciplinary in approach. Drawing on a lifetime of experiential research, it explores the relationships between creativity, healing, sacred medicine and (cultural) psychosis.
Sara has exhibited both nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions. Recent notable commissions include: 10th Berlin Biennale, Wellcome Collection, Bethlem Gallery, Institute of Inner Vision, London College of Communication, Laure Genillard, Tate Modern, The British Library, Daily Life Ltd and Bromley By Bow Centre, Alexia Goethe Gallery, Artangel, Studio Voltaire, National Maritime Museum, Anxiety Festival, and digital visual dairy project #1000 Happy Days (2014-2017) to be shown this summer at The Wellcome Collection.
Visiting
The Gallery is open 10-5 on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and the first and last Saturday of the month. Due to social distancing we are currently allowed 6 visitors in the building at any one time, so there may be a short queue. For more information about location, access and timings, please see our page here.
We will offer every visitor to the exhibition a free A5 printed guide as well as an object cleansed by the artist. The information in the guide will also be available in large print on request.
The gallery space is wheelchair accessible, there is a disabled toilet and lift in the building.
If you have any access requirements you would like us to be aware of, please contact info@bethlemgallery.com or phone 020 3228 4101 and let us know.
Download the exhibition guide.
This exhibition has been made possible with support from Arts Council England.