Joshua Knowles

SOUVENIR; Exhibition Curation at PumpHouse Gallery, Battersea (June 2012)

Commissioned by Clare Patey and Wayne Hemingway for their alternative Diamond Jubilee Celebrations, I curated an exhibition of Royal memorabilia and artworks, donated by the general public.  It was shown across three floors at Pumphouse Gallery in Battersea Park for the month of June 2012.

In an open invitation local residents and artists came forward to lend us their souvenirs, and discuss the history behind their donated objects. Photographer Tim Mitchell and sound archivists Polly Rodgers and Carla Ferrari helped record the very personal stories and experiences of the contributors, and discuss their relationship with British Royal family. I also had the great pleasure of working with committed collector Carrie Jaffe, who filled the entire first floor with her Royal memorabilia. I devised a ‘your face here’ graphic with which visitors could create their own personalised souvenirs too. Artists and collectors included Carrie Jaffe, Alison Jackson, Bishi, The Women’s Institute, Kitsch and Curious, Land of Lost Content, Katie Spragg, Afsoon Afsoon,  and Becky Kitter.

Association of Illustrators
ABa Quality Monitoring
BBC
Chatham House
DW
Edible Utopia
EY
House of Fairy Tales
HSBC
National Trust
NHS
Okido
Platform on Disaster Displacement
RBS
RHS
Somerset House
Swiss Re
Thames Festival Trust
The Big Draw
UCL
United Nations
World Energy Council