OSNABRÜCK.- With a new solo exhibition by British artist Steve Bishop, the Kunsthalle Osnabrück has launched the second part of its annual programme “Kids, listen up!”. Since June 2024, the Kunsthalle has been examining themes related to upbringing, education, generational conflicts, and being a child forever. Steve Bishop’s exhibition “On the Street Where You Live” in the church of the former Dominican monastery explores the connections and ruptures between childhood and adulthood.
Deliquescing offers a rare glimpse into Bishop’s creative world.
Steve Bishop explores the feelings, states of mind, and memories that shape our entire lives. In his artistic work, Bishop typically designs spaces that allow visitors to enter staged scenes that seem surreal yet personally familiar. Treading a fine line between fiction and reality, his installations poetically examine common ideals and goals in life.
For his solo exhibition “On the Street Where You Live” in the former Dominican church at the Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Steve Bishop has devised a new installation that explores timelessness, forming a sense of community and familial status symbols. The installation consists of three parts that reflect the connections and ruptures between childhood and adulthood. They are entitled: “On the Street Where You Live”, “Admission” und “Ages”.
With “On the Street Where You Live”, Steve Bishop imitates a walk-in garage of a detached house with a car parked on the driveway. Soulful jazz music emanates from the car, including a modern version of the much-covered standard “On the Street Where You Live”, which gives the exhibition its title. “Admission” shows a life-size replica of the “Sweet Street” toy hospital set that is actually four centimetres tall. The installation is completed by the photo series “Ages”—an ongoing collection of amateur photographs from the 1950s to the early 2000s, which always depict the same motifs at Disneyland.
Steve Bishop’s artistic works show how the notions and memories of a “beautiful” childhood are collectively longed for, reproduced, and passed down through generations. At the same time, they also address ageing and the changes in perception that come with it, as well as the moment when illusions believed to be real and true are shattered. The exhibition “On the Street Where You Live” is thus a timeless backdrop of similarly remembered or dreamed-of childhoods, embedded in a historic church architecture, which Steve Bishop integrates into his art in a richly contrasting way.
The annual programme “Kids, listen up!” is sponsored by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture, the Lower Saxony Foundation, the Sparkasse Osnabrück Foundation, the VGH Foundation, and the Friends of the Kunsthalle e.V. The Steve Bishop exhibition is also 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.
