By Emma Collins
Published March 8, 2019

Nairobi National Museums leads the way in celebrating women whose role in society it says has been momentous from prehistory to modern times.What are you doing today?

Because you should be either at Nairobi National Museum galleries encountering some magnificent stories behind the greatness of women, savouring Swahili People and Culture exhibition of paintings by Fatma Issa Holm or really checking out the two nude girls in the skip gallery full of strawberry ice cream who are currently turning shoppers’ heads in Selfridges’ Accessories Hall right now.

While Nairobi celebrates women whose role in society it says has been momentous from prehistory to modern times, London presents This is ‘Nothing to Wear Again!’, the UK debut of Serbian artist and sculptor Maja Djordjevic, and the first artwork in SKIP Gallery’s Like It or Lump It series with the Oxford Street icon. It will be in place until 17 March, after which Paul Kindersley will commander the skip for his offbeat and rambunctious performance piece, ‘Ship of Fools’.

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Meanwhile on the second floor of the store, artist Claire Pearce has taken up residence in one of the fitting rooms, unveiling a two-part installation employing light, colour and facial-recognition software to explore issue of identity in the age of the selfie.

 Artist Maja Djordjevic alongside her work Nothing To Wear Again! commissioned by SKIP Gallery.jpgIn collaboration with Selfridge’s nationwide State of the Arts campaign (which also includes events and exhibitions in Birmingham, Manchester and online), SKIP founders Lee Baker and Catherine Borowski have selected three artists-on-the-rise to participate in the provocative month-long programme.

Maja Djordjevic, Paul Kindersley and Claire Pearce are the latest in a growing line of artist collaborators invited to create site-specific artworks for Baker & Borowski’s mobile exhibition programme, centring on a converted skip.

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Chosen for their playful wit, uncompromising approach and convention-puncturing work, the three follow in the footsteps of David Shrigley, Gavin Turk, Richard Woods and Ben Eine, all of whom have taken on the challenge of creating work for Britain’s most unusual exhibition space.

culptor and placemaking specialist Catherine Borowski and painter and music producer Lee Baker , co-founders of SKIP Gallery , alongside Nothing To Wear Again! by Maja Djordjevic.‘The artists we’ve chosen are like a mash-up of London: an extravaganza of cool, cutting edge, visually sumptuous people who are creating the city’s off-Mayfair cultural scene,’ says Catherine Borowski, co-founder of SKIP Gallery.

By breaking art out of its expected gallery context and planting it in unexpected environments, Baker & Borowski encourage – perhaps even coerce – the public to confront each artwork head on and consider how its meaning might be influenced by its setting in a receptacle for rubbish. Now it’s the turn of the shoppers of Selfridges. As they pass through the heart of the store and encounter the modified skip, visitors will be invited
to consider topics ranging from the playful to the provocative. Over the course of the month, the three artists of Like It or Lump It will use sculpture, theatre and digital technology to explore subjects ranging from identity, body politics and gender to authenticity and cultural history. While Djordjevic and Kindersley will reveal work in the skip itself, Claire Pearce has been charged with fulfilling Baker & Borowski’s first Fitting Room Residency, which will see one of the store’s changing rooms transform into a playful digital installation for the age of the selfie.

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‘In an age of frightening conservatism we have gravitated towards artists that are trying to push back. Our choice of artists for Selfridges has definitely come from the questions the artists raise about the notions of beauty and identity in the 21st century,’ says Lee Baker, co-founder of SKIP Gallery.
Paul Kindersley, I Wanna be a Glamour Model, 2016 (film still). Courtesy of Paul Kindersley and Belmacz Gallery.

Swahili People and Culture exhibition by Fatma Issa HolmBaker & Borowski is an artist-curator partnership between sculptor and placemaking specialist Catherine Borowski and painter and music producer Lee Baker. Catherine is the founder and creative director of Produce UK, working with brands, businesses and developers to conceive and deliver experiential placemaking strategies ranging from installations and exhibitions to large-scale festivals. Lee’s artistic career began in the 1990s, when he drew on his love of manga and experience customising cars to produce site-specific installations at locations around the UK. This evolved into work as a scenic artist for the likes of the National Theatre and English National Opera; then grew into an international fine art career characterised by vividly colourful large-format paintings and installations. In 2017 the two artists teamed up to re-conceive the idea of the exhibition space, launching SKIP Gallery and more recently, the duo has introduced the Fitting Room Residency – another site-specific exhibition programme that this time takes place in the changing rooms of shops and department stores. United as Baker & Borowski, the duo are on a mission to bring unexpected eruptions of art into the everyday urban landscape.

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