Tryouts on show at Herefordshire’s Down Stairs Gallery

The show, which opens at Down Stairs gallery in Herefordshire at the end of the month, will examine the ideas of ‘collecting, experimentation and our relationship with the objects that we surround ourselves with in everyday life’, according to the gallery.

The premise is that the objects around us that we gather and surround ourselves with create their own little worlds, manipulated by their owners and appropriated into new patterns that reflect ourselves in curating them.

The show, curated by Russell Hill and Murray O’Grady, features work from 10 artists, including Sophie Percival, who will be showing the North Beverly Drive series of photographs. These images document the mock English mansions of Beverly Hills, highlighting the irony of presenting such images in the Down Stairs space within Great Brampton House, home of antiques expert Martin Miller.

O’Grady says, ‘I liked the idea of a simulated English sanctuary from Beverly Hills promoting a show in a genuine English sanctuary in Herefordshire, it says something about dwelling as a means of travel.’

The exhibition title is derived from artist Matilda Moors’ work, Tryouts for the Human Race, an assemblage of novelty objects; while Elizabeth Wright’s similarly bizarre Ham Sandwich and Oxford Dictionary does exactly what you’d expect. Yes, it’s a ham sandwich and the Oxford Dictionary.

Tryouts runs from 31 May – 15 July at Down Stairs at Great Brampton House, Madley, Herefordshire, HR2. For more information visit http://www.downstairsgallery.com/