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Video: Crisis Commission artists highlight homelessness
Top international artists Antony Gormley, Gillian Wearing, Jonathan Yeo, and Nika Neelova gathered at Somerset House to highlight homelessness and raise awareness about the Crisis Commission exhibition.
Alongside Tracey Emin, Sir Anthony Caro, Yinka Shonibare, Bob & Roberta Smith and Nathan Coley, these artists will be donating individual works to the show which opens at Somerset House on Wednesday 14 March and runs until Sunday 22 April. All the exhibits will be auctioned at Christies on Thursday 3rd May. The cost of creating works to fill a wing of Somerset House are being met by lead sponsor GlaxoSmithKline.
Leslie Morphy, Chief Executive of Crisis said: "We are thrilled that so many leading contemporary artists are participating in the Crisis Commission. This prestigious event will raise much needed funds for our work and bring a new focus to the worrying current rise in homelessness in society."
Gwyn Miles, Director, Somerset House Trust said "We are very proud to be working in partnership with Crisis again. And we are particularly pleased that such a stellar group of contemporary artists will be displaying their work in the newly restored East Wing Gallery at Somerset House. It is an exciting project and one which we are thrilled to present to the public".
Antony Gormley said: "The most powerful social sculpture of our times is made by the quiet performances of the homeless within the shelter provided by the entrances to the shops and restaurants of our inner cities. This exhibition allows one to think about those bodies that have no place. I believe that sculpture can powerfully evoke the nameless, the voiceless and the placeless and I am proud to be part of and am inspired by this visionary project."
At the photo call launch event, the attending artists held signs representing some of the show's key themes, and one of the charity's chief aims "Homelessness ends here."
Homeless and vulnerably housed clients of Crisis will also have their work exhibited alongside the established artists for the duration of the Crisis Commission. The clients will be drawn from Crisis' year-round art classes, held at Crisis' Skylight Centres in London, Newcastle, Birmingham, Merseyside and Oxford.