Book Launch + Readings | The Hands that Shut the Sun

Join us for the launch of crwa, a new publication by Eline McGeorge, alongside readings by Lucy Mercer and Rachael Allen, and a listening session of Johanna Billing’s 7” vinyl single Listen the Snow is Falling.

Drawing on the poetic and literary references that inform the group exhibition The Hands that Shut the Sun, the event will touch on the themes of deep observation and listening and the many ways that interspecies relationships might unfold.

Eline McGeorge (b. 1970, Norway) lives and works in Oslo, Norway. Recent solo exhibitions include Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo; Femtensesse, Oslo (2024); Hollybush Gardens, London (2018); Oslo Kunstforening (2016); Hollybush Gardens, London (2012) and Fotogalleriet, Oslo (2007). Group exhibitions include Nottingham Contemporary, UK; Modern Art Oxford, UK (2018); Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway (2018); Kunsthall Stavanger, Norway (2019) and Oslo Kunstnerforbund (2017); Her work is held in the collections of London Underground; Collection of Contemporary Drawing, Ireland; City of Oslo; Ålesund Kunstmusem KUBE, Norway; Norwegian School of Economics; and Bergen Academy of Art and Design, Norway.

Lucy Mercer is a writer based in London. Her debut poetry collection Emblem (Prototype, 2022) was a Poetry Book Society Choice and was featured on BBC Radio 3. Her poems have been published in magazines such as Poetry Review, Poetry London and The White Review, and essays in Art Review, Granta and others. She was awarded the 2024 Fitzcarraldo Editions/Mahler & LeWitt Studios Essay Prize for her proposal Afterlife, a book-length essay that will be published by Fitzcarraldo Editions. Mercer's research interests include contemporary literature, material histories and neglected artefacts, visual cultures, ecological thinking. She often collaborates with visual artists and is currently working on several interdisciplinary projects concerned with poetics, literary value and material histories.

Rachael Allen is the author of two collections of poetry, Kingdomland (2019) and God Complex (2024), both published by Faber. Rachael was born in Cornwall and works as the poetry editor for Fitzcarraldo Editions and is a lecturer at Queen Mary University.

Johanna Billing (b. 1973, Jönköping, Sweden; lives and works in Stockholm) has been making video works since 1999 that weave together music, movement, and rhythm. Solo exhibitions include Each Moment Presents What Happens, Whitechapel Gallery, London; Hollybush Gardens, London (both 2023); In Purple, Kalmar konstmuseum, Kalmar, Sweden; Each Moment Presents What Happens, Jan Mot, Brussels (both 2022); In Purple, Riksidrottsmuseet, Stockholm (2021); In Purple, Hollybush Gardens, London (2020); In Purple, Stadsbiblioteket, Jönköping, (2019); 15 Years of You Don’t Love Me Yet, Teatro Garibaldi/Galeria Laveronica, Modica, (2018); I’m Lost Without Your Rhythm, Trondheim Kunst-museum, (2017); Keeping Time, Villa Croce, Genoa (2016); I’m Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die, the MAC, Belfast (2012); I’m Lost Without Your Rhythm, Modern Art Oxford (2010); Moving In, Five Films, Grazer Kunstverein, Graz (2010); Tiny Movements, ACCA, Melbourne (2009); I’m Lost without Your Rhythm, Camden Art Centre, London (2009); Taking Turns, Kemper Museum, Kansas City (2008); This Is How We Walk on the Moon, Malmö Konsthall (2008); Forever Changes, Kunstmuseum Basel (2007); Keep on Doing, Dundee Contemporary Arts (2007); and Magical World, PS. 1, New York (2006).