HERE IS A GALE WARNING
ART, CRISIS & SURVIVAL
KETTLE’S YARD

22 March – 29 June 2025

Exhibition curated by Dr Amy Tobin, Curator, Contemporary Programmes, Kettle’s Yard.

Kettle’s Yard is delighted to present ‘Here is a Gale Warning: Art, Crisis & Survival’, a major exhibition exploring the capacity of artworks to both warn us of political, social and ecological upheaval, and to serve as a source of replenishment. It brings together eight contemporary artists working across forms, territories and generations, each responding to specific moments and broader systems of instability, from housing crises and ecological breakdown to racialised violence and colonial displacement. These artists may attest to a broken world, but they also work to heal, mend and imagine new possibilities for survival.

Drawing together artists working in different media and distinct contexts, the exhibition finds points of connection and solidarity across generations, moments, priorities and struggles.

The exhibition borrows its title from the 1971 work Here is a Gale Warning by Rose Finn-Kelcey, a hand sewn flag originally installed at Alexandra Palace. Bearing its matter-of-fact message in block capitals, the flag broadcasts of an emergency already in progress, alerting us that perpetual crisis nonetheless demands vigilant attention.

Kettle’s Yard

THE WONDER AND THE WARNINGS OF ROSE FINN-KELCEY
FRIEZE MAGAZINE

Reflecting on the artist’s enduring influence as her flag flies over Tate Britain in London.

Written by Goshka Macuga

..."It is remarkable to me that, in the early 1970s, Finn-Kelcey was already commenting on the relationship between humans and their environment in the context of climate change. Yet, 50 years on, we have done little to heed those ‘gale warnings’. Finn-Kelcey argued that flags reflect upon ephemerality, value and the power of words, highlighting how we communicate, interpret and amplify messages. Moreover, by their very nature, flags demonstrate how a message can change from truth to absurdity with a sudden shift in the wind. They can also be read as metaphors for a political climate, a commentary on how attitudes change in fundamental – though not necessarily truthful – ways, depending on which direction the winds of history blow. In the current social and cultural context, this seems highly poignant."

Frieze Issue 240

ROSE FINN-KELCEY
WOMEN IN REVOLT! ART AND ACTIVISM IN THE UK

8 November 2023 - 7 April 2024

The first of its kind, this exhibition is a wide-ranging exploration of feminist art by over 100 women artists working in the UK. It shines a spotlight on how networks of women used radical ideas and rebellious methods to make an invaluable contribution to British culture. Their art helped fuel the women’s liberation movement during a period of significant social, economic and political change.

Tate Britain

ANTONI & ALISON X ROSE FINN-KELCEY

The estate of British artist Rose Finn-Kelcey is delighted to announce a collaboration with fashion designers Antoni & Alison, who have created two silk scarves in response to her work. The scarves will be on sale at Tate Britain to coincide with the Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990 exhibition, 8 November 2023 – 7 April 2024.

In Tried Everything, a deadpan text alludes to the difficulty of working without recognition. Antoni & Alison reflect upon how, ‘this happens to creatives all the time, artists who work away, influencing others but rarely getting the credit they’re due...we completely related to this...we are sad Rose isn’t here to see our response and the response and attention of others to her work’.

ROSE FINN-KELCEY
FRIEZE MASTERS 2023

11 - 15 October 2023

Kate MacGarry and the Estate of Rose Finn-Kelcey are delighted to present key conceptual works by Rose Finn-Kelcey (1945-2014) from the 1970-80s at Frieze Masters 2023.

Working in a variety of mediums, Finn-Kelcey’s work explored the relationship between the subjective and the personal: several of her works were staged in public spaces, ranging from broadcasting corporations to churches, energy suppliers and government buildings.

Finn-Kelcey’s early work in the 1970s was predominantly performance-based. It was important to her that art should be seen by, and engage with, the life around it. Engagement implied that the artist should be involved with or should be a part of the work itself and meant that her pieces from this period were often ephemeral.

Kate MacGarry

ROSE FINN-KELCEY AT
KATE MACGARRY

14 February - 04 April 2020

Curated by Andrée Cooke, Artistic Executor for the Estate of Rose Finn-Kelcey and artist and curator Simon Moretti.

Andrée Cooke and Kate MacGarry are delighted to present a solo exhibition of works by Rose Finn-Kelcey (1945-2014). The exhibition focuses on key pieces from the 70’s to the 90’s, exploring a breadth of work central to Finn-Kelcey’s practice. She first came to prominence in the early 1970s as an artist central to the emerging communities of performance and Feminist art in the UK. The nature of Finn-Kelcey’s work is richly diverse, both in form and subject matter, however it is consistently conceptual and “characterised by a dry wit that belies the formidable intelligence and deep humanity that drove her practice [1]”.She deftly offers humour as a point of access into her work, allowing a wide and varied audience to consider topics as varied as life, death and spirituality communicated with great depth and profundity.

Kate MacGarry
27 Old Nichol Street, London E2 7HR

ROSE FINN-KELCEY: BUREAU DE CHANGE ON SHOW AT TATE BRITAIN TO COINCIDE WITH THE EY EXHIBITION, VAN GOGH AND BRITAIN.

27 March - 11 August 2019

This major exhibition brings together 45 works by Vincent van Gogh to reveal how he was inspired by Britain and how he inspired British artists.

We are delighted that Rose Finn-Kelcey’s Bureau de Change will be on show to coincide with Van Gogh’s exhibition.

Bureau de Change, 1987, consists of a large-scale rendering (2290 x 1520 mms) of one of Vincent van Gogh’s (1853–1890) iconic Sunflowers paintings (see, for example, Sunflowers 1888, National Gallery, London), made using £1,000 worth of British coinage laid out flat on a fragmented section of wooden flooring. The image of the coin ‘painting’ is lit using a theatrical lighting rig. To one side sits a uniformed guard and a video monitor suspended from the ceiling displays an image of the coin ‘painting’ fed to it by a CCTV camera directed at the work. The installation is completed by a viewing platform from which the piece can be appraised.

Finn-Kelcey’s initial motivation for making the work was the sale at auction in 1987 of one of van Gogh’s Sunflowers to the Yasuda Insurance Company of Japan, for the then record price for any work of art, of £24.5 million.

Read more about Bureau de Change on the Tate’s website.

EY Exhibition Van Gogh and Britain.