Robin Finch Pickering - Lookout

An exhibition, workshops and talks by the 2022 recipient of The Vanguard Prize, Robin Finch Pickering.

2 February - 20 March 2024

The Lookout is an important early warning system, the relaying of information, both an observer and a participant, covert but deeply connected. There is nothing passive about being a lookout, they are non-casual observers. An analogy for the role of an artist, perhaps.

In secondary school I was the Lookout. Outsourced eyes that watched for teachers at the top of a hill, while the older kids smoked cigarettes, set off fireworks or sold sweets at lunch time.

Lookout questions institutional control of space and capital. By shifting the ways in which viewers interact with the work throughout the run of the show, the process itself seeks to undermine imposing and elevated viewpoints.

With materials as language, the persona of the Lookout sets about rehearsing their entry or escape. Idealised interventions and alternative methods fall short in absurd ways, highlighting the inaccessibility of the gallery the show appears in. The warning signs are all around.

Through speculative narratives and fictions built from the wreckage of the present, Robin Finch Pickering invites a retelling of the world outside, from a place of childhood retreat and imagination; shelters within shelters.

Somewhere you can try on different hats; builder, trespasser, track-worker, spy - where the boundary between person and object become porous, and the costumes are endless.

About Robin Finch Pickering

Robin Finch Pickering (b. 1998), currently on the Conditions Studio Program in Croydon, studied BA Fine Art: Painting at Camberwell College of Arts (2022).

Selected exhibitions, performances and collaborative projects include Good day, big miss stake, Kate, Amsterdam (2023); Valve, London (2023); Theatrum Mundi, Whitechapel Radio Station (WRS), Whitechapel Gallery, London (2023); Big Fat Talent Show, SET Peckham, London (2023); 423567 Distance, Willem de Kooning Academie, Rotterdam, Holland (2020); Bauhaus 100 Festival Project, Bauhaus Museum, Dessau, Germany (2019).

The Vanguard Prize

The Vanguard Prize allows Vanguard Court to help new artists grow and develop and reinforces Vanguard's strong links with Camberwell College of Arts.

The prize, launched in 2010, is for recent graduates of Camberwell College of Arts and those currently graduating. The judges are looking for talented artists from any discipline who can most benefit from the award. The winner is offered a year's free studio residence at Vanguard Court along with ongoing mentoring and support from Camberwell College of Arts to help them develop their work and their career and finishes with a show in Camberwell Space.