Jade Sweeting: 900 miles (from Home)
Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art
Saturday 16th September 2023 - Sunday 21st January 2024
900 miles (from Home) is the first UK solo exhibition by Middlesbrough born and Newcastle based artist-photographer, printmaker and researcher Jade Sweeting. The exhibition represents strong, confident women who ride motorcycles – inspired by, and dedicated to every woman who rides, who gets their hands dirty and who wants to be free.
900 miles showcases a new series of intimate 8×10 black and white silver gelatin prints spanning the central space. The photographs, at once detailed and abstracted, document the zips, pins and chains on biker jackets and leathers – the rider’s second skin. Imbued with individuality and pride, community and solidarity they speak to a subculture born from the freedom of the open road and resistance to the mainstream. The prints sit within an immersive sound collage of the artist’s much loved Ironhead bike.
Elsewhere within the exhibition are photographs from Norman Hartley’s archive. Norman Hartley – or Norm to his friends – was a rider and campaigner for rider rights through his role as Motorcycle Action Group’s (MAG) North East regional rep. The archival photographs sit in dialogue with back issues of Harley Women, the first national magazine devoted to women motorcycle enthusiasts founded in 1985 by Linda Jo Giovannoni and Cris Sommer Simmons.
Jade Sweeting’s recent projects include: Still Moving (w/ Phyllis Christopher and Kuba Ryniewicz), Workplace Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne (2023); Hip Reading (w/Jenni Mac), Curious Festival 2022, Northern Stage, Newcastle (2022); co- curator of the On Our Backs: An Archive (w/ Janina Sabaliauskaite), The NewBridge Project, Newcastle upon Tyne (2018), First Bowie, Now This!, The Gymnasium Gallery, Berwick (2017).
This project is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Photos: Colin Davison