Power of the Tower: Babel exhibition at OBS Gallery
An innovative new exhibition that explores the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel is coming to Tonbridge School’s Old Big School Gallery this month.
Featuring the work of artists Jonathan Wright and Wayne Warren, who have created installations especially for the exhibition, Babel analyses the tower in all its forms, as structure, image and metaphor.
It includes large-scale towers made of unusual materials, alongside photographs of historic and contemporary structures and souvenirs from around the world.
The artists invite us to see beauty in functional architecture such as the water tower, lighthouse and pylon. They also ask whether the desire to build bigger, higher, denser structures, for us to live and work in, invokes the kind of hubris and confusion the Bible cautions against in its tale.
Babel opens on Saturday 26 January and runs until Monday 4 March.
In addition, Jonathan Wright and Wayne Warren will be discussing their work, and their fascination with the story, in a public talk on Thursday 7 February in the school’s Cawthorne Lecture Theatre. This takes place at 7.30pm and is free, with no need to book.
Emily Glass, the Gallery’s Curator, said: “Towers have continued to be the cause of both wonder and controversy, and all kinds are explored in this exhibition. The most ancient structures were built in order to achieve greater vision and communication, and they continue to be at the forefront of technological innovation.”
Babel can be viewed in the Old Big School Gallery each weekend between 12pm and 4pm from Saturday 26 January, or between Monday and Friday for booked groups. It is free to attend and all are welcome.
