The Show Windows: Reflections
A series of commissions celebrating Coventry’s Post-War heritage.
Historic England and Coventry Business Improvement District, in partnership with Coventry City of Culture Trust, worked together on an exciting series of commissions, called Reflections, as part of The Show Windows Programme during Coventry City of Culture 2021.
The Show Windows: Reflections celebrated the city’s pioneering post-war heritage by bringing together creatives, communities and collections with installations in the city centre. These artistic interventions looked afresh at how Coventry’s post-war heritage shapes our lives and reflects our hopes for the future.
Coventry-based artist Edie Jo Murray explored the relationship the people of Coventry have with the city’s iconic post-war architecture in a new artwork called Dreamscape.
Edie collected stories about architectural sites in the city; with each storyteller suggested the next. These stories, and the links between them, informed the buildings or parts of the city that Edie imaginatively combined and constructed in a 3D virtual space, with parts old and new adjoining seamlessly - much like Coventry itself.
A selection of inspiring works from the Government Art Collection was curated by local Coventry charity, Carriers of Hope.
A series of conversations around the collection were facilitated by Quiet Down There. These focussed on their feelings about each artwork, their experiences of Coventry, the history of post-war Coventry and what captured their imagination.
A selection of exceptional works from the British Museum Prints and Drawings Collection was curated by local Coventry charity, Positive Choices.
Accompanying each artwork were two levels of interpretation: words from the British Museum, and reflections from the young people of Positive Choices. These texts gave insight into the artwork, the reason it was selected and how it relates to post-war Coventry.
Objects from the Crafts Council Collection explored the theme of “Amazing Women” in the last of a series of three exhibitions that brought national art collections into Coventry’s public space.
While the group selected items for the exhibition, the works inspired conversations about womanhood, the female body, cultural identity, race, class and faith, and how all these feed into how women are seen by others and themselves.
Local artists
Local artists created new pieces inspired by the public collections and ‘creatively archived’ Coventry City Arcade ahead of redevelopment.
Gallery
Local artists were commissioned to create new pieces inspired by the objects from the public collections.
Curators
Show Windows: Reflections was curated by Charlie Levine as Artistic Director, alongside Coventry based Assistant Curators Indira Lakshmi and Rahma Mohamed
Indira Lakshmi
Indira Lakshmi is an audio-visual artist, editor and assistant curator located between Coventry and Delhi.
She is interested in celebrating local creative talent and opportunities for engagement alongside a key interest in local stories and histories.
Having gained an MA in Visual Arts from Ambedkar University, New Delhi in 2020 she is now developing her arts practice alongside a more curatorial focused one, focusing on the themes of psychology, the body, hidden social narratives and digital interventions.
Rahma Mohamed
Rahma Mohamed, a recent graduate of History from University of Birmingham, is inspired by local histories, people and their stories.
Mohamed has previously held positions as the Research Lead for the 2 Visions 2 Legacies project and as Heritage Project Assistant for the Jewellery Quarter BID. This involved working on the production of a film, creating a photobook and developing a tour of the Jewellery Quarter Cemeteries that focuses on people of colour and those with links to colonialism.
The Show Windows: Reflections was co-produced in partnership by Coventry City of Culture Trust, Coventry Business Improvement District and RIBA with Historic England. The Show Windows was funded by Arts Council England.
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