On Bad Ideas and Other Decisions 2020 - 2026
Swedenborg House, 20-21 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TH
Thursday 22nd January 2026
18:30 - 20:45 Screening
20:45 - 21:30 Discussion
Free entry - all welcome
Please join us at Swedenborg House for a special screening of ‘Ideas That Shouldn’t’, a new film compiling 19 short videos by Bad Ideas Collective (BIC), along with additional material contextualising the group’s work.
Conceived during the first weeks of the Covid 19 Pandemic, under the severe limitations on artistic activity imposed by lockdown, BIC was initiated with an invitation to reflect on other ways in which creative production is interrupted, calling on artists to describe a work that was never made for more personal or conceptual reasons.
The videos were presented without direct authorial attribution, as a means of shifting audience engagement away from questions of production and ownership. The emphasis is on the candid disclosure of the play and processing of ideas - how they are evaluated and either used or abandoned in the creative process.
Contributors to BIC include artists and academics based and working in Latvia, Italy, Belgium, Estonia, Mexico and the UK. ‘Ideas That Shouldn’t’ has been realised with the support and collaboration of POST, an interdisciplinary postgraduate course at the Art Academy of Latvia. Special thanks to Francis Hagendorfs and Grieta Vītoliņa.
BIC:
Kristaps Ancāns, Jolanta Basova, Rolina E Blok, Ian Bourn, Koenraad Claes, Michelle Deignan, Mark Dunhill & Tamiko O'Brien, Esi Eshun, Andy Field, Francis Hagendorfs, Marc Hulson, Nicola Lorini, Paepens & Persyn Advisory Committee, Angela Elizabeth Ramírez Fellowes, Catriona Robertson, Alex Schady, Mia Taylor, Grieta Vītoliņa, 2060BC with POST (Franciska Anna Beļāne, Francis Hagendorfs, Niklāvs Kadiķis, Velta Esmeralda Kalnozola-Kalsere, Emīls Kocers, Emīlija Paškeviča, Līva Priedīte, Grieta Vītoliņa).
BIC has been supported (2020–2026) by @_domobaal_ , @kulturkapitals , @fiveyearsarchway , @aceagrams , @csm_news , @lethabygallery , @makslasakademija and @swedenborghouse .
Visual: @hagendorfsfrancis
2023 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
Main Galleries | Burlington House, Tue, 13 Jun 2023 – Sun, 20 Aug 2023
This year, renowned British painter David Remfry RA takes the reins as exhibition co-ordinator. Remfry’s Summer Exhibition explores the theme Only Connect, taken from the famous quote in Howards End by E.M. Forster.
Among the 1,614 featured works you will find towering sculptures by the late Phyllida Barlow RA, Richard Malone’s dramatic mobile installation in the Wohl Central Hall, and a witty painting by comedian Joe Lycett. Plus pieces by Tracey Emin RA, Hew Locke RA, Barbara Walker RA, Gavin Turk, Lindsey Mendick, Caroline Walker and much, much more.
The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2022
The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2022 exhibition will include 113 drawings by 94 artists - selected by Lucy Byatt, Director of Hospitalfield; Danie Mellor, Artist; Isabel Seligman, Monument Trust Curator of Modern and Contemporary Drawing in the Department of Prints and Drawings at The British Museum - and 21 drawings by 19 drawing practitioners selected for the Working Drawing Category by Niall Hobhouse, Collector, Writer & Trustee, Drawing Matter; Tania Kovats, Professor of Drawing & Making, University of Dundee; Daniel McAuliffe, Education Director (Hubs), The Prince’s Foundation.
The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize is supported by the Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust, and 2022 marks the fifth year of their support for the annual open exhibition, which was founded in 1994 by artist and Professor, Anita Taylor, Dean of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at the University of Dundee and founder of Drawing Projects UK. The annual open exhibition is known for its celebration and promotion of excellence in contemporary drawing practice.
BAD IDEAS COLLECTIVE
The platform gives projects that never went into production due to creative doubt or other personal misgivings a chance to be experienced and introduces society to the discourse and decision making involved in the production process.
Artists reflect on projects which they held back from developing, either because of perceived inadequacies in the concept, or perhaps resisting due to speculation over extreme, impassioned or hostile audience responses.
We aim to present projects that haven't been made due to an inner turmoil rather than practical limitations. The task for each contributor is to create a short video that describes the banished idea without revealing their identity. The idea of freeing the artist from ownership is to break any restraint or embarrassment; the anonymity also provides a democratic space where emerging and well known artists share the same exposure.
The inception of a brilliant idea often lies obscured amongst several fruitless aspirations, ideas that have not been publicly discussed and have become the silent side to making until now.
Contributors
Kristaps Ancans, Jolanta Basova, Rolina E Blok, Ian Bourn, Koenraad Claes, Mark Dunhill, Marc Hulson, Nicola Lorini, Tamiko O'Brien, Catriona Robertson, Alex Schady, Mia Taylor.
Shortlisted for The Mark Tanner Sculpture Award (MTSA) 2019
The Mark Tanner Sculpture Award (MTSA) is the most significant award for emerging artists working in the field of sculpture in the UK: offering £8,000 in financial support towards the making of new work, plus a solo show at Standpoint Gallery.
The MTSA seeks to reward outstanding and innovative practice, with a particular interest in work that demonstrates a commitment to process, or sensitivity to material.
What Can We Make And Become
Hosted by Exposed Arts Projects
the outcome of an experiment, conducted by Lara Geary, Lois Bentley, Isabel Bonafe Carrasco, Aleksandr Tishkov, Harley Price, Susanna Brunetti, Tere Chad, Carla Benzing, Lexi Sun, Theresa Gößmann, Niloofar Taatizadeh, Yajing Hu, Jolanta Basova, Orna Kazimi, and Sasha Burkhanova-Khabadze (*although it is now impossible to say where one of us ends and the other begins).
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'The Expanded City'
an exhibition featuring a range of artists from all Universities of London
presented by
Curation Society at UAL & Visual Cultures Society at Goldsmiths University
Hosted by:
Goldsmiths Visual Cultures Society
"Back in the room"
A spring semester research in Lettische Centrum Munster in Germany, and a final solo exhibition there.