Image: Katrina Palmer, The National Gallery Artist in Residence 2024
2024 National Gallery Artist In Residence Katrina Palmer:The Touch Report
11 December 2024 – 2 March 2025
Room 17a
Admission free
From December 11, Artist in Residence Katrina Palmer will present her latest work in the National Gallery. In an intimate room, the usual paintings on view from the collection are no longer visible. Instead, visitors are invited to enter a specially constructed reading room by Palmer and engage with the artist’s new project, a book entitled 'The Touch Report'.
Named after the National Gallery’s record of incidents in which works of art are touched while on public display, Palmer’s experimental writing explores the fragile material conditions and perceived power of historical paintings, while explicitly addressing their violent imagery.
Palmer invites the public to read 'The Touch Report' and to reconsider the National Gallery’s collection through the words that describe them. 'The Touch Report' narrates the experience of an artist invited to respond to a museum of historical paintings. The artist begins with an audit of the collection that focusses on the depictions of violence, subjugation and physical tension within the images.
Visitors can read the book in a low-lit reading room, empty of paintings. An illuminated space on the wall shows the location of the last picture to hang in the room, alongside an unattributed sculpture found in the National Gallery’s art stores, and a sealed bookcase.
A National Gallery publication will accompany the project. This will be the first survey of Palmer’s career to date and will include a newly commissioned essay by Oreet Ashery exploring the central themes in the artist’s practice. A new text by Palmer herself reflects on the process and outcomes of her residency, as she engages with the multiple representations of violence and physical tension on display in the collection through the lens of the Gallery’s institutional protocols.
The Artist in Residence programme is a collaboration with the Contemporary Art Society, generously supported by Anna Yang and Joseph Schull, who will acquire an artwork produced during the residency for this year’s Partner Museum, Touchstones Rochdale.
Palmer’s work explores a range of spaces from island quarries to offices, prisons to coastal landscapes. Using objects, sound, writing and drawing she investigates the possibilities of sculptural materiality through text and language. Previous projects have engaged with concepts of absence and dislocation within historic sites.
Palmer has been invited to respond to the collection of the National Gallery in partnership with Touchstones Rochdale. She began her residency in December 2023 and has worked over the course of a year in the National Gallery’s on-site artist’s studio, benefiting from the close proximity to the collection and archives.
Palmer is the fourth Artist in Residence to be chosen since the launch of the Gallery’s Modern and Contemporary Programme, following the appointment of Rosalind Nashashibi in 2019, Ali Cherri in 2021 and Céline Condorelli in 2022.
Katrina Palmer says: ‘Since being at the National Gallery, I’ve become aware of the varying and affective impacts of touch, along with its risks. Exceptional levels of skill and refinement are projected through the paintings and the maintenance of their ageing surfaces. The imagery on the other hand includes severed heads, envy and sex, the churning of bodies and an array of violences enacted under the auspices of civilisation. Here half-human beings are flayed alive and an emaciated man is dead but not always. I've become emersed in these dangers and wonders and the residency seems worth it as it is genuinely strange.’
Dr Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the National Gallery, says: ‘The residency programme invariably leads to new and interesting perspectives on the Gallery and on our collections. Katrina Palmer’s project as Artist in Residence reflects on her fascination with the emotional and physical tensions recounted in the narrative subjects of National Gallery paintings and with the material vulnerability of the paintings themselves.’
Caroline Douglas, Director of the Contemporary Art Society, says: ‘Now going into its fourth year, this residency project has established itself as a unique opportunity for an artist to engage with two UK institutions of very different scale and circumstances. The programme at Touchstones Rochdale has been very impressive for many years, championing women artists in particular and leading the way in engaging with its communities. I am confident that Katrina Palmer will find it an enriching experience to spend the coming year exploring all the possibilities the residency offers.’
Mark Doyle, Director of Arts, Heritage and Wellness at Your Trust/Touchstones Rochdale, says: ‘We’re delighted to be working with the National Gallery on its Artist in Residence programme. Katrina’s approach to sculpture challenges accepted norms, and her interest in memory and absence complements Touchstones’ work to uncover the stories that aren’t currently being told by Rochdale’s collections. We’re looking forward to seeing how our collections and archives will help to inspire a new piece of work by an internationally acclaimed artist.’
Lisa Le Feuvre, Inaugural Executive Director of Holt/Smithson Foundation, says of the National Gallery publication that will accompany the project, 'In a generation, just a few artists exist who have the ability to revivify what art can be. Katrina Palmer is one such artist. She considers how we humans use objects to test our humanity, and with that reveals the very inhumanity of who we have been.'
Publicity images and images of previous works by the artist can be obtained from https://press.nationalgallery.org.uk/
The Touch Report is published by Book Works in an edition of 1,000 copies on 10th December 2024. It will be available from the National Gallery shop, online from https://bookworks.org.uk/publishing/shop/the-touch-report and from all good bookshops.
Supported by
Notes to editors
Images credit:
Katrina Palmer © The National Gallery, London; The Touch Report, the National Gallery © Katrina Palmer
About Katrina Palmer
Born 1967 in London where she also now lives and works, Katrina Palmer’s practice encompasses sculpture, writing, drawing, audio environments, performance, and video. Palmer is best known for her investigations of sculptural materiality, which often involve written compositions and site-specific recordings to explore histories of absence within landscapes or institutional spaces. Her commission End Matter for Artangel in 2015 saw her situated on the Isle of Portland where Portland stone is quarried. She produced an audio tour based on her writing during her residency on the isle which was turned into a play for Radio 4 and a publication.
Palmer has exhibited widely, including at Tate Britain, the Hayward Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and the Henry Moore Institute. In 2014, she was awarded the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists and was shortlisted for the Contemporary Art Society Annual Award in 2015. She completed her PhD at the Royal College of Art in 2012. A third edition of her book The Dark Object (Book Works, London, 2010) was published this year. Palmer is a Professor of Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art.
About the Artist in Residence Programme
Palmer was selected as the Artist in Residence by a panel consisting of Sorcha Carey, Director, Collective, Edinburgh; Rosie Cooper, Director, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge; Caroline Douglas, Director, Contemporary Art Society; Sarah Hodgkinson, Senior Curator – Collections and Exhibitions, Touchstones Rochdale and Liz Mytton, Director, Theatre in Flow, Rochdale; Elizabeth Price, Artist and Professor at the School of Art, Kingston University; and chaired by Daniel F. Herrmann, Curator of Modern and
Contemporary Projects, the National Gallery, London.
The Artist in Residence programme invites a mid-career artist to develop their practice in the context of the museum and to benefit from unparalleled access to the Gallery’s collection. The partnership between the National Gallery and Touchstones Rochdale allows the artist to respond not only to one of the greatest collections of paintings in the Western European tradition, but also an outstanding collection in the borough of Rochdale covering a wide range of subjects, from visual art to archaeology, social history to costume and textiles. In a move to enrich regional collections, the residency enables a work by Palmer to travel to Rochdale, where it will be acquired by the Contemporary Art Society for Touchstones Rochdale’s permanent collection.
About the Contemporary Art Society
The Contemporary Art Society champions the collecting of outstanding contemporary art and craft in the UK. Since 1910 the charity has donated thousands of works by living artists to museums, from Picasso, Bacon, Hepworth and Moore in their day, through to the influential artists of our times. Sitting at the heart of cultural life in the UK, the Contemporary Art Society brokers philanthropic support for the benefit of museums and their audiences across the entire country. Their work ensures that the story of art continues to be told now and for future generations. contemporaryartsociety.org
About Touchstones
Touchstones is Rochdale’s main arts and heritage venue, a Grade II listed building in central Rochdale housing a museum, galleries, local studies centre, café and education space.
The venue has a longstanding reputation for its approach to contemporary art in a social and political context: from its focus on feminism in the 1980s to programmes that develop a model for co-creation and collaboration (echoing Rochdale’s history with the Co-operative movement). It seeks to redress the gender imbalance in the art world by championing women artists and through collaboration with prestigious collectors, galleries and institutions, resulting in landmark projects such as Herstory (2018) with collector Patricia Sandretto, featuring major female artists of the last 50 years; and Rachel Kneebone: The Dance Project (2019), a collaboration with the artist, acclaimed choreographer TC Howard and women from Rochdale.
Recent community projects include co-commissions with Turner Prize-winner Helen Cammock (with Film and Video Umbrella, Contemporary Art Society and The Photographers’ Gallery) and Jasleen Kaur (with UP Projects) around community cohesion and race; and projects addressing the climate emergency, including Dippy-on-Tour (2019) and the Natural History Museum’s Explore: Urban Nature project.
In 2022 Touchstones became one of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations for the first time in its history. The art gallery and museum is currently undergoing a major capital redevelopment project which will transform the historic building for a sustainable future. For the duration of the building closure, Touchstones is continuing arts and heritage events in local community settings as well as developing future exhibitions and projects with a focus on co-creation and co-collection.
Touchstones is part of Your Trust, a charity that works in the heart of the Rochdale Borough community, inspiring people to live more active, creative and healthy lifestyles. The charity connects people with their cultural heritage, encourages creativity and fosters wellbeing for every member of its diverse community.
www.yourtrustrochdale.co.uk/venues/touchstones-rochdale
About Book Works:
Book Works is a contemporary arts organisation based in London, with a unique role commissioning and publishing new work with artists, writers and designers. Book Works studio offers a range of printing and binding facilities and services. Recent commissions include Ayo Akingbade, Amy Ching-Yan Lam, Phyllis Christopher, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha & Jimmy Robert, Roy Claire Potter, Lucy Skaer, Prem Sahib, Cecilia Vicuña, and The Damned, a new open call series edited by Anne Boyer. Previous collaborators include Sophia Al-Maria, Hannah Black, Jeremy Deller, Tacita Dean, Stewart Home, Susan Hiller, Lubaina Himid, Laure Prouvost, Fiona Tan, David Shrigley, Deborah Levy, Liam Gillick, Brian Catling and Iain Sinclair, and many more.
About the Hiscox Group
Hiscox is a global specialist insurer, headquartered in Bermuda and listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE:HSX). Our ambition is to be a respected specialist insurer with a diverse portfolio by product and geography. We believe that building balance between catastrophe-exposed business and less volatile local specialty business gives us opportunities for profitable growth throughout the insurance cycle. It’s a long-standing strategy which in 2018 saw the business deliver a profit before tax of $137.4 million in a challenging year for insurers. The Hiscox Group employs over 3,300 people in 14 countries and has customers worldwide. Through the retail businesses in the UK, Europe, Asia and the US, we offer a range of specialist insurance for professionals and business customers as well as homeowners. Internationally traded, bigger ticket business and reinsurance is underwritten through Hiscox London Market and Hiscox Re & ILS. Our values define our business, with a focus on people, quality, courage and excellence in execution. We pride ourselves on being true to our word and our award-winning claims service is testament to that. For more information, visit www.hiscoxgroup.com.
The National Gallery
The National Gallery is one of the greatest art galleries in the world. Founded by Parliament in 1824, the Gallery houses the nation’s collection of paintings in the Western European tradition from the late 13th to the early 20th century. The collection includes works by Artemisia Gentileschi, Bellini, Cezanne, Degas, Leonardo, Monet, Raphael, Rembrandt, Renoir, Rubens, Titian, Turner, Van Dyck, Van Gogh and Velázquez. The Gallery’s key objectives are to care for and enhance the collection and provide the best possible access to visitors. Admission free.
On 10 May 2024 the National Gallery reached its 200th birthday, and the start of our Bicentenary celebration, a year-long festival of art, creativity and imagination, marking two centuries of bringing people and paintings together.
More information at nationalgallery.org.uk
Twitter @nationalgallery
Facebook @thenationalgallery
Instagram @nationalgallery
YouTube @nationalgallery
TikTok @nationalgallerylondon
Threads @nationalgallery
Publicity images can be obtained from https://press.nationalgallery.org.uk/
National Gallery Press Office on 020 7747 2865 or email National Gallery Press Office press.external@nationalgallery.org.uk