In 2024 Copeland Park provided nearly £30,000 in discounted Copeland Gallery hire fees, working on a first come, first served basis. In 2025, we wanted to provide a fairer system for artists to receive discounted rates.
We recognise that raising funds for new projects can be difficult and so The Emerging Artist Exhibitions are an opportunity for early career solo artists and collectives to access a large gallery space at a more affordable price.
Applications for our first block of exhibitions ran last autumn and we are very excited to announce our first Emerging Artist Exhibition will be ‘Southerly: Breath of Anxiety’ from The Landless.
The Landless are an artist collective co-led by media artist and filmmaker Sunghoon Song (RCA), performance artist and choreographer Donna Kim (CSM), and craft artist Seongmin Kim (CSM).
The collective explores existential themes of human wandering and overcoming, focusing on the intrinsic human struggle with anxiety, suffering, and meaning through sustainable, multidisciplinary artistic practices.
In November 2024, The Landless debuted with their first iteration of ‘Southerly’ featuring 17 artists exploring the relationship between nature and anxiety from diverse perspectives and through a variety of mediums.
Inspired by Hermann Hesse’s first novel ‘Peter Camenzind’, the exhibition centred on the grandeur of nature and the human sense of finitude, highlighting how nature evokes feelings of awe and anxiety.
For the next exhibition in the ‘Southerly’ series, ‘Breath of Anxiety’, the collective will expand on these ideas, guided by the belief that “the role of the artist is to contribute to the discourse they are immersed in, in a continuous and beautiful way.”
The gallery will be split across five layers, each representing a conclusion on the theme and containing work across installation, painting, AV art, craft, performance and media art. The structural arrangement of the work ensures a coherent blend between these diverse mediums from an array of artists.
“Anxiety, from an existential perspective, is a fundamental state of human existence.” The Landless examines this theory through the lenses of Sartre’s existentialism, Heidegger’s phenomenological worldview, and Buddhist philosophy.
The unique context of South Korea, where the collective grew up, intensifies their focus on anxiety. With high rates of depression, suicide, and a society driven by extreme competition and success, South Korea’s cultural landscape amplifies existential anxiety. This makes The
Landless’s work particularly relevant, as they address not only philosophical but also deeply personal and societal concerns.
With work rooted in Korean backgrounds, the artist’s exploration of anxiety inevitably reflects Korean sensibilities. However, through collaborations with artists from different nationalities, the exhibition will highlight global interpretations of anxiety. The themes addressed in the exhibition also transcend cultural boundaries, demonstrating how anxiety is an inherent and universal human condition.
‘Southerly: Breath of Anxiety’ aims to foster a deeper understanding of art and philosophy while encouraging meaningful dialogue about various approaches to confronting anxiety in modern life.
