Ghost Art School X Independents Biennial presented a number of exhibitions and events under the banner of The Right Map, for the Independents Biennial held in Liverpool during 5 June to 14 September 2025. The exhibitions consisted of, Unstable Series - Holes I - IV, at The Stables, curated by Rory Macbeth; & Slipstream, at CBS Gallery, curated by Phoebe Thomas
Emerging from the spirit of Ghost Art School, it celebrated artists who move between margins, who learn in the cracks, and who map their own routes when none are given. Here, the map was never fixed, drawn in gestures, erased by time, redrawn in conversation, in defiance and in care. The Right Map asked, not where we are going, but how we move - and who gets to move us.
The Right Map: SLIPSTREAM, curated by Phoebe Thomas. CBS Gallery, Liverpool.
SLIPSTREAM centres process and collaboration. The act of creation is a fluid and mutable as water. SLIPSTREAM asks our artists to wade in the rivulets of another's practice. It asks them to trust, and to reach their hands underneath the surface, to trawl for memories, moments, acts of making. What rises to the surface easily - and what stays lodges in the silt?
Participating artists: Cos Ahmet / Gary Finnegan / Halyna Maystrenko-Grant / Jasmir Creed / Karema Munassar
Delivered as an in-between sculpture, Cos Ahmet responds to the physicality and temporality of painting. A singular happening - a brushstroke, loops in and out of the frame. 'In The Act of (Not) Painting (To Look At Things Slowly)' addresses Ahmet's given prompt, where he chooses to view this one element as an action or performance, and in this case, the act of ‘not’ painting as his riposte.
Reduced to a slowed down gesture, the work expropriates the flow of painting, removing the visible attributes of the application of paint to a surface. The empty stretchers propped on two stacks of books mimic a painting’s momentary limbo that is somewhere between coming fresh out of the studio and moments of install that a gallery setting brings. The reference books point to the act of making and hint at the history of art - hidden within the pages of its books, all at once highlighting the unseen endeavours that lurk behind the closed doors of an artists’ studio - the overall appearance presented as if a thesis on the undoing of a process.
Images: Installation views and stills from The Act of (Not) Painting (To Look At Things Slowly), 2025 by Cos Ahmet. The Right Map: Slipstream, curated by Phoebe Thomas, CBS Gallery, Liverpool. Single channel performance video, found and appropriated empty canvas stretchers, history of art, painting and colour theory reference books from artist's own library collection. Dimensions variable.