Location: Old Police Court, Jersey
Date: 04.12.2025
Curated by: Michael Benest
Displayed within an Old Police Court, Forgery on Trial occupies a space once dedicated to judgement. Here, works are presented not as crimes, but as questions — examining authorship, belief, and why certain images move us.
Visitors become the jury.
Built in 1811, the Old Police Court sat at the centre of Jersey's civic life for over a century. Truth and deception were once weighed within these walls - formally, consequentially, under oath. For one evening, that history becomes the backdrop. The court is in session again. This time, the evidence is on the walls.
Every good forgery requires a certain composure. The cocktail menu was designed with that in mind - each drink named, constructed, and presented as evidence. Plausible. Polished. Best consumed before the verdict is read.
In a courtroom setting, every canvas becomes both suspect and testimony. The question is not whether a work is real — but why we care if it is.
Each exhibition within the Atelier & Grove programme occupies a space shaped by its subject. Works are selected not for spectacle, but for the questions they quietly refuse to answer. Authorship, memory, belief, and the nature of value — these are the recurring preoccupations. The setting is always chosen with intent.
