Many academically inclined artists tend to redefine their art as a form of credible research, but few do it with the conviction of Susan Aldworth, working as she does both as artist and curator. Her creative enquiry into the disorientations of schizophrenia, titled Reassembling The Self and shared by two galleries, follows her recent stint as artist-in-residence at Newcastle University’s Institute of Neuroscience. Her own prints are diagrammatically elaborate and at times quite enchanting introversions. She’s also orchestrated commissions: an audio piece from Alessandro Altavilla, and a 12ft neon angel created by Sarah Blood.
Vane, to 20 Oct; Hatton Gallery to 24 Nov
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Kevin, Two Voices (2012), by Susan Aldworth Photograph: Gavin Duthie
Johnson was just 24 when he found himself at the forefront of the “post-black” generation of African-American artists, thanks to his inclusion in New York’s landmark Freestyle exhibition. Eleven years later and he’s held his ground, with installations that riff with probing wit on black history, art history and his past. Public Enemy’s crosshairs logo, books by black intellectuals, scientists and activists, plus hip-hop, funk and jazz records have all made earlier appearances in work where cultural identity can always be remoulded. This UK debut references early psychology and the former Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba, assassinated under the auspices of western powerbrokers.
South London Gallery, SE5, Fri 28 Sep to 25 Nov
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Traveling Jules (2012), by Rashid Johnson Photograph: Martin Parsekian
An Eric Bainbridge exhibition usually means ingenious makeovers of DIY store basics or charity shop fare. His interest in our constant need for everything superficially bigger and newer runs from the oversized versions of found objects covered in fake fur and far-out shades that made his name in the 80s, through to more recent work with chipboard plinths. Now he’s looking back to the 70s and Anthony Caro’s bright red steel drawing in space, Early One Morning. This will come as a shock to his fans: no Caro-follower at the time, Bainbridge bucked the trend and looked to Germany’s Joseph Beuys, giving his transformation of everyday finds a dose of consumer culture-savvy British humour.
Camden Arts Centre, NW3, Fri 28 Sep to 2 Dec
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The Mind Of The Artist (Exposed) (2011), by Eric Bainbridge Photograph: PR
Pat Flynn’s meticulously executed and immaculately framed digital prints are deceptively simple. Collectively titled Cold Children, these are apparently photographs of empty frames. The fact Cold Children is a psychiatric term for children who display “callous and unemotional” traits gives a hint of the underlying unease of Flynn’s make-believe minimalism. Here’s an artist who has consistently focused on one of the most significant problems of our time: how does the increasing exposure to film, TV and computer screens, especially among the young, affect our perception of life? Flynn concentrates on the profoundly hypnotic mystery of the screen as an interface between the individual psyche and the global mass of media communications.
The International 3, to 12 Oct
RC
Cold Children (14) (2012), by Pat Flynn Photograph: PR
Despite the title, the artists here are looking back as much as forward: like Susan Hiller’s exploration of ghost voices, recordings of languages that are either dead or dying; or Vernon Ah Kee comparing the 19th-century land struggles of Native Americans with Australian Aborigines. Others take a hands-on approach like Marjetica Potrc, who’s created a lifesize study for a school in the Amazon. What emerges is a world where different times uneasily co-exist.
Chapter Gallery, to 4 Nov
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Untitled (2006), by Monika Sosnowska Photograph: PR
One fact singles Vanley Burke out from most documentary photographers: he’s long been a member of the community he documents. These 100 images from the last 45 years form a consistently empathic picture of the Handsworth area of Birmingham. Momentous occasions are recorded: visits from Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali; Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech; 1977’s Africa Liberation Day; and the street riots of the 1980s. Much like the photographs of Bradfordians taken by Don McCullin, it’s the portraits of everyday life that provide Burke’s most poignant work: the shifting Caribbean dress sense and street style; the family get-togethers; the church choirs; the gatherings of the Nation of Islam; and that sense of fellow feeling.
mac, Sat 22 Sep to 18 Nov
RC
Africa Liberation Day, Handsworth Park (1977) Photograph: Vanley Burke
Launched in 2009 to celebrate Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday, extInked is a strange and unusually affecting project combining graphic art, tattooing, photographic documentation and community action. From November of that year, 100 drawings of endangered birds, plants, reptiles, mammals and invertebrates were permanently transferred by Ink Vs Steel on to the various body parts of 100 volunteers who then became extInked living ambassadors. This show includes the original drawings and documentary images of the whole project, but it’s the portraits that convey a passionate commitment to the cause.
Rugby Art Gallery & Museum, to 10 Nov
RC
Huw Spanner and the White Tailed Eagle for which he is the proud ambassador Photograph: Andrew Firth
Thomas Schütte is a unique artist: one of the most intriguing and diverse talents to come out of Germany in the last 30 years. His work is as mysterious as it is inviting, spanning architectural models, watercolours, ceramics and sculptures that veer from stainless steel monsters to figures modelled in kids’ craft fave FIMO. This show’s focus are his Faces And Figures: a cast of weird, funny, frightening and occasionally Yoda-like characters, including self-portraits of the artist himself. Elsewhere, bronze busts with heavy brows and big, droopy noses make a comical counterpart to their classical forebears.
Serpentine Gallery, W2, Tue 25 Sep to 18 Nov
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United Enemy (1995), by Thomas Schütte Photograph: Mathias Johansson
