Bosch in Bath.
Last month was spent organising, arranging and curating ‘Old Victoria Buildings Revival’ for Fringe Arts Bath 2013, a show that in the end featured work from: Sam Aldridge, Jan Bennett, Phil Babot, Andrew Cooper, Geraint Evans, Kim Fielding, Beth Greenhalgh, Neil Jeffries, MelvilleMitchell, Iwan ap Huw Morgan, Richard Huw Morgan, Tiff Oben + Helene Roberts, Graham Phillips, Jason Pinder, Sara Rees + Liz Waterhouse, James Richards & Soozy Roberts. All selected for their involvement however large or small with tactileBOSCH.
Most of the artists’ work was all completely new, which made is especially exciting in terms of success for a revival show, light boxes seemed to be quite popular in the show, forming tangentially I was thinking of the physical qualities of a light box, maybe a little ‘open casket’, but I think that’s maybe quite a tedious link back to the drive of the exhibition. On the opening night there were live performances from Beth Greenhalgh, Iwan ap huw Morgan and Phil Babot, who unfortunately couldn’t stay to enjoy the festivities as he was flying to Lapland for a performance festival, great pieces from all three.
There were only tminor problems that were encountered throughout the install: Solid concrete walls + plugs only on the pillars in the middle of the room: It was a little trying at times but nonetheless a good experience in problem solving. Another key issue during the install was how create impact: As you go down stairs into the basement, there needed to be a hard-hitting piece that demanded attention, as to beckon the viewers into the basement, and further, into the vaults. I played around with arrangements of Soozy Robert’s work, but ultimately decided on James Richards’ Disambiguation piece (although this caused offence and was replaced with his Practice Theory piece instead) as a 15ft projection. The projector in this location also dealt with the issues of displaying Melville Mitchell’s piece, ‘Duet’ a masculine shouting match with Bread of Heaven vs Swing Low Sweet Chariot operating as Wales vs England, and Melville vs Mitchell, a great dynamic piece but only shown once on the large projection with amplified sound, as best suited the work, high-impact then gone. This overwhelming feeling of impact continued with Kim Fiedling’s ‘Healing the site of Leakage’ installation, which was working with the vaults from the original foundations of the building while using retinal after-image to burn his work into your eyes.
It seems people have said a lot of things about the exhibition, people have been kind, thankful, empathetic, disgusted, appalled, but never bored or jaded. Such is the joy of working with such fantastic artists. A belated thank you to the event organisers, artists, assistants and attendees.
