AirSpace Gallery

Brian Holdcroft – The Process of Rendering Something Sacred

As part of Dialogue Box
AirSpace Gallery Window

This work examines nature and landscape myths and questions how our sense of place is as much a product of memory. Through the recollection of events and stories landscapes are established that extend across time and space and are shaped in the mind. Establishing a continuity with the past they add to a collective understanding that provides a reassurance of identity.

www.brianholdcroft.co.uk

Creative duo roam the West Midlands on photo trail….

Rhonda Wilson and Lorna-Mary Webb are the creative and organisational forces behind Rhubarb-Rhubarb – widely regarded as Europe’s premier International Photographic Portfolio Review – based in Birmingham. In early 2010 they’re hitting the road to meet new and emerging photographers who wish to make more of their talents. They’ll be covering all corners of the West Midlands region and are keen to see what’s out there.

The event is open to all photographers based in the region and is free of charge.

Photographers get a thirty-minute portfolio review session with Rhonda, Rhubarb’s Creative Director, or Lorna-Mary, Company Manager. Both have reviewed far and wide internationally, at photo festivals held in the UK, USA, China, Korea, Poland, Denmark and France among others.

“The aim of the tour is to see the work of photographers who wish to make their photographs more visible, get advice on the images in their folios and outline some of the forthcoming events and schemes being operated by Rhubarb-Rhubarb. Among these is our annual bursary scheme, giving photographers the chance to attend one of our major national or international review and seminar events.

“In 2009 the winners also had a show at Wolverhampton Museum and Art Gallery and two of them were chosen, one from the West Midlands and the other from the UK, to accompany me to Fotofest’s Meeting Place 2010, in Texas, to show their work. It’s always exciting going to look at work and there are always some spectacular finds out there in the region.” says Wilson.

The 2009 event was fully booked and saw the duo visit 6 venues across the region, seeing the work of over 40 photographers, helping them to move their practice forward.

2010 Roaming Rhubarb dates and venues;

Wednesday 10th February 2010 – Solihull Arts Complex

Thursday 11th February 2010 – Airspace Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent

Wednesday 17th February 2010 – Artrix, Bromsgrove

Wednesday 24th February 2010 – Light House Media Centre, Wolverhampton

Thursday 25th February 2010 – Herbert Museum and Art Gallery, Coventry

Those interested can visit www.rhubarb-rhubarb.net

For bookings contact Sean McGarry on [email protected] or call 0121 773 7889

CHRISTMAS CARDS

New for 2009 and available now; a range of Christmas cards featuring new limited edition artwork by AirSpace Gallery studio artists.

The cards are available in two sets with four different cards in each set, these cards give acontemporary slant to the christmas card, and have been created to help support the continuing exhibition programme for 2010.

Available to buy at the gallery or online at

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/4-FINE-ART-XMAS-CARDS-AIRSPA…

and

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/4-FINE-ART-XMAS-CARDS-AIRSPA…

Each artist has explored the idea of looking at life from another perspective and the level of contrast that can be seen through the work on display puts a real emphasis on how fixated we can be with regards to the perspective we have become comfortable with. Hopefully this exhibition will allow the viewer to see their everyday life in a different way and encourage us to look at our surroundings for what they are.

Stacey Booth

. … Images showing a funfair closed and a building in ruins also draws to this theme. The change in politics can also be noted as anti-BNP graffiti messages are spray painted onto walls and a man displaying an England t-shirt whilst smoking a cigarette poses for a shot. With our society now a multi-cultural one, these photographs show how certain people want to be patriotic or feel like they still belong to some form of British identity whatever that may be. The viewer can relate to incidents occurring during the Thatcher era and points out to us that even after two decades, we are still in similar situations to the ones we were struggling with then. It raises the question to whether our society has progressed at all.
When I first read the description for Robert Johnson’s work, the aim being to bring elements of blues music and Zen practises together, I will admit I didn’t know what to expect. When entering the space where Robert’s work can be seen you are immediately drawn to the layout of area. The first thing to catch your attention is the broom resting against the pillar in the centre of the room and from here you start to notice the careful positioning of the works. You are invited to study each piece carefully just through the careful layout and the calmness that is created. As you walk through the doorway you pass a chair facing towards the corner of the wall and in front of it is a diddley bow. You then start to notice each painting where blues music is represented through the dark tones, almost creating the night feel of a blues bar. There is a lot of energy within these paintings, yet they are not chaotic in their style. In contrast to these is the painting of a landscape where a single string has been stretched across the canvass and secured at either end. This playing with the idea of the diddley bow, but also addressing a much deeper idea based around Zen practises. The use of diddley bows symbolises with the Zen idea that all content should be stripped away to reveal a neutral zone where we can then explore and experience things on a much deeper and richer level. The single string of the diddley bow is that neutral zone, and the many sounds that can be created from this one string, opens up to us the idea of deep self exploration and a search for truth rather than settling for constant representations. Robert Johnson’s passion and interest in this area certainly shines through and he manages to portray a lifestyle of blues and the search for truth and peace. …