Dialogue Box
AirSpace Gallery Window
Cardinal
by Phil Rawle
3rd-13th October
Phil has had a long career as a graphic designer working in London, New York, Washington and the Midlands. He is now exploring the image-making process outside the normal realms of graphic design.
Cardinal
This piece explores the iconography of our secular world, our reverence to the computer, film and TV, and the worship of the transient. The window becomes a stage set evoking the power and glory of advertising, described with the manipulative swagger of ritualised pageantry.
The Drowning World
Preview: 27th August 6 – 9pm
Exhibition: 28th August – 2nd October
Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 5pm
Artists: Dan Davis, Michelle McKeown, Terry Shave.
Artist Talk 18th September
In1962 J. G. Ballard wrote the book The Drowned World, wherein he explored a particular post-apocalyptical scenario and ideas of chaos brought on by the consequences of solar radiation and melting icecaps. Nature takes over, once again, and the world returns to a more primitive state of existence. The protagonist eventually embraces this new natural order but wrestles with the devolutionary position he finds himself in, this sharply contrasts with the determination to retain power and control by other characters. The actions of others eventually persuade the protagonist to find unity with a more organic landscape. After all, you don’t know tranquillity without knowing chaos.
The Drowning World, explores some of this subject matter in relation to contemporary and historical concerns, alongside the layering and transformational processes within the production of art. The artists shown here produce unnerving images, which discuss the dislocation of people related to place, history and society. The notion of strata is key to all of the artists, whether that be historical, physical (in terms of the layering of an image) or social. All of the artists are showing new work in this exhibition.
Dialogue Box
AirSpace Gallery Window
Until 23rd August
Paper plane: Questions
Stuart Porter
Who made the first and why? Was its creation an accident of design or a deliberate action of thoughtful development? How did this simple paper folded efficient delivery, where in truth its flight is unpredictable and unreliable in both duration and direction?
www.stuart-porter.com
Dialogue box
GREEN / REGEN
Kate Lynch, 2010
Found lithographs, vinyl on polycarbonate sheets
‘GREEN’ is an anagram of ‘REGEN’. The circular form of the text allows both of these words to be read and reflects the regenerative cycle of nature and continuity of life. Just as in the natural world, the city is undergoing constant changes involving destruction and renewal; urban regeneration. Regeneration has become a buzz word in the city at this point in time, often abbreviated as ‘regen’.
‘Green’ is also emerging a desirable and fashionable term/ethos within the city, with campaigns for green spaces and environmental improvement, and the rising popularity of allotments and ‘grow your own’. This organic aesthetic has been diluted into the marketing of many products, with the results sometimes being misleading and false. The use of vinyl lettering and plastic, over the artist’s usual choice of natural and sustainable materials, reflects these contradictions.
The face of the ‘Green Man’ emerges from the detritus of the ceramics industry (ceramic lithographs), questioning the sustainability and prosperity of industry and regeneration schemes. The used lithograph backings are lifeless remnants of industry. The ‘Green Man’ traditionally represents regeneration of the natural world. Here the artist is reinterpreting this theme to relate to the regeneration of the city, therefore also suggesting potential – that it may become abundant and vibrant after the process of urban renewal.
The floral lithographs also celebrate what is ‘green’ in our city- parks, allotments, back gardens or overgrown wasteland with thriving habitats.
For more about the work go to www.aconversationwiththegreenman.blogspot.com
Best Practice Seminar: with Alex Pearl
29th May 12.00PM-4.00PM @ AirSpace Gallery
www.newgenerationspace.wordpress.com
airspacegallery
no4 Broad Street
Hanley
Stoke-on-Trent
Staffordshire
ST1 4HL
In this session we will be looking at the fundamentals of what it means to be an artist and will explore ways of moving an artistic practice forward. The main speaker will be Alex Pearl an artist whose practice we feel presents an example of best practice, through his development both of his work and relationships with galleries and curators. Alex has also gained recognition and experience through taking part in commissions, and residencies, both in this country and abroad.
UK artist Alex Pearl sets up situations, which illustrate our predicament. He makes mini-epic films, video installations, games, photographs, sculpture, blogs and books. Throughout his work there is a sense of an acceptance of failure or disappointment as important parts of the human condition. His new work for The Whitstable Biennale is based on a mistake. Last year, when he began to consider making work for the Biennale, a friend commented to him: “Whitstable? That’s where Dracula landed”. The mistake was soon rectified, but when he discovered Peter Cushing lived in Whitstable, he decided to write a sort of vampire novel entitled The Pearl Fisher. Based on Bram Stoker’s diary form, but without the benefit of plot or supernatural threat, his novel (in the form of a blog) soon became what the artist calls “an aimless ramble through forests of coincidence and disappointment.” The narrative of the blog is the only thing loosely connecting the films to be presented in Whitstable. Firstly, a set of three ghostly apparitions born of obsessive watching of Hammer horror films and an interest in Victorian theatrical magic. Next a series of informal blue films made at the beach and finally a film of a male bingo caller, calling to the ladies of Whitstable’s Oxford Bingo Club.
