Marl Hole 3rd – 31st October 2009
at AirSpace Gallery
as part of British Ceramics Biennial, Stoke on Trent.
The concept of Marl Hole was to challenge the traditional ideas and methods that have been applied to clay, and demonstrate a fresh approach to the material whilst using very primitive techniques.
Neil Brownsword, Alexandra Engelfriet, Torbjørn Kvasbø, Johnny Magee and Pekka Paikkari joined forces to make this work possible. The artists visited Etruria Marl located in Staffordshire to embark on both a physically and mentally challenging task, to manipulate the landscape in order to create interventions which demonstrated the history and relationship between the creator and the material. Over a period of just five days, each artist was confronted with the material in its rawest state and had to decide in what way they would alter the landscape to create their piece of work.
The event was filmed by Johnny Magee which clearly shows the strength and determination of the five artists as well as the exhaustion they face along the way. The sheer scale of the Etruria Marl is daunting enough, but despite that the artists successfully created their work whilst enduring the elements and having limited resources.
Johnny Magee manages to capture the emotions and thoughts that the artists experience throughout his filming and this is achieved by focusing on the struggles and exertion that takes place. If the film were to solely focus on the finished pieces, then the purpose of the project would have been lost. It is only when you see the individuals using parts of their bodies to manipulate the clay and the sheer force needed to do it, that you start to appreciate the work on the level that it is intended. The exhaustion felt by the artists is sympathetic to the past workers of the pottery industry by both demonstrating the back breaking work that they would undertake daily and scale of the industry at the time. The fact the Etruria Marl exists from the now extinct pottery industry and that it looked so desolate and empty despite its vastness before the artists arrived; symbolises with the death of the industry and the large hole it has left within the area and its community.
continued…
A Brave New World
AirSpace Gallery
September 2009
It seems that barely seconds have passed since that time when the world was full of boundless possibilities. A small muddy patch in the back garden might have been the site of a pitched battle between a legion of Lego men and incongruous plastic dinosaurs, or perhaps the space around the bed was a shark infested sea, you are the captain navigating between the perilous jagged wardrobe or the threatening bite of the cracken (usually an older family member in a bizarely patterned Christmas sweater).
Before the rot of tv and national insurance contributions sets in the world is your oyster and a thing of your own creation.
Talk to an average person on the street and ask them to describe what is meant by ‘abstract’ or ‘surreal’ and you might possibly be there for infinity. Now if you were to approach a former pupil of either Forest Park Primary school or Clarice Cliff Primary School at some time in the future and the answer would be there instantly.
For twelve days in each school over a period of around three months, David Bethell, Eleanor Babb and myself have been exploring ‘Strange New Worlds’ through a series of workshops with 7-8 year olds in year 3 classes. The children were put straight in at the deep end with the exploration of surreal and abstract concepts, in order for them to create an environment both distant but somehow familiar to us as viewers. The days of experimentation would culminate in an exhibition of artworks at AirSpace Gallery. Lasting just over a week the exhibition showed a combination of large-scale sculptures, experimental drawing and photography, and clay maquettes; each piece owing its existence to the creativity and imagination of a young mind.
Amongst the works were glimmers of recognisable memories from another time, distant maybe, but in reality not that far away. The power of art to develop a sense of wonderment was evident at the artists’ first viewing of the final curated show. Not only were they seeing their own work in a new light but that of their compatriots from across the city. A spontaneous and almost unconscious critical debate occurred as similar and different themes emerged, and were either praised or derided.
Sometimes it seems as though the creativity of childhood is lost to the tedium of the everyday adult world of MOTs and risk assessments, and the constant drive to formalise what we do. However creating and viewing this work alongside those enquiring minds has shown me at least that that ideal state of mind is still just underneath the surface.
Andrew Branscombe
Jin Han Lee – Beyond and Within
as part of Dialogue Box
AirSpace Gallery Window
18th – 31st August
An easy explanation of my current paintings is the awkward and strange relationship between layers created by using masking tape. I create edged patterns, gradation, and big brushstrokes. I want to disorientate the viewer through the various techniques employed in my paintings, the dynamic created through use of spontaneous and planned actions within each work reinforcing this state. Tension and spontaneity are repeated between images and layers.
By using “masking,” I am producing something that is not a picture in a picture. My method is to paint over the masking tape then remove the tape so that the act of masking is an act of drawing. The act of painting is not simply just placing colour onto the canvas but also the removal of the masking tape which cuts through the colour.
Using masking tape allows me the chance to focus on each image, as to show the image, I have to block the image. There is a disjointed space within the image, between what is seen before and after the masking tape is removed, by cutting the tape I expose the core.
www.jinhanlee.com
bernard charnley – the instability of spaces
as part of Dialogue Box-AirSpace window
5th – 14th August
The installation of paintings comment on the paradox of fragility but strength of spaces, the ones we construct in our heads or those social and personal that we occupy, shape and exchange with everyday.
In location in the dialogue box, the floating random double suspension of the images in their box frames, and of the frames in the window space, opens a colourful conversation in the air. It is a playful exchange on its own tensions and contradictions that speaks also to the dynamics of our own desires and dreams.
www.bernardcharnley.co.uk
Ecce Home Tesco
The show opened on the 26th June, introducing Stoke on Trent to Shaun Doyle and Mally Mallinson’s Devolution Theory. A theory that sees a Tesco dystopia where the human skeletal structure has devolved to cater for the new Tesco life, where the young are enrolled into the compulsory Tesco Youth and Tesco monuments are built to celebrate the chain.
A combination of strangely realistic skeleton figures and museum like artefacts create a history for our predicted future, the show is predominantly amusing, the children at the pre-view were seen to be pointing and laughing at the figures. Yet at the same time there are haunting undertones, could this actually happen? Or is it already happening? It was recently reported that the sale of forks was massively out numbering the sale of knives, could this be the beginning of our downfall, one hand shovels food while the other rests on the television remote. It could be that we are closer than we think to the fork shovelling seen in Doyle and Mallinson’s videos.
