For those who weren’t able to make it to my recent solo presentation On Brown & Violet Grounds in Manchester, here are more images, video and description of another new work.
NEW WORK:
Vanishing Boundaries
Installation (T9 circular fluorescent bulbs, mirror, extension cables)
Variable dimensions, this image shows 500cm (W) x 500cm (D) x 10cm (H) approx.
2013
Vanishing Boundaries signifies a connection between West’s long-standing artistic interests (including methodically gathering objects) and new sculptural experiments. Comprising of an array of reflective discs protruding above floor level, the installation emits intense bursts of light from underneath the discs; the concrete floor is transformed into a field of colour, connected by the trailing electrical wires. The hues of each light gently diminish creating, as the title of the work hints, soft colour mixes. Notably, the reflective discs also deny us full exposure to the source of light: a method that West has employed in previous installations.
– Jack Welsh
For those who weren’t able to make it to my solo presentation On Brown & Violet Grounds at Piccadilly Place, Manchester (25th September – 2nd October), here are some images, video and description of the work for your viewing pleasure…
I will be adding one new work everyday for the next few days, watch this space!
NEW WORK:
Tempo
Installation (T5 fluorescent sticklights, extension cables)
Variable dimensions, this image shows 250cm approx. diameter x 40cm (H)
2013
The fluorescent sticklight, a key material in West’s new installations, is perhaps one of the most effective visual spatial devices. Aside from its obvious exuberant colours, its most striking feature is its stripped back materiality. West has modified each sticklight with a particular colour. This colour palette is reminiscent of the neon lights that were so prominent in the 1960s coinciding with the emergence of installation art. Through methodically mixing each tube in relationship to each other, West cultivates our perceptions, drawing on Albers practice based theory that colour can only be truly understood in relation to other colours and, crucially, our own knowledge of the colour spectrum. The raw exuberance of the sticklights becomes a catalyst to trigger a response: the viewer is needed to activate the work.
– Jack Welsh, 2013
End of show blues… and reds, and yellows…
I have switched the lights off for the last time in ‘On Brown and Violet Grounds’ at Piccadilly Place. I feel a sense of satisfaction that I have never felt before when the end of a show comes. Normally I feel a great deal of sadness connected to the fact it is the inevitable end of something good. Maybe this feeling is not apparent because I know the work will be seen again (be it is a different guise or elsewhere), that the people I wanted to see the show came an saw it and that the feedback I had was excellent.
The question is: was having no preview/opening night the right thing to do? Yes, absolutely. I clocked an amazing number of visitors (plus all those who saw the show whilst passing on the footbridge across to Piccadilly Station). The fact I didn’t have a preview meant that people came in their own time and stayed longer. They stayed to watch the 10min video, look at the work and have a chat. I had 8 show days to indulge in this feedback rather than an intense 3 hour preview where everyone is there, the artists can’t get round to speak to everyone and very few people actually look at the work. I saved £150 because I didn’t have to hire the on-site security and more money on booze – instead I poured the funding into the new work.
More galleries/pop-up shows should perhaps take note of this model. People were astonished that I was having no private view – like it was artistic suicide – the general comment being “when will visitors come then?”. Well – they did come, in their hundreds, to look at the work and not to smooze! Job done.
I was delighted with the comments visitors left and the conversations I had. Thank you to everyone who made the effort to come say hi and see the new work.
Over the next few weeks I will be uploading images of the new work taken by myself and photographer Stephen Iles, who has made some beautiful medium format images of the show. Watch this space…
