ReOrsa

There was a second element to the ReOrsa art project, incorporating all the temporarily empty spaces available in the town centre. In the middle of Charles Square, two empty shops were transformed into gallery spaces and even became platforms for an artist discussion which is available to listen to online. http://www.digitalmediacentre.org/podcast.html

The slightly fraying paintwork and uncarpeted floors added a lovely Avant-garde feel to the spaces, as you got the impression you had walked in on the start of something. Into an art scene devoid of the usual pristine appearance and commercialistic emphasise usually placed in subtle nuances around an artist’s work. Here was an unpolished background to art that had no ulterior motive except to be art.

Of course the art within the shop reflected some of the same values of the art within the windows and as the world buckles under the strain of global warming, this became echoed in the works of several artists. Barbara Cottrell again emphasised the values around re-cycling with a piece constructed entirely of contact lens wrappers. Whilst Nick Garnett’s beautifully curved sculptures are made specifically from re-cycled wood. Now in both these cases the initial impact is an aesthetic one as even though the two are starkly different, they both have a very appealing style to them. Cottrell’s contact lenses hang in beautifully symmetric, even modernist lines, creating a stylised and minimal effect. Whereas in contrast Garnett’s sculpted lines flow beautifully creating a natural appearance despite the obviously constructed shapes.

There is another, lighter trend that emerges from this group of artists and that is one of interaction with the audience. Apart from the instantly intriguing giant Monopoly style board game in the corner of one shop space, there was the slightly more traditionally arty work of Ingrid Jenson titled “Journey into Space”. This large silk sheet allowed visitors to draw their own journey lines across the fabric amongst the previous marks. It was at this work I found myself staring for a large amount of time trying to trace all the different lines, watching how they overlapped and wondering about their makers. A second visit to the exhibition found me desperately trying to find my line but alas although my art loving companion tracked down her distinctive mark amongst the many others, I could not find mine. this had me worrying slightly about the real life implications of not being able to find your life line when others could and although this was perhaps not an intended effect of the work, it certainly had an impact on me.

Despite Bracknell’s close proximity to London, it is perhaps not known as being a cultured town. However unsuspecting shoppers this month can’t have failed to notice the town centre being overrun by art. It seemed every second shop window had something strange and colourful to display but oddly enough not to sell, as the ReOrsa art walk and exhibition took over downtown Bracknell.

Now if shoppers hadn’t already heard of the art walk I’d put money on many of them halting and having a look at one piece in particular. From Barbara Cotterell’s window, located quite far along Broadway, stares out plastic unseeing eyes. In fact not even plastic eyes look out as this tiny cow sculpture, made from Organic Milk cartons has no eyes, rather hollow bottle openings where eyes should glare. Despite the twee subject matter there is a lesson being taught here. In an artist’s statement Cotterell declares “I want to raise awareness of our personal and collective responsibility and impact upon our environment”.[i] The lesson here being, re-cycle, presumably to save the future for ourselves and for the sculptures more lifelike kin.

Another window trying to make us think about our waste is put together by Jennifer Leach. Now the actual aesthetics of this work are not on first inspection pleasant. The installation titled “A Month in the City” is made up of fruits and vegetables hanging in front of a bleached, white background. However as you can guess the effect of being left behind a glass front has had a detrimental effect on the produce. The work itself is rather stomach churning to look upon, unless as pointed out by Leach in her online blog http://www.onemonthinthecity.com/ you look very closely at the individual pieces. At this point you see the startling colours created by the usually avoided fermentation process. This brings me onto the real gem of this work, the blog. After all this idea has been done before, many times have artists left various fruits, flowers or in extreme cases meat, in the gallery to decompose in their own sweet yet smelly time. However Leach has reached out to the viewer to become included in the work by sending photographs of the changing fruit to her via her email. This takes some of the control back to the viewer, as we do not get the usual interaction one gets with such pieces when they’re in a gallery setting. i.e. the smell. It also offers some beautiful writing and description, as well as a rather worrying realisation of the lack of involvement by local businesses. Therefore the blog set up by Leach offers a good extension of the work and actually some might say the writing and observations of the blog are more poetic than the work itself.

Either way it was another successful year for ReOrsa and a successful attack by art on the town centre of Bracknell.

[i] http://www.materialspace.com/page5.htm

It’s a tale as old as time. Artist discovers a run down derelict building in less than desirable part of town, artist uses building to create art, derelict building becomes fashionable and cutting edge. Less than desirable part of town beginnings churning out coffee bars. Artist is forced to move out of trendy, new metropolitan area due to rising house prices. I think there’s meant to be a monster and a talking candle stick in there too but we’ll ignore that for now.

However it has been done before, old industrial landscapes or crumbling decrepit buildings are transformed by the act of art. The Tate is famous for transforming the Liverpool docks and the Turbine Hall whilst in America, the PS1 gallery sits quietly nestled in the middle of Queens and invites it’s artists to “transform the building’s unique spaces” from old classrooms to site specific artworks. But now there’s a chance to see it happen from the very beginning. In the dark corners of Bracknell town centre, the Thames Valley based artist group ReOrsa are bringing vacated shop windows to life with non-commercial installations.

This exhibition falls into two stages. The first will occur in the empty shop windows of Bracknell, creating an art walk around the town centre, that will hopefully catch the eye of unknowing passers by as well as devoted art fans. Meanwhile the bulk of the art work will be displayed in a vacant shop, a slightly ironic setting for a group devoted to non-commercial art. Still there’s a brilliant kind of poetry to placing non-profit artwork in a space which has failed its original retail purpose. It is also ironic when you consider the reason ReOrsa was allocated these empty spaces was in the hope that the publicity and reputation gleaned from such exhibitions may boost Bracknell’s reputation and popularity. Presumably a key priority for the council ahead of Bracknell’s constantly delayed regeneration programme.

As it is the empty spaces in the town will only be available for another year at the most, (unless there are more setbacks re-development wise) this exhibition is well worth seeing before Bracknell’s transformation to thriving metropolitan centre shuts out all local art. The art walk begins the 8th September and runs to the 3rd of October whilst the major exhibition begins with a Private View on the 16th September and runs every wed to sat till the 27th.