Art-in-the-world-wise it’s a good year for me. Two exhibitions, one near, one far! Definitely time to celebrate. (Please hold while I squelch underfoot a niggling quibbling mass of worry-worms – what if nothing else comes?). Done. And back to celebrating… I was chuffed when five CatAListers (SashaBowles, Rosalind Davis, Justin Hibbs, Evy Jokhova and Annabel Tilley) asked me to join their new collaborative project Catalyst 3. Did my bit in February, well before my exhibition in Lisburn came into focus. Can’t wait to see the end-results.
Catalyst is part parlour-game, part contest/clash/collision, or shall we say: cooperation? The rules are simple: One artist starts a piece – absolutely no constraints, and delivers to the next in line by the first of the following month. Each consecutive artist has a month’s time to transform or expire. As the piece passes from hand to hand a chain of interventions ensues, an interplay of endless possibilities: to build up, take away, change, erase, append, dismantle, embellish, augment, obliterate, leave traces, overwrite. All media are allowed, and here they span painting, drawing, stitching, crochet, collage, assemblage, video installation, 2D, 3D, side by side, under and over.
Catalyst is an exercise in trust and daring, a tug of war as media, ideas & styles, egos & ambitions meet and enmesh. At every stage questions of authorship and synergy arise. In the end a coming together, a joining of forces, a feast of creative conversations. Each artist’s individuality threads through and interweaves with the other artists’. As they delve into one another’s work, they raise their game, explore new processes, revel in associations & connotations, all of which feeds back into their own art practices.
Catalyst means pressure, pleasure, purpose, pain; suspense, surprise, exhilaration. There are no rules. All the while the clock ticks.
Catalyst @ Husk Gallery
with Sasha Bowles, Rosalind Davis, Justin Hibbs, Evy Jokhova,
Marion Michell & Annabel Tilley
PREVIEW FRIDAY 19 JUNE 6 – 9PM
Exhibition continues 20 – 30 June 2015
Tues to Friday 8am – 6pm | Saturdays 10am – 5pm.
Tuesday 30 June; Artists Talk & Soundclash from 6pm
With: Justin Hibbs, Ben Lancaster, Peter Liversidge & Martin Herbert
(All welcome)
Husk Gallery, 649-651 Commercial Road, Limehouse, London E14 7LW7
@Husk_Gallery #catAlist
