Staffordshire University

The [OCCUPIED] event again, this time I have included images from the Spode Factory.

The Spode brand was and is synonymous with the pottery industry. It is especially renowned for its under-glaze blue transfer printing. We also learned about the prominence the building had when the pottery industry was booming in England.

We visited the factory prior to the event and it was like a ghost town. The factory occupies 10 acres of land and most of that includes deserted buildings that have had their power cut off, which is such a shame. We were shown a photograph of the factory from the 1920’s, when it had dozens of working kilns. We were also told that about 2 weeks previous to our arrival, the last kiln collapsed. This building was so rich in history, yet it was abandoned.

We were told the ‘China Halls’ were available to us for our exhibition, one of 2 buildings with power. I could not have been more excited when I saw the venue, it was vast and we were told we were not permitted to make changes to the foundations of the building, such as painting the walls or the floor. This was brilliant as I wanted to respond to the building as it was; empty. I was in awe and wanted to move in on the very same day to explore and experiment. I believed I needed at least 3 weeks leading up to the opening to realise an ambitious idea. The factory had other plans. At another part of the factory, part of the building had collapsed and access to the building and roads surrounding the building had been closed for several weeks. Panic came over many in the group. I used the time to think about what exactly I could propose for the space.

I knew I had a very strong reaction to the area that housed six large pillars close to the public entrance to the building. This was because the space had the foundations of the building exposed and this is what I wanted to focus on. With the parts of the factory practically crumbling, I thought about what measures were in place to preserve the history of the city. I did not find any. With the factory occupying such a large amount of space with buildings that would be fully functional if the City Council had not cut the power supply to them, I wanted to keep the significance in history in mind and respond to the future of the factory as a whole.

I decided to use industry standard builder’s thread as it is used when laying the foundations of many things such as floors and walls. It is usually attached to a point and stretched across to another tightly to form a straight line. I wanted to create something with geometry and something very architectural to tap into the potential of the building. I attached the string to the pillars at points where they had been interacted with, points with existing nails and hooks to play on the specificity of the site. The images I have included show the result, however, being in the presence of the space was an experience a camera could not capture.

www.occupiedevent.com

The [OCCUPIED] event, which I was a part of, was a very enriching experience. We got ourselves into & out of many stubborn situations, things were on the verge of going wrong but we managed to pull through to make the event a success.

The event was spread across three venues in Stoke-on-Trent; AirSpace Gallery, Spode Factory & the YMCA Sky Room. Art works by myself were included in each location. The aim was to highlight the importance of art in a place where it seemed to not be very prominent.

Visiting each venue informed our decision to respond to each venue in our own way. The only theme the event held was that of responce, to occupy venues across the city with site responsive art works.

The opening night of our event was held at the AirSpace Gallery on Thursday 14 March 2013. At this venue we decided to make art workd which encompassed what the event was about and give the audience an insight into what we had on offer in the other two venues.

In this ‘post’ I have included images of our artworks from the AirSpace Gallery.

Wardrobe + Casters.

I am constantly experimenting, so I believe I have more than one series of works going on at any given time,

Furniture I usually use is a chair. This time I decided to use a found wardrobe to expand my knowledge of something that is more formal. With a chair, nothing is hidden, everything is in sight. Everyone knows that there is a use for the space within a wardrobe, therefore, there when using such an object in art, I believe there will always be an intrigue to what is inside. This is something I may explore in more detail later on.

For the first experiment, I used the wardrobe to apply my fascination of adding movement to something that is made to be very stable.

2, 2013.

CARBON EXHIBITION.

Lately I have been increasingly busy. Alongside holding a 20 hour a week job in the last term of my final year at university, I am working to develop my own practice, attending several lectures, applying to exhibitions and residencies, being interviewed onine, setting up an art event outside of university with 5 fellow artists and being asked to exhibit in shows set up by fellow artist friends.

I could not be more grateful.

I was invited to exhibit in a group show called CARBON in Staffordshire by a fellow artist/curator Bob Cattrall. He told me what the show was called and left me to interpret the theme however I wanted to.

I decided to create a new piece of work for the exhibition that referenced work I had produced in 2011. In 2011 I created an installation in which I used video tape and hung it vertically from the ceiling to form one large column. I used video tape as a medium to reference the capturing of information. Capturing or trapping is what I instantly responded to when I was approached to exhibit an artwork for Carbon. As soon as I heard the title of the exhibition I was transported back to A-Level Chemistry, the first this I remembered about this element was that it has 4 electrons on the outside ring which are available to form covalent bonding. I remember this type of bond consisting of an electron from the outer ring trapping an electron from another atom. The element of capture/trapping is what influenced me to use the video tape once again. The combination of the specificity of the site alongside the sharing of references proceeded to the creation of an installation of 2 smaller scale columns of video tape.

This is an event me and 5 fellow artists have organised for next week.
Have a look at our website: occupiedevent.com