Temporary Art Space

ARTISTS ANNOUNCED FOR TEMPORARY ART SHOW (part 1)

Rachael Allen

"A bittersweet life.
A one-way journey.
Are you travelling comfortably?

Miniature model-making provides a stage for the exploration of mortal existence, where the fine-line separating birth and death highlights our vulnerable condition as human beings. The miniature vehicles emphasise the uncomfortable reality that is the brevity of life; before long, the vehicle that drives one from birth to youth is replaced by the vehicle that drives the unfortunately disabled to their inevitable death.

To be seduced by these unique miniatures is to enter a diminutive world where annihilation rubs all around; just like looking in the mirror."

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcallen_artspace

Georgia Boniface

"Georgia Boniface's background in fashion and textiles is brought to bear on canvas. Traditional appliqué techniques combine with a powerful compositional and graphic sensibility to bring about a vivid, hand-made, ephemeral and precise explosion of military hardware, pin-badges, british flora and fauna and icons of punk rock and modern art."

http://web.mac.com/victorygarden.mac

Kevin Boniface

"Kevin Boniface is an artist/writer. He has exhibited irregularly at galleries around the UK. He writes a diary all about being a postman in Huddersfield which won some awards and was published by Old Street Publishing last year as Lost in the Post; The Independent said it would be "a cult classic" and a man on the Amazon website said it was "Utter Rubbish". Kevin has also made a zine called Compact News which Tom said he liked.

Chris at work once said he thought Kevin might not really be a very good artist and that he might just be out to shock people for the sake of it; Kevin told him to go f**k himself."

http://web.mac.com/victorygarden.mac

Alice Bradshaw

"I work with a wide range of media and processes involving the manipulation of everyday objects and materials. Mass-produced, anonymous objects are often rendered dysfunctional caricatures of themselves, addressing concepts of purpose and futility. I create or accentuate subtleties, blurring distinctions between the absurd and the mundane."

http://www.alicebradshaw.co.uk

Edward Cotterill

"Edward Cotterill makes work that although uses basic materials and skills operates on a sub fantastic level; striving not to be "beautiful" (creating beauty out of the mundane) but less beautiful than the individual objects/materials used. An inverse notion of the term greater than the sum of its parts occupying a world where it is lesser than the sum of its parts, which paradoxically lends the work a skewed aura of beauty. Highlighting how the world is put together."

http://www.theparlour.org.uk/artistspages/edwardcotterill/edwardcotterill.html

Temporary art spaces in empty shops is big news:

What to do with all the empty shops? (28th February) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7840421.stm

The Fine Art Of Making The Most Of Recession (21st February) http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Dursley-G…

Artists' creative use of vacant shops brings life to desolate high streets (18th February) http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/feb/18…

Empty Shop http://www.emptyshop.org/

Revolutionary Arts Group are collating information about artists using empty shops:

"The Revolutionary Arts Group are keen to hear from artists, organisations and other creative practitioners using empty shops and commercial premises. Shops are being used as galleries, to run workshops, for showing short films and artwork is being used to decorate empty windows. If you're doing any of these – or something different – get in touch."

[email protected]

http://www.artistsandmakers.com/

So what has happened recently?

Georgia has designed a fab flyer –>

We did send it to print about 2 weeks ago but the printers managed to have an administrative glitch especially for us and they forgot to tell the guys on the floor to actually print our flyers. So, there's a couple of days delay but no major worry – they've promised them for early this week, tiny compensation pending.

We've started sending out the invite to the opening event via email, along with the press release written by Bob. If you haven't yet received an invite, come along anyway – this is your invite. FRIDAY 6TH MARCH 5-8PM. Everybody's welcome. Sign up to our mailing list as well if you like via [email protected]

We've decided on a BYOB policy for the opening night based on the fact that a.) we have no money and b.) you can get a bottle of plonk for about £4 from you local shop and it's probably the same price you'd pay for a measly glass or 2 from your local winebar but you can relax with the knowledge that you can drink several glasses at the opening without worrying if your monetary donation is enough. It might be mixing it a bit with a Cab Sav one minute, a Merlot to follow and a Shiraz after that but that's just part of the Temporary fun.

The most exciting thing for us at the moment is we're reviewing all the brilliant proposals we've received for the inaugural exhibition Temporary Art Show. We're tempted to release sneaky preview details about who's showing but all we'll say at the moment is it's a mix of “temporary” sculpture, installation, drawing, video, print and painting – and not necessarily adhering to this simplistic pigeon-holing either. We can reveal there's fifteen artists selected from an international call for proposals; and we're excited about people's reaction to our grand opening.

Reviews on a beermat please.

The magnificent setting of Halifax's Piece Hall is set to be the backdrop for a series of contemporary art exhibitions. Virginia Mason reports.

Published Date: 09 February 2009

CALDERDALE artist Alice Bradshaw took one look at the former cloth merchants' market and knew it could be the perfect place to stage exhibitions.

And now she and a group of fellow artists are hoping they will have as much success as an event they staged in Kirklees last May.

"There was so much interest in the Huddersfield event and so we decided we would like to do the same in Calderdale," explains Alice, of Halifax, a co-director of a Manchester-based artists' collective, Contents May Vary, established in 2004.

The Temporary Art Show will be staged on the top floor of the Piece Hall and run for six months – but each month will have a different theme, encouraging a variety of artwork.

The independent, unfunded project is being organised by a team of fellow artists – Bob Milner and Tom Senior, who work together as Milk, Two Sugars, and Kevin and Georgia Boniface.

All of the artists have exhibited independently before and realise how difficult it can be to have their work recognised.

"It can be really daunting when you are just setting out so the idea behind this is to give up-and-coming artists the chance to show their work to the public", explains Georgia, who met Alice at an arts fair.

"We all got together and thought what a good idea it would be if we could find space to show off varying kinds of work. There are some very talented people out there and this could help launch the careers of some. We hope so, anyway."

Alice added that the monthly exhibitions would encourage work in any medium, either from established artists or those just setting out. "It is not intended to be intimidating in any way and we are really encouraging people of all talents to submit their work," she says.

"This is a great opportunity for them to show their work publicly."
The first exhibition, which runs in March, has the loose theme of Temporary and will be followed by four more themed exhibitions – North, Beer Mats and Beyond, DIY and as the finale, Salon….

Read the full article here: http://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/features/Wed-like-…

The hunt is on to equip Temporary Art Space with plinths, shelving and other furniture, projectors, TV monitors and DVD players.

We've already managed to go over our zero budget with public liability insurance, website hosting and £10 top up on a new SIM.

With a shortage of skips to raid and with few suitable items from our own homes, Freecycle has become an invaluable resource albeit not entirely cost free as collection incurs petrol costs.

The Freecycle Network, as described on it's homepage http://www.freecycle.org/ is “a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Membership is free.” Members post “Wanted:” or “Offered:” messages and generally it seems to operate on a first come first serve basis.

The Keighley network, although being the furthest away than the other two we've joined; Calderdale and Huddersfield, has connected us to a charity called MPIKA Relief Fund for Zambian orphans http://www.mpika.org/

MPIKA have shops in Bradford and Keighley and founding member June replied to our Freecycle post “Wanted: plinths, scrap wood, domestic furniture” offering us items of furniture that they've had donated but cannot shift.

Taking donated items from a charity? It seems all wrong. But June and her colleagues are grateful for us clearing a substantial proportion of their crammed shopfloor. June tells us; “These items are just too unfashionable and old for people to want them. We've had them for weeks and resorted to putting 'free to a good home' labels on them – without success.” June and her staff even help load the four old but good condition wooden tables into the back of our van. If they're not suitable as they are, we tell June gratefully, they'll be fantastic for reworking into plinths.

The next day June calls us and tells us she's at a library in Leeds which is being moved to a one-stop shop over the road. There's two big cabinets going that she can't fit in her van let alone the charity shops – do we want them?

We're picking them up first thing Monday.

We'll try our luck for projectors via Freecycle but we imagine such items will be easier borrowed than picked up for free. We think we've found a TV and DVD player we can borrow but not all video work is suitable to being screened on a monitor. The problem with borrowing projectors we realise, is the bulb is the expensive part and usage eats away at the bulb life, resulting in a loss to the owner.

We don't want to have to turn down proposals because neither TAS nor the invited artist(s) can provide the necessary equipment.

Nobody said it was going to be easy!