Temporary Art Space

Visitors have admired the skill and ingenuity, whizzed round the space with children in pushchairs – amazingly close to Rachael Allen's carefully damaged miniature models, drunk tea with the staff (thank you Yorkshire Tea), and asked some interesting questions directly to the people co-directing this project.

We're currently not only scheduling meetings with artists involved and potentially involved in the project, but also welcoming visits from schools, colleges, art institutions and individuals who are interested in what we're doing and want to drink tea and talk with us.

We're also looking for reviews: we'd love to hear your opinion whether that's a one-liner or an essay, an art-historical referenced thesis or simply an outline of what you like and what you don't. Send us your thoughts to [email protected]

The launch didn't go without incident.

The professional photographers who had kindly offered to photograph the preview had all their gear stolen whilst on a shoot a few days before. They still turned up and celebrated with us despite this! Fantastic people.

Jared's Untitled got trodden on about 2 hours into the night. Jared and the team decided we quite liked it as a temporary preview piece.

We are now open!

The launch went swimmingly well and our first weekend open to the public has seen over 120 visitors appear delighted, inquisitive, surprised and sometimes confused.

Initial feedback has been fantastic and it felt such a come-down to close for the first half of this week with real life and responsibilities kicking in.

"I came to the show on Friday. I really enjoyed it. All the work was very entertaining, which to me is the first duty of art. It was clever, inventive, skillful. The actual presentation was excellent I will definitely come to the next event and will probably revisit the current one. I am a photographer and would love to see this sense of fun and entertainment more in contemporary photography. Thank you."
Robert Norbury (08/03/09)
www.newnaturalphotography.com

ARTISTS ANNOUNCED FOR TEMPORARY ART SHOW (part 3)

Milk, Two Sugars

"In a world of increasing mediocrity and as an antidote to the culture of manufactured individuality we offer the world the only viable alternative, "Milk, Two Sugars". Milk, Two Sugars is a visual notebook published every month in a limited run of one hundred copies. These are distributed to a varied group of artists, writers, galleries and potential groupies.

The visual partnership of Bob Milner and Tom Senior began in March 2006. Coming together through desperation and fear of obscurity, the notebook is the starting point for a wide selection of work in a range of media. A love of drawing and a desire to communicate the deficient wisdom and combined wit of two exceptionally unfunny people is the motivation to create an array of visually stunning and ultimately forgettable images.

http://www.milktwosugars.org

Ian Smith

"I have a studio at Westgate Studios in Wakefield where I am currently making sculptures and films.

The boots are a part of an installation work, which also features a chair and a tyre that have been similarly altered by the addition of matches.

As a result of using so many matches I have also acquired hundreds of matchboxes which I have used as building blocks in subsequent installation pieces."

http://tim-naish.blogspot.com

Jared Szpakowski

"My work deals with themes of identity, purpose, humour & satire and currently involves working predominantly with installation, print and bookmaking. There are certain objects that obsessively persist and recur within my practice such as boxes, ladders, eggs and voyeur holes. My use of personification is both whimsical and quirky but also has the possibility to be read in serious and personal contexts and often involves an almost sinister suggestion of catastrophe.

The formulation of ideas, direction and composition is usually dictated purely by the space itself, be it outdoors, in a derelict area or gallery and work is frequently documented and then abandoned to its fate and to its discovery."

http://www.jaredszpakowski.co.uk

Josie Faure Walker

"Destroying the sculptures, paintings, drawings and collages I make has become a necessary ritual. Very little survives, and I find that positive. Much art is talked about without having ever been seen in the flesh, and the direct experience of object and viewer is replaced with whimsically worded press releases or curatorial statements and poor online reproductions. I enjoy these contradictions and questioning them has become a thread connecting my studio practice. Aside from this and the desire to recycle everything that I make into new work after being photographed, the subject matter and material of my work is all over the place."

http://www.stinkee.co.uk/josie.html

ARTISTS ANNOUNCED FOR TEMPORARY ART SHOW (part 2)

Julia Douglas

"Julia Douglas is an award winning visual artist based in Scotland. She ponders the relationship people have with the objects they put in their home and aims to tell a story about the inhabitant's life by playfully transforming these items into mixed media sculptures and prints. In her work "Series" she has used a beautiful, hand painted, ceramic Willow Pattern plate as a model and has created a series of cheap, disposable copies. Though the pattern is the same, the serial plates physical attributes are distinctly inferior; they are flimsy paper rather than tactile ceramic; to be disposed of rather than treasured; and printed, rather than hand painted. They reflect a common corruption in commercial practice today."

http://www.julia-douglas.co.uk

Francis Elliott

"My work is primarily aimed at trying to pinpoint vectors relating to thought processes, emotions and imaginary spaces; filling in the gaps between experience and assumptions that we all use to make sense of the world around us.

I'm not interested in creating anything new; rather, stripping back the existing world until the mechanisms of each object's implications are revealed.

From my earliest works on canvas to recent blackboard drawings, paint has always been an essential part of my working process; most of my recent work has used paint as a physical surface, to conceal or disrupt common objects, thereby forcing the viewer to question the implications of the original. I have always been fascinated by space, time and movement; the different ways to perceive time, for instance; Garden uses rust to stretch time, leading to living paintings that change imperceptibly but continuously; whilst One Measure removes the hour and minute hands of a normal watch, leaving only an infinite sea of seconds behind."

http://www.franciselliott.com

Karl Jeron

"Phenomena in contemporary life are the focal point of KH Jeron's artistic interest. He sees his work as an investigation of popular social issues. Often he collects material from public sources like Google, Wikipedia or TV. This material is enacted by small robotic vehicles or compiled into videos. Jeron is interested in shifting the recognition by subtle interventions."

http://9-5.jeron.org

Imran Jogee

Natalie Kay

"My fascination with the fleeting everyday, the dynamics of observation and the anonymity of the individual in society, drives my artistic practice. Within this I explore the relationship between myself as an artist and the observer and audience in relation to those being viewed."

http://www.nataliekay.co.uk