THE QUEEN OF HUNGARY PROJECT SPACE

Chloe Mandy In Residence – Part 3

Last days in the project space race past, finally the hard graft is paying off. The paintings have evolved, and its exciting, the space allowed me to develop in direction that is just not possible within the cramped confines of ordinary every day space, some how, working in “ a project space “ allows you , me, anyone, to step out side of the inevitable and sometimes arbitrary parameters that we all set for our selves. I stretched a large pieces of canvas, across the whole eight meters, the entire wall, then became my canvas, the fact that it was upstretched, and only mildly primed evaporated the sense of expectation, and pressure, I for once could truly allow the work to be awkward, ungainly, not sure of its destination. The other walls, also filled with images, the east wall became the drawing wall, and because of the expanse, it actually did work as a drawing wall, using references photos, memories, and live models, the paintings started to emerge, as soon as details became necessary, I moved my attention to the drawing wall, where I worked out, how exactly that arm went, or where that particular figure should be. Interestingly, the motives or subjects that kept reappearing were the objects that best synthesised my idea of the imagined being within the realms of absolute fact, the rocking horse, the owl, shells, willows, horses. The role of the figures became more interesting.The figures all stand, like sculptures in niches, they stand in front the landscape or off to the side, holding you out , or occasionally permitting you as the viewer or spectating participant, to slide past, in to the landscape.

Chloe Mandy

Chloe Mandy: In Residence at the Project Space

November 4 – December 15 2013 Part 2

It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, the project space, like my metal state fast became cluttered with objects, trees, a huge shell, corn plants, my tooth brush, I tried to follow my instinct, and not to self censure when images emerged that were too whimsical, or crass, or too obvious. But patterns are hard to break, the known is always the starting point, The first two weeks were full of naive optimism, painting wildly, the third week, all default avoidance techniques set in, scattering my attention, I started to draw, not paint, and eventually things started to shift, by placing figures in the constructed landscape I was able to quickly change their scale, and form, the landscapes themselves came into focus, it became clear, that drawing is an essential part of the process for me, also having four or five paintings on the go dipping in, and out, reading poetry, even sleeping at the Project Space, allowing time to contract and expand by eliminating any of the usual constraints on time, all these are essential to the process. I am so glad I was able to do this, even though it seems the territory gained is measureable in millimetres rather than miles. It has been an immeasurably wonderful experience.

Chloe Mandy

Chloe Mandy: In Residence at the Project Space

November 4 – December 15 2013

Part 1

Having a residency in a space that’s literally 40 feet from your studio might sound a little bit of a waste of gunpowder, but being in the four uninterrupted white walls and newly painted floor, entirely empty square that is the Queen of Hungary Project Space has been very productive.

The initial intention was to use the space to do some drawings for my upcoming show in May, The Necessary Angel at Salthouse Church. The Necessary Angel, is the title of a book of short essays by the poet Wallace Stevens, he posits the theory that absolute fact includes everything that the imagination includes, this idea is one that I wanted to work with..

I paint directly in the landscape, this rural Norfolk landscape that is so managed and ordered, but it’s the gaps in human interventions that allow changes to occur, driven by nature, so that our understanding of the landscape is just super imposed pockets, of familiarly, fragments of knowledge, recognition of patterns that reoccur. I wanted my experience of painting in the landscape at specific places, in certain times, to inform the paintings. But not limit my experience of the landscape to a purely visual response. I wanted the landscapes to have a sense of heterotopias, a heterotopia is an anti –location, and it consists of an ensemble of places outside of all places, even though they are at the same time effectively localizable. And within these landscapes, I wanted to place figures, figures, not as pastoral fantasy, or credible participants, like farmer’s or dog walkers, but as imagined poetic images, integrated and as essential to the landscape as any of the other elements in the image. All of us see the world that is the product of our own thoughts, and feelings, so I wanted to allow images to surface, to appear and to disappear, and not to summon them or try to construct them in a conscious way, not trying to replicate life, rather to see it as life, as its having a life of its own.

Chloe Mandy

All about ‘Real/Non-Real’: Stephanie Douet has been showing her new work in the Project Space, made during a residency at The Museum of the History of Science and recently exhibited at Modern Art Oxford.

Catch the last day tomorrow (Sunday), open from 11 to 6pm.

www.stephaniedouet.co.uk

We are all working flat-out on other things at the moment, including considering our first substantial application for funding as The Project Space. Prioritising, something has to give. So we have decided the following:

Calling artists – the Queen of Hungary is lying fallow for 6 months as other parts of our lives have become too busy to continue our usual programme till our big landscape show next May.

But we want to keep the doors open and cover our costs.

The Project Space is now available to be used as an exhibiting space/ residency opportunity/ thinking and making place – any strong idea considered. There can be some curatorial/marketing assistance for anyone putting on an exhibition.

Send your ideas to [email protected] and include your web address and length of time of project.