I have been helping build and paint the new Airspace Brownfield Research Centre at Airspace Gallery Stoke on Trent.
It has been interesting and challenging at the same time. I have a reasonable amount of knowledge in building and fabrication work and tool usage.
First of all I was tasked with clearing out old studio spaces and moving past dreams about and putting them into store. Two of the full time resident artists and myself were kept busy for a couple of days. It was good to get to know them and chat about life, the universe and general stuff as we lugged and hauled kit/works and rubbish about. The resulting clear out enabled me to have a small space to engage with my own practice. It amuses me that the height of the studio I am in for the next couple of months is higher, ceiling wise, than its length and breadth! It has a great window though and much more salubrious than The Barn that three of us occupy as an artist led space in rural Cheshire.
Then the fun began: building/fabricating interior walls, lining out and painting. It was good to do. I was surprised at the amount of ‘kit’ available in powered tools that the Gallery owns – my past experience in constructing and reconstructing/renovating anything from old barns to houses has been based on the collected use, sharing and knowledge of human power and traditional hand tools but, in this case the world of electricity was king!
Working in a gallery space which is on a budget requires resourcefulness and imagination. Trust is a big thing here and works well however knowledge sharing is also key and – probably due to my way getting on with things, there have been moments of when the ‘resource of voluntary brought in skills’ (me) has not been used to the gallery’s advantage. I suppose because the staff are so used to working independently that volunteers such as myself can be considered to be a burden in as much as one has to spend time explaining what is required and expected.However I always felt welcome and valued.
I am looking forward to meeting up with the six artists that will be involved in the project and learning about their practice and ideas. It should be an amazing factory!
