Working Title

These words are written about ‘Working Title’, an exhibition and workshop at aspex gallery, Gunwharf.

Clothes-less.

There are obvious hints of ‘human-ness’ in much of Kate’s artworks, a fact I noticed after going through most of the images on her website several months ago. I came across Kate Parrott’s work after looking at images of exhibitions she had been involved in with other artists who are close to aspex, and was immediately taken by the awkward charm created by her sculptures and drawings.

If you have watched the video interview with Kate below, she mentions that whilst involved in Working Title she would’ve liked to have found some pieces of clothing in the ‘junk pile’ we have in gallery 1. Clothes are often used in her artwork, particularly ladies clothes, often creating a suggestion of a female form through use of a loose bodily shaped structure. This said, without the use of women’s fashion, Kate still heavily refers and hints at aspects of female stereotypes, using make-up, dress jewellery, dainty watch clock faces, and shoes.

It seems that obvious juxtapositions are key to her work, combining these soft feminine materials with more bulky, heavier pieces, metal objects and wooden constructions, placing tall complex structures next to small, simple and easy-to-miss artworks.

For me, that is precisely the most beautiful element of Kate’s work, she leaves the interpretation of it open, it is as if the viewer is piecing together symbols, perhaps creating their own story or solving some sort of surreal and well composed crime scene. It seems somewhat rebellious, embracing such ambiguity, but after all, this isn’t a science lesson and who needs conclusions anyway?

Blog post regarding ‘Working Title’ exhibition at aspex gallery.

It isn’t hard to notice, as I spend time amongst these artists, that a lot of experimentation happens viscerally, perhaps much like an instinct. The making/assembling/creating process seems to speed along, an idea is had and an idea is followed through almost instantly, as if too much time spent pondering will ruin the piece before it has begun.

All this talk of ‘quickness’ may suggest a lack of thought, but these instincts don’t occur uninformed. Every artist in Working Title has something to say (you can find out for yourself if you take a trip to the gallery.) I think perhaps it is easy to assume that everyday-objects assembled as art-objects are created with naivety, as they appear as ad-hoc creations, amusingly opposing their usual function, yet it is common that art of this process will have strong links to concept and a knowledge that it can ground itself in theory.

Reading about one of the artists involved in Working Title, Will Cruickshank, I came across a residency he was involved in organised by August art named ‘Institute for objective measurements‘. The artists explored ‘the balance between the desire to have the unknown explained factually, the unquantifiable measured accurately, and the need to just be fed something that ‘sounds right’. We want to be satisfied by a reason why, perhaps if what we see doesn’t satisfy us, then the reasoning behind it may connect the dots.

It is this playfulness with the need to rationalise things that leads me to explain my own need to try and rationalise Will’s artwork. He messes about with functionality, re-assembling unwanted goods, an old pool cue, an umbrella, and gives them a different purpose. I say purpose, as ‘use’ doesn’t fit, as although he creates objects that can be ‘used’, it is more the notion of them being ‘used’, and less a need for them to belong in the world out of necessity. ‘Function’ is described as ’the purpose for which something is designed or exists’, thus, creating a merry-go-round for Will’s work’s (having function- opposing function- giving function etc.)

I feel though, that the nature of making, the process in which the artists relate to the materials, supersedes the need to know why it is there. It is a case of an exploration into thinking, relating and translating the familiar into the unfamiliar, for both artist and viewer.

As Markus mentioned in a previous post ‘Kickstarting, fishing, participating’, questions are raised when viewing works such as the ones in Working Title. I believe this to be one of the most vital aspects regarding the everyday-in-art, continuously, there are questions to be asked, and they, perhaps, are more important than the answers.

A blog post by Markus Lloyd regarding the ‘Working Title’ exhibition at aspex gallery.

We’ve three artists in the gallery, being exhibited. As technician at aspex, I’m used to artists playing some part in the installation of their work – after the preview, they go away. In a way, this show is all installation – a prolonged transformation of the space – a slow-slow reverse striptease, ending up fully dressed. Still, Will, Andy and Paul (who are kickstarting Working Title) have spent the day doing what most artists do on day one in the gallery, they’ve been nesting. They’ve burrowed into the junk pile that’s accumulated in the space, nabbing what makes sense to them (no obvious squabbles, yet), and they’ve each defined themselves a space/den. Paul’s filming an expanding grid of stuff, a complex hopscotch chalked on the gallery floor with offcuts of MDF, bowls and wind-up toys. Will’s surrounded himself with toolboxes, he’s constructing a fishing rod – not a cane with string and a nappy-pin hook, no – it looks worthy of J.R. Hartley. Andy’s made his encampment right in amidst the scrap, using a tv stand for a seat and an upturned chest-of-drawers as a desk. Something’s happening, but what it is, well, I don’t know. It all seems to make sense to Andy, Will and Paul – which is the only sense you can expect of them right now.

Amazingly, the scrap heap of materials has shrunk from, well, heaps to scraps. So, please, bring us your ‘unwanted’ – gift the ‘done with’ or ‘done for’ with a new lease of ‘possibility’. Everything is latent, and the artists we’ve got working here are expert at tapping that latency. If you’ve any old vhs equipment or cassette tapes and players, old speakers, record players – old wool, cardboard boxes from domestic appliances, lamps, old computer hardware – anything really – bring it to us, become a genuine part of the process. The making of art is always so distant, secreted away in studios, in the mind’s eye of the maker: this is an opportunity to observe the journey from play to definition to object. Ask those questions you’ve never had the chance to – why have you done that? What is it you’re doing? What did you mean to occur? What? This isn’t an exhibition, it’s a show – though the artists aren’t performers, in this context they are. You, as visitor, as participant, become a principal too. You can demonstrate you’re own sensibilities by creating a work with the makeshift materials in the Interactive Area in the gallery space. There’s no hierachy in this show – everyone starts on an equal footing, with a load of old rubbish.

The experience of Working Title will be a plastic one – the makings of one artist seeping into those of another – sudden displays of ‘something’ bursting forth from ‘something else’. It’ll change with the weather, day by day – nothing is forever. So visit us a few times, as many times as you can. Bring your junk, bring yourselves, bring an inquiring mind. Participate.

Markus Lloyd.