- Venue
- COPY0909 Gallery [pop-up]
- Location
Karolina Koza’s review on www.artportal.hu. Translation by Renata Szur, Hungary/UK.
THE GREATEST GIFT YOU CAN GIVE AN ARTIST OR WRITER … [see details of ‘gift’ below]
London is known as one of the most significant centres of culture in arts bursting with exciting venues. The city has been a house to 690 official galleries; with small, private and ‘pop-up’ galleries this number can make up just about 2,000. Today empty commercial spaces, abandoned shops and unusual properties have been turned into temporary galleries. These unused places have become a popular method to hold shows and become crucial part of the thriving contemporary art scene.
A vacant landmark building made an ideal venue for the exhibition called “COPY0909” in one of London’s most affluent neighbourhoods, in the fashionable Notting Hill district from the 9th September to 3rd October. The show was put together by The Gihon River Collective in agreement with Vermont Studio Centre and in association with University of the Arts London, organized by three independent artists-curators, Christy Symington and Chutima Kerdpitak from the UK and Erin Lee Benson from the USA, all members of the collective.
The Vermont Studio Centre (VSC) is the largest international artist residency program in the USA. Each month VSC hosts 50-60 visual artists and writers from all over the world and provides them with studio space, housing, meals and a safe environment to create in. Different generations take part in the program, both emerging and established artist who have the opportunity to experiment freely in a supportive artistic community, make connections and find informal mentors within the fellow artists working in different disciplines.
The Gihon River Collective (GRC) is an assembly of 28 visual artists and 6 writers who were in residency at the VSC in September 2009. The COPY0909 was the continuation of their international artistic community established during their residency.
Their aim was to share the harvest and benefits of the Vermont Studio Centre’s residency program in the form of an exhibition and showcase their new work that occurred in Vermont and upon their return to their home countries. The exhibition was accompanied by number of additional events: an opening dance performance, ‘writers and new media event’, children’s workshop, artist talk, panel discussion and the supporting artists’ exhibition. All the exhibited artworks were for sale and a number of them found buyers.
The key component to ‘COPY0909’ was to establish a group funding called The Gihon River Collective Fellowship from the sales of affordable small works that each artist has donated at a set price of £175. The artists supporting artists initiative provides funding for a UK based artist or writer to attend VSC residency for 4 weeks and have the experience what all of the exhibitors of the COPY0909 have had.
APPLICATION DEADLINE: 15 FEBRUARY 2011 for The Gihon River Collective Fellowship – a 4-week residency at VSC. More information about the grant, exhibition images and the future plans of the group can be found on The Gihon River Collective’s website. www.gihonrivercollective.com
Applications for the GRC Fellowship should be made DIRECT to the Vermont Studio Center. Forms and information can be found on the website: http://www.vermontstudiocenter.org/
