- Venue
- Here not there
- Location
- North East England
In this inaugural exhibition, project initiator Adam Clarke emerges as artist; collaborator, curator, and project manager, motivated (albeit initially) by his desire to find a platform to show his work. You may wonder why he had such a difficult time finding one, when so many galleries and projects purport participation. Developers and high streets throughout the country offer opportunities for creative’s to collaborate and take part within numerous empty space initiatives. Clarke, however, has been there, done that, and printed the t-shirt. Actually it is a limited edition screen print (rather than a t-shirt) and made with a little help from his friends, but that’s beside the point. Clarke, driven by his quest for more autonomy sought a place to push his own boundaries, a place to arch the learning curve and demonstrate his potential as an ‘artist taking the lead’.
Here not there is situated on the first floor of a commercial building which was formerly utilised as an office space. Stripped back to basics the area currently consists of three rooms. The first, named The Lamp Room plays host to a library of numerous art and design titles; a desk, comfortable seating, and some obligatory mood setting soft lighting. The intention being to create a sociable space to promote interaction and encourage debate. Another room is home to a process wall drawing, produced as an intervention within the space in graphite by Clarke. Incidentally Clarke’s drawings rubbed shoulders with that of Tracy Emin earlier this year when they shared wall space at the Royal Academy Show. His work sold on the first day. Diane Welford, shortlisted for the Northern Art Prize and currently touring with the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2010, exhibits several small scale automatic drawings using ink on paper. Welford’s work continues into the third and final room visually linking the space. Glasgow resident and German born Michael Stumpf (with a string of international exhibitions to his name) playfully entices us to question his sculptural conundrums made from household items and material goods.
You may be wondering what exactly ‘here not there’ relates to. Is it the title of the show or could it refer to the exhibition venue? Is it a project brief or does it have some connection to the previous use of the building, a prior exhibition, or the title of a track from a favoured punk band? Maybe it is simply clever use of words to indicate the transitory nature and temporality of the project and empty property initiatives. Or perhaps it references Clarke’s ideology; to differentiate between artist led spaces, and the familiarity of prescribed culture factory models. Moreover, we have to ask ourselves if any of these questions are relevant. Perhaps it is neither here nor there. Clarke insists that he doesn’t care whether you ‘like’ the current work on show, accepting that it won’t be to everyone’s taste. His ethos is to create exhibition opportunities for emerging artists to show alongside more established ones, and showcase internationally respected artists on the same platform. The underlying concept being to show art as it evolves on your doorstep. Placing current art literally ‘here not there’.
You can find a taster at http://here-not-there.tumblr.com/ and by joining the here not there face book page http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Here-not-There/133800710003216
