- Venue
- Project Space Leeds
- Location
- Yorkshire
I wander around the new exhibition at Project Space Leeds and find little in the way of a formal finite exhibition showing other than the catalogue of details I am holding, which tells me:
“This catalogue introduces the second phase of the project [Morphic Resonance], a more formal curation of the work produced in response to the project to far.”
On reading this, I am heavily disappointed that I missed the first phase, as the project space oozes a sense of artists studios and artistic liberation, and I wonder at the exciting havoc that was here before, as much of appears almost still under construction in the space at this stage.
Acting out Project Space Leeds’s artistic endeavour, this 12 week experimental project with artists from across the North of England is a perfect PSL – independent, artist-led, contemporary art space -project. To see a project alive and well in a ‘project space’ is somehow unusual. It seems you are more likely to find a formal exhibition, with all the trimmings and finishing’s and nothing much of a project in current artistic project spaces recently. But this is definitely a project, sill in full swing and it quite takes me aback. There is a mixture of finished installation exhibits, ongoing spontaneous artist-led activity and ongoing object based works in progress, still in the throws of creation.
David Stean and Hardeep Pandhal’s ‘props and costumes’ are not currently in action on my visit, but as I take a closer look at the colourful melted substance, dripping from pictures balanced precariously on nails, I am drawn in to the point where I almost action them myself, stepping on split and broken pieces of the melted material underfoot. Moving around another temporary wall in the space (realising PSL’s utter flexibility in layout, no permanent, clean white walls in sight), I see a sign:
PRIVATE- NO ENTRY.
By this time, looking hopelessly at my map for a clue, I realise it is up to me to decide if this in itself is part of the exhibition. I peek inside the door to see a shambolic stack of furniture, a chaotic store room and I decide to go no further, still clueless as to whether this is actually ‘private’ or part of the exhibition. Using the space so openly for projects and to show artists at work, gives me a close proximity to the work that is both exciting to explore, but also makes for a nervous viewer. The onus is on me to decide whether I take what I experience to be ‘Morphic Resonance’ the structure of the PSL space at large, neither, or both. Everything becomes questionable, even the books and leaflets left out for visitors to browse suddenly become curious and I interact with them differently, as the formality of gallery space is broken down by all these happenings and unknowns as I move from one area of the exhibition to the other.
The project I am particularly drawn to within Morphic Resonance is No Fixed Abode, Dan Simpkins and Penny Whitehead’s. There is a raft currently under construction with someone deeply concentrating; hammering bits of wood on to a massive construction of scrap wood and large metal drums. Next to this workshop site is the ‘We, the other: marketing suite’ a large table, with texts laid out for me to read across it and pinned to the walls. Again, I watch where I step as bags and materials scatter the floor. The more formal texts on display offer detailed accounts, reports and newspaper columns on the Green Bank development project, originally planned for Leeds this year. This is a multi million pound building development from George Wimpey and as a resident of Leeds is a project I knew nothing about until now. At first glance it appears to be just another building development, which has currently been shelved due to the current economic down turn. But as I look at maps and photographs taken of the site and the marketing suite, I begin to recognise it, from just moments ago. The development was planned for a strip of land sandwiched between the railway lines and the Leeds-Liverpool canal, almost directly opposite from the block PSL is situated in. The harsh white building currently occupying the space, is the £1 million marketing suite, now de-funct. My jaw hits the ground.
£1 million pounds. £1,000,000. One Million Pounds.
I carry on reading, desperate to seek some logical explanation of how this kind of money can be spent and sat vacant, current climate. I read about the raft as the hammering continues beside me. I re-discover the raft as a symbol of survival, rescue and begin to understand it is both spontaneous (using materials at hand) and life-saving. I also begin to grasp its use in the marketing suite, as it can be used as both a metaphor for ‘the often precarious position of artist-led initiatives’ as well as the developers and businesses ‘struggling to stay afloat in current economic crises.’
I stumble out of the gallery, not really wanting to leave, but urged to take a look, to get to grips with this project that is not yet to come into being, both within the Galley space and on the site outside of it. I look out across the water, still aghast by how strange this suspicious ‘Green’ development sounds, and look out at the white box marketing suite. The sheer oddity of it glaring back at me, such an expensive sales device sat empty, excessive and pointless is a stark contrast to the artists busy indoors, working away, dreaming of rafts and turning their own corner of the urban city into a real life alternative.
No Fixed Abode, Simpkins and Whitehead in a moment of inspiring and ongoing activism, collaboration and spontaneity, here highlight just how extraordinary and ground-breaking artistically this exhibition is. Mirroring some of the complex dynamics that brought PSL in to life in the first place (as a collaboration with property developer KW Linfoot PLC) their project fully embraces the opportunities offered in artist led projects, addressing the precarious nature of both business developments and artistic initiatives. Reflecting on their immediate surroundings has led them to examine not only the frivolous, precarious and fleeting possibilities of Green Bank, Leeds’ continuous regeneration and re-development and its implications, but both artistic practice and the economy at large.
In opening its doors for the public to wander around such a fluid and conceptual project-driven exhibition, PSL embarks on a risky business. Morphic Resonance explores new territory in displaying works in progress, micro-exhibitions and spontaneous actions, but as evident in Green Bank, sometimes the best laid plans may falter. I come away realising just as watching artists-work in progress is fascinating, so is witnessing a massive tower block of apartments ascend, with swinging cranes and drills the size of houses. Sometimes, sites are more interesting than the finished product.
Joanna Loveday
