Chronicling the folk customs of ‘White Rock’ and taking influence from the wreck of the Metta Catharina; the history of porcelain trade by sea; and traditional folk songs and sea shanties, AJ has been working on a ballad of lost objects that she hopes to share with you on 14 September here at PAC. For more details on the event take a look here.

We sat down with AJ for a short Q&A on her work and how Plymouth has influenced her research.

Tell us about your background as an artist and introduce us to your practice…

I’m Scottish by birth but have moved around a lot and I think this peripatetic way of being has affected how and why I make work. My practice is rooted in sculpture but incorporates different mediums, such as text and performance, dependant on what I’m working on. My research often begins with a conversation around a particular object or material; I’m fascinated by our human preoccupation with objects and how we engage with material/matter through consuming these objects.

What inspired your work for the Standpoint Futures partnership?

My current work is based on the discovery of a utopian society obsessed with porcelain, named ‘White Rock’. The work I was developing during my Standpoint Futures residency was a continuation of this research but was focused on one particular area that was pertinent at that time.

The legend of White Rock is of an unknown society who built their lives around the rhythms and rituals of producing porcelain and who seek a deep understanding of geologic time through these practices. It’s an on-going project that was inspired by one simple line in a ceramics technical manual – to build empathy with the clay – and my own concerns around human-material relationships.

What influenced your interest in the re-telling of stories and historical narratives?

I’m interested in the purpose of re-telling /re-enacting stories and events to make some kind of point or to keep something alive in current memory and how these can be fabricated to support these aims. The story of ‘White Rock’ takes reference from the history of the porcelain industry in the UK, an industry that sculpted an entire landscape and was sparked by a desire to make desirable objects. This industry started right here in Plymouth. A local man named William Cooksworthy, who had a keen knowledge of different minerals through his training in a London apothecary, discovered kaolin (china-clay) deposits in Cornwall, a material that was crucial to making porcelain.

What have been the highlights so far during the White Rock project?

The generosity of all the people I have met and spoken to over the past few weeks. There are so many conversations that I want to continue and work that I want to make that without the knowledge and time of others would be near impossible.

Also, what has been the biggest challenge?

Trying to remain focused and not overload what I’m trying to do while I’m here. It’s easy to assume that 4 weeks is a lot of time to make work, but once you start the time slips away quickly and its important to remember what the purpose of the residency was in the first place, in this case to expand and develop my practice not to make a new body of work.

Tell us about how you’re developing this project while in Plymouth.

I’ve been working on a ballad for lost objects so have been researching a lot of folk songs and stories about shipwrecks, alongside talking to local folk musicians. The ballad is a lament by the people of ‘White Rock’ for porcelain objects that have been lost to the sea, now returned to where their material forbears once erupted and became land.

I wanted to experiment with ways of listening and how being underwater could emphasise the context of the song, so I’ve been trying out some underwater headphones in the lido. They’re bone conducting rather than inner ear so I can experience listening underwater without being completely cut-off from the other sounds around me, like the sound of the water and my movement in it.

What have you enjoyed most about being in Plymouth so far?

Being close to the sea has been wonderful, especially in the wind and rain, and is one of the reasons I wanted to work here. It can shift very dramatically and gives you a tremendous sense of how treacherous the water can be.

What advice would you give to emerging artists who are looking to develop their practice?

To be ambitious and keep working no matter how frustrating it may get at times. Also, to borrow a phrase from my mother, ‘shy bairns get nowt’, in other words if you don’t ask you won’t get an answer. Even if this is simply a question like, ‘what will happen if I try this in another material’. So keep asking questions of others and of yourself, it’s how you develop as a person and can keep your practice going.

Join AJ for a shanty, a pasty and a pint at the culmination of her residency, here in Plymouth Arts Centre on 14 September. More details can be found on the event page by clicking here.

You can also learn more about AJ’s work on her website.

The post In Residency: a Q&A with artist AJ Stockwell appeared first on Plymouth Arts Cinema | Independent Cinema for Everyone | located at Arts University Plymouth..

Image Credit: Andy Cluer 2017

Between March and June of this year, two PAC Home members were selected to be artists in residence at our Batter Street studios after an open call for applications. Andy Cluer (Plymouth) and Rachael Allain (Totnes) worked alongside one another for three months to explore their independent artistic practices, which culminated in an Open Studio event on 10 June. Here, they share their experiences of completing the residency. 

Andy Cluer

The PAC Home Batter Street residency offered me the opportunity to undertake an unrealised project that I had been interested in developing previously to this residency, that interacted with the physical space and future developments of the cities architecture. Thus allowing my practice to take a more real and organic progress within the specific area of my research. Living in east Devon, the residency space gave me a base point in the city where I could reside whilst researching, experimenting and building ideas towards developing works, overcoming an obstacle that previously had an impact on my practice.

Sharing the residency space with Rachael Allain was an interesting concept and one that I specifically reflected on while applying for this opportunity, as for the previous year my practice has been mainly happened in spaces where I worked alone and I felt that this was the right time to work critically alongside another artist. Although during this residency our paths only crossed in the studio a handful amount of times due to our working schedule, the conversations and the visual development gave a fresh atmosphere to my workings allowing myself to take breaths and reflect on my practice more so then when working alone. The two critiques with Ben and Lucy, the PAC Home public critique and the open studio event acted as key points during this time of development as they allowed important inputs from curators and other artists to express personal opinions and thoughts into my practice that in ways kept me thinking at important times of the residency.

Image Credit: Andy Cluer 2017

Image credit: Rachael Allain 2017

Rachael Allain 

Batter Street studio has be an invaluable testing space to develop my artistic practice with a range of new work created. The studio space has acted as a testing ground for me to gather, assimilate and gradually edit the data and materials collected. I have enjoyed witnessing the passage of time from the studio window, facing east, from March until June, watching the seasons gradually changing, experiencing the daylight hours extending and being in such close proximity to the Barbican and the sea.

The focus of my residency was to create a site responsive body of work on the Barbican/waterfront of Plymouth. I have achieved my aims and have generated a series of experimental, process led, still and moving images, sound recordings and meteorological data revealing both the seen and the unseen aspects of above and below the physical and metaphorical horizon of Britain’s Ocean City. I have also incorporated a combination of scientific imaging data collecting mechanisms, including infrared and underwater cameras in addition to low-tech analogue equipment. Focusing on the liminal spaces between the visible and invisible horizon, the sky and the sea, I have created a body of seascapes/landscapes using the vast and intimate aspects of the space.

The Open Studio event on June 10th provided a useful opportunity to display and prepare a selection of the work that I created during the 3 months residency, in an informal and relaxed way. I produced some finished pinhole photographic prints on metal and a series of films using a mixture of analogue and digital technologies, plus some homemade slides that I projected. I enjoyed doing the Instagram takeovers for PAC Home as it allowed me to connect to a wider network and again provided a useful outlet for my visual enquiry of the site. On reflection, this residency opportunity has been an extremely positive and useful experience. I plan to do another residency in the near future.

Image credit: Rachael Allain 2017

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Laura Edmunds, PAC Home Co-ordinator

Lucy will be working closely with Artistic Director Ben Borthwick to curate our public exhibitions, organise private art events and workshops as well as head up the PAC Home group with support from Laura. PAC Home is a network that supports local artists and since 2012 has continued to foster raising engagement in contemporary art, something that both Lucy and Laura are both passionate about.

Here we talk to them both about their experience, the local art community and what advice they would give to emerging artists:

Where does your passion for arts come from, and how did it bring you to Plymouth?

Lucy: I come from a very creative family – some of my earliest books when learning to read were about art. I studied at Dartington College of Arts before it closed and so was always open to moving to Devon again as I had lived in the area before.

Laura: My passion for the arts come directly from my experiences as an artist. I think it vital to be active within the arts sector of your city or town. I came to Plymouth for a lecturing post at Plymouth College of Art over a year ago, and since that, I have become a studio artist at KARST, and most recently, become PAC Home administrator here at Plymouth Arts Centre.

Before joining us here at PAC, what has been your favourite project to work on?

Lucy: One of the exhibitions that I planned as part of my Masters degree in Curating that I did at Goldsmiths. It is still unrealised and is the most in depth research and amount of time I have spent developing a show. You will have to watch this space for more info! 

Lucy Rollins, Assistant Curator

Sounds exciting! You’ve both had different journeys to reach where you are now in the art community, do you have any advice for emerging artists?

Laura: As an arts administrator, lecturer and artist – I’ve experienced or observed from lots of angles and the main advice I could give would be to be visible in your city’s or town’s arts sector. Attending events, visiting exhibitions and supporting your peers is so important in sustaining a thriving arts ecology as well as inadvertently gaining support for your own practice through forging relationships with other artists, writers and curators. If there is an artist support network, such as PAC Home, join it! Get involved with the events it offers, host critiques, invite other artists to your studio.

Lucy: Yes definitely join artist network memberships like PAC Home! Be open and approachable at art related events like openings and talks.

What do you think PAC Home does well to foster conversations between artists?

Laura: PAC Home operates as a facilitator between artists, writers and curators and the wider arts sector. This includes peer-to-peer dialogue through crits and a reading group, but also fostering conversation with artists further afield through travel bursaries and Away Days to other cities, such as our recent Cardiff trip. We have just started the PAC Home Supper Club; an event where practitioners come to the PAC Home space armed with a dish and something to say about a past/present/future project or idea in a relaxed and supportive setting!

and finally, what are you most excited about in the local arts world?

Lucy: Mike Perry’s upcoming show Land/Sea, it’s the first exhibition I will have installed at Plymouth Arts Centre and the works are stunning!

Laura: Plymouth is a really exciting place to be at the moment – there is a real sense of energy in the city. The arts sector is being strengthened by ambitious multi-platform projects in the city, as a result of receiving Arts Council England’s Ambition for Excellence funding through the Horizon programme.

Mike Perry’s exhibition Land/Sea can be seen in the Plymouth Galleries from 7th April, with a preview evening on 6th April featuring the artist in conversation with PAC Artistic Director Ben Borthwick. For more information on joining PAC Home as a member, you can download an information and application pack here.

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Artist and PAC Home member, Rosie King reviews her experience in Cardiff as a part of the Artes Mundi 7 Away Day which she visited with travel support from PAC Home, Plymouth Arts Centre’s artist support network. 

On Saturday 18th February myself and a group of PAC home members crossed the bridge to Cardiff for a whirlwind tour of Artes Mundi 7 and inspiring artist studios, plus the obligatory welsh cake. 

First up was the Artes Mundi 7 exhibition at the National Museum. Film was predominant throughout the exhibition and Bedwyr Williams and John Akomfrah stood out for delivering two sharply different, but mesmerising pieces. Williams fills a room with Tyrrau Mawr (Big Towers), which uses matte painting, a cinematic effect, to show a new city in Cadair Idris, North Wales. Akomfrah presents Auto Da Fé, a chillingly poignant split screen film that encompasses eight interconnected mass migrations with the aesthetics of a period drama.

We briefly popped into Arcade Cardiff, a small test space run by artists for artists, located in the middle of a busy shopping mall. Arcade changes exhibition every 3 weeks and has no set exhibition criteria, which creates a fast paced public space for artists to try out ideas.

In Chapter the work by Artes Mundi 7 artists, Lamia Joreige and Nástio Mosquito, lacked the emotional and aesthetic intensity found in other parts of the exhibition. However, the quietly reflective film by Joreige does compliment her installation at the Museum.

At Arcade Studios, linked with Arcade Cardiff, we found Gordon Dalton, Plymouth Art Weekender 2015/16 Coordinator, alongside his riotous paintings. This studio space was recently offered to artists by Cardiff City Council, as it was commercially unsuitable. Cough, cough PCC. Mostly painters, they are deeply involved in studio practice, as well as other projects such as setting up LLE Gallery.

At Studio b we found another familiar face in Kelly Best, whose solo exhibition at Plymouth Arts Centre was a 2016 highlight. Again studio practice was central to the artists we met here, with AJ Stockwell merging studio and art by gradually turning her space into a theatre set.

We ended the day with a visit to Spit and Sawdust studios and skate park, where artists pay rent in time rather than money. As with the other studios we visited the set-up of this space shows the many possibilities for how and where artists can reside. In Plymouth there’s few D.I.Y spaces, but much debate about the lack of studios in the city. Yet, our trip to Cardiff showed what can be done when artists think outside the norm and work together to create solutions.

www.rosiekingartist.com

Image credit: Vesislava Zheleva

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Artists Clare Thornton, Rachael Allain and Sophie Mellor review the British Art Show 8 in Southampton, which they visited with a travel bursary from PAC Home, Plymouth Arts Centre’s artist support network. 

Rachael Allain

I was delighted to receive a travel bursary from PAC Home to visit the British Art Show 8 (BAS8) in Southampton. The last British Art Show (BAS7) that I visited was in Plymouth and London in 2011. I caught a super early train, leaving in the darkness and witnessed the most spectacular dawn, alighting in a frosty white Southampton, with bright azure sky and sunshine.

The British Art Show is designed to be a multi city-touring exhibition, which takes place every 5 years organised by Hayward Touring. BAS8 launched in Leeds then Edinburgh, Norwich and finishes in Southampton. The curators Anna Colin and Lydia Yee, selected the work of 42 artists (26 of the artists have created newly commissioned work) to represent the best of British Contemporary Art in the past 5 years. According to the Leeds Art Gallery website ‘A central concern of British Art Show 8 is the changing role and status of the physical object in an increasingly digital age’.

The Mobile Symposium: The British Art Show and the Southampton Story was presented by a panel of arts leaders and artists, including Roger Malbert, Head of Hayward Touring and curators that have been actively involved in developing arts and culture throughout the city. Judith Robinson, Arts and Cultural Development Manager for Plymouth City Council interestingly reflected on the positive development of Plymouth’s art and culture since the BAS7 in 2011. The Mobile Symposium factored in time to experience BAS8 in the different venues in Southampton including, Southampton City Museum and The John Hansard Gallery. The Bargate Monument is an extra venue, which I visited the next day.

Credit: Rachael Allain

In Southampton City Museum, the central gallery for BAS8, I was particularly captured by the artist James Richards, previously nominated for a Turner Prize in 2014, he is representing Wales at the next Venice Biennale (57th) 2017, film installation entitled Raking Light (2014). The projected film contains a combination of found and publicly accessible footage, which is edited/collaged together and inverted to create a negative film effect. The soundtrack is multi-layered and fuses well to create a beguiling audio-visual immersive experience that challenges our perceptual reality. I had a surreal moment of deja vu whilst watching a section of Raking Light, realising that I too had experienced voyaging on the boat The Maid of the Mist in Niagara Falls years before.

Secondly, the highly acclaimed French artist, Laure Prouvost, Turner Prize winner of 2013 who lives and works in London. Her intimate and highly provocative mixed media installation Hard Drive, (2015) both entertained and captivated my senses whilst luring me back to experience the work several times. Her pre-recorded, heavily accented voice pervaded the space, instructing and toying with the spectator whilst animating objects and illuminating aspects of the rectangular installation space.

http://rachaelallain.wixsite.com/rachael-allain-

Sophie Mellor

A review of ‘What is Art: A User’s Guide (A Crash Course in Brain Surgery)’ VASW symposium. R U 2 happy? No, no, I’m not. I’m under paid and under valued.

And there is no money. There is. No. Money.

Do something else then. Become a tennis coach. But I can’t play tennis.

Ok, ok.

How about a PhD? Yes, good. Artists not institutions make art.

Oh. I’m an artist in an institution. Fuck. Fully funded PhD? Learndirect.

Education is oppression. Make my fucking latte.

I’m cute. Wanna feed me?

I was totally killing it. Toe-tally. Kill-ing IT. I always get horny when I have a hangover. And those academics with their big brains, crossing their legs. I am really tall. Really.

Yeah well, fuck whales, and fuck your Nana. Fuck the ozone too. I’m fucking busy.

Shirley Bassey, owls, mosaics, massive chairs, gates, children. What do they have in common? You know don’t you? Look at them. LOOK AT THEM!!

How did I do?

Ha. Ha. #beinganartistisboring #artisboring #livingwithmymumisboring  #livingwithyourmumisboring #liberateyourmindthroughboredom #whatevs

Pop round and have a cuppa. It’s all sorted. All tufty lovely. All jimble jamble, on the uppity. Yeah, the net curtains – art. That brick wall outside the front door – art. The cushion on the sofa – art. Lunch – art. My mum’s front room – art. It’s all art, innit.

Just stop. No-one fucking cares.

No-one fucking cares if you get out of bed in the morning or not.

Except me. I care.

You carry on. Don’t let anyone tell you different. It will all be ok.

Right, I got it all! Wt? 110%

Don’t bother with all that. Be cheeky and create your own opportunities.

Unless you’ve got something to say don’t tweet.

The countryside is cool, you know. It’s not all made of wood.

What does a curator do all day? Photocopies A4 sheets of paper. Walks the dog. Looks beyond the rational to delve deep into the mysteries of the universe. Makes a cup of tea.

Every single Pro Remain artist is totally rubbish at art. Fact. Brexit means Brexit. Fact.

U 2 Good 2 B True!

Matt Le Tissier. What is Art? What is an Artist? COYS! Here’s the answer, written on this screwed up piece of paper. On your ‘ead, my son. Back of the net!

110% True!

www.closeandremote.net

Clare Thornton

We rocked up in Southampton a day before the VASW gathering in time to attend the ‘Mobile Symposium: The British Art Show and the Southampton Story‘ described as “a day of interactive dialogue on the exhibition; artists and cultural leaders reflect on Southampton’s cultural growth and the history of the British Art Show”. A couple of OK presentations in the morning (not very interactive), nice to catch up with Mikhail Karikis and hear Judith Robinson (Arts & Cultural Development Manager, Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery) talk about BAS7 and its impact on Plymouth, my (relatively) new home city. But after lunch I ducked out to take in more of the selected works at the John Hansard Gallery. It was great to really take time with the moving image works, notably John Akomfrah & Trevor Mathison‘s poetic visual essay ‘All That is Solid‘ (2015) and Patrick Staff‘s ‘The Foundation‘ (2015) which both employed and riffed off archival materials/documentary footage to powerful affect. Stuart Whipp’s mini car, part of his wider investigation of Longbridge motor works under the title ‘The Kipper and the Corpse’ (2015), felt somewhat flat in comparison as it sat still in the gallery. It was also a real shame that Susan Hiller’s ‘Thanks For Listening‘ interactive Jukebox part of Ahmet Öğüt’s ‘Day After Debt’ (UK) project was relegated to the Resource Room, maybe the gallery shop in the entrance foyer, where visitors’ have their wallets in mind, could have been a relevant/useful site for it?

The spirit of the VASW meeting next day held in the same auditorium in the City Art Gallery as the Mobile Symposium couldn’t have been more different in it’s energy. The Symposium (what I had experienced of it) felt rather a dry exercise, a tick-box activity. The VASW event ‘What is Art: A User’s Guide (A Crash Course In Brain Surgery)‘ turned out to be a series of fiesty and energetic presentations asking critically what/why we are making, how we make a living, posing questions about public art, rural art, audiences, how we as artists might organise. I didn’t envy those presenting after Bedwyr Williams who made us laugh but whose scathing bite is tough to follow. There was a goodly amount of effing and blinding, a very honest and I think brave presentation by Toby Huddlestone called ‘Why I quit being an artist and became a tennis coach’. I know Toby from my Bristol days, his role in the Plan 9 collective and our working at Spike Island.

Credit: Rachael Allain

The next morning was spent entirely enjoying work. First at the Bargate Monument where we saw Eileen Simpson’s & Ben White’s collaborative work ‘Open Music Archive’. The outcome, a beautifully produced installation and film installed at the city’s listed medieval gatehouse (previously fitted out as a gallery). I was very taken by the visual aesthetic, pleasing palette, sharp staging of the work and thought how stoked I’d have been if I was one of the young people involved. Fellow PAC Home Associate Sophie made a sharp observation mind you, that the young women in the film were only given chorus roles, no actual spoken word agency. I began to consider the piece afresh as a group of young college students came piling in to view the work. Then on to Southampton City Art Gallery. There was one work that I kept hearing people speak about, Rachel Maclean’s new film ‘Feed Me‘. In an exhibition that appeared to have a number of works that felt to me quietly accomplished Maclean’s work was an extraordinary slap around the chops! In a good way. What an awesome feat of imagination and expertise, timely and deeply disturbing. Laure Prouvost‘s installation ‘Hard Drive’ drew me in with a chair seductively inviting me to sit on her. Somehow the space allocated to the work felt too cramped and ‘boxy’ but it’s a group show after all and I guess her memorable and spacious show ‘Again, A Time Machine‘ at Spike Island had left its impact. I walked about the galleries really enjoying a range of work where the artists were reveling in their experimentation with malleable materials (eg. bodies/cloth/paper) such as Linder‘s tufted wool rug backed with gold lame and I loved Simon Fujiwara‘s painstaking cutting, weaving, shaving and re-configuring vintage fur coats in his mixed media installation ‘Fabulous Beasts’ (no relation to the new ‘Potter’ film or is it?).

www.clarethornton.com

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By responding to the PAC Home Library, PAC is seeking artists, writers or curators who are interested in ‘the archive’ as a point of reference, investigating the dynamic between archival material or specific texts held in the Library. This residency is designed to support the artist both practically and critically by offering a short but vital period of time in the development of research, process and methodology. The selected artist will be expected to present two Reading Group sessions during the residency, which will act as an opportunity to present and discuss the work in progress.

Applicants are expected to be emerging/mid-career artists engaged with contemporary art practice and pursuing a professional, distinctive and critically informed artist career.

What is included

Not included

When Six week residency from 16 February until 30 March.

To Apply Applications will only be considered from artists living in Plymouth, Devon or Cornwall. To be eligible for this opportunity, artists must be current PAC Home members (for more information about joining PAC Home visit www.plymouthartscinema.org/pac-home). Applications must include the following and be sent as either a word doc or pdf by email to pachome@plymouthartscinema.org by Thursday 2nd February at 9am.

Selection will be confirmed by Thursday 9th February.

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Image: driftingspace, Textually Active 3, Recipients of the 2014 PAC Home Curatorial Grant.

PAC Home Project Grant 2016

Plymouth Arts Centre are pleased to offer a Project Grant for a PAC Home member or group of members to plan and deliver a curated project during the 2016 Plymouth Art Weekender.

Aiming to support artist-led and curatorial practice and increase the number of opportunities for artists working in Plymouth, Devon and Cornwall to present new work, PAC Home is offering a £400 cash grant alongside in-kind support for curators, artists or writers to develop an event or exhibition.

Applicants are invited to submit proposals for exhibitions or events which include the work of at least one artist member of PAC Home (either themselves or another artist/s) and take place in either one of the spaces for hire at Plymouth Arts Centre, at another venue in the city or in public space (there will be no room hire charge for use of PAC spaces).

The breakdown of the cash grant should be used as follows: £200 Research and development fee, £150 towards installation materials or other resources/equipment, £50 towards marketing.

In addition to the cash grant PAC staff are also offering advisory sessions for support with:

Applicants are encouraged to consider using the Project Grant as match funding for an Arts Council England Grants for the Arts Award and should consult with the a-n/AIR guidelines for artists’ fees when planning the budget for their project.

Proposals will be selected on the following:

The Project Grant recipient/s will be expected to complete a simple evaluation following the event/exhibition and will be asked to write a post for the Plymouth Arts Centre blog.

The PAC Home Project Grant has been made possible with the support of Plymouth Culture.

To Apply

Proposals must include the following and be sent as a single pdf or word doc attachment by email to pachome@plymouthartscinema.org before midday on Monday 18 April 2016 Extended deadline Monday 25 April 2016:

This opportunity is open to PAC Home members only. Artists, writers and curators can join PAC Home to become eligible for this opportunity. See PAC Home webpage for further information about PAC Home and how to join.

Key dates – dates adjusted due to Plymouth Arts Centre website problems

Mon 18 April: Deadline for proposals

Monday 25 April: Extended deadline for proposals

Friday 29 April: Selection confirmed

23 – 25 September: Event/exhibition should take place

Monday 31 October: Deadline for evaluation

Links

Plymouth Art Weekender: https://www.plymouthartweekender.com/

List of PAC Home members: https://www.plymouthartscinema.org/pachome

Spaces for hire at PAC: https://www.plymouthartscinema.org/information/venue-hire.html

Arts Council England’s Grants for the Arts: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/grants-arts/

a-n/AIR’s draft Exhibition Fee framework and Guidelines: https://www.payingartists.org.uk/2016/01/new-report-sets-out-draft-exhibition-fee-framework-for-artists-and-galleries/

a-n Guidance on fees and daily rates: https://static.a-n.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Guidance_on_fees_and_day_rates_for_visual_artists_2016.pdf

driftingspace report on PAC Home Curatorial grant 2014: https://blog.plymouthartscinema.org/2014/05/14/pac-home-curatorial-grant-driftingspace/

Plymouth Culture: https://www.plymouthculture.co.uk/

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As I enter ART15 I overhear someone saying “not any of the rubbish on that floor”. It’s always fun to over hear collectors and gallerists at fairs. Later on I pass another huddled group discussing the need to “work as a team and have one common voice” maybe a rogue dealer had over stepped the mark with dialogue that had resulted in a lost sale? Although curious I never got to find out which floor they were referring to as I move past 10 Chancery Lane and Pearl Lam (2 of the largest booths at the fair) and into the Emerge section featuring Kestutis Svirnelis’s expanding and contracting tower of clothes and Joel Andrianomearisoa’s bottled tears. With 500 artists presented by 150 Galleries from 42 countries there was a really diverse mix of art practice on show including a large proportion of galleries / collectors from East Asia.

I walked around the fair several times to get a sense of what was on show before returning to several works that had caught my eye. The following are some of these works.

A stunning aluminium and copper wire installation ‘Timespace’ by El Anatsui at October Gallery.

From Tapei Lin& Lin Gallery presented large scale collage paintings from Liu Shih-Tung.

Liu Shih-Tung, Danshui Riverside, 2011

Lin & Lin Gallery

I was struck by in comparison to a lot of the work on show, how timeless the works of Graham Sutherland and William Scott at Omer Tiroche or Lucio Fontana at Frameless Gallery appeared at the fair.

Graham Sutherland, William Scott at Omer Tiroche

Piero Dorazio ‘Under a Name’ 1965 But alongside these works it is always great to discover artists work you had never seen before. Tezukayama Gallery presented the paintings of Atsuko Tanaka whose brilliantly vibrant works from the 1980’s, one of Japan’s the leading artists from the Gutai Movement.

Atsuko Tanaka, Untitled, 1986, Tezukayama Gallery

Also commissioned by ART15 artist Henry Hussey (https://www.coatesandscarry.com/originals/henry-hussey) exhibited a series of embroidered works which weaved together a rich tapestry of vintage fabric and beading routed in personal narrative.

Solo presentations were rare at the fair but Jenna Burchell’s sound installation ‘Homing’ alongside a quote by Herman Hesse “where paths that have an affinity for each other intersect, the whole world looks like home, for a time”.

(https://vimeo.com/108775900) (presented by https://www.sulger-buel-lovell.com/).

It was popular with visitors at the fair because it was an interactive instrument that allowed the audience to wander through copper strings, to touch, listen and play. Dogs barking, laughter, thunder, traffic, a piano – each string triggered sounds that took you back to a place, real or imagined.

As ever at fairs a large proportion of exhibited work was painting ready for sale to collectors. The following is a selection:

Intricate paintings by Sarah Ball at Millennium Gallery which had a great booth from their roster of artists (https://www.millenniumgallery.co.uk/sarahball/sarahball.htm)

Also at Millennium Gallery were works by Trevor Bell and Sax Impey.

Stephen Ormandy paintings based on organic sculptures the artist also makes were presented by Olsen Irwin based in Australia.

(https://www.olsenirwin.com/pages/artists_details2.php?artist_id=289)

Bristol based Coates and Scarry showed a selection of Cornwall’s Lisa Wright wonderfully fragmented historical paintings (https://www.coatesandscarry.com/originals/lisa-wright)

There were several printed editions available at the fair, I loved these Cedric Christie ironic Malevich, Richter and Picasso artist garage signs at Jealous Gallery.

Woodcut, Outskirts (Night), 2015 by Tom Hammick at Flowers.

In the non for profit section of the fair Parasol Unit displayed ‘Poison Evidence’ an edition of 21 by Jimmie Durham. Next to Parasol was Ali Macgilp who curated the May show at Karst ‘Cannibal Manifesto: Mimesis as Resistance’. Ali presented the Maraya Art Centre which she curates, an exhibition space and residency in Sharjah focussing on artists who work in the UAE.

“It’s about creating tension” I overhear as I leave ART15 several hours later wondering what conversations were had in the Collectors Lounge ! As fairs go ART15 definitely had a good mix of tension.

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