Material / Control, Redcliffe Bridge, Bristol

Material / Control was a collaborative, artist led exhibition co-ordinated by myself, Polly Kelsall and Emily Krainc. Bristol City Council kindly gave us the use of the gorgeous, brutalist Control Room on Redcliffe Bridge for just under a week.

Kelsall, Krainc and I created a truly collaborative show, we worked in the space throughout the week. All work had to respond to the Control Room and it's environment, or each other's work. We followed these parameters as we edited and changed the work in the show.

• On leaving the space each day, anything made or left belongs to Material / Control 

• Each edit must reference the space, its content, and/or it’s environment 

• Make new connections between objects, images and works 

• Add or remove 

• Nothing will be permanent 

• Nothing will remain unchanged

We kept a blog throughout the process; from planning and preparation to the final day. It was used to document changes, consider and highlight work and in some instances to present work. You can see my text works reproduced in the previous post to this; they were first 'exhibited' as blog posts at material-control.blogspot.co.uk 

Material / Control, for me, felt like a genuine conversation. It pushed me out of an established way of making and into something which was much more iterative and quick-fire; working with objects and works in an instinctive way, rather than being very thought through and self referencing. I also got to make pieces which were very much my own works, but in a different context and as a way to describe a space. 

Despite our best efforts though, each of us couldn't help feeling a little protective and a little put out at some of the interventions by the other artists. It is hard to let go and on my part there were a few re-arrangements and a few patches of colour that were frowned at and quickly changed. Maybe that was cheating, and it was fun to chat about that feeling in the end - I think we all felt at least one piece or arrangement had been 'ruined' by one or other of us!

The show became a series of call and response gestures. It showed more than anything how three artists can notice such a range of things about a space, and then bring out these things in wildly different and personal ways.

Redcliffe Bridge I

Chalky hospital green

Magnolia

Deep garden fence green

Old, murky green

Tagged

Scribbled

Patched

Street - dirt - soot - exhaust

Gather + fall 

Rest

Click(boom) click(boom)

Yellow lines

White lines

Grass green

Weed green

Oxygen green

Redcliffe Bridge I

Megan Hoyle

October 2015

As part of Material / Control

14:33

Phone gestures

Food box

Yellow / red / pink

Check / polo / chilly?

Man bag

Hunting hat

/// shoes

High vis o-o

Crossing, carefully

Giggling

Pyjama trousers & shorts

Cream quilted coat

Baby carrier

Yellow soles

14:33

Megan Hoyle

October 2015

As Part of Material / Control

Reto Pulfer's Gewässerzeiten and Patrick Staff's The Foundation at Spike Island

Reto Pulfer, Gewässerzeiten

I loved being in this room, wandering through the installation. It felt like a kid's den and everywhere were drawings, gestures and bits of things you half recognised and had to place. The tent-like structure has drawings on the inside and is completely handmade, It is really calming, maybe a bit like being in the womb.

The title translates as waters-times and the gallery text speaks about the link between water, seas and the river Avon which runs past the gallery. I'm not sure I would have quite got this from the installation alone. The 'fishing' net speaks of craft and interiors rather than the elements and something with a very specific role. It looks to be made from canvas/calico strips. The sheets hung also seem to be very interior and home-like. I think it is the materials and colour which detract from the water/sea/river connotations. Perhaps it is more an imagined, storybook waterscape than one relating to anything 'real'. The small objects scattered around the installation bring you back to the shoreline though, with driftwood and claws as well as silt.

I was less of a fan of the map paintings. They were quite awkward and didn't seem free or a pleasure to make but quite cramped and frustrated. 

The last room on the Pulfer show is gorgeous, it is full of these little sketchings and makings which really seemed to show the sense of humour and personality of the artist. It's the sort of room which deserves a second and third look. Contemporary work is mixed in with work the artist made as a child. perhaps because of this, none of the work was precious and it had a particular beaten up, mangled, handmade sort of aesthetic. Tactile and thoughtful. 

Patrick Staff, The Foundation.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, it was everything an artist's film should be. I was intrigued and compelled to watch the whole thing (and just a little bit more so I could watch the choreography again..) At times I was confused and was always unsure of what was coming next. It kept me in, made me smile and is beautifully shot and edited.

The film is split into two - one section shot in LA at the Tom of Finland Foundation. This section is a rough documentary, shorter clips, some footage shot on a mobile phone and everything feels quite messy. The other section was shot at Spike, with sets, beautiful panning shots, lighting and choreography. It is much more polished and pulls out meaning from the documentary footage.

The whole film is very much about sexual identity and gender but it is also very male,  I certainly felt 'other'. This is something Staff picks up on a little bit in his very eloquent interview in the gallery guide. Staff realised he was easily accepted at the foundation because they saw him as a gay male, the film is about perceptions, identifying and this feeling of being either outside or included.

It's certainly a show I would like to go back and look at again - partly because I missed seeing Staff's sculptural sets, which were around the corner - but also because both the shows seemed quite layered. I think they will stand up to a second viewing. Both shows are at Spike Island until the 20th September.

The Manifesto of the Wall, Fringe Arts Bath 2015

This year at Fringe Arts Bath I showed as part of The Manifesto of the Wall. The show was curated by Sveta Antonova, who also wrote the manifesto.

The Manifesto of the Wall:

1. The Wall has its history, respect it.

2. Do not exploit the Wall – it works with you and for you.

3. Find a direct method to include the Wall into your artwork and vice versa.

4. If no.3 is not applicable, you made the wrong piece for this space and may stop here or restart.

5. The term ‘to hang something’ is not an option in this context.

6. Don’t add.

7. Include.

8. Adventures are accepted.

9. Once the artwork is ‘up’, you added a new piece of history to this Wall.

10. Same principle for the Floor & Ceiling, just in case someone asks.

I created a text work, different to anything I have shown before. The Wall was a booklet 130 x 130mm which was bound by hand, with canvas. The booklet was presented on a shelf, with a poster asking viewers to pick up a booklet and walk around the space whilst reading it. See below for images and the text in full.

The show was successful, there was positive feedback as I was invigilating & it was good to see people really engaging with the works. The show suffered a little for not being in the main FaB venues; we were in Little Southgate. However this meant we had a few people popping in who wouldn't ordinarily see any of FaB. I had a few really good, and unexpected, conversations with different groups of young lads (maybe between 12-14 years old) who came in out of curiosity when they saw us from the skate shop opposite. 

The Wall

From the earth, not far

Limestone

Freestone

Before that, the sea

Shellstone 

Bonestone

Built, dug and cut.

Bath, Italy, Bath

Heated in the mantle

Forged

Grown in forests

Plastered, painted and nailed

Covered, recovered and stripped

Like Atlas and the heavens I carry

Hold, protect, shelter

Link arms for a street

Holes - 

Windows, grates

Porous

Summer/Winter 

Expanding

Cracking

Chipping

Damp

Tiny creatures

Scuttling, spinning

Nesting, perching

Larger things

Leaning, hammering

Changing, using

Years and years

and Years?

Mouldering, crumbling

Cracking

Then

Machines cutting, pulling 

Crashing.

Graffiti Squares

More Graffiti Squares spotted in Bristol

BV Open Studios 2015

I had a great time at this year's open studios. I was in the studio for the whole two days this year, making and chatting to people. It was great to get to chat at length with other studio holders as well as the public.

I was the only one showing in my studio, which meant I could properly clear out my space, putting books, tools etc in the car and squatting on another studio holder's table for most of the weekend. I showed a few different works, most finished and one in-progress. 20x20cm Unpicked and Separated into it's 'Horizontal' and 'Vertical' Threads has been shown before at Fringe Arts Bath, the rest are new. I tried not to be too precious about what I showed and where which seemed to work well.

Unmade/Remade I (In Progress/Failed), Canvas and Stretcher

20x20cm Canvas Unpicked and Separated into its 'Horizontal' and 'Vertical' Threads, Framed Canvas Threads

20x20cm Canvas Unpicked and Wrapped, Canvas

Found Things (Tower), Materials Unknown (Plaster & Cardboard?)

This is a very new work which I included on a whim really. It is not about the materials of painting at all, but is formed from a few objects I found and have been keeping in my studio for a while, thinking they fit, maybe just because of the colour. It felt quite liberating just to throw it in, and a lot of people were asking about it. 

As usual through conversations I found out what I liked about the objects and why I have been keeping them; they seem to suggest materiality and 'thingness' without actually referencing real-world objects, and I haven't made them so they seem to have been formed rather than made. It's a thoroughly satisfying 'thing'.  

Study VI of 20x20cm Canvas Unpicked and Wrapped, Emulsion, Lukas IV Oil Medium and Pencil on Paper 

These drawings are quite difficult to photograph as they are so pale (better images will be on my website soon). I love them though. Maybe I shouldn't say that about my own work, but particularly with the drawings of 20x20cm Canvas Unpicked and Wrapped, I love making them and they are exactly the kind of drawings I think are very beautiful; quite subtle and pale and not really of anything commonly recognisable.

Stitched Chip from Unmade/Remade I (I), Canvas and Paper

I enjoyed watching people's reactions to the work. For some people its just not their thing, and they walk in and straight out, which is fair enough. Other people laugh and you can see they think it is a load of crap (even though they try to pretend otherwise!) which again is completely fair. Then there are a few people who take the time to look, figure out what is going on and either chat amongst themselves or to me. I only make for myself really but it is really gratifying to have conversations with strangers who are excited, interested and completely understand what you're trying to do.

BV Open Studios

It's BV Open Studios 24th - 26th April, come and see some brilliant people making amazing and beautiful things! There will be a bar on the Friday night and cafe all weekend.

Temoins Oculaires, Isabelle Cornaro at Spike Island

Temoins Oculaires is an immaculate show. Walking into the huge central space in Spike always feels good for the soul, it is bright and feels lifting somehow, both to the work it holds and the visitor. Isabelle Cornaro makes great use of this space. She fills it with four works which serve as backgrounds and foregrounds to each other as you move through the room.

Installation view of Reproductions (#3, red) (2010/15), acrylic spray paint on wall, 290x435cm and Scenes #2 (2015) varnished birch plywood, gold mirror Perspex, stainless steel, acrylic paint on glass, 227.5x127x120cm

Two paintings on opposite walls are titled Reproductions (#3, red) and Reproductions (#1 purple). According to the guide 'they are reproductions of enlarged stills from the artist's film Floues et colourees (2010)' This film is shown in another room, it is quite mesmerising, showing paint being sprayed onto a surface. The Reproductions hold the viewer in the same way, they are textured rich surfaces you could stare into for hours.

Detail of Scenes #1 (2015) varnished birch plywood, gold mirror Perspex, acrylic paint on glass, 220x96x70.5cm

 In the middle of the room are two satisfying, slick sculptures which are like totems with bare, painted or covered surfaces. This room, with it's hinting sculptures and paintings referencing other works and other surfaces, seems like an exploded version of Cornaro's three other Scenes works, which are spread throughout the wide corridors circulating the central gallery.

Reproductions (#1, purple) (2010/15), acrylic spray paint on wall, 290x435cm

The Scenes read like 3D paintings, they are obviously supposed to be seen head on and are placed with their 'backs' hovering just off walls. You feel the need to walk around them, see around the objects and view them from the side just because they are objects. But the works themselves reject this, giving you nothing but what you can see from the 'front'.

Scenes #5 (2015) acrylic paint and varnish on MDF, Fabric Bakelite, miscellaneous objects,  200x320x200cm

According to the guide the Scenes 'could be described as physical representations of the act of watching'. They have a very particular aesthetic, deep colours, shiny surfaces which look like they could be furniture veneers, and domestic objects. They put me in mind of a 70's home, they also speak of film sets, stages and pop-up books somehow.

Scenes #3 (2015), acrylic paint and varnish on MDF, plastic laminate, miscellaneous objects, 150x320x238cm

I lingered in the final room for a while. Here three films play out, all using the objects or materials seen throughout the show and all mesmerising. They 'investigate concepts of accumulation, symmetry and entropy' and do seem to be concerned with the act of looking and watching. I get that from these films more than from the sculptural works. 

The works are beautifully made and ask you to linger around them, they have such strong personality and presence (especially the Scenes) that they seem to be looking back at you. If you can get to see the show this weekend I highly recommend it. 

Temoins oculaires, Isabelle Cornaro is at Spike Island until the 29th March. 

Pipilotti Rist at Hauser and Wirth, Somerset

Jenny and I went to check out the Pipilotti Rist show at Hauser and Wirth Somerset, Stay Stamina Stay was absolutely gorgeous; rich and mesmerising.

There are three works by Rist, an outdoor installation and two large scale videos. Mercy Garden runs along two perpendicular walls in a huge dark room. The floor is covered in sheep skins and the video is incredibly tactile and sensual, you can feel everything going on on screen. We watched the video through more than once and could hardly tear ourselves away.

Sleeping Pollen was a more complicated installation, consisting of mirrored globes or pods which slowly revolve. Some were passive, but others had projectors inside them. As the pods move around the videos slowly travel across the walls and become distorted. The videos were of plant life and it was like being underwater. Everyone in the space moved slowly, but kept moving, it was a fluid and calming room, truly immersive.

Having seen the Turner Prize show this year the Pipilotti Rist show brought back my faith in video art. The Turner Prize works were all incredibly sterile and intellectual, it was so good to see videos which are absorbing, transcendental and which really grab and hold you.

There was also an installation by Rist outside the gallery, Hiplights were pants hung over lights whimsically strung like bunting in the courtyard.

In addition to Rist's work there were two other, smaller shows. John Chamberlain with mangled Gondolas and great poems and Richard Tuttle with some small sculptural sketches hung on the wall. The Richard Tuttle works were the kind which just inspire you to make.

Overall Hauser and Wirth Somerset is a great place, it's in a beautiful setting and has a garden. Interior is lovely too very tastefully and perfectly renovated and there's a shop and bistro. It sparked a few conversations around accessibility (in that the visitors all looked like art students or part of the wealthy Somerset set) and comparisons with Yorkshire Sculpture Park which is much more accessible and pulls in a huge, diverse crowd. YSP is much more established though and is a public space, rather than a private gallery. In all H&W Somerset felt very generous, it was a great day out & we'll certainly be regulars. Perhaps more people just need to know about it?

Barcelona; Arts Santa Monica, MACBA & Sagrada Familia

Arts Santa Monica

There were three shows on at Arts Santa Monica when I went, a small one of Isabel Banal i Xifre's table top works, one on drawing, and another looking at scenery

The table top works were my favourite, it was the kind of room which throws up alot of questions and I felt like I really wanted to chat to the artist and discuss why the works weren't on the floor or shown in another way. I felt like I trusted her judgement too though, so it was a tiny room with only 5 works but was really engaging.

Trace, Drawing as a Tool of Knowledge, was set up beautifully. It was split into four themes and each theme had a room to itself, separated by plastic curtains, that you had to push through to get into the new room.

Drawings were shown on the wall and underneath glass on tables, allowing a lot of drawings to be seen together. It was easy-viewing, the number of drawings on display meant I glanced through all on them but only really looked at the ones which grabbed me. 

Tale of the Beautiful False Things looked at scenery. A couple of the works stood out to me; there was a video work I'm sure I have seen before but can't remember where, about children playing and the way they affect and interact with their environmant and each other. It is always strange seeing a work you have seen before in a different city at a different time, it is a little disconcerting as you always have a different opinion of it, or realise you have misremembered it. 

Pictured below is the work I liked the most, unsurprisingly for anyone who knows my work. It is (translated) 'Painting of Olot which has Given Olot it's Image Back' by Perejaume and consists of a canvas (presumably painted on) which has been dismantled, and presented in a perspex box with the title. I felt my lack of Catalan here though as I couldn't read the title at the time, and as you see it's pretty integral to the work. 

MACBA

The MACBA is a great building - not necessarily from the outside, but the atrium is lovely - it's a huge white, bright space. There's a great Lawrence Weiner work running the length of the far wall and the way up to the galleries is a series of slopes against the window. There is a huge sense of space and light.

Aside from the atrium I wasn't so taken with the MACBA as a space, it was very awkward to walk around. If you go to, for example, any of the Tates - you walk around a show and are thrown back into the atrium at the end. At the MACBA however you go in and out of rooms, start in the middle one, have to find the next and then walk back to find the last room. It's quite distracting when you're trying to look at a whole show. It's also interesting to note that the invigilators in MACBA are more like security guards than invigilators, there to protect the work than answer any questions on it, they certainly seem hired out and unapproachable. 

The image above shows a room that was tucked away at the end of the atrium. All the works in there were replicas and you were encouraged to 'approach the collection with your senses'. This was a great thing to be able to do, and it felt really strange to be asked to touch works on display! I got alot out of it and think it would be a geat thing to tag on to most shows, a room of replicas you can touch and engage with in a different way.  

The shows I saw were- Oskar Hansen, Open Form; The Immaterial Legacy, An Essay on the Collection and Art & Language Uncompleted.

Oskar Hansen, Open Form was interesting and I liked the way it was laid out. One of the pieces told of a polish apartment block, when it was being built the authorities had allowed the future residents to draw where they wanted the dividing walls in their apartments, so they could make the kitchen/living areas bigger/smaller as they liked. Unfortunately though when the block was finished the residents were assigned flats on a random basis, and so didn't get the one they had designed!

Above is a work I really liked, from the The Immaterial Legacy show. It seems incidental, almost escaping the gallery and squashed into a corner. I enjoyed looking around this show, it seemed relevant to MACBA and so to the city I was in, it was accessible and had some great works in it.

Art & Language Uncompleted looked good (see image above)- but was really dry, too much writing and way too high brow, I just wandered through the rooms and wasn't at all engaged. This was a shame and a huge mistake on the curator's part I think, especially as I glimpsed a couple of lovely, funny works and the last room was great but by that time I was bored and a little disillusioned. 

Sagrada Familia

Whenever I have seen images of the Sagrada Famillia it mostly looks disorganised and a mess of carved, bleak stone. However that's not at all what it's like in real life, there is so much colour both inside and out, and the views from the towers are great. It is however a bit of a tourist scrum and moneymaking machine, not even almost a place for contemplation and quiet reflection!

In life the building is lovely, there are coloured mosaics on the outside and the inside is drenched with colour from the stained glass windows. The detail is incredible, everything is designed and decorated to within an inch of it's life, but in a quite beautiful, clean and elegant way.