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.
