Defining 'Place' - an artist's interpretation

I went along to a recent talk and exhibition by Reading artist Jo Thomas held at the 'Glass Tank', a new exhibition space at Oxford Brookes University where Jo is studying for her PhD.  She presented her research on 'Presencing Place: the knowing and shaping of place through expanded art practice'.

Jo spent last August at Gallery@49 using it as a research space, please read my previous post about her time with us. Bracknell was just one 'place' in her research, she had several others, including the Water Meadows in Whitley, near Reading. She uses the concept of 'Presencing' first introduced by Otto Scharmer, to research how we get to know a place, her premise is that it is through  "understanding, listening, being present in the place and relating to all aspects of it, no matter how small, by using all of our senses". Jo's work follows in the footsteps of artists Hamish Fulton or Richard Long where the art is a personal process, but society often requires an object or 'outcome' to present to an audience, I was curious to know what she chose. She had devised a series of 45 gestures or actions which formed her research enquiry, the outcomes were presented as photographic prints with corresponding text. The image here is of 'Gesture 40 - Solar Noon Shadows' in which she gilded the shadows of small plants growing through tarmac at solar noon each day for 2 weeks at midsummer. Her action raised her awareness of time, of the weather, of the variety of common plants that manage to take root in the tiniest of cracks in an urban pavement. Her practice is driven by questions, and 'presence' is her means of connecting with a place to search for the answers.

Place was also a focus of the last exhibition at Gallery@49 for Foundation: ReOrsa Founders Finale in April. I set-up ReOrsa, along with Jenny Parkes and Tonia Maddison, as a result of being given a place for a studio in Bracknell town centre back in 2006. As the demolition of Bracknell is looming, Jenny and I chose to reflect on our place within it one last time. Jenny used floor plans of our studios at 114 and 49 Broadway, with a map of Bracknell town centre in a distressed and aged torn paper collage surrounded by a rusted iron building support. The work spoke of the past, of memories, the dereliction and decay that this part of the town has endured. I had several pieces with references to Bracknell in the exhibition, as my work has used 'place' as a constant theme for many years. In the work shown below I chose to reflect on the decline of the High Street, even adding in my own 'Closing Down' signs that are all too familiar in Bracknell and elsewhere.

work by Jenny Parkes (left) and Janet Curley Cannon (right)

Our exhibition in the gallery ended in early May, though my large sculptural work in the corner window display remains in place until I find time to demolish it. My studio hours at the moment are spent packing boxes and numerous trips to the charity shop. On one such trip, my arms laden with picture frames I no longer required, I commented to the assistant that I was from the artists studio across from them. The woman excitedly said how much she 'loved' the sign on the work in the window and how it was a perfect statement of 'this place' at this moment in time. It's comments like that which make me smile and will remain with me long after I have left.

Window display from Foundation showing
'New Dead End Street' by Janet Curley Cannon

Open Studios, closing studios

As I and my fellow artists in Bracknell town centre are packing up in preparation of our studio closure at the end of May I have been receiving numerous invites to the 'Open Studios' taking place across the region. It's that time of year when studio doors are flung open and artists tempt the public to come along and see, perhaps buy, their new or recent work. It is a great opportunity to spend a weekend driving around the beautiful countryside while getting a glimpse of what the region's artists and makers are doing in these austere times. I put together a roughly drawn graphic to illustrate where the various ' Art Studio Trails' are taking place in the region and have listed them below with any relevant links to find out more about opening times and how to find the venues. Interesting to see where the real 'heart of the grey zone' is when you look at my crudely drawn (not to scale at all) map of where the 'colour' is over the next few months!

Open Studio Events May - June 2013

Henley Arts Trail - Sorry, it's over, it was held the first weekend in May. It happens every year in various venues from Henley to Twyford, make a note for next year if you didn't know about it. (red)

West Berkshire & North Hampshire Open Studios - started on the 4th May and runs until the 27th of May.  This has been running for 25 years, the main focus is in and around Newbury but there are several locations in Reading, a few in Basingstoke, so any weekend in May could well be worth a ramble! (orange)

Oxfordshire Artweeks - Oxford City is the 4th to 12th May, South Oxfordshire 11th - 19th May, more than 500 free exhibitions and is the country's oldest and biggest open studio event. There is some overlap with the region of Henley so if you missed them earlier this month. (green)

Caversham Arts Trail - Runs this weekend the 11th May - 12th May and next weekend the 18th - 19th May. (dark green)

Surrey Artists Open Studio Summer Event - 8th to the 23rd June, lots around the Farnham area. (purple)

Bucks Open Studios - starts the 8th of June and runs till the 23rd, you can criss-cross the county line with Surrey and really get your fill of arts, crafts, and more. (blue)

It just so happens that myself and 2 other artists from the Bracknell studios (Jenny Parkes and Charlotte McClelland) have been invited to show in the studio of artist Lynn Andrews in Burnham, near Slough, for the Bucks Open Studios. We are part of an outdoor sculpture trail with site specific installations being built in Lynn's beautiful suburban garden. It will certainly be unusual and interesting work, hope you can stop by and take a stroll!

The workplace, a public space, the vacant space and a leisure place

These are all venues where I encountered art across the 'Grey Zone' this past weekend, the region is truly blossoming with art this spring. It started Friday evening when we drove down to the southwest tip of the region to attend the Private View of the exhibition 'Resonance - Art in the Ark' at The Ark Conference Centre situated behind the North Hampshire Hospital, north of Basingstoke. The Ark Centre is a beautiful, modern building with a large open foyer and central stairwell crowned by a large winged sculpture by regional artist Johannes von Stumm. The centre has a packed weekly schedule of conferences which are held in the numerous rooms located off the central stairwell. The Ark, along with Guest Curator Jonathan Chapman, are hosting 2 open submission themed exhibitions this year with 20% of sales going to charity. The works varied from paintings, to prints, textiles and a few sculptures. I particularly liked the small bronze sculptures of Arabella Nock, some of the large 'Miro-esque' paintings of Kate Theodore, and the print and mixed-media work of Reading artist Sue Leavett. I had several of my 'Cityscapes' prints and mixed-media drawings selected for the exhibition and received lots of positive feedback. The exhibition runs for several weeks so the artworks can be seen, and are available to purchase, by all those visiting this workplace until the 13th of June.

We continued our evening of art by driving up to Newbury to attend the outdoor concert of 'Chorus' by sound artist Ray Lee held in the very public space of 'Market Place' in front of The Corn Exchange who hosted the event. I am a long time lover of sci-fi and the evening had a mix of the sounds of 'Close Encounters' with the visual effects of the eyes of Klaatu from 'The Day the Earth Stood Still'. It was magical, one of those 'had to be there to experience it' moments as the sound resonated around the square.

Ray Lee's 'Chorus' in Newbury's Market Place

Saturday I was back in the heart of the 'Grey Zone' for the final open day of Foundation: ReOrsa Founders Finale at Gallery@49 in Bracknell town centre before we shut up, pack up and move out, returning the shop unit to its former state of vacant in preparation for demolition. I'll write about our finale in a separate post soon, but on my way to the deserted end of Bracknell town I encountered the sculptures of wood carver Steve Radford, he took a chainsaw to several of the town centre trees that have been causing a bit of controversy. I found them kind of interesting, a far more pleasing site then the decapitated trees left standing down Crossway and Broadway.

We ended our weekend of art by attending the 'Reading Contemporary Art Fair' on Sunday morning and I was pleased to see it bustling with art enthusiasts, artists, and hopefully some collectors as well. I ran into many familiar faces, as well as one or two from the past. The stands were laid out in the classic row pattern at The Rivermead Leisure Complex, a leisure and sports centre near the Thames. The hall was full of colourful paintings, prints, and much more, from regional as well as national artists and art groups. OpenHand OpenSpace Studios from Reading made their first appearance this year, a great way to raise their profile while showcasing work by a few of their artists. There was a corner of the fair set aside for Jelly with art activities for all, as well as a good display of work by the Reading Guild of Artists and a group of artists from the Bank Gallery in Chobham sharing a large stand. I was surprised by the number of single artists occupying solo stands of varying size, some seemed to be quite versed in the business of 'art fair' display with work tightly packed in, even bags adorned with their name, and card machines at the ready. There was art for all tastes, some not to mine, but a number of really impressive artists offering artwork at what I thought were very affordable prices. Perhaps the fair, now in its fourth year in Reading, is gaining more exposure and drawing in wider audiences, both as stall holders and visitors, lets hope the sales for the participating artists also grew.

Reading Contemporary Art Fair

OVADA - Proposed Additions

If I was to be precise, Oxford is not in 'The Grey Zone' as I define it, so I shouldn't be writing about it here. That's because it has the excellent Modern Art Oxford, several artist studio groups, a number of exhibition spaces, and of course Oxford Brookes University with a strong art programme, and The Ruskin College of Fine Art & Drawing, part of the University of Oxford. But it's on our borders and many artists from 'The Grey Zone' have been involved in various activities in Oxford due to the wonderful organisation OVADA. So I am making an exception here as I think more artists in 'The Grey Zone' should know about OVADA if they don't already!

I first discovered OVADA back when they were part of the now defunct ARC network for southeast England run by Portsmouth's Aspex Gallery, funded by the Arts Council. I went to several events and exhibitions at their old location in Gloucester Green but they moved out of there in 2010 due to regeneration plans and had been in temporary locations for a couple of years. I am on OVADA's mailing list so read about their new home, an old industrial warehouse which they moved into late last year. I finally made the time to go up and check it out.

This was due to the enticement of their current exhibition 'Proposed Additions' a group exhibition by Oxford and London based artists who have responded to the industrial nature of the warehouse and its history. The exhibition information states "The artists have redefined both architectural boundaries and the behaviour of the building to reflect functional, technical, social, environmental, and aesthetic considerations." Lots of adjectives that resonate with my own art practice, combine this with the chance to see this intriguing building they now call home, I just had to go, and I wasn't disappointed!  It's an awesome space with lots of character, its not a white cube so perhaps challenging for some artists and their work, while fabulous for others, the current exhibition was by intent firmly of the latter.

Central exhibition space in the warehouse

work by Mimi Joung

The work that I was most taken with and felt worked best within the context of the building as a canvas and a theme, was the installation by London based Mimi Joung. Her work entitled 'Fragments II' was asking us to consider how our relationship with a particular building changes over time. The history built up on the walls and surfaces of an aged space may tell us a lot about the past lives, events and inhabitants, these will change as the years pass by. Her work uses unfired clay which reacts to the atmosphere of the space and may vary during the course of the time it is exposed, a wonderful synergy between the art object and the space it inhabits. I also found Christopher Taylor's work interesting, he had cast sections of the space and presented these as a type of 3D collage summarising the layout, construction and history of the warehouse in one view. The artists in Proposed Additions included Architrope, Jack Eden, Mimi Joung, Christopher Taylor and Sebastian Thomas.

OVADA have a 5 year lease on the building, it's a 5 minute walk from the train station and 5 minutes onward to Modern Art Oxford, a convenient location. They're in the process of creating a group of studio spaces and building on their programme of support, professional development, and various opportunities for regional artists. I'm sure I'll be making more regular trips to Oxford!

exterior view of OVADA space

Jelly with added extras

Went along to the recent Jelly Open Studios event in Reading, Jelly is one of the longest running artist-led (Suzanne Stallard) arts organisations in the 'Grey Zone'. They have had more homes in Reading, all of them temporary, then I would ever want to contemplate. I've wondered lately how she and her team keep inspired despite an uncertain future, especially given ReOrsa's current fate. Suzanne wrote an excellent piece at the start of this year about why she keeps fighting the uphill battle, you can read it here. In Jelly's current residence, a vacant building on Market Place in Reading town centre, they've expanded temporarily on to multiple floors and have short-term studio spaces for Reading artists and makers. I was curious to see how another vacant space is used for art and found it considerably different than the buildings I and my fellow studio mates have used in Bracknell over the past 7 years. They had a lift (elevator) and heat, and nice walls and clean carpets. This is not necessarily a good thing if your throwing plaster and/or paint around, hence perhaps why it seemed to have a larger contingent of 'clean' artists and makers then most studio groups I've been to. On the first floor I wasn't even sure it was studios, it was set-up like market stalls with clothing racks, furniture and various other fine crafts, all very original, high quality goods, but it didn't seem like an artists studio. As I worked my way to the second and third floors there were better indications of studios, with stacks of supplies, a few easels, a photographer doing portraits, but still a lack of 'artists at work' feel about the place. I had a good chat with Reading artists Tom Cartmill and Robert Fitzmaurice, each there as part of the promotion for the upcoming Reading Contemporary Arts Fair. Tom's showing at the fair with Reading Guild of Artists, Robert as part of OpenHand OpenSpace studios, the fair organisers were promoting the fair with an information table and a few paintings.

Artists Robert Fitzmaurice and Tom Cartmill with
Reading Contemporary Art Fair organisers in the background

Artist Mark Webber and his linocut plate

Finally made it to the third floor and behold, Reading artist Mark Webber hard at work on a wonderfully large linocut which was spread out on the floor, a pile of lino shreds growing slowly to the side. Mark has been making full use of his temporary studio space working on a floor sized lino plate with a design based on a typographical map of Berlin. This reminded me of the work of Berlin artist Thomas Klipper whom I had the pleasure to meet in Berlin and hear a talk about his past work in a vacant building in London across from Southwark Tube station. In 2000 he actually did a woodcut using the floor of the building itself, with a design using the past history of the site where the building stood, it was called 'the ring'. Unfortunately I didn't really get a chance to talk much to Mark about his work as he had a queue of interested bystanders waiting to chat with him, a couple from Amsterdam wanted to enquire about some of his prints, perhaps with a potential to buy, far more worthy of his time than my questions on how was he actually going to print the large plate? But his use of his temporary space was wonderful, his print work with lino high on detail, painstakingly intricate, and of course all done in reverse for printing, a slow process that looked as if it would reap excellent results. He's an artist that I'll keep an eye out for in the future, be curious to see the finished print on paper.

Now for the added extra bit, I have received so many invites and announcements of art events happening across the 'Grey Zone' recently, I wanted to share the news of all the potential art to experience across our region in just the the next three weeks!

Reading Guild of Artists 83rd Annual Exhibition - Light Fantastic; 13th - 23rd April at the Old Fire Station, Henley (not actually in Reading itself!). More familiar names are members than I realised, a good showing of regional artists, not just from Reading.

Gallery@49 - Foundation: ReOrsa Founders Finale; PV 17th April, open 20th, 26th & 27th April, Bracknell town centre. The last chance to visit the 'vacant space' gallery and studios before we close with work by Jenny Parkes, Tonia Maddison and Janet Curley Cannon (myself).

Reading Contemporary Art Fair; 27th & 28th April, Rivermead Lesiure Complex, Reading. Many individual regional artists along with group stands for Reading Guild of Artists, OpenHand OpenSpace studios, and Bank Gallery Artists.

5 Bank Artists at the Lightbox; 16th April - 17th May, Lightbox, Woking. My old friend Angelika Steiger comes back from Switzerland to exhibit new work along with fellow regional artists.

Art at the Ark - Resonance; 29th April - 13th June, The Ark Centre, Basingstoke. Several London based artists are joined by regional artists including Janet Curley Cannon (myself), photographer Jo Andreae and painter Christine Holley.

and the event that I'm really looking forward to is Chorus by Ray Lee - a visual and sound installation taking place outside in Market Place, Newbury thanks to The Corn Exchange & New Greenham Arts on the evenings of Friday 26th and Sat 27th only, not to be missed!

Hope to see you at any, or all, of the above!