CORE GALLERY OPEN CATALOGUE

CORE GALLERY OPEN CATALOGUE
FEATURING TEXTS FROM GRAHAM CROWLEY
JANE BOYER & ROSALIND DAVIS!

Interview with Sarah Williams

Laura Eldret and Sarah Williams, The Multiplicity of a Moment, Exhibition, 2010

I am delighted to interview Sarah Williams, artist and curator of the Jerwood Visual Arts programme at Jerwood Space. Williams is one of the four judges for this year’s Open Submission Competition that will be selecting works for an exhibition at coregallery which will run during the Deptford X 2011; an international contemporary arts festival in south east london, 23rd September - 2nd October 2011. (Other selectors include; Alli Sharma, Graham Crowley and Fiona Macdonald). 

Sarah Williams uses sculptural objects, architectural interventions, performance and photography to explore the relationship between object, live event and documentation. 

Sarah Williams recent exhibitions: ‘The Multiplicity of a Moment’, Two-person show with Laura Eldret, Five Hundred Dollars, London (2010), ‘Kunskog’, Five Hundred Dollars, London; ‘Director’s Choice’, Curwen & New Academy Gallery, London (2010); Recent curatorial projects: ‘SHOW’, Jerwood Space, London (2011); ‘Locate’, Jerwood Space, London (2010); ‘Build’, Blyth Gallery, London; ‘Breaking New’, Five Hundred Dollars, Vyner Street, London (2009).

July 2011 >>

CP: As one of the judges for Core Gallery’s ‘DX Open Competition 2011, what will you be looking for when selecting artists?

SW: Originality and innovation.

CP: What is the significance of ‘independent’ competitions such as Core Gallery’s DX Open? 

SW: Independent competitions are crucial to artists who are seeking opportunities and who may or may not have an existing network, providing a platform to exhibit their work and to have their work seen by a group of selectors and curators. Competitions also offer the organizers the opportunity to engage with a new pool of artists. 

CP: You recently had an exhibition with Laura Eldret ‘The Multiplicity of a Moment’ at Five Hundred Dollars Gallery which was described as exploring “the tensions of a live moment between a viewer, and a series of objects and scenarios”. Could you describe how you and Eldret considered the work in relation to the past, present and future? And how intrinsic were the spectator’s within this staging? 

SW: The exhibition was staged in a way that allowed the spectator to experience the space in two parts. The viewers entered the first gallery through a covered archway, which signaled the start to the exhibition where minimal artworks, made by both Laura and I, were displayed. These works could be defined as either as  

Laura Eldret and Sarah Williams, The Multiplicity of a Moment, Exhibition, 2010

sculpture, props, backdrops, platforms or something ‘other’. This part of the exhibition showed potential to be an active space, almost like a stage or set. 

The second gallery contained two films which ran concurrently. The films were created in the space before the exhibition opened to the public. Three dancers were invited to respond to the artworks in the exhibition and their performances were filmed in twenty-five minutes cycles on a black and white CCTV camera and digital camera. 

The exhibition addressed the present moment (a spectator experiencing the objects and installation in the space), the past (the films which showed performance action that had occurred previously within the space) and the future (the potential for each objects/art work to be used for future interactions). The spectator was key in linking these phases together.

Williams Suggitt, Metamorphosis series, 2003

CP: Since 1999, you have collaboratively worked with Natalie Suggitt, creating various characters and scenarios in a continued attempt to transform yourselves. Where do you draw your inspiration for these fictive characters? And how important is the role of documentation within these performances? 

SW: Our collaborative practice explores continued attempts to transform ourselves and our surroundings. Characters are created within strange, unexpected and ridiculous scenarios inspired by everyday happenings and daydreams. The work often plays upon the childlike desire in wanting to experience the world as another form, and from a new perspective, leaving behind the restrictions of the human body. Yet these transformation attempts inevitably result in frustrated failure and comment on our limitations of being human. 

The live moment and subsequent documentation can sometimes be co-dependent. For example work doesn’t always materialize as a performance. We have made work as sculpture, photography and cardboard cut-outs which are then placed within a site specific environment. The use of photography, which comes from documenting a performative action, allows us to play with a sense of scale, where characters can be shrunk or enlarged in size. For example, ‘Metamorphosis series’ includes photographs of performances of us dressed as birds. The photographs were then printed to the same scale as a black bird and installed in trees at an exhibition in Queens Wood, London. 

In 2000 I studied for a brief time in America in the sculpture department at Ohio State University and performance was a major way of working for artists there. I was taught by Stelarc and during that time he curated a series of 1 minute performance which I took part in. Some of the performance pieces have really stayed with me despite there being no existing documentation of the work. Performance can be a really potent medium because the work often relies on memory to exist, and the audience, are responsible for carrying that memory on to other places and experiences through recollection and story-telling. 

Photographic, film or written documentation of a live moment cannot fully hope to capture an original performance, but can sometimes open up another angle to the work.

Williams Suggitt, Invention No 1, 2007

CP: Within these fictional scenarios you seem to move beyond the imaginary into the realm of the ‘virtual’ and the ‘other’, approaching the concept of fabulation. (Creation of fables / stories filled with fantasy). Fabulation is thus not a subjective or a deprived matter, it is rather a question of becoming and of visions and belongs to the world of affects and pure percepts, where a life appears as immanent and released from its subjective attachments, a life wrested from the personal lived. 1 

How do these transformations of the ‘self’ help you to re-examine subjectivity and approach the ‘other’? Would you say there is a sense of futility in the continued attempts at transformation? 

SW: Addressing issues of ‘other’ within the work inevitable leads back to the’ self’, the inadequacies of the human form and the true impossibility of attempting to transform to ‘other’. The key part of the performances and creation of fictive characters is to show the failure to become something other than the human self.

Williams Suggitt, Invention No 1, 2007

              

Made from rudimentary materials, the costumes and props embrace this sense of failure, but again represent potential to embody an imagined fictive space or situation. The characters, though aspirational in nature and in their appearance, will never be able to encompass the characteristics of the subjects they act or play. For example the professor who has built a time machine out of cardboard and tin foil won’t ever actually be able to travel forward or back in time (as with ‘Invention no.1) but can only imagine the possibility. 

CP: What are you currently working on within your practice?

Monument 1, 2011

SW: My practice is curatorial and studio based. I see both aspects interlinked, feeding into one another. In my studio i’m currently working on a series of large scale drawings that explore monumentality, the partial recreation of stage sets and historic artifacts. These works contain a sense of failure within their format and scale. These works may prompt future performances or actions. I’m also really interested in how we discover information and how the internet is being utilised by artists as medium, subject matter and source material.

CP: Can you describe the unique programme of opportunities, awards, events and exhibitions that Jerwood Visual Arts Gallery provides? 

SW: Jerwood Visual Arts (JVA) is a contemporary gallery programme of awards, exhibitions and events at Jerwood Space, London and on tour nationally. Jerwood Visual Arts promotes and celebrates the work of talented emerging artists across the disciplines of drawing, painting, sculpture, applied arts, photography and moving image and is a major initiative of the Jerwood Charitable Foundation. 

www.jerwoodvisualarts.org 

JVA became an umbrella programme in 2006 and during that time we have worked with 549 artists, 85 

selectors and curators and numerous writer and designers, bringing together a huge network of artistic practice. The programme is quite unique in that it focuses on specific art forms allowing us to investigate current approaches in drawing, painting, film and making. The Jerwood Encounters exhibition series allows us to create exhibitions across disciplines and to test out ideas. 

Working for JVA allows for collaboration and the sharing of ideas. It is a dream to work with artists who are at relatively early stages in their career, who will go on to shape the future cultural landscape. 

CP: You recently curated ‘SHOW’ (the fourth in a series of Jerwood encounters shows) which commissioned the work of artists Edwina Ashton, Jack Strange and Bedwyr Williams. Can you tell us more about your curatorial involvement within this and other exhibitions at Jerwood Visual Arts? And how have you sought to challenge the notion of exhibition making through performance and durational works? 

SW: My role at Jerwood Visual Arts is to coordinate and curate the exhibition programme alongside Shonagh Manson, Director of the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Parker Harris Partnership. I curate the JVA blog and work with 3 writers per year to use the JVA exhibition 

programme as a spring board for their writing. 

http://blog.jerwoodvisualarts.org/ 

‘SHOW’ was the fourth Jerwood Encounters exhibition that I curated for Jerwood Visual Arts and sought to examine the integral role that performance plays within an artist’s practice and its subsequent representation in an exhibition context. The exhibition consisted of live performances and experiments in performance documentation.www.jvashow.co.uk 

Jack Strange, Zip And Zing, 2011. Photo: Thomas Rydin

As with ‘SHOW’ and other exhibitions I have previously curated for JVA I tend approach the exhibition as a medium and consider how that medium can best be utilised by both artist and curator in order to produce ambitious works and an interesting exhibition. 

I work with artists who are making extraordinary works and are willing to take risks, working in an experimental way with unknown outcomes. I like to think that an exhibition can be an opportunity not only to showcase an artist’s work but to be a catalyst for an experimental way of working, where an artist gets to realise an idea within a supportive structure and with some funding. For example ‘Locate’ (2010) was an exhibition of three artists’ responses to the concept of ‘site’ with artists Mel Brimfield, Sarah Pickering and Aura Satz. The exhibition allowed for the creation of new bodies of work by each artist. www.jvalocate.co.uk/ 

Mel Brimfield, Four Characters in Search of a Performance (Installation view) 2010.
Photo: Paul Winch-Furness 

In order to allow for experimentation, I set up a specific structured environment, a testing ground of sorts. For example the exhibition ‘Laboratory’ (2009) gave three artists, Steven Eastwood, Jock Mooney and Mia Taylor the opportunity to use a gallery space as an experimental site for the production of new work over a period of 4 weeks. The exhibition doesn’t have to be a static experience, but can be something that shifts and develops over a period of time. www.jvalab.co.uk 

With these experimental exhibitions, I always create an online catalogue which have been made in partnership with Nick Eagleton at The Partners. This seems to be the most appropriate way to document the changes and developments that occur within a live or process-led exhibition. For ‘An Experiment in Collaboration’ six artists (Gemma Anderson, Daniel Baker, Michael Pybus, Paul Richards, Karen Tang and Jackson Webb) were asked to choose a collaborator/s to work with to create a new piece of work for the exhibition. The collaborative activity was mapped over the course of 5 months through an online blog: 

www.anexperimentincollaboration.blogspot 

Jock Mooney, Laboratory (Installation view) 2009. Photo: Paul Winch-Furness

CP: Do you have any forthcoming projects / news to divulge? 

SW: I’m working on an exhibition with Clare Undy for Abstract Critical, about current issues in abstract  practice focusing on artwork of all mediums which uses its own materiality as its central subject matter. I’m also working on an exhibition for JVA which will be shown in early 2012. 

CP: Thankyou Sarah!

Karen Tang and Daniel Sanderson, Modern Molluscs (Installation view) 2008. Photo: Emily Picot 

Interview with Elizabeth Murton

I am delighted to interview Elizabeth Murton, artist and curator of the forthcoming exhibition ‘A Theory of Everything’. This transdisciplinary exhibition brings together artists and scientists who work in different media and fields, ranging from sculpture, installation, photography, video and scientific research. Bringing science together with art is an opportunity to look for patterns and comparisons in a different context. Through this exploratory process the exhibition aims to set up conversations that lead into a discovery of the re-interpretation of what is possible.

Rules & Regs © Elizabeth Murton

Elizabeth’s practice explores installation, sculpture and drawing inspired by structures and methods of construction, specifically: textiles, weaving, architecture, psychology and theoretical physics. Her interests are in the physical world, both human-made and otherwise and how we form our understanding of our surroundings.

Since graduating from Textiles (Visual Arts) at Goldsmiths, Elizabeth has probed the notion of process through exploring the capabilities and visual qualities of different materials. Elizabeth Murton’s structure ‘Module’ was selected for a Crafts Council commission for their annual show in Somerset House in 2009. Cited by Emma Chrichton-Miller in the Financial Times How To Spend It magazine (Nov 2009) as a ‘striking, sculptural woven piece…’

Other commissions and exhibitions include ‘Can’ at South Hill Park, Berkshire; ‘Work and Play’ at The Maltings, Farnham, Surrey; ‘Orbis Opifex’ at the Crypt at Euston; ‘2012 Prototype’ at Islington Car Free Day and Deptford X in 2010.

June 2011 >>

CP: Can you tell us more about the forthcoming exhibition ‘The Theory of Everything’? 

EM: I have been interested in the idea of ‘A Theory of Everything’ for a long time. Imagining that everything is linked in some way, and that there is some inherent order in the world opens up interesting questions and debates. When we see chaos, is it in fact chaos, or that we are limited by our perception and can not see the bigger picture? 

‘A Theory of Everything’ is what string theory is often called. As stated in the press release, it ‘is a concept in theoretical physics bringing together the micro and macro: small scale theories like quantum science which describes the world at the size of atoms and electrons, and large scale theories such as general relativity, which describe things at the scale of planets and galaxies. This theory concerns all forces and matter and their influences on the patterns and behaviours we see surrounding us.’ 

String theory describes the world as if made from vibrating strings on a micro or quantum level. It needs at least 10 dimensions to work - both scale and space wise difficult for us to comprehend. It is thought the 11th dimension is a layer that wraps around or indeed spreads out from the other like a membrane or ‘brane’. Strings and membranes are great ways to visualise these abstract concepts of dimensions, 

particles and forces we can’t see. I think this appealed to my textile-art back ground. The ideas of construction in textiles are obvious metaphors, but also provide physicality and comparisons to these concepts. The exhibition is not focused on textile metaphors, but rather how we search for patterns and the limits of our perception. How we structure and attempt to understand the world through grids, theories, science, models and other structures and patterns and of course the chaos we see as well.

CP: In the press release it states: ‘The theory of everything implies all things are linked in some way and one expression of this could be found in patterns.’ What patterns and comparisons can be found between the artists and scientists ideas? And how accessible will the exhibition be to the viewer?

EM: Patterns in their simplest form are something repeated and in regular order. Whether this be line, mark making, sound, or form. In the exhibition, the work relates to the aspect of science that is attempting to apply, find and form patterns (and order) in our environment and the possible synthesis of this with visual and audio art. We do not know if the patterns we do see are present or it is just our interpretation. Some pieces look at how we understand information in psychology theories, perception, physics, and biology. Approaching the theory of everything from possible patterns and order in the environment and our ability to perceive them are vital parts of the equation. 

The audio pieces in the exhibition both respond to the sound in the gallery space, but in different ways. Daniel Jones’ piece concerns how bacteria communicate through sharing packets of DNA called plasmids. This leads to complex evolutionary patterns in their behaviour. ‘Horizontal Transmission’ is setup so that the bacteria respond to gallery noise which they then mimic back to the gallery. The behaviour they use to share DNA, is used to respond and repeat noise. 

This mimicking occurs in Hugh Metcalf’s installation as it picks up ambient sound, applies rules and plays it back into the space. The process of the copying involves rules that evolve within set limits. This creates seemingly chaotic soundscapes. Like human perception, there are a set of rules applied, but here the rules do not lead to a product that encourages (human) understanding. 

Rules of perception are expressed in Ed John’s research from his PhD. He is studying and developing vision for robots. This is difficult as we don’t understand how we see. The rules he places are different from human perception processes, and divide up visual information for robots to analyse which creates images we don’t necessarily understand. We do not know how our brain processes vision, therefore we can not replicate the patterns we see in visual information for robots to use. 

‘Eleutherobin, Coralline Swansong’ © Anna Cocciadiferro

Anna Cocciadiferro’s piece is based on the chemical structure of coral which is synthesized to be used for medical purposes. It was found that this coral, eleutherobia, produces a chemical which is much gentler for the patient and a stronger drug. The copying of the chemical structure and reusing is a process of repetition from one area of science to another. If there is an underlying link between everything, the fact that something in the ocean can affect and cure an animal on land, and that bacteria can share DNA, like a conversation, demonstrates our ability to find cross-overs between separate things. 

It may be tempting to say these links a coincidental but perhaps it is because, if the big bang is the start of the universe, everything began with the same building blocks. The study of cosmology- the universe, looks back into time to gain an understanding. Our universe is currently growing, so as you look back it is smaller and smaller, until it is just particles. The piece inspired by quantum particle behaviour, ‘Quantum Communication Through a Spin Chain’ uses ink drawings to represent a trace of the electron spin. The surface itself is not regular or consistent and folds, overlaps and changes directions randomly- much like the unpredictability of the quantum world. Balint Bolygo’s piece, ‘Animechanics’ again uses a strip of material (film), but on a much smaller scale. The film physically moves and is gradually marked by the movement of gravity affecting a pendulum. The circular mark making is similar in both pieces, but represents two different scaled parts of string theory: gravity in the theory of relativity and quantum science. And in these pieces the scale is reversed- macro science representation being much smaller the micro science! 

The mark making on a moving or continuous surface with Metcalf, Bolygo and myself using this form brings us to the idea of ‘branes’ I spoke about in the first answer. M-theory is an extension of string theory, some people theorise that the 11th dimension either wraps around the other 10, or rolls out from it, to infinity. On the rolled paper, tape or film the mark making represents particle ‘spin’, the force of gravity and sound. These bursts of activity have created pattern on these surfaces. Like non linear (chaotic) bursts of action. These could be used equally to show non-linear representations of the growth of bacteria populations or the birth of a star. Bursts of energy and events that change the outcome and development of things. 

Brain Collage © Paula Salischiker’s

There is a tactility in the exhibition which contrasts with the abstract concepts and computer/ audio works. The materials showing through the exhibition are from a muted palette. The burst of colour mostly come from Liliana Sanchez’s ‘Soup’ and are reflected subtly in Caroline Lambard’s installation and Paula Salischker’s brains collages. I hope the colour carries you through and draws you on through the space, as the texture brings it back to the materiality in our scale of existence. The green ‘Soup’ represents an excess, a chaos which could be a comment on our society today and it’s use of resources.


And, in comparison to cosmology, it goes back to when everything was just a big soup of things. With the big bang at the beginning of the universe and the beginning of life on earth, it is suggestive of the time when things were not differentiated and had developed the diversity of functioning live forms and structures that surround us today.

CP: An article written by Ken Arnold about Science and art: Symbiosis or just good friends? Seems highly relevant. Would you say that science and art have a symbiotic relationship? How has the coupling of art-science proven mutually beneficial within this exhibition? And have you faced any curatorial challenges in bringing together a transdisciplinary exhibition?

EM: For me, science and art are about exploring; seeking understanding of the world around us and expressing possibilities (or sometimes ruling them out). I think ‘science’ and ‘art’ are just massive topics, and difficult to define. To summarise two massive topics to allow discussion, you could say, does science: testable knowledge; and art: created for thought and/ or emotion/ expression; have a relationship? Yes. They both seek - the difference is science strives to be testable. Interesting both the science topics I have been looking at in my own practice are difficult to test, on the fore front of our knowledge. Theoretical physics relies somewhat on computer programmes testing theories. Perhaps this lack of visual and physical representation in everyday live is what attracted me: visualizing the invisible. Perhaps this is one way in which these types of collaborations are mutually beneficial. 

Soupa © Liliana Sanchez

Speaking briefly to Ed Johns this morning, he is arranging his research for presentation, I brought up some interesting projects and colour experiments for him. Provoking thought for him as well as me through our discussions.

I have found this exhibition really enjoyable to curate. I think because it is something I am interested in anyway. It was not a challenge to find pieces that portray elements of us understanding and searching for patterns. In future it would be a great project to perhaps focus on these different elements for an exhibition like quantum science or gravity. In contrast the breadth of possibility has been the fun of this show as a theory of, well, everything!

© Edward John

CP: In the lead up to the exhibition you have held a series of ‘Tea Party Discussions’ on and around the topic and managed a continuous blog promoting the active exchange of dialogue and debate. Within this show there seems to be a re-thinking of the exhibition as the manifestation of the final ‘event’ to something more process orientated. Through your curating how have you tried to extend the exhibition format and make it more interactive?

EM: My practice is process lead and I like to leave the construction and the materials exposed. Perhaps it is the same here. I have left all the ‘nuts and bolts’; the thinking and discussion. My work is often about potential, representing possible for movement and change. I hope this exhibition opens this up too, and does not tell people what is what, but allows them the space to think. This links to your previous question, as it is about other ways to engage the viewer.

The thought possibilities and the scope of the project emerged especially with the tea parties. The two different discussion groups added completely new dimensions to the debate. The rolling discussions provided a longer period of development and further engaged with the ideas around the show. Extending the exhibition format to have a larger time element where it has existed, not just when it is physically on display, seemed a natural form for it to take. The ideas literally encompass space and time, and even with this long development time, we have barely even scratched the surface!

The blog seemed like another natural extension of the project in time. With curating and researching lots of thoughts and links come up, it seems a shame not to offer these elements, especially as it is about discovery and process. A blog is a great communication tool. (The Tea Parties will be available to listen to in the exhibition).

Not to Scale © Elizabeth Murton

CP: For this show you have collaborated with psychologist Kaidy Stautz to create a sculpture inspired by Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of Personality (1970). You have also collaborated with physicist Bobby Antonio to create a wall piece inspired by his research into 'quantum communication in a spin chain'. Can you tell us more about these two works?

EM: With the psychology inspired piece, 'Not to Scale,' it was interesting working through the ideas and trying not being too didactic about the theory as it already has a visual form. Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of personality (1982, 2000) can be represented within a circumplex, with orthogonal lines each representing the spectrum of a trait, for example impulsivity to self-control, or extraversion to introversion. An individual’s placement within the circumplex would be dependent on the interaction between separate traits. The theory has a biological basis, linking the traits anxiety and impulsivity to the reactivity of underlying brain systems.

As Kaidy began explaining how to interpret the diagram it became more mysterious. How you relate to the piece also depends on the experimental definitions and values you ascribe it. So the boundaries of the theory vary again. I studied psychology and I am interested in understanding humanity, personality and how we work. I am not sure it is as linear as we would like it to be. 

Layers of paper, printing and mark making create the piece. The neatness of the circular 'factor space' of the theory, is repeated, and sometimes marked with the linear spectrum aspects of the theory, but not enough to ascertain how you fit into it. It is like looking in on it, but being outside of the theory. The printed brains are exhibited separately from the circles. The shape of the brain is concentrated on areas that correspond with the behaviours in Gray's theory, but they are not linked or identified in the space. 

Not to Scale © Elizabeth Murton

The other piece is large new installation. It is a three dimensional drawing where the surface comes away from the wall, spinning out in new directions. It is inspired by Bobby Antonio's research which looks at 'Quantum Communication Through a Spin Chain'. The 'Theory of Everything' is trying to unite quantum physics, which relates to the world at a very small scale and is unpredictable, and macro physics like general relativity, which relates to things like planets, and is measurable and predictable.

The idea of the 'spinning' has immediate visual connections, spinning tops, dancing, movement. The particles are in a chain. Each individual particle has a spin. The movement of the particles which make the spin however is a mysterious internal property which we do not have any analogies for our world. Bobby describes his research below;

'...I look at things such as electrons interacting through this mysterious 'spin' property, and I see if I can use this interaction to transfer information through the chain - in fact there doesn't have to be any 'movement' in the chain at all (at least not in the way we would normally think of movement), and the changes in the chain that I look at are purely internal changes - changes in what 'direction' the spin points in.

Installation Shot © Elizabeth Murton

The ink is the trace of the movement but how it was made remains a mystery. This separation of source and effect is found in quantum science and therefore it is a representation of our interaction with this quantum world. The paper's form and shape, also imply that the space where the spin is is different from our ideas of space in our world. Some of the drawings are obscured, referencing the unpredictability not only of the electrons, but also of the quantum world they exist within. 

This idea of unpredictable movement is captured in this new installation. The ink 'spin' drawings appear on paper which itself looks as though it is moving. The ink is the trace of the movement, not the source which is, apparently, very quantum. The paper's form and shape, also imply the space where the spin is, is different from our ideas of space in our world. Some of the drawings are obscured, referencing the unpredictability not only of the electrons, but also the quantum world they exist within.

Detail of Indevelopment, 2008 © Elizabeth Murton

CP: Within your own practice you explore methods of construction, specifically: “textiles, weaving, architecture, psychology and theoretical physics.” How does theory help you to explore the capabilities of materials?

EM: In this exhibition my main material has been paper and ink. It wasn't a conscious decision from the start, but both pieces naturally evolved onto paper. It really has been a pleasure working with such simple and elegant materials. Paper is inexpensive, not precious, but part of everyday. As my materials often are.

The theory provides limits, within which I can then use to structure the ideas and ascribe them onto materials. The materials I often like to push and pull them away from their natural purpose. With the quantum piece it is a subtle change of use of lining paper, which is repeated and becomes dramatic. 

Spinbang © Elizabeth Murton

The paper on the large quantum piece took some manipulating, coercing it into curves and waves. This goes against it's straight fibres and limited elasticity of the paper, as quantum science seems to avoid being understood and predictable! It is however a fabric of sorts, and I believe it starts to take on much more of that element of movement and flow in the installation. Much like the tape in Balint's and Hugh's work, and the fabric in Anna's. 

Can © Elizabeth Murton

The psychology piece 'Not to Scale' I dreamt about after I had finished. The holes somehow make it spongy and absorbent, allow you to look through, but the layers of tracing obscure it again. The construction is delicate and temporary. The printed circles and the stencils are both in the piece, showing both how the work was made, and what is left over once something is designed and made, thought through and rationalised. Here the left over excess of paper is still in the space for all to see.

CP: Can you tell us more about the upcoming Salon Event: (Science & Art Discussion, 6th July 2011) that features the guest speaker Dr David S Berman, Reader in Theoretical Physics at Queen Mary College?

EM: This will be a very interesting event. The salon event will explore the idea of a theory of everything, a concept in theoretical physics, and the relationships that develop between art and science. Each speaker will give a brief introduction to their specialist areas followed by open discussion. It will be a unique opportunity to question the experts and present your own views.

Speakers will be Dr David S Berman, Reader in Theoretical Physics at Queen Mary College, recent collaborations have included the Cartier award winning project with artist Jordan Wolfson at the 2009 London Frieze Art Fair and he is now working with Turner prize winning sculptor Grenville Davey;. Dr Berman will present an introduction to the notion of unification in fundamental physics leading up to a description of the peak of our current understanding of nature, which goes by the name of M- theory.

Adrian Holme, a Biologist and Lecturer in Visual theory, Camberwell College of Art & Design, and UCA, Maidstone, and convenor of the Research Cluster in Art, Science and Culture. In his talk, Adrian will consider aspects of the relationship between art and science - initially a unified enterprise during the early European Renaissance. Do art and science really form the distinct ‘two cultures’ described by CP Snow in 1959? What role does art and imagination (and Romanticism) have in relation to science and culture?

Bobby Antonio, PhD student researching quantum computation at University College London. His talk will present a brief overview of quantum physics, an extremely important and successful yet counter-intuitive theory. The talk will aim to give a short introduction for those not familiar with quantum  physics, highlighting the reasons why many people, including Einstein, found the concepts hard to accept, and why it has had such a profound effect on disciplines outside science, such as philosophy and art.

Salon places will be limited, so early booking is advisable.

Further details on exhibition website.
http://atheoryofeverything.tumblr.com/Salon_Event 

To book please email salon@coregallery.co.uk.

Engine ChatChat

CP: You are an integral member of Core Gallery and part of the DIY Educate management team, in which you run the group Art Crit ‘Engine ChatChat. Can you tell us more about the developments that have been made through this educational engagement? And how has Core Gallery’s ethos has helped you gain autonomy? 

EM: It is about engagement, discussion and critical context. Core Gallery has a great atmosphere as it is surrounded by people (literally as our studios surround the gallery) who are committed artists.

Engine ChatChat sprang from my need for discussion and sharing of ideas. You might propose that the tea party debates are in fact a spin off of this, but the item on the agenda is not someone’s practice but a theory in science. As the artist Helen Pynor said, who was at a Tea Party Debate said, art can provide science with critical discourse. After all, science is just one methodology for understanding.

Core Gallery is a great space for curatorial and artistic experimentation. Being in a place with a great, supportive gallery team- Rosalind Davis, Gillian Best Powell, Charlie Norwood, to name but a few, means you can take risks and... learn. This is so important. The over gentrification of these areas means that it will drive this type of space out. The team and great ideas at Core rely on the being Deptford; the affordability and artist run spaces in general allow us to push, take risks and create artistic capital. If we can’t afford the space. We will go else where. I think this is an issue London needs to address.

CP:Do you have any forthcoming projects / news to divulge?

EM: All new ideas are top secret for now, one thing I will guarantee is more science-art collaborations. I have more ideas for quantum derived pieces too. More Engine and more Tea Party discussions!

CP: Thank you so much Elizabeth

EM: Thank you, great questions.

NB: Please note, I am not a scientist and whilst I try to be accurate I might have got a thing or two down inaccurately here!!

Interview with Alli Sharma

I am delighted to interview Alli Sharma, artist, writer and co-director of transition gallery in london. Sharma is one of the four judges for this year’s Open Submission Competition that will be selecting works for an exhibition at core gallery which will run during the Deptford X 2011; an international contemporary arts festival in south east london, 23rd September - 2nd October 2011. (Other selectors include; Sarah Williams, Graham Crowley and Fiona Macdonald).

The Hippopotamus, London Zoo Postcard series, 2010, oil on canvas, 10 x 15 cm

Sharma co-directs Transition Gallery along with Cathy Lomax (founder) and Alex Michon. Since joining the gallery she has curated exhibitions ‘Fade Away’ and recently ‘Mock Tudor’. 

Sharma has a BA fine art from central st martins school of art (2007).  Recent shows include; Awopbopaloobop, Transition Gallery, London (2008); Un-Still Life, The Apartment Gallery, London and the Painting Room, Transition Gallery, London (2008). 

June 2011 >>

CP: As one of the judges for Core Gallery's 'DX Open Competition 2011, what will you be looking for when selecting artists?

AS: Interesting ideas.

CP: What is the significance of 'independent' competitions such as Core Gallery's DX Open?

AS: Gallery-run open competitions are increasingly popular at the moment. They give a wider spread of artists more opportunity to exhibit, but it also seems to be taken for granted that artists will pay a fee to be considered for selection. If the artist must pay a fee, then I think it should guarantee that their work is seen by all of the judges, and no pre-selection takes place.

CP: You are co-director of Transition Gallery, an innovative artist-run space and publisher, now in its ninth year. Can you tell us a bit more about Transition Gallery and your involvement? And what advice would you give to a relatively new space such as Core Gallery in ensuring sustainability?

Fade Away installation, gallery north, Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2011

AS: I am one of three co-directors with Cathy Lomax (founder) and Alex Michon. There’s an energy at the gallery which is incredibly stimulating and supportive. The ethos is do-it-yourself, from publishing to curating and we do a lot of work at grass roots level with new graduates and emerging artists. Sustainability is tricky and generally we keep costs to a minimum. We operate at an exciting stage within the gallery system and we are careful not to overstretch ourselves. At the end of last year we held our first auction, Art Blitz, in order to raise funds for the gallery with an amazing response from artists and buyers. I think the key is to look outwards and not get too introvert. We’re always looking for opportunities to get involved in good projects. Recently, Cathy and Alex took ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ to an artist-run art fair in Limerick, Ireland, while I attended a symposium for an exhibition at Gallery North in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Alex and I will be selecting a graduate winner for the Transition Prize at Chelsea College of Art next week; the prize being an exhibition in early August. I will be setting up our publications at the A/FFair of Publishing in London Fields 22-24 July and in September, Cathy and I will travel to Belgium to install ‘Face to Face’ at Galerie d’YS. We also attract good interns who volunteer their time with remuneration in the form of support, guidance with their own projects and the opportunity to get involved with the magazines. We ask exhibiting artists to talk about their work to staff and they get first hand knowledge of how a gallery operates, which can be a valuable experience. I started at the gallery just over two years ago, assisting artists, like Emma Talbot, install their exhibitions and helping Cathy curate in the gallery.

Fade Away installation, Transition Gallery, London E8, 2010. Photography, Michael Ajerman

Last year I curated ‘Fade Away’, a painting exhibition with 43 artists, which toured to Gallery North with a symposium and publication. I also blog artist interviews on Articulated Artists and so my first piece for Garageland magazine was an interview with George Shaw for the Nostalgia issue.

Fade Away installation, gallery north, Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2011

I help edit the magazine and am currently researching and writing a piece about mock Tudor for the forthcoming issue and generally learning new things all the time.

Edd Pearman 'the heart is a lonely hunter', acrylic and resin, 2011

CP: The current exhibition at Transition Gallery "Exam" involves Edd Pearman, who was one of the selected artists in Core Gallery's DX Open Exhibition 2010. Can you tell us more about this show?

AS: Edd sent Transition a fantastic proposal for ‘Exam’, which he curated himself. It was beautifully presented, well thought out and intelligently put together and stood out from a lot of submissions we receive. The works are mostly precisely detailed, controlled and uncanny. 

There’s an intensity of labour and an outsiderish theme, but it’s a very clean, obsessive type of outsider and something about it that makes me think of the isolated activity of building and painting intricate Affix models. The piece by Ceal Warnants mixes brutalist architecture with old-fashioned homely furniture and nicely reflects the building at Regents Studios where Transition is based. Her use of pattern is a theme shared in other works by Julie Cockburn and Matt Brown and repetition in Boo Saville. 

Julie Cockburn and Ceal Warnants, Exam Installation
2011, Transition Gallery

Julie Cockburn has meticulously cut out geometric shapes in a found painting ‘Shellshocked 1’ then reconstructed the pieces in a different order. It sits uncannily above another painting ‘Provenance (Dining Room)’ of what looks like an old black and white photograph featuring ‘Shellshocked 1’ in the background, suggesting it’s previous history. Adam James has created a plaster head, eyes closed, lying on it’s side, which I think is based on his father, but modeled on his own face and is exacting in detail with an extravagant, curly beard. I shared a studio with Alex Ball at St Martins and admire the painstaking detail in his paintings. His immobile, solitary figures are taken from literature and often suffocated by matter. Figures in the show generally look stiff, dead or vacant, even humanoid. 

Adam Dix’s figures take on a subservient position next to communication satellites and technological apparatus. Matt Brown has drained the colour out of a pixellated face and Edd’s St John’s Ambulance man carries a weighty resuscitation replicant. There’s a sad story behind the doll who’s face is based on a girl who drowned in the Seine River and so her dummy, which is the default worldwide, is constantly resuscitated. And it’s by strange co-incidence that his piece is called ‘The Heart is a Lonely Hunter’ (after the book by Carson McCullers), which happened to be the title of the previous show at Transition by Tara Derby.

Pebbles, 2010, oil on board, 20 x 15 cm

CP: On Axis Alison Sharkey states about your paintings "Her luscious paint marks transform rejected piles of junk ornaments sold for pennies at second-rate charity shops into objet d’art, subjects worthy of portraiture and desire.” What is your intention in reviving these discarded objects? And the paintings seem to emanate nostalgia and sentimentality, are these works inspired from personal childhood memories?

Pipistrelle, 2009, Oil on board, 20 x 15 cm

AS: The objects, for me, are usually more than their object selves and make me think of other people or places. You know that feeling when you walk down the street, minding your own business, then you stumble upon something and you’re transported to another place and time, it’s that’s sort of thing or when things become so familiar that you don’t see them anymore. I like sentimentality, things that are over-the-top, like paintings of animals by Landseer. Looking at the past is just a part of being human but I don’t dwell on it too much. I think the things are painted with a particular attitude, getting something down fast, quite bold and immediate. 

They don’t shy away from nostalgia and sentimentality but I hope there’s humour too. If there is an intention then it is that they are motifs for painting, excuses to engage with the stuff of paint.

Young Chimpanzees at Tea, London Zoo Postcard Series, 2010, Oil on canvas, 10 x 15 cm

CP: Your works are often presented on a small scale, in a series, grouped together as collections like keepsakes above a mantelpiece, is it your intention to tap into the viewers sentimental urge to collect? Can you describe how desire manifests itself within your work?

Pawnshop Pendant, Anne Boleyn, 2011,
oil on canvas, 40 x 30 cm

AS: I hadn’t thought about the collection of things. They are mostly objects although I have painted animals but I think the idea for them comes from a similar place, in that it’s something to do with our relationships with things. I make work and then I have to look at what I’ve done to try to make some sense of it, so I don’t have the intention to tap into what a viewer might think, I get to the point where I want to try out an idea in paint to see what it is. Probably the series and collections of things comes from the dissatisfaction with just one thing, it’s not enough, so I try several. Or it might be that I make a lot of things that are scrapped and just a few survive. But I do collect things that I might consider for paintings. I was delighted to see Sir Peter Blake’s collection of animals made from shells at Holburne Museum in Bath this week because I have collected a few of those myself and they are quite ridiculous and definitely something my grandma would have had on the mantelpiece. 

Pawnshop Dad 5, 2011, oil on canvas, 60 x 50 cm

CP: Can you tell us about the recent paintings you have been working on for the forthcoming Transition Gallery OFFSITE exhibition ‘Mock Tudor?

AS: I moved recently, to a house opposite a park, which once housed a medieval manor, and found the local pub signs like The Swan, The Old Ship and The Hart also evoked an ancient past. Painted pub signs are disappearing with the introduction of trendy new bars and The Hart chimed in particular as I had been chased by a stag in Richmond Park. I’d also been looking in the pawnbrokers’ windows in Hammersmith and had read they were gaining popularity at the moment because they provide cheap borrowing. There were initial necklaces, like the one Anne Boleyn wears in the Holbein portrait but without the pearls, lockets and DAD rings. There are so many stories there. Things burst in and puncture your everyday life and offer the chance to consider things that you might ordinarily overlook. So I’m working on a series of pawnshop jewellery paintings and animal representations based on pubs.


CP: Do you have any forthcoming projects / news to divulge?

AS: I have been making small paintings from images of postcards from London Zoo for over a year now, which will be part of ‘Zoo’, at The Meter Rooms in Coventry in October 2011. It’s a new space opened by Dan Pryde-Jarman who runs Grey Area in Brighton and also features work by Mike Bartlett, Cathy Lomax, Anton Goldenstein and Stephanie Quayle.

Lion and Lioness, London Zoo Postcard series, 2010, oil on canvas, 10 x 15 cm

CP: Thankyou Alli.

For more information please visit:

www.allisharma.com  / 

www.transitiongallery.co.uk / 

www.articulatedartists.blogspot.com