The dream (not quite) in ruins

It's tempting to see the demolition of 4 Red Lion Lane (pictured) as somewhat symbolic. After all, I spent two years (2006-2008) working very very hard as a founder of the Exeter Studios Project to get shared workspace up and running in this semi-derelict building. And I now have nothing to show for it. Or do I?

Having secured the building in September 2007, we had it fully let to around 30 artists and makers in a matter of weeks, with an official opening in November 2007.  It's true I didn't get to benefit from the studio space for long (I left after my fellow directors repeatedly insisted that things such as health & safety and company law didn't apply to us and our 4000sq ft workspace because we were "only artists"). But the legacy is still there - in the shape of EVA Studios, which grew out of the original project.

Now based in a shared building on the city outskirts, the project has strayed a long way from its original vision, but there is at least ongoing large-scale studio provision in Exeter. It was a tough getting there and even tougher having to walk away.  But I'm hugely proud to have made it happen.

A 17-colour logo? Because we're worth it.

Last week a rather surprising communication dropped through my letterbox. Arts Matrix was announcing its relaunch by sending me three publications and a letter - all of them printed in the fullest of full colour:  two oversize-A2 folded leaflets (one a networking calender, the other an events calendar), and one on folded card with foil blocking telling me about its general all-round brilliance as a skills development agency. 

The whole package was contained in a full colour, large-size envelope and cost 72 pence to post (to me and thousands of other creative professionals across the South West).

Given that Arts Matrix went into voluntary liquidation just 12 months ago due to the“very challenging financial and economic period for development agencies in the sector”, you'd think it might have approached its relaunch with some caution. And possibly shown a little more sensitivity to the hundreds of creative professionals across the South West who are in the midst of making very hard choices about the future of their organisations, their work and their personal livelihoods.


www.artsmatrix.co.uk

Beyond the closed shop

Peep Show - Project Space 11 (Exterior view) October 2010

I've written about Plymouth's Project Space 11 and how it demonstrates a possible way forward for artist-led projects in Devon. You can read the article on the Art Cornwall site here.

Good and bad art - who decides?

Another meeting of the Spacex Review Group has left me pondering my approach to critical writing. Do I have to make a value judgement about every piece of work I see, or is it enough to analyse the work's form, effect and meaning? Does an unwillingness to find fault indicate a spineless lack of critical position or an open-mindedness appropriate to the diversity and sheer slipperiness of contemporary art? 

One member of the group described an exercise she was set during a school gallery visit where she was required to spend 20 minutes sitting in front of the piece of art she hated most. Of course, after 20 minutes she felt completely differently about it.

This is often my experience of visiting a show: the work I struggle hardest with can ultimately be the most rewarding. So, any judgement of its value it would depend very much on how long I spent with the work and when I decided to commit my thoughts to paper.  And speaking of value - value to whom exactly?

What criteria do we use to decide if something is good or bad? We could judge work against the artist's or curator's intent (if we know it), but creative people are usually open to the possibility that, by setting out to do one thing, they may well end up doing something else that's richer or more interesting.

In an overcrowded art market, we do need quality control. Artists need feedback that tells them what is and isn't working. We also need critics who are prepared to burst the self-important bubbles of artists, curators and collectors who have lost their way. An art world in which everyone just walked around congratulating each other would be truly stagnant.

The real question for me when looking at art isn't "Is it good or bad?" but "Is it interesting?" I have lots more thinking to do on this subject, but I really do believe that my first duty when writing about art and artists is to try to understand.

www.spacex.co.uk

(Not yet) famous five

Ben Langworthy I took it with me 2010 (work in progress)

"In 2001, six friends attempted to capture Drake’s Island...." Ostensibly offering five responses to a significant "coming of age journey" centred on an iconic landmark in Plymouth, 'The Sutton Youth Initiative' is an exhibition that looks at myth, narrative, adventure, memory and history.

A visit leaves you feeling a little unsure of your footing - and that's almost always a good thing in art. The work seems to occupy a state between playfulness and seriousness, as if contrasting carefree youth with the responsibilities of adulthood.

I hope I'm not giving anything away when I say that the story of capturing Drake's Island is a bit of a red herring: the group didn't even know each other in 2001. The narrative that is offered, then withheld, and that ultimately turns out to be fiction, lends the show an air of furtiveness, guilt and secrecy. And the gap left by the absence of facts seems to have allowed each of the artists to reflect on something personal and resonant.
 

In the days leading up to the show, Ben Langworthy completed a feat of endurance by dragging a small sailing boat attached to a length of rope across the city from Sutton Harbour to the gallery. I took it with me suggests a memory that he was reluctant or unable to leave behind as he made the transition to a new state (sea to land/youth to adult). Lucy Brennan's 180 drawings of different views of Drake's Island suggest a similar inability to let go, this time enacted in an obsessional, repetitive activity.

Bryony Gillard takes a lighter approach, playing with the idea of adventure and endurance as she trains to swim the distance to Drake's Island and back in a specially designed 'codskin' swimsuit. Meanwhile, Scott Daniels' Ducks and Drake's is a grainy film (imbued with the nostalgic feel of old home movies) of the friends skimming stones towards their unreachable destination.

I was particularly taken with  Beth Emily Richards' Skipper, which manages to be both intensely local in its content and universal in its themes. A recorded interview with her grandfather - in which he talks about the unreliability of historical accounts, the importance of adventure, his grief for his dead wife and his love of bowls - is set against a video of a match at Plymouth Hoe Bowling Club. (It was, of course, Sir Francis Drake, who insisted on completing a game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe before engaging the Spanish Armada in battle.)

This mellow voice of experience provides a rich context for the whole show, contrasting the satisfactions of an ordinary life well lived with the vaulting ambitions of explorers and adventurers.

The Sutton Youth Initiative, until 27 November, Plymouth College of Art Gallery, Tavistock Place, Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AT.

See also www.e-leven.co.uk for a partner exhibition by Jonty Lees.

Modernism - gently mocked

My review of Dean Knight's Modern Sculpture at Plymouth's Project Space 11 appears in the November issue of a-n magazine.  You can read it here.

Magpie madness

I am at that mad point that always happens when I'm researching a new piece of work. Suddenly everything in the whole world is linked somehow to the theme I'm working on. I have a wall full of stuff that will soon need editing - diagrams of bird dissections, E J Marey's photographs of air currents and a pair of wings made from old umbrella parts. To name but a few.

Lying in the gutter, looking at the stars

I'm trying to decide what to make of the discovery that I am ranked 41,576th in the international art market, according to Art Facts. Should I be pleased that they've finally discovered me or horrified that I have been forcibly recruited into the commoditised art world (albeit as a bottom feeder)?

We're scored, apparently, according to the "attention" we're getting. Which in turn implies that the attention of some institutions and curators is more worthwhile than others. (I was in several curated shows at quite respectable venues before Art Facts deigned to acknowledge my existence.)

On the other hand, as my friend Phil has pointed out, now that I'm ranked, I might get a wildcard entry into one of the big tournaments. Me versus Cindy Sherman (No 7 seed), US Open, New York, 2012?

http://www.artfacts.net/en/artists/top100.html

Misguided in Plymouth

Francis Alys- Paradox of Praxis (still)

Going to Plymouth still feels like an adventure: I always get lost. No map can prepare you for the tangle of impassable road junctions, underpasses, footbridges and pedestrian precincts that make up the city centre. The council recently installed long-overdue pedestrian signage, only to have to have it all turned around to confuse unwary visitors. And half of the street signs seem to be missing.

I was there to catch up with Project Space 11 and their latest venture Peepshow, a video installation that you have to view through a tiny, high-level peephole in a metal shutter in the middle of a busy market.

I have to say it was a suitably excruciating experience for me. On top of the deliberate embarassment engendered by the set up, I was about four inches too short to see in. So I was wobbling around on tiptoe, precariously balanced on a small set of steps. To make matters worse, I couldn't quite get the images in focus, whether my glasses were on or off. I saw a little bit of Melanie Jackson's piece, a series of frames that looked like a plastic model of Mao, a section of road movie and a selection of birds (pigeons, parrots). At least I think that's what I saw.

I also visited possibly the noisiest university library ever. And dropped into Plymouth Arts Centre for a screening of two short documentary films about Francis Alys: When Faith Moves Mountains and Paradox of Praxis.

Laugh? I nearly missed the point.

Richard Dedomenici has an interesting approach to documenting his practice. In his touring lecture Dedomegamix, which visited Exeter Phoenix last night, he presented a record of his performance and activism through a performance.

In fact, Dedomegamix is more stand-up than lecture - it's very funny. And it's more sit-down than stand-up because Dedomenici occupies a executive-style swivel chair as he talks nineteen to the dozen over a fast-paced computer presentation surveying the last 10 years of his work - and a lot more besides.

It's a packed hour which covers everything from 80s' pop videos to censorship, avian collisions with aircraft to minor police corruption, the competing charms of Croydon and Watford, and his favourite falafel sellers.

It's the kind of lecture visiting artists give at art schools, except speeded up and with added extras. Too many extras in fact. Though I didn't stop laughing for the entire hour, I felt slightly cheated. The slick, quickfire, played-for-laughs presentation didn't do full justice to the work, which often has real political bite.

http://dedomenicitemporarywebsite.blogspot.com/

What are artists worth?

In her a-n blog, Emily Speed has spent the past couple of years reflecting on the issue of artists' pay. This isn't something that has concerned me much as an early career artist; I always expected to have to subsidise my first few years with other jobs while I built profile and experience.

However, as Emily has pointed out, if too many artists are willing to take on unpaid opportunities, it undermines the ability of all artists to earn a living. Organisations, who are themselves strapped for cash, are starting to think that artists don't need to be paid.

Guyan Porter has a provocative take on it, calling artists who don't demand pay "the new bourgeoisie".

Having now reached a tipping point, where I've been a practising artist longer than an art student, money is starting to become more of an issue. I'm starting to question the sustainability of my current way of life.

For those looking for guidance, a-n have provided sample day rates, and this minimum fee schedule from CARFAC, a Canadian organisation that represents the interests of artists, might be helpful.

Text message #2

Paul Rooney, Letters that Rot (2010)

As a writer as well as a visual artist, I've often wrestled with the idea of bringing text into my art, but rarely see work that convinces me it's possible to do well.

However, Paul Rooney's new exhibition at Spacex suggests to me it might be worth another try. I haven't yet had a chance to see the narrative film Bellevue in its entirety, or to listen properly to the sound piece Words and Silence, but I was blown away by Letters that Rot and Small Talk at Saturday's opening, both of which are centred on written rather than spoken text.

Letters that Rot is a projected text, emanating from a pile of logs, which describes the 'thoughts' of a tree as it contemplates its own destruction at the hands of a postman. The text runs across the floor and up the wall before disappearing at into darkness at about waist height - so it seems to grow from the ground before it's chopped off. By a happy accident of location, reflections also bounce off the shiny floor and shimmer like rippling water over the projection. It's a fascinating piece of writing that would work well on the printed page, but that is really enhanced by its gallery presentation.

Small Talk seems concerned with the peculiar quality of subtitles. Two projections of a mundane scene at a petrol station sit at right angles to each other and converse (via subtitles) about the circumstances of their making, including a long digression about The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. I love French arthouse cinema but don't speak very good French, so ideas are relayed to me in precisely this unnatural, mediated way. I do sometimes wonder if these films would feel so profound if I didn't have to read them.

These works raise enough clever questions about language and narrative to keep a small army of academics busy, but what really matters is that the texts are rich and entertaining in their own right and the works are good to look at, not just to read. It can be done.

Paul Rooney: Bellevue, 2 October - 27 November 2010, Spacex, 45 Preston Street, ExeterEX1 1DF www.spacex.org.uk

Text message #1

I saw Hannah Silva at the Exeter Poetry Slam last night. She's a great performer and I'm not sure this video does her justice. Mind you, neither did the beery atmosphere of the slam. Reminds me of Beckett. Big time.

http://exeterpoetryfestival.wordpress.com/

Do artists need to get out more?

I found visiting Exeter Contemporary Open (ECO) exhibition a depressing experience. Not because of the quality of the work or the curation, but because of what it tells me about the state of mind of emerging visual artists.

Individually, each of the artists seemed to be doing thoughtful, meaningful work. The show looked great: it was well-organised and coherent. What worried me was the impression it left behind.

First off, almost all of the work was tiny - even pocket-sized. It's been suggested that this miniaturisation may be a reaction against the pompous, macho 'bigger is better' ethos that's ruled art for so long. Sadly, it also seems to indicate self effacement, as if art barely deserves its place in the gallery, let alone society as a whole.

I also think it has much to do with economics. The high cost of studio space means many artists have to work in cramped or shared studios, or even at home. It's simply not possible to make large, messy work when you have no space. Then there are the costs associated with transporting work to and from galleries. Far more practical to make work that you can post. The materials used by the ECO artists were low-cost too: cut-up paper and tape, tiny canvases with meagre applications of dilute paint, an old telly and some sticks.

It wasn't just the materials that were everyday, the subject matter veered strongly in that direction too. For example, there were paintings (lots of paintings) based on half-remembered memories and old snapshots and a film of two metal sauceboats floating in a sink. It's not just me; the short catalogue is awash with words like 'banal', 'ordinary', 'mundane', 'inconsequential', 'anonymous', 'thinned down', 'pared back', 'pared down', 'barely rendered', 'shrunken', 'erased'.

What about the the unusual, the important, the angry, the urgent, the definite? Where is the world outside of our heads? This isn't a criticism of the individual artists or their work. I firmly believe that small and introvert is just as worthwhile as big and extrovert. But when you're presented with a survey of 14 contemporary artists drawn from across the UK and the impression is of a collective whisper, there's something badly wrong.

Open exhibitions are always something of a lottery - for selectors and participants. It may be just chance that brought together such a concentration of the miniature and mundane. Or a particular dynamic between the selectors that led them to a reject more gutsy, spiky, noisy submissions.

But I can't help feeling it's a symptom of where artists are at. Deprived of money and resources, we are stuck behind our own front doors making work with a few lolly sticks and some old string.

Remember, ECO 2010 is a survey of work made before the massive cuts in arts funding. Is it a premonition of how lack of resources will drain the blood from visual art, or is there even worse to come?

Exeter Contemporary Open 2010, 16 September - 3 November 2010, Exeter Phoenix, Gandy Street, Exeter EX4 3LS

Playtime

I've had a busy couple of years out and about with my work, so I thought it might be good to stop chasing after opportunities and freewheel for a while. I have a lot to think about in terms of where I'm headed creatively and how I'll sustain my practice during the difficult economic times ahead.

Working towards exhibitions and events is helpful in giving me a sense of purpose and making me resolve ideas. However, I also end up on a bit of a treadmill, ignoring interesting diversions and side alleys.

So, I'm back in the studio with no brief and no deadline for the first time in at least six months. I'm allowing my mind to wander without too much worry about where it's all heading. So far I've made number of small random objects from materials that were lying around the studio, had a go at simple book making and infused small swatches of paper with a number of different smells ... And I'm reading Mrs Dalloway by Virgina Woolf.

DIY review

Julie McCalden The Desire to Create

I have written about a new artist-led project in Exeter - 'DIY' - on a-n Reviews Unedited. Read it here.

Includes work by Adam Garrett, Chiara Gill, Hanna Downing, James Burgess, Jessica Mautner, Jo Willoughby, Julie McCalden, Mark Houghton, Megan Hoggins, Michele Louise Schiocchet, Sarah Farmer

DIY, Bookcycle Warehouse, Water Lane, EX2 8BZ. Saturday 18th September – Saturday 16th October. Thursdays to Saturdays 10am to 6pm and Sundays 11am to 4pm, or by appointment. http://surfacearts.co.uk/

Art hikes

To Plymouth to see Dean Knight's Modern Sculpture at Project Space 11. I also popped in on Ambulation at Plymouth Arts Centre and Material Actions at Plymouth College of Art's brand new gallery space (formerly the Viewpoint Gallery). Back at the other end of Devon, I was hoping to top it all off with the opening of the Exeter Contemporary Open 2010 but I'd worn out both my feet and my eyes.

Highlight of the day was Modern Sculpture, a homage to minimalism ensconsed in a lock-up unit in the middle of a bustling market. In Material Actions, a survey of contemporary textile art, I particularly enjoyed Eleanor Morgan singing to a spider. However it's Ambulation - an exhibition accompanying a series of events around walking as artistic practice - that's given me most to think about.

Walking is source material I've employed myself on a number of occasions, but never fully resolved. Last Saturday, I joined Katie Etheridge for her performance walk called 'Life in Silhouette' at the National Trust's A la Ronde property in Exmouth. Mirroring the multifaceted house and its eccentric collections, it was a fascinating accumulation of personal and official histories.

Today at Ambulation, I watched an excellent film by Siobhan Mckeown of Phil Smith's performance walk 'Beef, Beer and Royal Steps' which also combined fascinating titbits of history and science with personal anecdotes - this time relating to Plymouth's Royal William Yard.

There's always the danger of the performer becoming little more than an eccentric tour guide in this kind of context, so both Phil Smith and Katie Etheridge position themselves as unreliable narrators, weaving many red herrings and loose ends into their stories.

The practice of psychogeography (developed and redefined as mythogeography by Phil Smith and others) seems to tick all the boxes when it comes to walking as contemporary practice. Its sociable, humorous and elaborate style is in direct contrast to the spare and serious documentation of private experience offered by the likes of Richard Long and Hamish Fulton.

There's room for both in the big wide world of art, of course...

Better late than never

Despite the fact that I live just 20 minutes down the road, today was my first ever visit to the Bill Douglas Centre, which houses a diverse collection of material relating to the history of film and visual media. This treasure trove of ideas, inspiration and information is curated by Phil Wickham.

Open every weekday from 10am to 5pm (except for Bank Holidays and between Christmas and New Year).

The Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture, University of Exeter, The Old Library, Prince of Wales Road, Exeter EX4 4SB

Is there a right way to write about art?

Last Thursday, the Spacex Review Group brought together people interested in writing and talking about art. Attendees ranged from a music reviewer to a software developer. We were also joined by a group of artists who are currently in Exeter working on an exhibition with Surface Arts. I spoke to the group, alongside David Trigg, an art writer from Bristol.

I was half expecting it to be a how-to session - the practicalities of getting your work reviewed or your writing published, but we had a well-informed audience and we started to get to grips with some of the really gritty issues around art writing.

For example, the authority of the reviewer's position (and how it's changed since the democratisation of comment via social media), the right of the reviewer to pronounce on what's good or bad (and where it leaves artists, curators and audiences if there are no arbiters of quality), and whether reviews should be written from a transparently personal viewpoint or in a more objective style (and what this means with regard to the implied status of the writer in relation to the work). We even discussed whether visual art needs to be written about at all!

I was also keen to stress the importance of writing about art as a way of documenting and sharing the work that's produced (much of it ephemeral), and in keeping Exeter on the contemporary art map.

Next session in a couple of months. Visit www.spacex.org.uk for details.

Write out loud

I am speaking at the Spacex Review Group with David Trigg on 9 September 2010, an informal networking opportunity for people interested in talking and writing about art. 6pm - 9pm. Free, no need to book.

Spacex, 45 Preston Street Exeter EX1 1DF

Note to self

Talk to artists in Plymouth and they will tell you Exeter artists have a wealth of resources - what with Spacex, Exeter Phoenix, CCANW etc. However, I'd say Plymouth seems to be booming suddenly, with the Plymouth Visual Arts Consortium leading many new initiatives, two art colleges (PCAD and UoP) feeding its pool of practitioners and audiences, a major new gallery space at Plymouth College of Art, a choice of studio provision and a raft of intelligent, contemporary artist-led activity (see below for a couple of examples). I need to commute more - or even relocate.

http://salonsouthwest.wordpress.com/
http://e-leven.co.uk/

Exeter - Pripyat - Detroit

Hotel Room, 1996. Photo: David McMillan See also photos of Pripyat by Robert Polidori and John Darwell

As part of ongoing Nexus discussions, Felicity Shillingford and I have been sharing images of nature reclaiming the urban environment. (They relate to the exhibition's garden setting.) She brought some wonderful images into the gallery of the ruins of Detroit. They show once-magnificent buildings left to decay as the US motor industry declined.

I dug out some material from Pripyat, the town in Ukraine abandoned in 1986 after the accident at the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power plant (see above). I first sourced these images as part of my degree studies, but I keep revisiting them. Apart from the aesthetics of decay, there's something compelling about looking at the rapidity with which nature reasserts itself. It gives a real sense of humankind's small place in the world.

Perhaps more appropriately to the theme of connections and networks, we also talked about the urban gardening initiatives in Detroit that are helping to rebuild communities and feed local people.

Nexus until 1 September, Exeter Phoenix, Gandy Street, Exeter EX4 3LS

The naked truth

I'm making a brief return to life drawing next week, after a gap of about three years. It has a problematic place in contemporary practice, as this article by Margaret Mayhew demonstrates.

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/sota/tracey/journal/wigd/mayhew.html

Some of my old art school tutors used to describe the life room as a "comfort zone". While I won't deny there are some sticky issues over its place in modern art education, I wouldn't ever describe it as a source of comfort (more of frustration, exhaustion and the appalling realisation of just how much I still have to learn about drawing.)

I'm hoping the three-day session will restore a little discipline to my drawing practice, refresh my observational acuity and reconnect me with the right-hand side of my brain. It will also make me feel quite old-fashioned for even bothering.

TAMED and TACO at Torre Abbey

Mike Nelson's Taylor during a previous outing, installed in a disused M&S in Margate. Now showing at Torre Abbey until the 20th August.

This peculiar show at Torre Abbey combines pieces from the Tate and the Arts Council Collection with 3-D work from South West artists who entered the annual Torre Abbey Contemporary Open (TACO) under the theme of "Tamed".

Last year the abbey's Spanish Barn proved to be an intimate setting for Antony Gormley's Field for the British Isles. Lifting away the associations of mass human migration that the work sometimes carries, the barn imbued it with the air of a friendly family gathering or sunny weekend at Glastonbury. Rather appropriate for an exhibition in an old-fashioned British seaside town.

By contrast this year, Hirst's Mother and Child Divided sits in the barn like some kind of tacky sideshow attraction. Roll-up roll-up and you can also see Mariele Neudecker's Stolen Sunsets, Paul Coldwell's Bouquet and Mike Nelson's Taylor. And - ouch - Richard Long's Fourteen Stones squeezed into an alcove on top of a strident pattern of red and black floor tiles.

Back in Torre Abbey's main gallery, the work from local artists ranges from Volkhardt Mueller's bleak print installation Cell ... to the frankly twee. Lots of labels tell me how it all relates to the curatorial vision and its theme of tamed. But really, it's a bit confusing.

I'm sure the curator of Torre Abbey knows her demographic well, but personally I feel a little patronised. "Controversial Hirst piece"? Really? This is art from the last century we're talking about.

What's more, sticking Hirst's work alongside other random pieces doesn't help to focus minds on what he and the other artists might seriously be trying to say. It just seems to encourage thoughtless comments from visitors about the trickery of "so-called modern art" and its perceived desire to do little more than shock and offend.

Which is a pity, because Mike Nelson's Taylor deserves much more careful contemplation. This makeshift raft, marooned in the middle of an ancient Torquay barn, seems rich with resonances about human endeavour and desire for adventure, along with corresponding ideas of frailty - even hubris. Carrying a small pile of goods and only a flimsy tent for shelter, it seems destined for wild seas and possible disaster.

TAMED 6th July - 20th August, Spanish Barn, Torre Abbey, Torquay TQ2 5JE. Daily 10-5. Free.

TACO (3D) 10th July - 30th August, Top Floor Gallery and Gardens, Torre Abbey, Torquay TQ2 5JE. Daily 10-5. Adult admission £5.75.

www.torre-abbey.org.uk

A sight for (my) sore eyes

Fantastic documentation of Nexus from Exeter Phoenix.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/exeterphoenixgallery/sets/72157624543690378/

Sinking into exhaustion

Putting myself in danger of art overload, I went along to the launch event of Underwater at Spacex on Saturday. It's a group show featuring a crowd-pleasing Bill Viola plus a range of work from other artists who draw on aquatic themes.

Previews are not the best time to think about art, especially not when you're so tired you can hardly speak. But, sitting on the floor to listen to a talk by curator Angela Kingston, I got a long, close and rewarding look at Seunghyun Woo's sculptures. I also found myself returning several times to Dorothy Cross' mesmerising film Jellyfish Lake. It had a dream-like quality that sat well with my dazed state.

Until 11 September 2010. Spacex, 45 Preston Street Exeter EX1 1DF. www.spacex.org.uk

The missing nub of Nexus

Something interesting happened during the course of preparing for Nexus, an exhibition exploring artists’ networks. The four artists who were invited to originate the event – myself, Felicity Shillingford, Francis Ives and Volkhardt Mueller – moved from a genuine attempt at planning and collaboration, to a realisation of its impossibility, to an acceptance of chaos … Out of which emerged a surprisingly polite exhibition.

Nexus has so far been an amazing experience: a chance to work with new colleagues and to exhibit in a high-profile public gallery with the support of a curator, a technician, an education officer, a publicity person, a well-equipped workshop and a well-stocked bar ... all the things that just aren’t there when you’re doing the artist-led thing.

It’s terribly tempting to pat myself on the back and say the exhibition looks really good. It does look good. But that isn’t the whole story.

We set out to create something that wasn’t a traditional group show, and which explored some of the social issues surrounding artistic practice. What’s missing from this show, I’d say, is any concrete sense of the way artists work together or with an institution – from mutual support and sustenance to exploitation and competition. They were all enacted during the preparation and installation, but little has been captured for the audience in the show itself.

Next...Nexus

Have been busy all week installing Nexus at Exeter Phoenix. Pictures here show construction of the garden setting for the exhibition, as well as work in progress by Francis Ives, Jockel Liess and me. Read about some of the ideas and processes leading up to the show on Artsculture.

Nexus 16 July - 1 September, Exeter Phoenix, Gandy Street, Exeter EX4 3LS

Art in my luggage

Just back from installing Stowage at the Barnaby Festival in Macclesfield. It's been an interesting challenge to take a show developed for a series of active retail premises in Exeter and re-make it for a single disused shop at the other end of the country. But Stowage was designed to be portable, so it's finally realised its full potential.

It was a busy few days, but we managed to fit in a flying visit to another Barnaby visual arts show: Save Us at Christ Church. Curated by Karen Gaskill, it features work by artists with links to Macclesfield, including Ian Davenport, David Shrigley, Nick Crow & Ian Rawlinson, as well as Stowage artists Hilary Jack and Ben Cook.

Stowage Shackleton & Sons, 2-4 Church Street, Macclesfield SK11 6LB until 2 July 2010
Save Us Christ Church, Bridge Street, Macclesfield SK11 6EG until 4 July 2010 (see website for opening times)

You, me and the rest of the world

Networking outside of Devon has been a big thing for me this year. I love living in the South West but, at a grass-roots level, it can be very inward-looking. So, in 2009, I got together with fellow Exeter artist Felicity Shillingford to find ways to strengthen links with practitioners in other parts of the country.

First up was Stowage, a chance for South West and North West artists to exhibit together in Exeter and Macclesfield, curated by the two of us. Then, along came an invite to help develop Nexus, an exhibition specifically about artists' networks, dreamt up by Exeter Phoenix curator Matt Burrows.

He wants to show the way Exeter connects with other locations via artists networks and has asked four local artists to invite two artists each to exhibit alongside us - one from the SW region, one from outside.

It's been hard to choose just two, but I decided to pick Rupert White, from Cornwall, who I made a connection with fairly recently via my art writing...and Sally Barker (Yorkshire via London), who emailed me out of the blue about four years ago, also on the back of a review I wrote.

Their work interests me in different ways. Rupert's seems to have strong points of connection with the nature/culture theme that's emerging for the show, while Sally builds models and other objects that often refer to landscape and/or the power structures surrounding artists.

My fellow contributors/selectors for Nexus are Felicity Shillingford, Volkhardt Muller and Francis Ives.

Nexus 16 July - 1 September, Exeter Phoenix, Gandy Street, Exeter EX4 3LS

Photos from 'Flown' at Greenway

Exeter on the art map

Two key Exeter art venues dominate the June edition of a-n magazine. Exeter Phoenix gets the front cover, featuring work by Fiona MacDonald, who is currently showing there with Ann Gathmann. Meanwhile while Spacex get a double-page spread on their show Random Acts of Art, where Volkhardt Mueller and Martha Crean talk about the collaborative relationship between artist and curator.

All will be well in the garden

First meeting of Nexus artists with curator Matt Burrows of Phoenix Galleries. Four Exeter-based practitioners, including me, have been tasked with putting together a coherent event that explores artists' networks and includes work from people in our networks, but which doesn't look like a traditional white cube show.

Our starting point has been some kind of garden landscape in which different work, events, conversations and interactions can take place. The discussion is lively and interesting but I keep catching echoes of Peter Sellers in Being There. "Sometimes plants escape from the garden," I'm saying. Or "The garden can be a series of enclosed spaces, where one space leads on to another."

Hmmmm.

Nexus, 16 July - 1 September 2010, Exeter Phoenix Galleries, Exeter EX4 3LS

Departure of Stowage, arrival of Strandbeest

Took down Stowage on morning of 15th May and packed it all up ready for transport to Macclesfield in June, where it will feature as part of the Barnaby Festival. For the time being, at least, I can focus on two other projects happening this summer: my own show Flown and a group event exploring artists' networks called Nexus.

Then on to the opening of Theo Jansen at Spacex. This Dutch artist and engineer creates amazing strandbeests (or beach animals). They are huge mechanical creatures, possessing basic nervous sytems, which are powered by the wind. A 14-metre strandbeest known as Ventosa Siamesis will arrive in Devon this summer to explore Exmouth beach 25-27 June, before visiting Exeter city centre 2-4 July.

The gallery houses artefacts, drawings and film relating to the strandbeests until 3 July.

Spacex, 45 Preston Street, Exeter EX1 1DF15 May–3 July.

Flights for Flown

Detail of one of three monotypes from a series Flown that will feature in my forthcoming exhibition at National Trust Greenway, near Brixham. It was made by tracing the flights of passing birds directly on to the window, then using the window surface as a printing plate.

Gabrielle Hoad: Flown 2 June - 27 June, Barn Gallery, National Trust Greenway, Devon TQ5 0ES

Night at the (art) movies

Just a quick mention for another Spacex event, the South West Open Film Screening, which happened last night. A well-chosen programme, lasting around 75 minutes, represented the variety of artists' approaches to film-making, from the contemplative to the documentary.

With the immigration debate at full throttle, there couldn't have been a better time to show Katie Davies' Commonwealth about a citizenship ceremony in Sheffield Town Hall. I also rated Edward Adam's Somerset Scott - a deceptively simple film consisting of two long-shots of a lonely bagpiper playing in the incongruous setting of a Somerset village. They were among a number of films focusing on national identity and British eccentricity - in all its glorious diversity.

Not-so Random Acts of Art

This week, Spacex unveiled the results of recent residencies by artists Volkhardt Mueller, Amy Feneck and Lady Lucy. Under the title Random Acts of Art, the three artists have been exploring the city's vibrant West Quarter and making work in response.

It's always fascinating to see your home city through someone else's eyes, but Amy Feneck has made a truly outstanding piece of work that transcends its local origins. A touching portrait of the veteran CND campaigner Terry Timlett, her film has topical relevance, reflecting as it does on issues of social responsibilty and the 'independent spirit' versus community values.

Its skilful construction belies any notion of randomness. It pairs Timlett, reading a transcript of his own words, with a young actor interpreting them as a role. As well as presenting a fascinating piece of oral history, Epilogue has a lot to say about the way we build personal and ideological narratives.

Ends 1 May. Events throughout the two-month residencies have been blogged on a special Spacex site.

Between intention and reception

I have been worrying away at Sovay Berriman's current exhibition at Exeter Phoenix: Entertaining at the Dust Lounge. The whole thing gives me such an itch, especially after I heard the artist in dialogue with curator Matt Burrows.

They talked a lot about spontaneity, escapism, Busby Berkeley musicals, stage sets, cruise liners, Gothic literature, science fiction - a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion, further fed by intelligent questions from the audience. The trouble is, when I look at the work I just can't find those connections in it. It's a wonderful show of drawings and sculpture: precisely constructed, with stark white spaces and neutral palette. The whole thing has an air of scientific detachment and a slightly cruel edge. But no dancing girls.

I tracked down a review by Lizzie Lloyd and find I'm much more in tune with her reading of the exhibition. Also slightly relieved to find I'm not alone. But it does bring me back to the persistent problem for contemporary artists. We are expected to be able to talk about our work, to discuss its influences (at least the ones we're conscious of) and to offer suggestions as to its interpretation, but it's not always helpful.

Yet in this case, it's precisely that gap between what the artist says and what I see that compels me to keep re-visiting the work. Funny that.

Until 2nd May at Exeter Phoenix Galleries. www.sovayberriman.co.uk

More art on the street

Sylvia Llecha, a postgraduate design student based in Exeter, has delivered a bit of surprise this weekend. The former ceramicist has transformed the windows of her neighbours' homes in Mount Pleasant into an art installation space. It's as much a piece of community activism as an exhibition, encouraging people to look beyond their own front doors and develop a sense of shared purpose.

You can read the local news coverage and see pictures here.

Until 28th April, in Iddesleigh Road, Exeter.

One show, 19 curators?

The Stowage exhibition is now up and running in 17 shops in Exeter's Fore Street and New Bridge Street. We went to great lengths to place everything just so, but quickly discovered we have recruited 17 co-curators with their own ideas about the right position for works and strong opinions about the level of interpretation that's necessary.

We decided lengthy texts were pointless in busy retail environments and confined ourselves to labels giving artist, title and materials only. Interpretive material was instead offered in a leaflet given to all the shops, and on a website. But this absence of explanation has inspired a flurry of improvisation from the shop staff. We've found everything from blown-up launch invites to old letters from us positioned alongside the work.

I might flinch occasionally at the fate of some of the displays, but part of me is proud of the level of engagement we seem to have created. Many shop owners have clearly taken ownership of their pieces. They are talking to each other about the works, comparing what they have and discussing them with the customers. And it's not just people making discoveries of art while shopping. Some shop owners have reported new customers walking through the door while looking for an artwork.

Along with the excitement and interest surrounding our project, we've faced bemusement, amusement and sometimes plain cynicism. But, I tell myself, these are at least reactions. Which is far better than just being ignored.

Stowage runs until 14 May 2010 in Exeter's Fore Street and New Bridge Street.

Small works, big challenge

Just days away from installing Stowage and I'm fighting my way through a torrent of tasks that are all urgent and all important - press, invitations, installation logistics, preparing a launch event, finalising an exhibition guide and trying to develop an online catalogue - to name a few.

So this is what it's like to be a curator. Or is it? Like any project Stowage has required a series of negotiations and compromises. But this has been particularly complex because it’s not taking place in a spacious, white-walled gallery but a series of active retail premises.

Nothing could feel further from a giddy curatorial power trip than negotiating the placing of piece of art in the crowded window of a hardware store. Or explaining contemporary art to the sceptical owner of a sports shop.

I’ve also felt an overwhelming responsibility - duty even - to get it right for the artists who are participating. Most of them have put a lot of effort into meeting a brief that turned out to be rather more challenging than we could have imagined.

The making of meaningful work in this context wasn't the only challenge we underestimated. Putting small-scale artworks in shop windows sounded like a simple, low-key way for me and a fellow artist, Felicity Shillingford, to ease ourselves in to curating. I imagined about 15 artists and 5 shops. Somehow it grew, until it entailed bringing together 24 artists and 17 shops. Which in turn has meant carrying on almost 40 separate negotiations.

Only time will tell if it's going to all come together. Nine days to launch and counting...

Stowage, West Quarter Shops, Fore Street and New Bridge Street, Exeter
17th April - 14th May 2010

Sex, death and shopping

My review of Emily Wardill’s Game Keepers Without Game at Spacex appears in the current issue of a-n magazine.

Top marks?

Saturday spent at the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2009 at the Burton Art Gallery in Bideford.

Two pieces were worth the trip by themselves: Chie Konishi's huge, detailed, obsessive and potentially endless drawing of piece of fraying, torn fabric and Heather Phillipson's nine-minute DVD Head in which a knitted hat is unravelled and a head of hair becomes increasingly tangled.

In fact, fabric (drawings of lace and obliterated knitting patterns, as well as actual tapestry and stitching) was a dominant theme. Pattern featured strongly too.

It's always tricky to be objective about a show you've been rejected from (The distance travelled by foot travelled by hand didn't quite make the grade) but, while I felt fairly and squarely beaten by much of the work, a few pieces seemed derivative or just plain dumb. And I would have liked a little more challenge over the boundaries of drawing.

Some of the presentation disappointed too. Wobbly home-cut mounts, unintentional dings in the paper and muck in the frames are not things you'd expect from pricey work in a prestigious national show. And, while I'm on the subject of professional quality control, they could have proof-read the wall texts and catalogue a bit more carefully too.

Until 9th April at the Burton Art Gallery, Bideford, then 19th April-7th May at the University of Gloucestershire in Cheltenham.

West Quarter trade, now and then

Have secured the wonderful Tuckers Hall for the launch of our show Stowage. Dating from the 15th century, it was built by Company of Weavers, Tuckers and Shearmen, who still own it today. They were the guild that controlled the woollen cloth trade in Exeter, a source of enormous wealth for the city until the end of the 18th century.

Stowed and ready to show

After much sweating and swearing, I'm not stuffing a typewriter or a bicycle or even a man's business suit in my jar - just a photograph. With a nod to Joseph Kosuth. Sometimes I have to do the complicated things just to allow myself to do the simpler thing.

A voice for artists

Spent yesterday afternoon at an event called AIRTIME at the Brewhouse in Taunton, a kind of speed networking event for artists and arts organisations.

I was representing AIR, a brilliant but rather hard-to-describe organisation that comes under the umbrella of A-N The Artists Information Company. It represents 13,500 visual and applied artist members in the UK and offers us a range of practical and professional benefits, from public liability insurance to help with setting our pay rates.

AIR is also increasingly representing the needs of ordinary working artists to arts policy makers. It's amazing how often the views of practitioners have been overlooked in the past.

www.a-n.co.uk/subscribe

The white stuff

The Art Cornwall site turns out to be full of hidden treasures - not least a link to Spillings by Paul Carter and Alexandra Zierle.

I first saw this astonishing film when I was lucky enough to share gallery space with them at 'Drawn In' in Somerset last year. Online viewing doesn't quite do it justice, but you can see it here anyway.

Yakety yak

Went to the preview of Sovay Berriman's new show at Exeter Phoenix last night. Pride of place in the main gallery went to a huge perspex and wood sculpture that was all angles and elbows, prosaic and yet romantic. But my personal favourite was a series of objects that looked like giant kebabs propped against the wall - poor little lumps of stuff, viciously skewered and sliced.

I need to go back when it's quiet and think about it all - too many people to talk to last night.

Sovay Berriman: Entertaining at the Dust Lounge, Exeter Phoenix until 2nd May 2010 www.exeterphoenix.org.uk/galleries.php

www.sovayberriman.co.uk

Still not stowed away

We have set ourselves a challenging task for Stowage: making small-scale work that's bold enough to hold its own in a retail environment while still retaining depth and meaning.

My idea about cramming unlikely objects into the jar is proving hard to resolve. The only thing that fits it neatly is a hand!

Forthcoming shows

Stowage, West Quarter, Exeter 17th April - 14th May 2010. Group show in city shop windows with 22 other invited artists. http://www.foundspace.co.uk/

Gabrielle Hoad: Flown, National Trust Greenway near Brixham, Devon 2nd June - 27th June 2010. Solo show featuring drawings and paintings evocative of absence, escape and moments lost in time.

New studio

Here's my dirty new studio, about to be cleaned and painted so I can make it dirty again. On loan for six months, maybe longer.

The power of art

My review of Control Point: A Temporary Facility at Plymouth Arts Centre has just been published in a-n magazine.

Skywriting

Making more bird flight tracings – this time for a bird-themed show in June. This isn’t the best time of year for observing interesting flight patterns, but these are possibly my last few days with such a clear view of the sky from my studio.

Talking to myself?

Though hardly an expert on the subject, I’m helping to prepare a seminar on Samuel Beckett. The original speaker has had to drop out at short notice so we’re making plans to discuss the Channel 4 film of Play and the borrowed idea of soliloquy in relation to art practice. Is making and reflecting on art a way of talking to oneself or could it be construed as a dialogue with something you have made? How might ideas of soliloquy or dialogue that we hold in relation to our work affect the way we make our work and the way we present it to an audience?

More cramming

Thoughts on Stowage. http://foundspaceuk.blogspot.com
Can I cram a bicycle in a sweet jar? Or possibly a typewriter? It has to be something big and fascinatingly mechanical. If not, Plan B - detritus from my life, layered up like rock strata.

Out of space

My tiny studio space is fit to burst. I love its light and its views. I love the fact it turned up at precisely the time I needed it, about 18 months ago. And I love the fact it’s pretty darn cheap. But with two shows to prepare for in the next six months, it’s time to think about more space.