Moving into new territory

Preston Street Union with Pete Kingston | Galleries R Us | 2018 | Photo: Jonathan Price

I'm delighted to announce that Preston Street Union (PSU), of which I'm a founding associate, has been commissioned by the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) in Exeter to make new contemporary work inspired by RAMM’s 2019 theme ‘migration’. Ten core associates from the group will be working collectively, in collaboration with the museum's curators, to create two linked pieces: one to be presented off-site in May and one inside the museum in November.

Having always worked on an informal, DIY basis with extremely limited resources, this is a new venture for PSU (although several associates have previously delivered professional commissions within their own practices). I think it's fair to say that, for many of us, PSU and its simple, improvisational approach plays a vital role in feeding and challenging our separate, independent practices as artists.

We were previously backed by Spacex (as a legacy of Trevor Pitt's residency there) and, since that organisation closed, have been associate artists at Exeter Phoenix. However, this is the first time a major institution has offered us actual funding rather than in-kind support. It's already meant certain changes to the way we work, such as opening a bank account and appointing project managers.

With this in mind, we've invited artist and coach Sovay Berriman to work with us over a couple of days during our initial research and development phase. We hope to work out how to nurture our spirit of fun and experimentation while collectively making the transition to a more organised way of working.

The RAMM commission is a very welcome development, not only because it validates the work we've done to date together, but because artist-led organisations can die on their feet with no disruption or forward momentum. However, there is also a chance that professional formalities and expectations will have an impact on the playful, open-ended nature of our interactions with each other and our audiences.

We want to hang on to the things we all value about PSU, while taking the opportunity to make more ambitious work. It's a calculated risk (for RAMM as much as us) - and one I'm glad we're taking.

RAMM press release

A question of restoration

Sarah Bennett | Pear Pond | 2018 | Silver on glass

Materiality: provisional states is the culmination of a three-year research project at Hestercombe House and Gardens in Somerset, prompted by the ongoing restoration of the estate and plans to establish it as a centre for art and landscape. Artists Sarah Bennett, Megan Calver and Philippa Lawrence worked in collaboration with Hestercombe's Curator of Contemporary Art, Tim Martin, and visiting curator Kate Best, as well as the estate's archivists and gardeners.

I was invited to contribute to the project as part of a series of dialogue sessions held during 2017 and 2018. I joined a group of artists, curators, architects, horticulturists and academics to consider issues such as what brought this garden to its current state of repair; its reclamation by nature; and the tension between maintenance and entropy. Our own writing and making on these themes has now been added to the archive and will be shared at a seminar on 15 February 2019. 

In the final exhibition, three diverse bodies of work by Sarah Bennett, Megan Calver and Philippa Lawrence criss-cross in a number of fascinating dialogues. For example, there's a thread on domestic labour (Bennett's reversed tapestries, Calver's neatly crafted fire grates, and Lawrence's French-polished logs). And another on the cataloguing and modification of nature (Lawrence's bound bonsai and enamelled tree stump silhouettes, Bennett's 'fake' cherry trees and silverpoint seed drawings, and Calver's images of scorched flowers). It's a thoughtful, thought-provoking show that quietly asks searching questions of the estate's custodians.

Philippa Lawrence | Trace | 2018

Although I've always found this slightly shabby house an eloquent backdrop to its various carefully curated exhibitions, this one seems to sit especially comfortably in the space. Materiality: provisional states acknowledges the house and its absent inhabitants and contents, reminding us of its history as the Devon and Somerset Fire Brigade HQ, and looking outwards to the Jekyll/Lutyens gardens which surround it. If there are no neat take-aways from the show, it's simply a reflection of the fragmented archives that inspired it and a future for the house and gardens that is yet to fully take shape.

Megan Calver | Spill 2 | 2018

Materiality: provisional states

Hestercombe Gallery, Cheddon Fitzpaine, Taunton. Somerset TA2 8LG

Saturday 10 November 2018 - Sunday 24 February 2019