Delicate Instruments (Vibrating Stillness)

“A vibrating stillness like that in a vitrine”

Edmund de Waal quoting Rilke in The Hare with Amber Eyes (2010)

I’m delighted to announce Megan Calver and I will be showing the next iteration of Delicate Instruments in a new Exeter art space: Vitrine.

Vitrine is a shop display cabinet (c. 1900) which hosts a series of occasional installations by UK and international artists in the Exeter home of artist and arts educator Sarah Bennett.

Megan Calver and I will be making the inaugural installation. A future publication will provide documentation of the longer series.

Delicate Instruments (Vibrating Stillness)
25 November - 21 December 2023
Vitrine, Exeter (viewing by appointment only)

http://www.sarahbennett.org.uk/vitrine.html

Healing and renewal

 

Gabrielle Hoad | Interloper (Infinite Stories) | Black and white photographs and archive illustrations, shown in random sequence across two digital photo frames | 2023

I'm delighted to be part of  Under / Over, an exhibition responding to themes around renewal and transition inspired by Redruth’s cultural shift from mining town to creative centre.

I'm showing a new digital iteration of an old work, Interloper. Originally presented as a single, large-scale image for Oxford Botanic Garden, the source material has been revisited and constructed as a randomised digital work to introduce unpredictable pairings of images and cede control to the nonhuman in the final image-making.

Based on the common horticultural practice of bud-grafting, Interloper examines the perceived divide between natural and cultural, ecological and technological through images of human-plant conjunctions.

“There are almost infinite stories of strange conjunctions which urge earnestly for credit,some of incisions made upon animal bodies […] there was a Spaniard lately had a bramble that grew out of his belly.”

Robert Sharrock The History of the Propagation & Improvement of Vegetables by the Concurrence of Art and Nature (1660)

The practice of grafting dates back to the beginning of the first millennium BCE. It allows growers to combine desirable qualities in a rootstock (such as resistance to fungal disease) with other qualities (such as sweetness of fruit) which may not be found in one plant variety alone.

 
Although the processes by which the mixed plant materials co-exist are now largely understood, the phenomenon used to provoke both curiosity and anxiety. It raises questions about the boundaries of living things and speaks to contemporary thinking about ecological entanglement.

Under / Over
G12, Krowji, West Park, Redruth, Cornwall, TR15 3GE
7 October 2023 - 22 October 2023
Open Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays 11am-4pm plus Sunday 22 October 11am-4pm

Under / Over is part of the Flamm programme 21st and 22nd October in Redruth.

UNDER / OVER exhibition details

UNDER / OVER

Opening event Saturday 7 October 2023, 2pm-4pm
Saturday 7 October to Sunday 22 October 2023
Thursday to Saturday 11am-4pm, plus Sunday 22 October 11am-4pm
At G12 Gallery, Krowji, West Park, Redruth, TR15 3AJ

UNDER / OVER is a group exhibition by CAMP members riffing on themes of transformation and identity inspired by Redruth’s cultural shift from mining town to creative centre.

The exhibition has been curated in collaboration with Liam Jolly from Auction House, an artist-led project space in Redruth.

ACCESS INFORMATION
There is level access to the gallery, and an accessible toilet near the gallery, as well as next to the cafe.

Under / Over is part of the Flamm programme 21st and 22nd October in Redruth.

Under / Over

 

I am delighted to be one of the artists selected for 'Under / Over' at G12 Gallery, Krowji, Redruth in October.

 
Under / Over riffs on themes of transformation and identity inspired by Redruth’s cultural shift from mining town to creative centre.

The exhibition has been curated by Liam Jolly from Auction House, an artist-led project space in Redruth. It is supported by CAMP membership.

Exhibiting artists are:
Alice Clough
Leila Galloway
Adam Garratt
Gabrielle Hoad
Delpha Hudson
Jane Jobling
Thaïs Lenkiewicz
Patrycja Loranc
Alice Mahoney
Jess Pemberton
Teän Roberts
Laura Robertson
Stuart Robinson
Caroline Wilkins

 
UNDER / OVER
G12 Gallery, Krowji, West Park, Redruth, Cornwall, TR15 3GE
Saturday 7 October - Sunday 22 October 2023
Thursdays to Saturdays 11am to 4pm, plus Sunday 22 October 11am to 4pm
Opening event Saturday 7 October 2023, 2pm-4pm

Under / Over is part of the Flamm programme 21st and 22nd October in Redruth.

Trusting artists to do their thing

CAMP on Tour | Exeter Phoenix | Sunday 17 September 2023

Last Sunday, it was my great honour to co-present an artists' 'speed dating' (ie networking) event at Exeter Phoenix with Frankie Williams, on behalf of the CAMP membership. 

CAMP is a member-led support and professional development network for artists, arts producers, arts curators and arts writers in Devon and Cornwall. CAMP raises funds then uses them to meet the needs artists and arts professionals have identified for themselves, whether that's for residencies, research time, exhibiting opportunities, networking, professional development, skill sharing, self-care...whatever. There are some overheads to be met, but a large proportion of what CAMP raises is redistributed to artists to spend in self-organised activities. It guides and advises, sets some parameters and expectations, but basically CAMP trusts artists to know how best to deliver for artists (and their audiences).  And the results are often richer, deeper, more unexpected, more fun... and more efficient. Resourcefulness and creativity are, after all, what we're known for.

I don't want to suggest traditional arts organisations such as NPOs are the bad guys here but, too often, they are asked to deliver 'development' for artists when they'd rather be doing (in fact are designed for) other things. Large arts organisations are a vital part of the arts ecology, but top-down management of artist opportunities is a sponge that can soak up almost infinite amounts of time, energy and resources - if we let it. Arts management needs to be kept in check, both by those who do it as a job it and the artists who rely on it.  A little self-sufficiency goes a long way.

Agatha Christie and Bram Stoker in a fight to the death, supported by their armies of loyal penguins (with a calm aesthetic).

Exeter City of Literature, in partnership with GWR, proudly present a £20k commission for a Devon-based painter, illustrator or designer to celebrate Devon's literary history. Why am I so depressed?

You read it right - twenty thousand pounds. It will be a major coup for the artist or organisation that snags this opportunity. The selected individual or group won't have to fund materials or installation costs from their £20k - just produce two large-scale images that can be "fastened onto the bridge railings" on the inner surface of passenger walkways at St David Station, Exeter.

You don't even need to do much research because the panel have already run "six workshops with members of the public to investigate what literary themes they would like to see represented in the artwork". They have decided what they want the content to be and what sort of mood it should have (a calm aesthetic).  They will later vote on your proposal too. I'm all for public involvement, but at no point does anyone mention involving artists or curators or experts in public art commissioning in the development of this brief. 

If they had, I believe it could have been so much more. All the opportunities - for in-depth research (that might throw up some new perspective on Devon's literary history), for genuine public engagement with a professional artist and their practice, for innovative use of the space and, ultimately, for a truly outstanding piece of work - seem to have been thrown away.  Even though the budget to do all these things was clearly available.

It's GWR's money and they can do with it as they wish but I feel frustrated when I think of the amount of talent and expertise in this region that has been disregarded and excluded. Also of the arts organisations here that do so much with so little (a city poetry slam featuring more than a dozen poets plus hosts and judges offered a mere £500 by ACE-funded Exeter City of Literature, or a local gallery that, I suspect, runs its entire annual visual arts programme on less than the cost of this single commission).

All the same, at a time when arts funding is so perilous, no one can be blamed for gratefully accepting this chance to work for a decent fee. And I'm sure that whoever gets this commission will do a great job. I wish them all the best. 

On instinct and irrationality

 

Gabrielle Hoad | What the world becomes - work in progress | Oil on window | 2006

While I’ve been convalescing, I’ve had plenty of time to reflect on where I came from and where I want to go in art. For reasons to do with background and finance, I’m a very late starter and, looking back, I can see I’ve often been in an almighty rush to move my career along. With maybe only two days a week to work as an artist, I’ve really burned the candle at both ends. I’m proud of what I’ve achieved, but it has not come without cost.

One thing I do know is that I haven’t protected my intuition fiercely enough. I’ve applied genuine creative thinking in all sorts of ways: to find my way past administrative obstacles, solve technical issues, write proposals, build connections, create opportunities, be a breadwinner etc.

But while I’ve run around making things happen for myself and others,  I have let the flame that feeds my practice grow very faint indeed. While I've thought a lot about art, I've lost my instinct for making a random but right decision (for example a mark, a gesture, a placing of an object, a quirky edit). The kind of things that might be irrational, inconsequential, even sloppy, but very occasionally are also mysterious, profound and highly charged. 

I think about a painting I made years ago in life class where a thick drip of hot pink spilled down over a pristine silhouette of the model and muddled with some luminous green below. A fellow student exclaimed in pity at this accident assuming I would paint it out, but I already knew it was the best thing that had happened all day. Or the angry moment in my final year at college when I started scribbling on the windows with an oil bar and a gull flew past and I followed it with my hand. It became the degree show piece that finally felt like my own work as an artist, rather than something I was making to meet assessment criteria.

These are things that make art amazing. And in my race to make up for lost time, I think I have let slip my ability to notice and to nurture them.

A pause

Gabrielle Hoad | Sign (Shep's Hollow) | Digital photograph | 2023

I shall be out of action for a few weeks while I deal with some urgent health issues. I'm disappointed that I'll miss out on a lively summer arts-wise in Exeter. I've also had to put a number of planned projects on hold. But I'm trying to see it as a positive opportunity to pause, rest, reflect and take stock.

On career luck

Gabrielle Hoad | Lucky Catch (Dawlish Warren) | Digital photograph | 2023

 
I'm a firm believer in the idea that as an ordinary working artist, you must make your own luck: work hard, play fair, be generous to others, network regularly and never give up. But none of that sticks without a little extra glue. And that glue is credibility.

Credibility is something you can earn, but more often it is gifted: a friend or relative who's an art world insider, being taught by a well-connected art school lecturer, inherited ease with middle-class interactions. Talent is important, of course. But it's a myth that the best artists invariably rise to the top. Even for the best artists, it's credibility in the eyes of commissioners, curators and funders that makes the networking accumulate into opportunities, the hard work accrue into a reputable career.

Mainstream curators are rarely in the business of 'discovering' new talent - and if they are it's usually because they are pursuing a short-term inclusivity agenda. Otherwise, they tend to select artists that other people have already validated through a track-record of exhibitions, awards, recommendations and so on. 

Do I feel lucky? Well, I am a white European, which I realise confers considerable  privilege, but I am also female, older and from a background where a career in the arts was never considered a viable career option, hence being such a late starter. The question of credibility is rather tougher. On paper, my career as an artist is hardly glittering, but I've found - or more often, made - sufficient opportunities to create satisfying work, even if they haven't always had the level of funding or support they needed to really get off the ground. I am happy with my working life, if a little disappointed in the art world. 

Foxhole radio

Foxhole Radio (work in progress) | 2023

Following on from my work with Megan Calver at Durlston Country Park, a location that played a key role in the development of radio communications, I've become interested in making the simplest possible radio receiver. And this is it. No battery, no amplifier, no real tuner ... just some copper wire, a razor blade, a safety pin, a pencil lead and an earphone. (It also needs to be connected up to an aerial and an earth.)

Different versions of this receiver were built by soldiers during World War Two. Traditional radios could be traced by the enemy, so soldiers built crude radios (using blued or rusted razor blades as diodes), which were capable of receiving AM (amplitude modulated) transmissions. There are relatively few AM broadcasts these days, but it feels like some kind of magic even to hear static on it.

Edward Krasiński

Edward Krasiński | Spear | 1964

Returning to my own preoccupation with movement and the strange business of trying to represent it, I was delighted to discover this work by Edward Krasiński in Tate magazine. 

'Spears hung from the wires stretched between the trees created an illusion of movement. They were swishing [in the air]. It was all about preparing the spear to perform its function. Once prepared it could act on its own.’

Delicate Instruments - CAMP Research Residency

Gabrielle Hoad & Megan Calver | Delicate Instruments (work in progress) | 2023

My CAMP Research Residency with Megan Calver is now concluded, but the ‘Delicate Instruments’ work we conceived while supported by them (and our insightful critical friend Kate Paxman) continues.

The two-month residency proved to be an invaluable and intense period of collaborative research and making, and also gave us the opportunity to share our findings with the public in the extraordinary surroundings of the historic Devon & Exeter Institution.

We used our time to explore the work of Alec Harley Reeves (1902 -1971). Reeves was a brilliant engineer, who also conducted experiments to test psychical phenomena. By reconstructing some of those experiments, we’ve been seeking new ways to connect with the more-than-human.

We began our research process thinking about Reeves’ pioneering work in digital communications and how he had applied his engineer’s rigour to “mechanising the process of mediumship” as his colleague Richard Epworth put it.  As a radio and telecommunications engineer, Reeves spent his professional life attempting to extract signals from unwanted ‘noise’, and his digital innovations were one way of achieving this. However, when it came to the paranormal, Reeves seemed to be attempting to deliberately generate random ‘noise’, assuming that ‘spirit’ would be able to influence it and that, when properly translated, it would convey meaningful messages. Reflecting contemporary developments in science and technology, these experiments involved everything from Geiger counters to cathode ray tubes.

As new work evolves from this residency, we’re hoping to take our discoveries about Reeves back out into the landscape and to tune in to the ‘noise’ emanating from the more-than-human.

This work was supported by the CAMP Research Residency. CAMP is a member-led support and professional development network for artists, arts producers, curators and arts writers in Devon and Cornwall www.camp-membership.org

Delicate Instruments Event

Gabrielle Hoad & Megan Calver | Delicate Instruments | 2023

Join me and Megan Calver at the atmospheric Devon & Exeter Institution to explore the paranormal experiments of Alec Harley Reeves (1902-1971). Reeves was a brilliant engineer, a pioneer of digital communication and the inventor of a World War II radio navigation system called Oboe; he also devised many practical experiments to demonstrate psychical phenomena. We've used our recent CAMP Research Residency to explore these experiments as a cue to finding new ways to tune into hidden signals from the more-than-human. This is an interactive session with opportunities to experience some of Reeves’ methods and the hints they give of multiple ways of knowing. There is time included towards the end of the session for informal discussion, with refreshments provided.

Delicate Instruments
Saturday 22nd April 2023, 5.30pm - 8.30pm
Devon & Exeter Institution, 7 Cathedral Close, Exeter EX1 1EZ
Open to all, free but booking via CAMP essential

If you can’t attend in person, you are encouraged to participate remotely in one of the experiments. Download the instructions

CAMP is a member-led support and professional development network for artists, arts producers, curators and arts writers in Devon and Cornwall www.camp-membership.org

The Magic Boomerang (Time Stands Still)

Gabrielle Hoad | The Magic Boomerang (Time Stands Still) | 2023 | 
Photo-silkscreen print 53cm x 15.5cm 

My four printing classes with Double Elephant Print Workshop in Exeter are now complete and I’ve been trying to make sense of what I've achieved. I have a long way to go to be in control of my screen-printing technique (too many smudges, blots, slips and uneven applications of ink) but I have learned a lot about the possibilities.

Rather than trying to make an edition or a perfectly registered four-colour prints, I was primarily interested in using screen-printing as a way of exploring time, sequence, layering and repetition. These long, thin images of overlapping frames are the result. 

I've been working with found images from a 1960's children’s TV programme called The Magic Boomerang. The series centres on a magic boomerang: when it flies in the sky all time stands still, but the thrower is still able to move. It felt like a fun way of revisiting my longstanding interest in work of the chronophotographer Etienne Jules Marey(1830 -1904), his fascination with capturing the motion of animals, and his pioneering work in the development of cinema.

I've enjoyed the ways the images acquire traces of the different processes through which they've passed, from scratching and wear on the analogue film to digitisation to halftone processing and physical printing with sticky ink. I hope to return to Double Elephant by the summer to work more independently and develop this work further.

CAMP Research Residency

 

Gabrielle Hoad & Megan Calver | Clouded Border work in progress | 2022

I am immensely grateful to have been awarded - with Megan Calver - the latest CAMP Research Residency. It gives us the opportunity to research the lesser-known experimental work of Alec Harley Reeves (1902-1971) as a basis for inventing new ways to tune into hidden signals in the landscape.

Reeves was a brilliant engineer, a pioneer of digital communications and the inventor of a World War II radio navigation system known as Oboe. But he also devised many practical experiments to investigate psychic phenomena. We hope to use these experiments as a cue for making our own actions and sculptural interventions that invite dialogue with the more than human.

We discovered Reeves last year while working at Durlston Country Park in Swanage on our exhibition Clouded Border. The CAMP residency means we can dig deeper into the archives and make contact with people and sites closely associated with Reeves’ legacy.

We will be supported by a Critical Friend, Kate Paxman and will be holding an end of residency sharing event in April, date and venue to be confirmed.

This work is supported by the CAMP Research Residency. CAMP is a member-led support and professional development network for artists, arts producers, curators and arts writers in Devon and Cornwall www.camp-membership.org

Time to play

 

Gabrielle Hoad | Time and motion - work in progress | Screen-print
2023

2022 was a gruelling year, both personally and professionally. Making work became a bit of a chore and a much of the joy and energy faded from my practice. I began to lose sight of why I was an artist.

So I decided to allow myself to play, to make without purpose. To leave behind my 'brand' as an artist (such as it is) and just go back to some of the activities that initially inspired me.

First up, I decided to 'dabble' in an activity that I had never tried before and would probably never do again, but which offered me a chance to be a beginner. I joined a three-day class in Chinese landscape painting. The tools and materials were unfamiliar - I didn't even know how to hold my brush properly. So I had nothing to prove and nothing to lose. 

Being a beginner is a precarious and yet comforting place to be. You feel vulnerable: you don't know what you're doing and you make lots of mistakes. At the same time, there are no expectations apart from participation. The tutor structures your time, has all the materials to hand, tells you what to do, solves your problems, suggests ways forward. No wonder some people fall into the habit of being perpetual students.  

Then, at the start of this year, I signed up for a screen-printing course at Double Elephant Print Workshop (DEPW) in Exeter. This got off to a bad (ie non) start when I contracted bronchitis but I am now underway. I'm rusty rather than a complete beginner, having first encountered screen-printing during A-Level Art. More recently I commissioned George Barron at DEPW to help me make some text pieces for an installation at Hestercombe House and later a limited-edition print.

I saw a process that I wanted to use to pursue my longstanding interest in movement and sequence. Working with found imagery, I'm exploring ideas around motion, repetition, layering, and transcription from one medium to another (and the traces that leaves). Just working with colour and physical processes again is incredibly liberating. This is the happy medium between play and professionalism.  I feel refreshed.