Caught red (and yellow and pink and blue) handed

Peter Osborne 'Rainbow Gate' Rougemont Gardens, Exeter. Photo: Matt Burrows

Exeter City Council has been caught in the act installing yet more dubious public 'art'. Costing between £16,000 and £25,000, this decorative metal gate appeared unannounced in a high-profile location in the city last week. It connects the city's prestigious 'cultural quarter' (including a recently refurbished library and award-winning museum) to an important city centre park. 

It was commissioned and installed without public consultation, with zero input from experts in the city's cultural organisations, and without any kind of competitive bid. At a time when local authority budgets are under extreme pressure, the community's tolerance for this kind of nonsense is wearing thin. On Facebook, Matt Burrows, Curator and Gallery Manager at nearby Exeter Phoenix calls it "a horrible, retrogressive piece of bad design...the wrong thing, in the wrong place". He goes on to say: "The question is, at a time of dwindling resources for the arts, how this decision was taken and why [...] There seems to have been a breakdown in consultation, communication and aesthetic decision-making."

Councillors claim to be embarassed and upset by the ensuing media fuss. Yet they've been intent on blaming those who noticed rather than those who were involved in the dubious and far from transparent decisions that led to the gate's appearance. They claim it was commissioned two years ago, but that's hardly an excuse. They tried a similar trick back in 2008 with the hugely unpopular 'Voices of Heavitree' which was made by a team including the same artist-blacksmith Peter Osborne. At that time, Paul Osborne (any relation?), Environmental Improvements Officer at Exeter City Council, was left in no doubt about how the public felt.

Spending on the arts is quite rightly a sensitive issue in the current economic climate. Which is even more reason to use what we have wisely and well. As Matt Burrows says: "This city has a wealth of fantastic arts organisations, staffed by experienced arts professionals who are trained (and funded) specifically to deliver excellent, high quality creative projects." They're also used to squeezing exceptional value from every penny.  £16,000 - £25,000 would have gone a long way in their hands. Like many, I'm gutted and angry at the waste. And deeply concerned about the negative public reaction to arts spending that might result.

Imaginary landscapes (with bananas)

Gabrielle Hoad | Banana squared | 2015

I have a new exhibition opening in Cornwall on 11 March.  It comes at the end of a year-long collaboration with Dr Jonathan Bennie, an Associate Research Fellow at Exeter University's Environment & Sustainability Institute. It's part of Foreign Soil,

my documented attempt to grow edible dessert bananas outdoors in the UK. Although it provides an opportunity to reflect on our work together, the exhibition acts as a point of focus rather than resolution.

Centred on a pilot growing site, a south-facing pasture at West Town Farm near Exeter, we've mapped and modelled biologically relevant microclimates to make an informed assessment of the feasibility of banana cultivation – now or in a future climate scenario. Ways of enhancing the heat and humidity of microclimates through physical manipulation of the growing site have also been considered.

The work I’ve made for this exhibition looks at the notion of the model, both as a representation of something that might be built in the future (such as an architect’s model or an artist’s maquette) and as a simplified description that assists with predictions (such as computerised climate models). 

  

Foreign Soil exhibition - ESI Creative Studio 

Open 11 March – 15 April 2015

Monday to Friday  9:00am to 5:00pm

Foreign Soil seminar - ESI Trevithick Room 

11 March 2015  1:00pm – 2:00pm

We discuss our collaboration. Free. All welcome.

Environment & Sustainability Institute,

University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9FE   

Foreign Soil was supported by the ESI/RANE Creative Exchange Programme and developed in partnership with OrganicARTS and West Town Farm.

Talking back

I was privileged to have my work Columbarium reviewed by Sarah Bennett, Ivan Jordan and Josie Sutcliffe as part of the the Phonic FM Culture & Review Show on 5 February. Reviewers look harder, listen harder and think harder, so what they have to say (or not) has particular weight. I found it incredibly illuminating.

Talking therapy

Talking at the Last Wednesday Series - 28 January 2015. Photo: Mary Pearson

I gave a talk on my recent practice yesterday as part of the Exeter Phoenix Last Wednesday Series. Run in Partnership with Exeter College's Centre for Creative Industries, this series of talks is a chance for foundation degree students and members of the public to engage regularly with practising artists from all over the country. It was a great opportunity to reflect on where I'm up to but also to get some informed and interested feedback.  http://www.exeterphoenix.org.uk/events/gabrielle-hoad/

Columbarium (all that remains)

Columbarium (all that remains) | 2015 | Bones, laser sintered nylon, archive footage

Installation about bird flight made for Gallery 333, Exeter Phoenix. Showing 12 January to 7 March 2015. Drawing on early cinematography and 21st century technology such as bird-borne GPS, Columbarium questions the limits of objective knowledge.

http://www.exeterphoenix.org.uk/events/gabrielle-hoad/

Mapping resources

Exeter visual art resources - 2014 (first draft)

The quick sketch above was prompted by a recent meeting of Exeter visual artists and arts organisations. Called by Exeter Cultural Partnership in collaboration with Visual Arts South West, it was a rare opportunity for this diverse group (which included everyone from self-confessed 'dabblers' to the acting director of Spacex, Nicola Hood) to meet. While there was some inevitable venting of pent-up frustrations, what began to emerge is just how rich this city is in resources, expertise and opportunity.  We currently have one of the highest levels of spending per head on culture of any city in the country. And, while that is likely to diminish, we start from a point of strength.

People talked a lot about what we've lost and what we lack, but I'm amazed, when I think about it, by what we have. I was also really heartened by the voices that called for artists to be confident and ambitious. Like them, I'm all for generating ideas and trusting that resources will follow.

Critical friends ─ hard to find, harder still to keep

A Kaleider lunchtime talk by theatre writer Belinda Dillon last Friday offered a new opportunity to consider the whys and hows of creating a critical culture within Exeter's arts community.

Having written about theatre for a number of years, Belinda has been working with Kaleider to reflect more deeply on the role of  'the critic' in the local arts ecology. For her, Theatre Bristol's Writers in Residence Scheme is something of a beacon as it invites a diverse range of people to respond to performance work, often in very creative ways. Curated/edited by two paid writers (Richard Aslan and Tom Wainwright), the focus is on positive and supportive interviews, interactions, reviews, comments. It also positions critical writing as an interesting creative practice in its own right.

In the discussion that followed, it was clear that theatre-makers are as keen for peer critique as visual artists, though some feel this is better offered in a 'safe' or confidential context than via publication. At the same time there's a hunger for official recognition from what are frequently referred to as 'star reviewers', but less enthusiasm for a blogger-type free-for-all. As someone pointed out, in live performance you don't need a critic to tell you if a performance worked for an audience: there's instant feedback in the form of laughter or applause.

A key issue is: if we want professional critics, who's going to pay them? Star reviewers don't pop up fully formed out of nowhere ─ someone has to train and develop them. That means sustained opportunities for writers to develop their skills and knowledge (not just occasional bursaries and short courses).

A common solution seems to be 'embedding', where writers are paid by an arts organisation ─ either directly or indirectly ─ to play the role of critic, commentator and sometimes mentor. This can work well, but can blunt the writer's critical faculties if the relationship gets too cosy. It can also result in 'critical writing' being used as a marketing tool. In other words, objectivity is compromised. Is a writer short of paid work really going to bite the hand that feeds? And what does that mean for honest debate and the quality control it promotes?

There was also talk of a 'shared community of interest' that dissolves the barriers between professional critics, peers and audience members. It's a great idea but it's likely to end up muddied by personal loyalties (or even hostilities).  Don't we also want to hear from independent observers, who can try to be at least a little bit objective?

I speak as an arts practitioner who has largely suspended her critical writing practice, partly because the trickle of money it once generated dried up completely, and partly because navigating the murky waters of marketing writing versus critical writing was getting way too complicated. And that's before you even consider the problem of building trust with fellow practitioners while keeping critical integrity intact...

I've written on this topic before, back in 2010. See more here:
http://gabriellehoad.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/is-there-right-way-to-write-about-art.html 
http://gabriellehoad.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/good-and-bad-art.html