Feed (2016)

Gabrielle Hoad | Feed | 2016 | Hand-punched bookmarks, secreted in library books

Feed considers the library as a source of information but also as a habitat where a variety of different species might thrive. Common library visitors coded onto bookmarks include Liposcelis bostrychophila (booklouse), Lepisma saccharina (silverfish), Lasioderma serricorne (cigarette beetle), Tineola bisselliella (clothes moth), Mus musculus (house mouse) and Eurotium rubrum (foxing mould).

First made for Preston Street Union's intervention in Exeter Library during Art Week Exeter in May 2016.

Graft (2016)

Gabrielle Hoad | Graft | 2016 | Digital print transfer, paint and Perspex

Images from a 2014 work Interloper were remade as Perspex 'postcards' for a project on the theme of trade/exchange. They contain images of imagined human/plant grafts set in the context of Robert Sharrock's famous 1660 account of plant grafting methods. Graft was made for an exchange of small-scale work between Preston Street Union in Exeter and Cannon Hill Art School in Birmingham. 

A first showing of outputs from this project was made in a disused shop as part of Art Week Exeter: 10-15 May 2016.

Uncertain territory

The Buffer Zone | 2016 | Photo: Susie David

Latest a-n blog post on my collaborative project with Megan Calver and Susie David, The Buffer Zone, which is supported by a bursary from a-n The Artist Information Company.
https://www.a-n.co.uk/blogs/the-buffer-zone/post/52448309/

Hide #4 (Lie)

Hide #4 (Lie) | 2016 | Photo: Susie David

I've recently spent two days working with Megan Calver and Susie David at Dawlish Warren Nature Reserve as part of our collaborative project The Buffer Zone. It's a chance to challenge each other, to explore joint working, and to look at areas where our individual practices intersect.

I'm continuing to work with the idea of the hide as part of this project, which includes seeking opportunities to blend into the landscape. Such actions align with themes of mimicry that cut across all of our practices, as well as being part of a shared inquiry into the possibilities of live experimentation.

EX has lost its SPACE

Spacex at Preston Street, Exeter

At 7pm on Saturday 2nd April, Spacex closed its doors at Preston Street, said goodbye to its role as a permanent gallery space and began a new future as a commissioning organisation. From now on, rather than running a rolling programme of gallery shows, it will collaborate on projects with different curators, spaces, organisations and artists.

Spacex was an internationally important contemporary art gallery that punched way above its weight in terms of the art and artists it attracted to the south west. It was one of the reasons I moved to Exeter and one of the reasons I've stayed. However, the removal of regular Arts Council funding a couple of years ago put it on a path where operating out of a permanent building was no longer viable.

The city will feel the loss of its only dedicated contemporary art space, just as it felt the loss of its art school. We are running out of public spaces that aren't devoted to shopping. I hope it's a creative shift that makes room for new ideas, new participation and new opportunities, but only time will tell.

Placement and displacement

This photo gives a taste of what I've been up to this week with artist Charles Richardson, along with another member of Preston Street Union and two students from Exeter School of Art. We were helping Charles construct one of the works for his forthcoming show at Exeter Phoenix: Displacement Behaviour. Runs 18 March to 30 April 2016.

Poetic fieldwork at Dawlish Warren

Gabrielle Hoad | Hide #3 (Hand/Twigs) | 2016

I'm pleased to announce that I've been awarded an a-n Professional Development Bursary with Megan Calver and Susie David. This will allow us to undertake a self-organised residency at Dawlish Warren National Nature Reserve during 2016.

You can read the a-n announcement here.