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.