Review of exhibition in Time Out. We've posted it onto our blog: www.jvalab.co.uk
Give it to us straight…
We had a bumper 52 attendees for the ‘Laboratory’ discussion event on Monday evening, with the complimentary wine vanishing at an impressively fast rate (it was a hot, thirst-inducing evening after all). It felt like many interesting issues were raised in the conversations between me, the artists, Emily from The Partners (the design agency for ‘Laboratory’) and the audience.
The evening event provided a perfect opportunity to canvas the views of visitors to ‘Laboratory’ and address their questions. Some of the questions were specifically aimed at the artists: for example Steven was asked if, as well as filming boxers, he has ever thought of going into the ring himself? The answer is yes and he will be soon!
Some of the questions were aimed at the artists as a group: one person asked how the artists felt about working while a blog is documenting your every move – not just the work you are happy with at the end, but everything you make and do? Mia replied that she sometimes felt that the practice of being an artist was being fetishised – with every pot of paint being photographed – but the public nature of the show has been a useful exercise for her, encouraging her to worry less about the reaction of others.
Steven then voiced his approval that the documentation of the artists’ work is being done by a group of people (myself as the resident writer, the photographers Magnus and Paul, and The Partners) who are engaging creatively with the show, so we weren’t just producing a bland, clinical report. I mentioned that the process of blogging has encouraged me to write in a freer style and be less obsessive about my work – there will inevitably be times when I feel that the text I’ve posted the previous day isn’t as elegantly written, elegantly expressed or elegantly thought out as it could have been. (For example I’ve just realised that, in the third paragraph, ‘canvas’ sounds like a truly horrendous/wonderful* art world pun… *delete as you prefer…)
Sarah has also stated that there is a marked difference between her curatorial work in the past, in which everything can be minutely planned before the start and changes can be made away from public eyes, and ‘Laboratory’, in which everything is re-evaluated every day and changes of mind are very much on show.
The audience also posed a number of questions about how the show has been presented: one attendee asked why, since it is obvious that all of the artists are working in quite a few different media during the show, the exhibition literature labels them as ‘painter’, ’sculptor’ and ‘film maker’? I replied that this is a good example of how things have changed during the show: the initial idea was to have three artists that are generally known for working in three different media, but as the show has developed it has become more and more apparent that these labels are redundant.
This development also reflects a primary characteristic of the show, which is the wish to continue blurring boundaries of categorisation: are there any discrete works on show or only room-sized installations?; are the artists creating objects or staging a performance? ‘Laboratory’ demonstrates, I think, that an artwork can be a sculpture, part of a performance and in an installation, all at the same time. You don’t have to choose only one category for your work (if you want to choose a category at all of course). At this point Steven chipped in with the thought (in reference to a song he is making in collaboration with the boxer Angel) that he is now a singer-songwriter….
@KevinSpacey On Sunday walked past Old Vic from Jerwood Space + noticed the pavement + road works -makes for interesting obstacle course ;)
Jerwood Laboratory - Artists Working
Jerwood Laboratory - Artists Working
Jerwood Laboratory - Artists Working
Jerwood Laboratory - Artists Working
Jerwood Laboratory - Artists Working
Jerwood Laboratory - Artists Working
Today some of us huddled around a computer screen and read a review of the show in Timeout. While three out of five aint all bad, Mr Reviewer’s review was not exactly glowing, and he went on record saying that he didn’t care for my works, nor Mia’s. As this wasn’t made clear in the article, I feel I need to highlight that this gentleman entered the space on day three of a month long project. I would have thought he would have had the courtesy to pay a return visit – instead he seemed to take issue with the fact that I had the audacity to go barefoot whilst working – is that really relevant to the merits of an exhibition? Maybe he doesn’t have a foot fetish.
Don’t get me wrong, this is by no means a cry for sycophants or some back slapping – I am fully aware that my work will simply not connect with some people, possibly lead to disgust or simply non plussed-ness. My interest in this issue, is that even if he had given me a glowing review for my works on day three (sounds like Big Brother), this would still no longer be relevant. I suppose, in essence, my feeling is that his review was a bit comparable to reviewing a snow man in Hyde Park before it was made, or five days after it has melted.
He didn’t get it did he? I certainly won’t let this stop me from experimenting.
Jerwood Laboratory - Artists Working
Jerwood Laboratory - Artists Working
Jerwood Laboratory - Artists Working
Jerwood Laboratory - Artists Working
Jerwood Laboratory - Artists Working
Jerwood Laboratory - Artists Working
Jerwood Laboratory - Artists Working
Jerwood Laboratory - Artists Working
Jerwood Laboratory - Artists Working
Laboratory discussion tonight at Jerwood Space 6-8pm http://www.jvalab.co.uk
Come along to the Laboratory discussion tonight at Jerwood Space 6-8pm www.jvalab.co.uk
Come along to the Laboratory discussion tonight at Jerwood Space 6-8pm www.jvalab.co.uk
Kathleen Soriano, Director of Exhibitions at The Royal Academy of Arts, held conversations with each of the Laboratory artists about the exhibition, their approach and questions that have arisen.
So where are we now?
It is midway through the ‘Laboratory’ exhibition and the artists have been at work in their spaces testing new ideas and exploring recurrent themes in their practices. Sarah pointed out today that the artists have spent a considerable amount of time discussing their ideas with her, me, each other, their invited contributors and also the visitors to Jerwood. This has similarities with an art school critique, an open studio discussion, or maybe even an artist colony (although our budget doesn’t extend to a move to the seaside unfortunately…) It has proved to be a healthy part of the exhibition process, and it is also one of the major reasons why the artists wanted to participate in ‘Laboratory’ in the first place, as peer discussion is a useful tool in the development of ideas.
Discussion has become an integral part of ‘Laboratory’, so I asked Sarah to describe what has struck her about the artworks in ‘Laboratory’ as they now stand:
Jock Mooney
“Jock has spent a lot of time working on his ‘drying rack’, which was initially placed in the centre of a constructed chipboard floor. On the drying rack is a selection of his small handmade objects – placed on sticks and supported by plasticine – that have had brightly-coloured gloss paint poured over them. The paint spills onto the floor creating an uncontrolled pattern of paint puddles.
“This has caused me to ask: is this drying rack an artwork in its own right and, if so, where does the artwork begin and end? There has been an ongoing debate in ‘Laboratory’ around the idea of the ‘finished’ object, and these continually-evolving paint drips allow for an ‘unfinished’ element to be a constant part of the work.
“After the group crit on Monday 10th, Jock came in first thing the next morning and rearranged the drying rack, taking away the steel supports and placing the boards directly on the floor with one resting upright against a wall. This reordering of the space has further blurred the boundary between the finished/unfinished artwork, as the drying rack is continually evolving and changing.”
Mia Taylor
“Mia’s work is gradually inhabiting more and more of the space, with foliage sprouting from the screens, fluorescent painted branches stacked on the floor and canvases waiting and ready to be used against the walls. She is resisting the temptation to create pictorial space within the paintings at the moment and is focusing on the gallery itself. Colours and textures from the canvases are creeping into the gallery via fragments wrapped around the pillars and the coloured tissue paper that Mia is pinning up in various patterns on the windowpanes.
“The gallery space is being continually re-evaluated, with the four screens being frequently rearranged to guide the viewer through the space in different ways. The screens are semi-transparent, echoing Mia’s interest in light and translucence, and the coloured light that is being created by the tissue paper is filtering through the screens as if they were almost stained glass. Her work is definitely becoming an installation.”
Steven Eastwood
“Steven has been concentrating on his research at Rooney’s gym around the corner from Jerwood and has been working with both male and female boxers. He has shot footage of several different pieces including: a fight between female boxers; sparring to the camera; male and female training sessions that resemble dances. The concentration and focus of the boxers captured in the footage gives it a powerful edge.
“Steven’s research is uncovering stories from the participants, especially Marianne and Angel, about their reasons for becoming a boxer, their medical history and injuries that they have suffered. Angel has also revealed that she is a songwriter, painter, film-maker and animator. This had led Steven to begin co-writing a song with her, with lyrics based on her life story and past injuries.
“A training session with Marianne that Steven filmed yesterday resulted in a series of one minute snippets focusing on her hitting a punch bag. The concentration, energy and rhythm he captured may feed back into the way that the film will be edited, for example the rhythm of the punch, the pace of the movements, or the sound of the trainer’s instructions.
“Steven is finding such a wealth of extraordinary stories that the main concern now is how he will feed this into a film. What will he edit out, what will he use? For the meantime the idea of keeping things open-ended seems to be the best path. Another question that has arisen is how to interview and draw out stories from the subjects? One answer will hopefully be an osteopathy session for Angel that Steven has helped arrange, in which the osteopath will discuss her current physical condition, perhaps with reference to past injuries and the body trauma she has suffered.”
So where are we now?
It is midway through the Laboratory exhibition and the artists have been at work in their spaces testing new ideas and exploring recurrent themes in their practices. Sarah pointed out today that the artists have spent a considerable amount of time discussing their ideas with her, me, each other, their invited contributors and also the visitors to Jerwood. This has similarities with an art school critique, an open studio discussion, or maybe even an artist colony (although our budget doesn’t extend to a move to the seaside unfortunately…) It has proved to be a healthy part of the exhibition process, and it is also one of the major reasons why the artists wanted to participate in ‘Laboratory’ in the first place, as peer discussion is a useful tool in the development of ideas.
Discussion has become an integral part of ‘Laboratory’, so I asked Sarah to describe what has struck her about the artworks in ‘Laboratory’ as they now stand:
Jock Mooney
“Jock has spent a lot of time working on his ‘drying rack’, which was initially placed in the centre of a constructed chipboard floor. On the drying rack is a selection of his small handmade objects – placed on sticks and supported by plasticine – that have had brightly-coloured gloss paint poured over them. The paint spills onto the floor creating an uncontrolled pattern of paint puddles.
“This has caused me to ask: is this drying rack an artwork in its own right and, if so, where does the artwork begin and end? There has been an ongoing debate in ‘Laboratory’ around the idea of the ‘finished’ object, and these continually-evolving paint drips allow for an ‘unfinished’ element to be a constant part of the work.
“After the group crit on Monday 10th, Jock came in first thing the next morning and rearranged the drying rack, taking away the steel supports and placing the boards directly on the floor with one resting upright against a wall. This reordering of the space has further blurred the boundary between the finished/unfinished artwork, as the drying rack is continually evolving and changing.”
Mia Taylor
“Mia’s work is gradually inhabiting more and more of the space, with foliage sprouting from the screens, fluorescent painted branches stacked on the floor and canvases waiting and ready to be used against the walls. She is resisting the temptation to create pictorial space within the paintings at the moment and is focusing on the gallery itself. Colours and textures from the canvases are creeping into the gallery via fragments wrapped around the pillars and the coloured tissue paper that Mia is pinning up in various patterns on the windowpanes.
“The gallery space is being continually re-evaluated, with the four screens being frequently rearranged to guide the viewer through the space in different ways. The screens are semi-transparent, echoing Mia’s interest in light and translucence, and the coloured light that is being created by the tissue paper is filtering through the screens as if they were almost stained glass. Her work is definitely becoming an installation.”
Steven Eastwood
“Steven has been concentrating on his research at Rooney’s gym around the corner from Jerwood and has been working with both male and female boxers. He has shot footage of several different pieces including: a fight between female boxers; sparring to the camera; male and female training sessions that resemble dances. The concentration and focus of the boxers captured in the footage gives it a powerful edge.
“Steven’s research is uncovering stories from the participants, especially Marianne and Angel, about their reasons for becoming a boxer, their medical history and injuries that they have suffered. Angel has also revealed that she is a songwriter, painter, film-maker and animator. This had led Steven to begin co-writing a song with her, with lyrics based on her life story and past injuries.
“A training session with Marianne that Steven filmed yesterday resulted in a series of one minute snippets focusing on her hitting a punch bag. The concentration, energy and rhythm he captured may feed back into the way that the film will be edited, for example the rhythm of the punch, the pace of the movements, or the sound of the trainer’s instructions.
“Steven is finding such a wealth of extraordinary stories that the main concern now is how he will feed this into a film. What will he edit out, what will he use? For the meantime the idea of keeping things open-ended seems to be the best path. Another question that has arisen is how to interview and draw out stories from the subjects? One answer will hopefully be an osteopathy session for Angel that Steven has helped arrange, in which the osteopath will discuss her current physical condition, perhaps with reference to past injuries and the body trauma she has suffered.”
