A cast from the past...

I was recently contacted by a friend in Glasgow who had purchased a piece of my work a number of years ago. He kindly sent me the above photo of the work displayed in his house. It was a lovely reminder of a past body of work that was exhibited at 1 Royal Terrace, and an example of how the work now lives on in many different people's homes.

RUTH SWITALSKI & PETTER YXELL - SKIN & BONES

It's hard to believe that 6 months ago I was the first artist to exhibit at the newly founded Glasgow gallery, 1 Royal Terrace.
6 months on, last night was the opening of the final exhibition in this season's programme. Having helped install the 5 previous exhibitions, the time came for Petter and Ruth to install their own work in the gallery. 

I went along, curious to see how they would respond to the space, and they did not disappoint.



Entering the gallery, the viewer is faced with a line of wooden beams that are standing tall, wedged between the floor and ceiling. Each beam or column has been partly burned using a stencil, so that when lined up, a kind of skyline silhouette is suggested. Petter used this exhibition as an opportunity to focus on materiality, and all his work in the exhibition is made from pine. 

Ruth's work also demonstrates her love of material and the physical qualities of what she is working with. Stratum corneum (horny layer) is one of the gallery walls that has been covered in layers of silicone, having the effect of forming a thick, sticky skin that is hard to resist touching. 

Switalski’s work builds on a longstanding interest in the liminal spaces between painting and sculpture. Often using the body as motif, her casts, films and drawings explore intensely physical and sometimes interrupted representations of these disciplines. 

Yxell works mainly in sculptural installations taking architecture as a starting point for explorations of history, time and memory, with a keen eye on the role of language.

For their joint exhibition at 1 Royal Terrace, Switalski and Yxell have found a common ground in their nigh obsessive fascination with material, resulting in two large scale interceptions in the space, flanked with smaller sculptural objects drawing loose parallels between the bodily and the architectural.

For opening hours and more information please visit

http://1royalterrace.co.uk

Gi diary - Friday 18th April

After work this afternoon I met up with Michael Stumpf in the Mackintosh Gallery to discuss his current exhibition This Song Belongs to Those who Sing It at Glasgow School of Art. Exhibitions Director, Jenny Brownrigg and Exhibitions Coordinator Talitha Kotzé have invited me to write a response to the exhibition, and bearing this in mind, I had a few questions to pose to Michael.

I then battled my way through the crowds on Buchanan Street (the sun was shining so everyone was out), along to 42 Carlton Place to see the exhibition of work by Christina Ramberg.

Ramberg is best known for imagery of bound, fetishised hands and bodies, and for schematised torsos that can shade into ‘pure’ diagrammatic abstraction.

Once again, 42 Carlton Place offers something refreshing to the Gi programme, an exhibition of drawings and paintings that are immediate and intimate.

Rowena and I then popped into The Modern Institute on Osborne Street to visit the current exhibition by Tobias Madison, Emanuel Rosseti and Stefan Tcherepnin. The most interesting part for me was the painted doorway and facade to the building that nods to the aesthetic of ghost trains and set design.

We then went to Alistair Frost's makeshift nail bar where people can get motifs painted onto their nails. These motifs are picked from a selection of paintings and objects produced by Frost which are installed throughout the space. I felt a little cheated as neither was the artist nor the nail technician there, and therefore was hardly a functioning social atmosphere which the artist is supposedly investigating.

At Glasgow Print Studio, by far the most interesting work for me, was the rectangular block of sand that was in the centre of the space. A triangular shape had been stencilled onto the top surface using metallic spray paint. One corner of the work slab had begun to collapse as the conditions forced the sand to dry out and crumble. How this piece related to the other works in the exhibition is beyond me!

Mary Mary presents an interesting exhibition of ceramics by London-based Jesse Wine. "Amidst an array of traditional materials and methods, Wine’s practice has a strong engagement with the process of making, which sees him pursue a line of chance and surprise in the final outcomes. The works are gestural with Wine pushing the boundaries of how clay, glazes and ceramic forms act when the maker relinquishes control of the end result."

The final exhibition stop of the day was to Universal Studios, part of Open House (a Gi fringe festival). The two-person exhibition featured collages, pin-hole camera photographs, a video and the pinhole cameras themselves.

Glasgow Open House

Yesterday I ended my day of exhibitions at 1 Royal Terrace, with the opening of Below The Spillway, a solo exhibition by Augustus Veinoglou as part of Glasgow Open House, the art festival with the aim to "offer an alternative format for public interaction with art outside of the gallery, generating discussion around the way art is exhibited and consumed both in and out of doors." 

The small group of Glasgow School of Art graduates that make up the Glasgow Open House committee began planning the festival in the Summer of 2013. They were "keen to engage with new audiences by opening up their living and working environments to neighbours, fellow artists and the public."

There was an open call for exhibition proposals, and as a result, "the 2014 programme of visual arts, performance and music includes the work of over 80 artists scattered across 32 venues in every corner of Glasgow. It includes exhibitions and events in flats, gardens, sheds and other unexpected locations, reflecting the work of individual artists, collaborative groups and organisations."

For more information about the festival, visit http://glasgowopenhouse.co.uk/#

Today I ventured to Westerton for A Secluded Sketching Ground, an exhibition by Lynn Hynd and Sara Barker.

"Using the visual framework of the garden & wooden shed, Hynd & Barker explore the languages of flatness & space, painting & sculpture, and the thresholds between interior & exterior space, collapsed and re materialized through an active engagement with ‘process’.

The garden is an extension of the artists’ studio, the brink at which the external world is contemplated. The garden’s enclosures, platforms, stages, grounds, surface, colours and roots create an adaptive environment for, and blurr the boundaries of the work itself.

An obsession with surface is everywhere in a garden & the artists’ respective practices are linked in their exploration of the perception & palpability of material , as the blurring of boundaries allow the values of indoor space to escape to the outdoors, evoking a conversation between structure & activity."

I look forward to exploring more Glasgow Open House exhibitions over the next week.

Gathering from above

This invite to the current Martino Gamper exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery made me think about the floor installation I recently exhibited at 1 Royal Terrace.

Following my exhibition at 1 Royal Terrace, one of the things I have been thinking about is if I want to re-exhibit any of the works. I know I do not want to exhibit Brimming anywhere else as it was made especially for that bookcase as a site specific work. I am happy with the individual units being displayed individually in different places as it becomes a different work when they are separated.

I am playing with the idea of re-working 'Gathering', the floor installation. Again, this was a site specific piece, made with the same floor tiles that the gallery floor was covered with. I would like to try removing the floor tiles and exhibiting the blocks in the same arrangement but on a plain floor. I would also like to try making the work on different types of floor, maybe using different tiles.

I would like to make a work on the floor that, when viewed from above, the work blends in with the floor.

Looking forward to the next exhibition at 1 Royal Terrace - Rachel Levine - Here, Create Distance, Tension It... Feel It Flex

This Sunday is the preview of the third exhibition at 1 Royal Terrace; Rachel Levine - Here, Create Distance, Tension It... Feel It Flex

"In her practice Levine is interested in exploring how power structures and ‘empirical’ versions of history affect our readings of objects, artifacts, architecture and the built environment. Working predominantly in sculptural assemblage and installations, Levine uses objects and materials as signifiers to create narrative environments.

For her show at 1 Royal Terrace Levine draws on her experience of a recent residency in Beirut, Lebanon, to create an immersive installation dealing with the difficulty of physical movement within the city. Utilising new casts, text works and an architectural alteration of the very exhibition space the work will explore the conflicting tensions and energies experienced in Beirut, while also ruminating on the universal problem of connection to place."

I am curious about how Levine will alter the architecture of the exhibition space, and am interested in how she will translate her experience of her residency in Beirut to this domestic environment in Glasgow.

Playing, Filling, Mixing, Brimming Exhibition text by Petter Yxell

Playing, Filling, Mixing, Brimming Exhibition text by Petter Yxell
http://www.1royalterrace.co.uk/brimming.html















1 Royal Terrace Committee member, Petter Yxell has written a textual response to my BRIMMING exhibition and the process of assisting me in the production of the work.

Listen to BRIMMING Recording - Helen Shaddock in Conversation with 1 Royal Terrace

The recording of the In Conversation event that was held at 1 Royal Terrace in conjunction with my BRIMMING exhibition is now available online.

http://www.1royalterrace.co.uk/brimming.html











I talk with 1 Royal Terrace committee members Ruth Switalski and Petter Yxell, covering topics such as the relationship my work has to sculpture and painting, my use of colour, working methods and site specificity. The conversation was then extended to questions from the audience.

Selected images of BRIMMING exhibition now on 1 Royal Terrace website

A selection of images from the recent BRIMMING exhibition at 1 Royal Terrace have been added to the gallery website.



http://www.1royalterrace.co.uk/archive.html

I will be adding further documentation to my website shortly.

Mapping the Brimming Units

I am delighted that I have sold some of the individual units from my Brimming installation. I will never exhibit the installation in a different context as it was made specifically for 1 Royal Terrace, but I do feel happy to let the work live on in a different way, as individual units.

I have kept a detailed log of the work, and am mapping where each of the units ends up. 

I have requested that anyone who owns a unit, sends me two photographs. One photograph of the owner with their unit, and another photograph of the unit in its new home.

It is going to be very interesting to see where each of them go to, and I look forward to receiving the photos.

If you are interested in owning a unit, please email me
helen.shaddock@yahoo.co.uk

My aim is to rehouse each of the 49 units and track where each and every one gets to!

Better late than never...BRIMMING Preview in The Herald

So, I know that my BRIMMING exhibition at 1 Royal Terrace has been and gone, but I've only just managed to get my hands on a copy of the Preview that was printed in The Herald (Scottish newspaper) the Saturday before my exhibition opening on 12th January.

Wrapped and moved

Today was the final day of destall of BRIMMING at 1 Royal Terrace. All the casts were wrapped in bubble wrap and transported out of the gallery, into my friend's car and then driven to my studio. We then loaded the casts into a number of shopping trolleys and wheeled them into the studio. 

Unfortunately, the lift that connects the ground floor with the main lift is not operating at the moment, meaning that I had to transfer the casts from one trolley, up a few stairs and into another trolley.

With over 100 bricks being moved, it was rather a time-consuming and laborious task, but I am pleased to report that all work arrived safely without any breakages.






















As I was filling and emptying the trolleys, I was reminded of a performance I did called Helter Skelter (video documentation can be seen on my website http://www.helenshaddock.co.uk/portfolio/index.php?sub=performance&link=helter-skelter) in which a similar cyclical process was followed, this time it being one of creation and destruction.



I was also reminded of a work by the artist Liz West in which she filled shopping trolleys with products of the same colour.

http://www.liz-west.com/index.aspx?sectionid=1206216

Destall commences

Today was the final day of 'BRIMMING', my solo exhibition at 1 Royal Terrace. I am delighted that it attracted over 160 visitors, and the responses have been so heart warming.

As I had been using the gallery as a studio prior to the exhibition, there was a lot of my equipment, materials and tools that were stored in one of the spare rooms in the flat.

My parents came to Glasgow this weekend to see my exhibition, and whilst they were here, they offered to help me move some of my belongings from 1 Royal Terrace to my studio at South Block.

Last night I sorted out what was going where, some things were for the bin, some were to go to my studio, and there were a few items that were to stay at Royal Terrace e.g. my camera and tripod

This morning, before the gallery opened, we collected everything at Royal Terrace that was destined for the studio, and then made the trip to Osbourne Street to drop things off at the studio.

We also sorted through things in my studio, and made a pile of items that are to be kept in storage, a pile for rubbish and a pile for staying in the studio. We had a shuffle around in the storage area, and fitted new things in.



This evening I took further documentation of the exhibition and made a start with destall. The laser cut pieces have been removed from the walls and the blocks taken from the bookcases. I will finish destall over the week.

Last chance to see BRIMMING at 1 Royal Terrace

It is with sadness that I remind you that this weekend is the last time you can visit my BRIMMING exhibition at 1 Royal Terrace. I am going to miss the place, but will, of course, be back to see how the other artists in the programme respond to the space, if they choose to at all.

These photographs show the room as it was when I was first invited to exhibit, prior to becoming a gallery.

The next artist to exhibit at 1 Royal Terrace is Nick Thomas, and the exhibition opening will be on Sunday 9th February from 4pm-8pm.

Video documentation of Brimming

I'm delighted that the conversation yesterday was documented on video by the wonderful Talitha Kotze. It will be an excellent reminder for me of what we discussed and I will then be able to follow up certain topics.

Hopefully, it will also be interesting for you. I intend to produce a podcast of the entire conversation, allowing those who were not at the event to hear what went on.

The video footage is going to be edited, selecting particularly interesting areas of discussion.

Today, Talitha filmed a couple of minutes-worth of footage to act as a short introduction to 1 Royal Terrace, the exhibition, and then the in conversation event that accompanied my exhibition.

So, keep your eyes peeled for the video and audio file becoming available online.

May the conversations continue...

Thanks to 1 Royal Terrace for organising and hosting the 'artist in conversation' event. It was a thoroughly enjoyable Sunday afternoon which has left me with lots to think about and things to follow up.

Thanks to Ruth and Petter for putting so much thought into the questions they asked and structuring those in a manner that generated, what seemed to me, a free-flowing discussion rather than question and answer session.

Thanks to Talitha for documenting the event and offering to edit the footage to enable us to share what happened today with a wider audience. Keep your eyes out for us putting this online as a podcast, video clips etc.

Thanks to everyone who came to the gallery this afternoon and contributed to the 'in conversation' event. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Lots of things were covered and my mind has lots to process, but here are a few things that I want to think further about.

The relation my work has to music - how the works can be 'read' musically e.g. volume, pitch, staves, rhythm, tempo

Installing work in a way we construct language - punctuation, pauses, capital letters, commas

The relation my work has to water - ebb and flow

The notion of 'prettiness'

Whether a site specific work can exist in a different site?

I hope that the conversation we began today can continue, and would appreciate any other thoughts and open up the debate online via comments on my blog or facebook

Brimming featured on Glasgow Craft Mafia

My exhibition, 'Brimming', at 1 Royal Terrace gets a good mention on the Glasgow Craft Mafia website.

Read it here...

http://glasgowcraftmafia.wordpress.com/2014/01/14/whats-on-in-glasgow/comment-page-1/#comment-1

All welcome

I am still brimming with joy following the wonderful preview of my exhibition at 1 Royal Terrace on Sunday.

It was a dark, wet and cold Sunday evening outside, but inside the gallery there was a real sense of optimism, enthusiasm, cheerfulness and fun. It was great to see a mixed audience. Yes, there were plenty of Glasgow School of Art staff and students, but the exhibition also attracted numerous visitors from outside of the art world, all of whom seemed genuinely interested in the work regardless of their age!

I enjoyed watching the youngsters interacting with the work.

Exhibition Preview

Many thanks to everyone who came to 1 Royal Terrace for the preview of my exhibition, Brimming.

Huge thanks also to Ruth, Petter and Grace (the 1 Royal Terrace committee) for their continued support and hard work.

Sanding mission

Over the past few days Petter and I have spent hours sanding both the floor tile plaster casts and the plaster casts for the bookshelf.

The bookshelves vary in height, and so specific moulds were made for each shelf. Despite this, it was necessary to tidy some of the edges and sand the ends as the shelves changed shape with the weight of the casts.

It was also important to flatten some of the surfaces on the floor tile casts to allow the actual floor tile to fit comfortably on the top of the cast.