Star and Shadow cinema as part of The Late Shows 2018

Opening the doors to the public during The Late Shows 2018 marks the completion of phase 1 of the huge DIY rebuild of the Star and Shadow cinema in their new location on Warwick Street. Over the past 2 years an immense team of volunteers have dedicated hours of time and put in loads of hard graft in order to make this happen. 

Last night the proud volunteers showed us round. The cinema currently is awaiting a delivery of chairs, but the rest of the space looks great. Artwork has been specially commissioned and the volunteers have creatively reused scraps of OSB board and individually coloured lightbulbs on the ceiling.

The current photography exhibition showcases the work of 4 artists who have each captured everyday life in Newcastle.

The next stop on the tour was the toilets, and these did deserve a look. The walls are covered in a mixture of handmade and donated tiles, creating a homely feel to the facilities.

The second venue space was filled with people enjoying the sounds of a steel drum band, and the cafe was proving very popular. 

It was really exciting to hear about the opportunities to get involved and what is in store for the future. I'm keen to get involved and make the most of the range of facilities available.

"Star & Shadow Cinema is more than a cinema. It is an alternative social, cultural, arts and community hub run by a collective of volunteers."

https://starandshadow.org.uk/

A Third Exhibit

It has been a really intense but exciting and fun day installing the collaborative installation 'A Third Exhibit' in the Hatton Gallery. All was resting on today - bringing the various elements together into the space and turning them into a cohesive whole.

As Sean dealt with all the programming operations of the sensors for the lights and sound, Corbin adapted the footage that we were recording in the space during the install into something unrecognisable and extremely atmospheric and mesmerising.

Ed was busy attaching all the lights to the columns, inflating the balloons and positioning the speakers.

Once Mags had cut the aluminium rods and I had cut the fabric, we wrapped double sided carpet tape around the rods and then rolled the top of the fabric around the rod, creating the horizontal pole from which the fabric hung.

Rob and Jack made little sandbags which acted as weights to prevent the balloons from floating up to the ceiling. These were attached to the corners at the bottom of the lengths of fabric by eyelets that had been punched into the fabric.

The balloons were inflated with helium and between us we managed to create suspended planes from the fabric.

It all came together in the last hour when we collectively decided on the volume levels, the fine tuning of the lights and the positioning of the planes.

This entire process, and throughout the Late Night event, a webcam filmed what we were up to and live streamed to view online.

The exhibition will be open to the public between Monday - Friday, 10am - 5pm. The exhibition runs until Friday 22nd May 2015

A Third Exhibit - The Hatton Gallery, Newcastle - Saturday 16th May

A Third Exhibit

The Hatton Gallery

Saturday 16th May 2015

Exhibition runs until 21st May 2015

An experimental contingent-collaborative installation of light, planes, colour, depth and space by a group spanning the disciplines of Architecture, Fine Art and Music:

Ed Wainwright

Matthew Margetts

Sean Cotterill
Jack Lines

Rob Paton

Helen Shaddock 

Corbin Wood 

The particular focus of the exhibition is to rematerialise 'An Exhibit,' the immersive installation work made at the Hatton Gallery in 1957 by Victor Pasmore in collaboration with Richard Hamilton and Lawrence Alloway.

The installed iteration will be in constant flux – adapting to visitors, viewers, the artists, the gallery staff and curators.

The process of collaboration between people, materials, technology and space will be orchestrated in the Hatton Gallery over the course of Saturday 16th May, continuing until 11pm as part of The Late Shows

A Third Exhibit

Tonight I met with the group of architects and musician with whom I am collaborating for the exhibition 'A Third Exhibit' at The Hatton Gallery which opens this Saturday. As we inspected the various packages containing the equipment that we have purchased with the money from the commission, it seemed like Christmas had come early.

We systematically discussed all of the elements of the installation, flagging any potential problems and making sure we had sourced everything we need for Saturday.

We made a list of, and allocated the jobs that still need to be sorted, and agreed to meet at 10am on Saturday to start the exciting process of bringing the installation together. Visitors are welcome to the gallery during the day, so come and watch the installation in development.

The installation will be part of The Late Shows from 7-11pm on Saturday night (16th May), and the exhibition will run until 21st May.

Victor Pasmore: from Relief to Environment. A talk with Elena Crippa from Tate at the Hatton Gallery

Last night we gave a presentation at the Hatton Gallery about the commission that we have been awarded in response to an Exhibit.

Our presentation followed an excellent talk by Elena Crippa about the current exhibition at the Hatton Gallery, Victor Pasmore in Three Dimensions.

One thing particularly resonated with me: that Pasmore wanted An Exhibit to be:

Played
Viewed
Populated

The work that we are creating for the exhibition certainly embraces these elements, and will be constructed during the day on Saturday 16th May. The work will continue to be exhibited late into the evening as part of The Late Shows.

Inviting a response to an Exhibit, 1957

For the occasion of Victor Pasmore: In Three Dimensions

An exhibition at the Hatton Gallery (6 Feb – 9 May 2015)

A Creative Practice Commission

Inviting a response to an Exhibit, 1957

Given my interest in the work and educational stance of Victor Pasmore, I was keen to submit a proposal to the Hatton Gallery in response to their call for applications to 

"create new work for the occasion of the exhibition Victor Pasmore: In Three Dimensions at the Hatton Gallery (06 February - 09 May 2015). The particular focus of the brief is to rematerialise an Exhibit, the immersive installation work made at the Hatton Gallery in 1957 by Victor Pasmore in collaboration with Richard Hamilton. The work was constructed out of sheets of coloured Perspex suspended in a grid formation in the large white Edwardian gallery at the Hatton. It has since been recognised as a landmark event in the history of installation art and exhibition design, and was recently remade for an exhibition at the ICA in London.

For logistical reasons, an Exhibit has never been redisplayed in the Hatton Gallery after its first showing in 1957. However, it is an essential part of the story of Victor Pasmore’s development from two-dimensional painting to three-dimensional constructions, which is the focus of the current exhibition at the Hatton Gallery, Victor Pasmore: In Three Dimensions.

The work resulting from this commission will use innovative methods to communicate an impression of an Exhibit in the gallery which originally housed it. To reflect how central it was to Pasmore’s practice to work across disciplines, proposals are encouraged with a multi-discipline approach. The key aim of the commission is to produce new work that helps to build relationships between creative practitioners across the University."

I met up with a group of architecture students and staff and a Music student who were also interested in the opportunity, and together we formed a collaborative proposal.

I am delighted to report that our proposal has been selected, and we are now working to a tight deadline to prepare the work ready for The Late Shows 

http://www.thelateshows.org.uk/home.html on 15th and 16th May.