Burn the Furniture to Heat the House - Joe Shaw - Lime Street

Burn the Furniture to Heat the House

Joe Shaw

Burn the Furniture to Heat the House brings into relief the brief glimpse of stability that occurred between two defining moments: the fall of the Soviet Union and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In this optimistic time, a disconnection formed between the precariousness of the world and ourselves, and we became complacent, imbued with a false sense of security. The sculptures in this exhibition are about the abrupt end of this complacency, the surge in ad hoc/insecure modes of living, a scrabble for resources, and the artists’ place within all this.

Joe Shaw (born 1990, Mansfield, Notts) is an artist based in Newcastle upon Tyne who makes performative sculptures and installations. His works use recognisable, everyday objects and often plastic or low quality materials to comment on the mechanism of disposability built into post-millennium society. Shaw’s lo-fi aesthetic and materials draw attention to the increased precarity surrounding modes of employment, housing, politics and our natural environment. The sculptures are used as a vehicle to both scrutinise the art-world and spoof fragile masculinity using a language of dry wit and black humour.

http://joseph-shaw.com/

Yorkshire Sculpture International at Leeds City Art Gallery

2019 saw the launch of Yorkshire Sculpture International, a festival of sculpture taking place across Leeds and Wakefield from June to September. 



In addition to the exhibitions at the four main galleries; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Leeds Art Gallery, The Henry Moore Institute and The Hepworth, there programme also includes a number of outdoor sculptures and new commissions.



Rachel Harrison draws upon a wide range of influences, fusing art historical references with references from pop culture. Her choice of materials is similarly eclectic, with nods to art history and contemporary society.



Joanna Piotrowska selected a number of artworks from the Leeds collection and displayed these alongside her series of black and white photographs investigating social structures. Piotrowska asked local people in Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro, Warsaw and London to create makeshift structures in their homes. 





Although it is not part of Yorkshire Sculpture International, my visit afforded me the opportunity to reconnect with Lothar Goetz's vibrant wall painting which dominates the main staircase. Goetz is interested in how colour interferes with our perception of space and form. 

Nika Neelova - EVER - The Tetley Gallery, Leeds

EVER was a solo exhibition by the Russian-born artist Nika Neelova at The Tetley Gallery in Leeds. Neelova presented new and existing work that responded to, and was in dialogue with, the building's unique art deco architecture.

'At the centre of the exhibition is a new large-scale sculptural installation in The Tetley's atrium. Connecting with the building's past, it recalls the restoration and transformation of the atrium into a gallery space and incorporates original materials such as parquet floor tiles and oak panelling salvaged from The Tetley building.  Featuring these discarded architectural fragments, the installation creates a transitional space depicting, and derived from, places that once existed. For Neelova, it takes the form of a 'landscape in ruin', presenting different layers of reworked and reimagined architectural, sculptural and geological artefacts.'

 

In the old office spaces that surround the atrium space, Neelova installed a number of existing geological and architectural sculptures. The Lemniscate sculpture series is made from reclaimed wooden bannisters. Neelova has repurposed the bannisters and fitted them together so that they each become a continuous form.







Neelova's architecturally focused work benefits from being displayed in a gallery with its own unique architectural features and likewise the gallery benefits from her work as it naturally emphasises the context in which it is displayed. 







My criticism would be that there is too many repeated versions of the same idea. After seeing a couple of forms made from bannisters, I no longer gain from seeing a different variation of this theme. 

Once Upon a Space, exhibition by Helen Edling, Kat Auld and Sarah Tulloch

ONCE UPON A SPACE
GOLDTAPPED, The NewBridge Project, Newcastle upon Tyne
5th - 16th August
Finnisage 6 - 8pm 15th August

During a 14 day residency in the gallery Helen Edling, Kat Auld and Sarah Tulloch worked together as part of artists’ collective Once upon a Space. 

The three artists work with found, ephemeral and contingent materials and explore everyday and unexpected playful juxtapositions of material. The photographic and the sculptural are preoccupations as is the ‘drawn’ line whether that be explored through 3d pens, ink or the scalpel knife. 

Auld works with ephemeral projects and photography, Edling with sculpture and drawing and Tulloch with collage and video. 

The artists focused on rhizomic forms including plant roots and 3D pen technologies.

 

The artists wanted to blur the boundary between artist and audience, to encourage participation but also to allow unexpected things to happen and work in a way that was open to that chance element. They encouraged other artists in the building to participate, for example by touching, re-arranging and commenting on the work. 

The gallery is located the heart of the studios; meaning that most of the visitors and studioholders walk through it to reach their destination. I found it fascinating to witness the presence of the artists working away in the gallery as I moved through the space on numerous occasions to and from my studio. This encouraged interaction and dialogue, and I had some really meaningful conversations with the artists as they worked. 

I also benefited from getting an insight into the working practice of one of the NewBridge studioholders (Sarah Tulloch) and being introduced to some new artists (Helen Edling and Kat Auld). It is rare for any of the NewBridge artists to have exhibitions in the gallery, and so was really useful to learn more about Sarah's practice, gain a better understanding of her areas of research and further the possibilities for constructive dialogue in the future. The setup of the exhibition made for an interesting model that could be repeated.

As for the work itself, I was taken by their approach to materials, the use of the cardboard, the juxtaposition of colours and expanded drawing practices. Process was integral to the work.

Regatta by Louise Plant with soundscape by Bennett Hogg at Cheeseburn

The current exhibition in the gallery at Cheeseburn is Regatta by Louise Plant. The ‘Regatta’ series is inspired by Louise Plant’s observations of rowing. These sculptures simultaneously embody the vortices created by rowers oars being forced through the water and the controlled, explosive, cyclical, rhythmical drive and glide of the rower, connecting mind, body and water.

Sound artist Bennett Hogg collaborated with Louise Plant for the soundscape of the exhibition. The soundscape mostly consists of hydrophone recordings made at Fontburn Reservoire in Northumberland.



Bennett Hogg explains

"I was struck by the bright, almost glassy quality of the hydrophone recordings, and so have also done some convolution filtering with samples of crystal wine glasses. The piece is quiet and contemplative, playing with the idea that elements can transform into one another. Just as Louise has transformed forms observed in water into stone, I've tried to find a solid resonance to the sound of water."




Louise's exhibition will be open to the public again at the final 2019 Cheeseburn Sculpture Open Weekend on Saturday 31st August and Sunday 1st September at Cheeseburn Grange Sculpture Gardens, near Stamfordham, Northumberland.

Cheeseburn Open Weekend July 2019 - Simon Hitchens in the gallery

I spent another excellent weekend working at Cheeseburn Open Weekend. The grounds looked stunning, with the colourful flowers in full bloom and the grass as lush as ever. The glorious sunshine added to the joy of the two days.

Based predominantly at the main reception with Tia and Ell, I had the pleasure of meeting and greeting hundreds of visitors to Cheeseburn, and the satisfaction of seeing them leave with huge smiles and many positive comments. There was plenty to keep people happy, even without the art!


This weekend saw the end of the Simon Hitchens exhibition in the gallery. His intricate drawings in the 'Thinking Beyond Rock' collection remind me of spirographs. They have been created by tracing the shadows of a rock over the course of an entire day. Every 15 minutes Hitchens traces the line of the shadow cast by the rock, and over the duration of the day as the shadow moves, the lines track the movement of the sun.

Simon explains, “The natural world is an endless source of inspiration to me, and a direct tool I use to create my work. For example, the current body of work I am pursuing requires sunlight as the source for image making, drawing shadows cast by a rock between sunrise and sunset. The resultant drawings are unique in time and space to a given location on the planet, recording the relentless rotation of the earth beneath our feet.”

http://cheeseburn.com/

http://www.simonhitchens.com/

Cheeseburn Open Weekend

As the Spring and Summer months are upon us, we have the Cheeseburn open weekends to look forward to. The programme changes over the course of the 5 months, so there are plenty of reasons to visit repeatedly over the year.

Gillian Dickinson North East Young Sculptor of the Year Prize 2019

For the May open weekends, visitors were invited to explore the proposals in the Stables Gallery by 10 young artists who have been shortlisted to become the 2019 Gillian Dickinson North East Young Sculptor of the Year.

Each artist is supported and mentored by Cheeseburn Curator Matthew Jarratt and the winning artist will receive £6500 to realise their idea at Cheeseburn in spring 2020.

The award is in its 4th year and was conceived by Joanna Riddell at Cheeseburn in 2015 and The Gillian Dickinson Trust has recently renewed their funding support for Cheeseburn to deliver this important opportunity for young artists for another 3 years.

Clare Townley, the 2018 winner of the Gillian Dickinson North East Young Sculptor of the Year Prize exhibited her new installation and dancer Simona Yovcheva was performing in response to her artwork.

The chapel was the site for an impressive collection of glass ships in glass bottles as part of a project by Dr Ayako Tani. "Vessels of Memory  aims to document the skills and experience of glassworkers."

There were also numerous new sculptures exhibited around the grounds.