An alternate gallery space, tactileBOSCH is adaptable, almost chameleonic in its nature
Pop Up – Mock Up – Outside Inside
Monday, August 23rd, 2010
GallerA1 @ the Lighthouse, Edinbrough
20th August - 5th September
See More Images from Pop-Up-Mock Up-Outside Inside
Since its inception in 2000 tactileBOSCH Gallery & Studios has facilitated a plethora of exhibitions, festivals and residencies within the walls of what was once a Victorian era laundry house. In conjunction with this, the galleries curators, Kim Fielding, Andrew Cooper, Simon Mitchell and Neil Jefferies have also instigated a number of events outside of Cardiff under the umbrella of tactileBOSCH. These exhibitions are an attempt to raise the profile of both the gallery and the small but energetic South Wales Contemporary Art scene on an international scale. Exhibitions in this ongoing process included Come to The Edge at the Ivy Brown Gallery, New York, Kissing the Pink at the London Art Academy London, BOSCH in the Bush at the Coed Hills Rural Artspace, South Wales and Body=Construct at the Anexo Espaco, Sao Paulo. Pop Up-Mock Up-Outside Inside that will take place at the A1gallery in Edinburgh is part of this ongoing series of projects and will bring together recent work by a selection of artists who have exhibited at tactileBOSCH over the last few years. The selected artists range from both the talented newly qualified to those with a more established reputation and will also represent the diversity of mediums, approa che s and subj e c t ma t t e r, a n int egr a l e thos of tactileBOSCH. Ultimately, it will be up to the audience to discover and interpret points of cohesion and points of departure between the varying artists work that has evolved out of close working proximity and collaborative spirit that the gallery promotes. Pop Up-Mock Up-Outside Inside will work as both a showcase to demonstrate the strength and diversity of artwork currently being created by artists linked to the gallery as well as a practical attempt to instigate future collaboration between the two venues and the artists associated with their respective galleries. It will also act as a precursor f o r Tenure an ambitious exhibition project that will take place in October at tactileBOSCH, amalgamating work by a wide variety of artists and practices who have exhibited at the gallery as part of its ten year anniversary celebrations.
Curator: Neil Jefferies
Artists: John Abel, Sam Aldridge, Andrew Cooper, Geraint Evans, Kim Fielding, Mehrdad Khataei, Tiffany Oben, Graham Phillips, Jason Pinder, Jonathen Powell, Liz Waterhouse
Cement Garden
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
The Basement, 40 Brook street, Riverside, Cardiff
08th August
‘Cement Garden’ [taken from the book of the same name] will be staged in a dark and murky basement in ’sunny’ Riverside – the multiple-roomed activity’s denote a journey of some kind – of inadequacy’s and sadness… tragically damaged bird foetus’s falling from a tree / a moth fighting its way out of a smothering relationship / rose petals cascading down a garden wall – all inspire us to think back to a childhood full of dreams …and high hopes, stories that might have seemed horrifying but in hindsight were clearly defined rites of passage… The exhibition spills over from the Basement into the Cement Garden Gallery from the offset with live mazak from the ever brilliant ‘ZILLO’ with DJ Funk Sheriff + invited guests bringing up the rear
Exhibiting Artists:
Jaqueline Alkema, Andrew Cooper, Chris Lledrod Evans, Geraint Evans, Kim Feilding, Chris Moore, Tiff Oben and Helene Roberts, Graham Phillips, Jason Pinder + Jaakko Tenhunen
Live Music:
‘Zillo’ + ‘DJ Funk Sheriff’
(ENTER NAME)
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
13th August – 27th August
This exhibition has a threefold purpose, these are locked together like a jigsaw puzzle to create a larger picture.
The first is to make us realise the carnage to the wildlife of Wales on the roads. Simply by seeing the pictures this should help people to see what is going on and hopefully make them think about how they drive. No one knows what could be round the next bend, on the road, or in real life, it could, in both cases, be a child.
The second is to change the attitude of driver’s awareness in general to what is around them outside the vehicle, which has become an insular,isolated and insulated bubble of self. Cutting the driver off from the real world with stereos, in ear communications, warmth, comfort and that feeling of a false sense of security and safety created by the artificial world within that vehicle. The car has now become a smaller version of our living rooms and as such is not regarded as a potentially dangerous chunk of meta,l plastic and glass hurtling along the roads at combined impact speeds of (legally) up to 140 miles per hour but in many cases up to 200 mph or more.
The third is to show how detached from nature we have become by the interlinking of the two trains of thought above.
The seeds for the idea of the collection were inspired mainly by two things. One was just seeing the amount of roadkill on roads of all types which led to the question. Why?. Then one day an aquaintance of Chris’ questioned why he braked to avoid hitting a bird he then turned round and said that he would have just mown it down in his van. This was coming from someone who was allegedly a right on eco-aware hippy type who looked the part, talked the talk, owned and read all the right books went to all the right festivals with his family in their converted camper van and even had a wood burner in the house. This conveniently answered the question. “People just don’t care about Nature any more”.
Three years were then spent photographically documenting what was happening to animals on the roads. A total air of detachment had to be adopted when photographing, otherwise there would be an emotional involvement that would create feelings of revulsion and pity so great he wouldn’t be able to take the photo’s. The name comes from the fact that you can enter your name and the name of an animal you have killed in a book at the exhibition.
Artist: Chris Hovey
GLAM’D OUT
Sunday, July 11th, 2010
Sunday 18th – Saturday 31st July 2010
Art is not about art. Art is about life and that about sums it up (Louise Bourgeois)
What is it to be human in the 21st century? The human condition might describe how we respond to both traumatic and joyous events that befall us as we mark our passage of time. Art and artists such as these may not provide the answers to this question, but perhaps more importantly, they will share their personal life experiences and empathise with you on a universal level.
To engage with the work in this exhibition is to experience the realities of death, pain, loss, grief, horror, beauty, love, wonder and humour. Some of what is here may not make comfortable viewing, but then art is not necessarily about comfort; art has the capacity to question, confront and speak of what is necessary and real.
To be confronted by the Vanitas of Julia Rowland’s meat covered china, Amanda Green’s grotesque forms or the brutal, affectionate and humorous portrayal of middle aged femininity and society’s attitude to it by Susan Morris, is to feel the stab of pathos.
To be subsumed into Calwyn Glastonbury’s sublime landscape paintings and Laura Bennett’s installation of canvas constructions is to be reminded of just how insignificant we are in the face of our environment and that Nature is a power far greater than ourselves.
Whereas the imagined environment of Natalie Thomas speak of the fabrication of other worlds; as virtual and alternative spaces for us to enter both physically and mentally. Technology offers us this limitless potential and Kristian Hughes reminds us of the limitations and possible redundancy of the human, a body stretched to its extent of its usefulness and purpose.
The body where traditional definitions of gender and sexuality can no longer be applied is questioned by Tiffany Oben and Shaun Price in their intensely personal inquiries of the self.
It is interesting to note that of the 15 artists here, 10 are directly engaged with the representation of the figure and the body. Every artist brings a unique aesthetic and approach to their practice. Craft skills are juxtaposed with cutting edge technology; there is painting, collage, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture and installation.
The artist is no longer reliant on the object or the painting as a vehicle to create art and communicate ideas. Many of the works in this show are temporal and will simply cease to exist once the exhibition is finished.
This diversity of practice demonstrates that art, in order to reflect the world that we live in today, can and must be made from anything that is relevant to the idea.
Exhibiting Artists: Laura Bennett, Charlotte Burnell, Agnes Corbett, Calwyn Glastonbury, Amanda Green, Sian Leung, June Lloyd, Julie Matthews, Susan Morris, Tiffany Oben, Shaun Price, Julia Rowlands, Martin Walker
Review:
The Womens Institutionalised Tea Stall. A Performance by Mrs. Parry-Evans (Susan Morris) and Mrs. Wyn-Jones (Tiffany Oben)
What can be more reassuring than a nice cup of tea in a nice cup and saucer served by a nice lady?
Even though it’s unlikely you’ve seen two well groomed ladies (Morris and Oben) from the 40s set up a tea stall you won’t have much trouble picturing it. Pearls and twinsets and jaunty little hats, gloves and red lipstick, all atremble at the importance of their task, these well brought up and well mannered ladies are the stuff of all good Sunday night dramas.
With impeccable poise and obsessive attention to detail these gentile ladies spent over thirty minutes carefully setting out their tea stall – a large trestle table complete with pretty blue tablecloth and paper doilies. Painstakingly and painfully they arrange and rearrange. Exquisite china teacups and saucers, pretty milk jugs, original 40s teapots, handles to the right, spouts to the left. Every piece it seems has to be checked and admired before being allotted its pre-destined space.
Barely acknowledging their audience from the outset, save to offer a sneering glance, by the time the table has started to groan the ladies are totally immersed in their task. Oblivious to the growling mutterings and increasingly restlessness the ladies continue to stack and build their tower of respectability to the point of precariousness.
When it seems that the tower cannot grow any higher and the audience have almost forgotten what they are waiting for, the ladies quietly unsheathe their weapons of destruction – a frying pan for Morris and a rolling pin for Oben. Without ceremony or warning and with enviable abandon they systematically destroy every carefully placed delicate object on their stall. China crashes and fragments fly. The stunned audience squeals and claps hands to mouths and ears. As the ladies’ smashing and bashing reaches a crescendo the audience is on its feet cheering and egging them on. They may not be getting their nice cup of tea after all but they seem pretty happy about it.
When the table and a good deal of the floor are covered with broken crockery with the audience are still cheering, the ladies exchange their weapons for sweeping brushes. Not until the fragments are swept into a neat pile do they rest, their moment of rebellion is over, order is restored. Time for a nice cup of tea perhaps?
An exhilarating and exhausting performance by Morris and Oben who played their parts to perfection. Their timing was superb, their poise impeccable and their tapping into that dark china-smashing side of us all was a triumph.
David Evans
For a second, more extensive review please follow this link: http://www.a-n.co.uk/interface/reviews/single/656451
Do My Bidding….
Thursday, June 24th, 2010
3rd till the 10th July
Relational art or Relationalism is a relatively new term in the art world which is being used to describe artists or art works who have a strong personal interaction with the viewer, making the viewer as important to the work as the artist. The viewer becomes both collaborator and part of the work itself and the work becomes irrelevant and incomplete without the input of an audience. These works are often described as micro-utopias as the sense of community formed between the viewers is an important aspect of relational art.
Artist: Louise Taylor