First of all, a big thank you to everyone who attended the opening! It was great to see you all and I hope you enjoyed seeing the darkroom and the work that was on display.
On Saturday I opened up the gallery and darkroom to the public for the first time, having perviously only run sessions in there with my groups from ReEntry. It was great to have the opportunity to show everyone what has been achieved on the project to date and introduce what was planned for the future.
I presented two projects in the gallery - one which is to be the first of a series of rolling exhibitions from different artists and one which is set to be a permanent display.
The first is a series of images that link the work that I have been doing in Heath Town to that which I have been doing at Croome. Both sites are in a similar position in that they both require intervention. Croome went through years of neglect and has now been acquired by the national trust and is undergoing the work it needs. Heath Town through budgetary cuts has lost many of its facilities and it has now been decided that change is required. They are both manmade landscapes - one designed to imitate nature and the other to conquer it. They give clues to the respective ideologies of their time - Croome of a feudal society when the landed gentry were the ruling class and Heath Town of the post war socialism. What separates them is the worth that they are perceived to have. Buildings like Croome that are of that period are valued and seen as something that should be preserved, where those of Heath Town are unfashionable, undesirable and in line for demolition. Croome has survived where it is likely that Heath Town will not. I wanted to approach both sites in the same way - not valuing one above the other, making a comparison that wasn’t based on preconceptions and didn’t further any of the stereotypes that are associated with either site. I wanted to display the similarities and differences between the locations without making any judgements upon them and to show what I think makes both places interesting and unique.
The second, permanent display is what has been dubbed the ‘photograffiti’ wall, on which residents are invited to share their own images which will be stuck permanently on the wall and eventually layered over each other in a constantly evolving single collaborative work of art - created by the whole community. The piece currently displays work that I have produced in Heath Town alongside images taken and printed by the young people of ReEntry, all produced in the darkroom, as well as a series of prints produced with the artist Stuart Whipps.
Thank you to all who have so far contributed to the project’s success.
On Saturday I opened up the gallery and darkroom to the public for the first time, having perviously only run sessions in there with my groups from ReEntry. It was great to have the opportunity to show everyone what has been achieved on the project to date and introduce what was planned for the future.I presented two projects in the gallery - one which is to be the first of a series of rolling exhibitions from different artists and one which is set to be a permanent display.
The first is a series of images that link the work that I have been doing in Heath Town to that which I have been doing at Croome. Both sites are in a similar position in that they both require intervention. Croome went through years of neglect and has now been acquired by the national trust and is undergoing the work it needs. Heath Town through budgetary cuts has lost many of its facilities and it has now been decided that change is required. They are both manmade landscapes - one designed to imitate nature and the other to conquer it. They give clues to the respective ideologies of their time - Croome of a feudal society when the landed gentry were the ruling class and Heath Town of the post war socialism. What separates them is the worth that they are perceived to have. Buildings like Croome that are of that period are valued and seen as something that should be preserved, where those of Heath Town are unfashionable, undesirable and in line for demolition. Croome has survived where it is likely that Heath Town will not. I wanted to approach both sites in the same way - not valuing one above the other, making a comparison that wasn’t based on preconceptions and didn’t further any of the stereotypes that are associated with either site. I wanted to display the similarities and differences between the locations without making any judgements upon them and to show what I think makes both places interesting and unique.
The second, permanent display is what has been dubbed the ‘photograffiti’ wall, on which residents are invited to share their own images which will be stuck permanently on the wall and eventually layered over each other in a constantly evolving single collaborative work of art - created by the whole community. The piece currently displays work that I have produced in Heath Town alongside images taken and printed by the young people of ReEntry, all produced in the darkroom, as well as a series of prints produced with the artist Stuart Whipps.Thank you to all who have so far contributed to the project’s success.
No comments:
Post a Comment