Artranspennine08

Paul Harfleet and Hilary Jack are currently organising Artranspennine08; a large scale cross-regional exhibition with an array of emerging and established artists working in a variety of disciplines. Artists from across the transpennine route will be placing work at a variety of locations from painted beer mats in pubs to augmented rugby balls in fields. There will be a special preview event at Internaional3 on Friday June 13th.

Cube - OPEN

Michael James Jones "Marquette of the Night"

Above one of the many highlights of the show; Robin Maurice.

Harfleet & Jack were recently invited to select and curate Cube’s first annual OPEN Competition. The competition was open to any creative; applicants were asked to respond to the theme of the Urban Built Environment. Paul Harfleet and Hilary Jack made a selection from 250 submissions this number was subsequently narrowed down to 14 practitioners who were thought to best convey the contemporary insights and thoughts on the given theme. A selection was subsequently made of three artists, Robin Maurice (Image above) and Michael James Jones were selected as runners up, and a residency at CUBE was awarded to Rich White ( 'Passage' by Rich White, bottom photograph by Nico Lloyd).

Alexandra Dipple

The selection of artists made for CUBE’s first OPEN exhibition represents practitioners working across media that explore the urban built environment in fascinating and ingenious ways. The work presented offers a joyful celebration of the metropolis whilst simultaneously revelling in a dark dystopian vision; the resulting exhibition reveals the complex relationships that artists have with the city today.

'Passage' - Rich White

The article above recently featured in The Metro (click on image to read), other reviews have appeared on the AN un-edited website and BD Magazine.

beneath

For beneath everyone on Surface Gallery’s mailing list was invited to participate in an open submission group show. Each artist was asked to submit work which would be no taller than 100cm. This would then be presented in the order it arrived at the gallery. Beneath intends to reveal this network of emerging artists to each other, the gallery and the audience.This action restricts the size of the work submitted, reveals the physicality of the gallery itself and delineates its architectural features whilst simultaneously inviting the audience to ponder the gallery’s position physically and culturally. The conceptual and aesthetic links emerge between the art works purely by chance rather than by the curator’s hand.Some artists will always push whatever curatorial boundaries have been set to the limit. Tomas Chaffe has constructed a wall which divides the gallery, its height reaching precisely the height of the red line. The building of the wall forced the curators and gallery management to discuss at length; access issues, health and safety issues and whether such a large work may cause unrest with other artists. It was decided to allow the artist to construct the wall with some minor adjustments; the work is a testament to the artist-curator-gallery relationship which in this case was a successful one.The various approaches to the brief have revealed the spectrum of the artists that are included on Surface Gallery’s mailing list which has to a certain extent revealed the position that the gallery currently inhabits within the Nottingham art scene. So, as the British Art show is a microcosm of current artistic practices in the UK, this exhibition is intended to act as a snapshot of Surface Gallery’s current interconnections with artists based in Nottingham and beyond. Below Thomas Chaffe's work at /beneath.

An interesting observation during the opening of 'beneath' was that many of the audience members used Tomas Chaffe's work as an architectural feature; leaning on, talking over and even placing drinks on the wall. This occured despite the wall being featured on the show map, thus adding to the complex readings of this work as architectural add-on, sculptural work and curatorial challenger.

Thomas M Wright

Above is just one of the painting highlights from 'beneath', 'Monument' was painted by Thomas M Wright.

Dave Ball

Dave Ball's video work was made specifically for 'beneath' and involved the protaganist persistently attempting to throw a piece of broccolli 'out of the TV set' and 'over the red line'.

Blue Firth

The above illustrates the various links that occur even when the placing of works is based on a predetermined conceptual structure. Tomas Chaffe's wall on the far right is a site specific barrier that relates closely to the work of Maud Allen, 'Chair' relates to the nature of obstruction in space, the photograph shows how the light breaks through the solidity of the chair creating a shadow. The aesthetic link is echoed in the work of Blue Firth who made a vinyl floor piece, entitled; 'How to defy death whilst also being invisible (only on a Saturday) this utilises the aesthetic of mythology and dark magic to relate back to the workings of the gallery that was previously closed on Saturday.

Laura Dare

Laura Dare's photograph; 'Red Lips' featured left of this picture, alongside a detail of the red tape shown here delineating the architecture of the gallery.

map

Many thanks to all the artists that took part in beneath at Surface Gallery. If you are interested or were unable to attend the show and would like to recieve an illustrated map containing a list of all 64 artists that took part then e-mail apartmentmanchester@hotmail.co.uk to recieve the map e-mailed to you as a word document.

more information

This article locates some of the activity in Nottingham that is occuring during the British Art Show 06, (click to enlarge) appeared in the Evening Post 0n 21.04.06. follow this link for more related information.

Visitor Assistance - Cornerhouse Manchester

Visitor Assistance premiered during Apartment's contribution to 'SOCIAL WORK: FOUR LIVE PROJECTS' at the Cornerhouse (14th January - 16th April 2006): The project has developed into an informal network of artists that are willing to assist cultural visitors from Dublin, London, Glasgow, The Hague and beyond, e-mail Apartment for more information.

Have you ever said to a friend; I know someone in the city you’re traveling to, here’s their number give them a call?

Visitor Assistance takes this occasional gesture between friends and transforms it into a global network of artists that operate as cultural city guides. So called Visitor Assistants are specially selected for their social adeptness and intimate knowledge of their native city. A visitor simply calls the number on specially distributed Visitor Assistance cards. The caller will be connected to an amiable artist who will help in any way they can.

The launch of Visitor Assistance is part of the exhibition Social Work: Four Live Projects (14 January – 16 April 2006) for Cornerhouse Projects. Business cards will be placed on the public telephone in the lobby at Cornerhouse and will be regularly replenished in order to maintain Visitor Assistance’s presence over the three month period. Badges will be worn by allocated visitor assistants; identifying the wearer as a friendly face and representative of Visitor Assistance.

“I arrived in London, I was overwhelmed by the listings, I called the number and my Visitor Assistant was so helpful. She told me where the best art preview was in town, and how to get there. When I arrived, I spotted someone wearing a visitor assistant badge and I knew I had a friend in London! She introduced me to some really interesting people; I had a great time.”

The number on the card; 07799 204455 is the number of a mobile telephone that will be passed from assistant to assistant depending on the artists availability; a recorded message will be in place when no one is available, although every effort will be made to be available as frequently as possible during the running of The British Art Show 2006.

Disclaimer
Visitor assistance is an artwork, though the project is taken seriously by all concerned, the actual visitor assistant availability is dependant on realistic artist availability.
Each assistant will endeavor to offer correct information as much as possible though each visitor should be made aware that this is an artwork.
Every visitor assistant is an artist; this is their only qualification to participate with this project any expectations by visitors should take this into account.

On The Shelf

The first show devised by Compartment explored artist’s networks and personal relationships and their importance as a professional resource. To reveal some of the mechanisms of this activity Hilary Jack invited the artist contacts she has accumulated over her ten year art career and invited them to take part in a group show; 'On the Shelf', this show was launched at Rogue Artists’ Studios Tenth Anniversary Open Studio weekend on Saturday December 3rd. The images of the work by the participating artists will follow soon on this blog. Above is an installation shot of On the Shelf at Compartment; the show was a great success with hundreds of visitors over the Rogue Open studio weekend. Compartment is embarking on the mammoth task of thoroughly documenting all Eighty artist's work, we will have completed this over the next week or so. Each artist will have an image or two of their work and we hope that the exhibiting artists who visit the site will leave any relevant information in the comments section of each post, with possible links to each artist's website. for more information and to join the mailing list please e-mail; apartmentmanchester@hotmail.co.uk. Below just one of the many highlights of 'On The Shelf' Pavel Buchler's 'Bengali Rose'.

Compartment

Compartment refers to the curatorial practice of Paul Harfleet and Hilary Jack. This curatorial collaboration began at Apartment; an artist-led project and exhibition space they co-run from Paul Harfleet's sixth floor council flat in central Manchester. At Apartment a wide selection of international artists at various career stages have shown. Apartment supplies an interesting context for the showing of contemporary artwork, Compartment aims to seek out new and exciting locations for the presentation of Artists and their work. On the Shelf, detailed below premiered this new venture. Harfleet and Jack tend to parody the gallery structure within their practice by frequently using brands, logos and a professional aesthetic in what may be considered unusual locations or situations. This use of 'brand' in Harfleet and Jack's collaborative artistic practice is exemplified by Vistor Assistance; an international network of artists that assist cultural visitors in cities across the globe. This project was commsioned by Cornerhouse as part of 'Social Work-four live projects' an exhibition of four collaborators in Manchester who used Cornerhouse as a conceptual base for activty throughout the British Art Show 2006 in Manchester.

The Art

Below is an image of each work from the eighty participating artists; these unselected works are placed on the blog in the order they were recieved; echoing the way we presented the work on the shelf for the show. There are still a couple to do so don't be dissapointed if you're not on we will get there in the end...

Heidi Schaefer

Heidi Schaefer, Featherlight, mixed media.

Leo Fitzmaurice

'Base', Baseball (ball removed) by Leo Fitzmaurice

Felicity Shillingford

Felicity Shillingford, Scroll of Dead trees.

Stephen Maxwell

Stephen Maxwell, 'From Fiammeta's Second Story, oil on canvas.