ARTISTS TALKING

# 17 [15 October 2007]

Brian Holdcroft - studio artist

When I walk the landscape I find myself thinking about the way that we engage with the environment. The dialogue is one that I feel cannot be detached from the history of the land to which we are so firmly rooted and the human condition. Fleeting moments of heightened experience raise further questions about the shape of our surroundings and our relationship with it. In his book “Landscape and Memory” Simon Schama suggests….. “Before it is a repose for the senses landscape is the work of the mind”.

The momentary and the more monumental shifts that occur both external and internal to our existence creates fluid reference points.

This constant state of becoming is central to my work as an art maker. My approach is to work with a variety of mediums including Super 8 film, photography, 2D and site specific in order to open up imaginative spaces of engagement.

# 16 [8 October 2007]

recalling the future.

Reviewed by Gemma Thacker on Work Experience

AirSpace.

Art that shows important matters.

Through the art you see the lives and the sole of the artist. Each artist coming up with something meaningful to them and showing us, through art, ways to understand the world and giving us a new light with which to look on things all around us.

Talulah Miers’s Template appears to be about our earth, it is saying, our once proud world is melting into nothing, animals are dying because of our cruel ways towards nature and each other. Blackened hearts taking life itself. Soon there will be nothing left but death and blood stains on our once proud Earth.

Paul Fulton the Chicken Coop. The main body is simple enough but has a deeper meaning. To see past the body and to the inside of it. The lights, like your eyes, are a window into your soul.

Stuart Porter’s Lead Work. In a time forgot lies important memories and secret items saved for the future. The use of lead gives it an age but keeps it the same.

Andrew Reynolds’s Syanaptic Voyage. Unstoppable movement. A soul like no other. In a simple form, a journey is started from nowhere and its destination unknown to its self-moving with the river of life until the end of time.

Ben Chetter’s Starman is a symbol, a hidden question, a highlight of ones hidden self. The truth of sexuality can this be a way to express it?

Recollection, remembering the past. But to me looking to the future. In both ways you see the art. Past and the future in one. As one door closes another two open. The past has important meaning and the future is what we make it. In the hearts and minds of all the living, hopes for the future and special moments to cherish forever like a baby being born, to its first days in high school and the rest of its life. Linked by invisible threads tying all of use together binding us to the past and unknown future.

# 15 [28 September 2007]

Bernard Charnley-AirSpace Studio Artist

Bernard Charnley has been a studio artist at AirSpace since the very beginning. To find out about Bernard's work please see his website

 www.bernardcharnley.co.uk

# 14 [26 September 2007]

Recollection Private View:

A paper polar bear is engulfed in a hurricane of polystyrene balls and is imprisoned in glass. This is the first scene you encounter at the Recollection exhibition at the AirSpace Gallery. It is as you are passing by this window display, that inquisitiveness leads you on into the gallery itself where you are confronted by Tallulah Miers' projection of said polar bear onto a hanging of paper. The balls sweep in to gradually cover the bear, a tragic reminder of the melting polar ice caps, whilst maintaining an air of meditation with the repetitive imagery and rhythmic sounds of the ocean.

Scattered and disguised throughout the exhibition are Stuart Porter's lead sculptures; ghostly souvenirs of a time passed. A clock without hands or cuckoo hangs on the wall, whilst a record sits on the player without a needle. A pencil sits within the wall, illuminated but out of reach like a fading memory. The sculptures appear to be soft yet like the nature of the material they are made from, they are heavy with the memories they hold.

These small domestic items are dominated by Ben Chetter's looming clothes closet, from which emanates the sound of a distant disco and sure enough, hidden behind is the revealing of what is in the closet. Chetter's face is twice disguised, once with the mask of a stag and the other by contrast a dancing glitter painted face; demonstrating his struggle with peoples perceptions of masculinity and sexuality. The work continues to bombard us with camp, homosexual imagery versus masculine connotations made ugly. A clear message.

A whole 20ft of meditative drawing winds its way up and down one of the AirSpace walls. Unlike a maze there is no path just line after line of narrative that leads the viewer by staccato lengths into the compulsive mind of the artist. Or maybe just back to where you started. Andy Reynolds' drawing comments on the instinctive, like an unconscious doodle spilling and out of control.

At the back of the gallery is a darkened room, lit by a star speckled chicken coop. It seems that there is something about to burst from within the coop, a moment of enlightenment waiting to be released but imprisoned by lengths of pine wood and walls of agricultural plastic. These mundane objects hold onto this moment, perhaps to be released at another time.

ReCollection's private view was a great night with the gallery reaching full capacity requiring a one out one in policy on the door. Alongside the opening of the new show AirSpace joined Future Shorts in Creationism, a night of music, video, photography and performance art at the Underground in Hanley. Miers brought her work into the club with a performance piece, seeing her slowly pull undone a knitted blanket was almost as frustrating as the polar bear's fate was tragic with the delicate wool that had been time consumingly put together spiralling onto the floor. Performances by local bands Coda, Cats in the Alley and Rachel Rimmer were powerful and fun with the smooth flow interspersed by the video work, allowing each art form the full attention it deserved.

# 13 [29 August 2007]

Chris Simcox-airspace studio artist

 Some things that Chris has been up to...

Architecture week "A Fuller Space"

This was an event that intended to demonstrate the need within town centres for use of space to be explored in different ways, whether it be shelters or some kind of seating area. To capture people's imagination about public space and the surrounding architecture and to open up other possiblities or ways of seeing the surrounding urban landscape. The project started by putting together Architects, engineers, Artists with a local youth group and to come up with ideas through the use of workshops and events to inspire the young group to come up with their own ideas and to actively engage with the project. After some plane sailing, and the scenario of getting to know who you are working with! We arranged a time table and a brief to work from, the first day we came together as a group to come up with some funny, fantastical and sometimes crazy ideas. As the weeks went by we all came up with the idea of a "chill out" space, based upon the shape of a football.. So it was the professional's turn to make the idea a reality, realizing we should make the architect on our team work and show his skills of design. The next stage was to construct the shape using a 'geo-dome' which is made up of pentagons, and hexagons. Some serious late nights followed using in the 'airspace' studios to build it. Using the dome we collaborated with the youth group to come up with some panels to attach upon the surface, different materials such as steel, grass, and clay to add an interactive element to the project. On the day we were unfortunate to have the worst summer's day you can imagine, but the work was brilliantly successful and the youth group certainly made it their own.

Harlech Bienale  "Uncommon Ground" Five day residency involving artists from all over the world including Argentina, Spain, Israel and even England. The project was to have studio based artists who normally work and live in vibrant cities (Stoke-on-Trent)?? To come to Harlech which is an incredibly beautiful landscape of tree's, Mountains, Sand and sea to produce work and to place it in and around the landscape. My own perpective on this was to use and pick out the vast natural colour of Harlech and the surrounding landscape. I began by gathering scrap wood from which i could cut out circular shapes, and paint them with the intension of capturing colour and light to expose the natural beauty of the landscape.

# 12 [29 August 2007]

Window Projects

The window of Number 4 Broad Street has become a taster for artists to show their work to the passers by of Hanley City Centre.

Past work includes the fading memories of Katie Shipley's ‘A Place to Forget (5)', 35mm slides encased in wax that melted through the sunny days of April and revealed the forgotten memories within. And Anna Francis' iconic image of the partly torn down ‘Terrace', which pays homage to the buildings that hold history for many people in Stoke on Trent, but are being sacrificed for the regeneration of the area.

Both pieces have been recycled from past exhibitions at AirSpace's old home at the Falcon Works, Old Town Road. Creating a gradual move from one space to another and allowing interested parties to see the quality of what may lie behind the doors of the new Gallery.

The current work on show in the window is Matt Robinson's bright yellow vinyl design, catching the eye of all passers by. This is an extension of the Dizzy Heights show that just finished at the gallery.

# 11 [29 August 2007]

AirVideo

31^st August Preview (invite only) 7pm -9pm

31^st August - 7^th September open to public

‘Alternative Possible Worlds' involves 17 international video artists who have gained recognition as emerging talents. The work has been selected based around concerns about a rapidly changing world; from the effects of a shifting global economy, the destruction or suppression of indigenous cultures, mass building programmes and  urban sprawl to dreams of possible futures informed by a mixture of 1950s science fiction and advancements in cloning and genetic manipulation.

The artists' Alternative Possible Worlds trace a fine line between the illusion of progress and potential catastrophe.

Artists include Nick Goulis, Andro Semeiko, Toine Klaassen, Brignell and Raimes, Stephen Bishop, Noémi McComber, Zhenchen Liu, Ella Kajsa Nordstrom, Monica Rodriguez Medina, Michael Salmond, Gaia Persigo, Akiko and Masako Takada, Marcin Gajewski, Joseph Hallam, Ben Young, Alexandra Crouwers and Michelle Letelier.

AirVideo is a series of film and video events co-curated by Matt Roberts and Yu-Chen Wang of BasementArtProject.com. For more information www.basementartproject.com/airvideo

# 10 [17 July 2007]

Head Talk

Two of AirSpace's studio artists, Bernard and Brian, have been working together to create Head Talks, an opportunity for the AirSpace team to get together and talk about relevant subjects in contemporary art.

On Sunday the 15^th July the first Head Talks took place, we planned a walk and a picnic and the rain didn't deter us. A group of 11 people donned their waterproofs and we took a short walk around Consall Nature Park before picnicking in the cars, then gathering together in the Staffordshire Arms pub for a pint.

Here we began the talk; as a group of people used to casual meetings and talking about their art work it was interesting to see the members engaged in a different kind of conversation. The topic of discussion was that of the artist and branding, which is relevant to most of the AirSpace members, within this topic we also discussed definitions of the word branding; branding as a particular style recognised in an artist's work; branding as a form of marketing. The conversation turned to a discussion of our own experiences and situations including worries about compromising our artistic integrity in order to make money.

Also present were Matt Robinson and Pete Smith the artists currently installing the Dizzy Heights exhibition at the AirSpace Gallery. They were invited to talk about their practice and to join in the discussion.

The first Head Talks was a brilliant day, some beautiful scenery and fresh air to inspire the mind before a pint and some good conversation; I can't wait for the next one!

# 9 [4 July 2007]

Dizzy Heights

Preview Friday July 20^th 7pm-9pm   (Private View, invitation only)

Exhibition Saturday 21^st July -Saturday 18^th August (Open to the general public)

Gallery open Tues - Sat 11-5pm

AirSpace, Stoke on Trent's new contemporary art galley, will celebrate its grand opening at its new location, No. 4 Broad Street, Hanley on Friday 20^th July. For the occasion we are delighted to announce that internationally renowned artist Paul Rooney will preside over the opening ceremony which will be during a private view of the new show Dizzy Heights.

Dizzy Heights

Prepare yourself to be taken into a different world, a weird and strange place where dream like forms become reality and imaginations can wander unfettered by the everyday.

Dizzy Heights, the next show at Airspace Gallery has brought together two exciting new artists Pete Smith and Matt Robinson, who have created bizarre and wonderful installations whose irresistible allure will challenge your perceptions of reality.

There is something from our childhood memories that resonates in Matt Robinson's work. The bright cartoon like colours and shapes put us at our ease, however on closer inspection we realise that "here be monsters". 

Sick Cloud is a giant 3D work made from a combination of randomly collected objects and polyurethane mouldings, which muses on what an ethereal ever changing thing like a cloud would puke up if it could. Matt made the work in a process of what he calls "doodling", the bringing together of "stuff", some which is recycled, in the spirit of play. In this tide of "virtual" vomit we can pick out a seemingly never ending variety of visually entertaining mini-installations, which explode from the stream. In a colourful semi-abstract way these smaller works, some with intricately composed narratives, others which offer witty re-workings of recognisable images and icons, make up a ginormous whole articulating its own unique visual language.

The sheer volume and gusto with which Matt explores the notions of constant evolution and the setting off of themes of utopian visions against references of horror, decay and disgust, leaves us with feeling that a frenzied battle is taking place. The allure and beauty of the colours and fabric of the work draws us in, but once engaged the realisation of the awfulness of the object repels us, leaving a bitter sweet memory of the experience.

Wailing Wall by Pete Smith is, as it suggests, a giant wall, but unlike other walls the function of this construct is to involve us to play.  Like Sick Cloud, the wall is made from a random collection of unlikely objects, however this wall give forth utterances. Gently, familiar voices whisper familiar phrases, drawing us in, inviting us to explore and engage. Breaking the usual gallery convention of "please do not touch", we are invited not only to add to the work but to go one further and physically immerse ourselves in the work itself, investigating its interior and ultimately leaving our mark.

From Stoke on Trent, Pete Smith is well known for his unusual constructs having had installations in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham as well as locally. Interested in the human condition he creates mechanical surrogates that mimic the mundane patterns we follow in our everyday routines, from the ritual workspace to our most intimate private moments. The impressive scale and size of Wailing Wall allows us to step out of our normality for a while, and through its multi faceted nature invite us to consider other possibilities.

Both these works playfully ask questions about what is normal and real. Echos of Dali resonate in both, highlighting urgent present day questions of environment, politics and aesthetics. These works raise issues of modern day media, image and time and the way these things effect and play upon our very humanity, suggesting an unnerving fragility of our perceptions of the norm.  

# 8 [4 July 2007]

Art Gallery tries a hand at Animal Rescue!

It's a tale of high drama, of battling against the elements, of passionate endeavour, loss and finally an unlikely happily ever after, plus possibly the cutest picture of ducks you'll ever see in your life.

Yes duck, ducks! When Andrew Branscombe and David Bethell the curators of AirSpace, Stoke on Trent's new contemporary art gallery, received the news that they could finally take official occupancy of no.4 Broad Street, Hanley, they were unprepared for the heart rending experience that was about to unfold.  Preoccupied as they were with the negotiations of Dizzy Heights, AirSpace's next exhibition, it was only by pure chance that they noticed a small mother duck who had set up her nursery in a disused out-house behind the new gallery. Although the past year of running the gallery in a disused factory at the edge of town had taught Andrew and David how to cope with the most taxing and bizarre of situations, still they were astonished to suddenly find themselves in the role of carers to a mother to be.  

There were concerns of what would happen to the chicks once they were born as the nearest water was over half a mile away and across many busy roads. But more intense concerns were raised when despite vigilant observation it was discovered one morning that mummy duck had vanished. Was she attacked by an urban fox which had been seen in the vicinity or perhaps a city cat or stray dog? Whatever it was, she had fled leaving her unborn chicks to their fate.

Operation ‘Rescue' started as David and Andrew hatched a plan. The remaining nine eggs were collected into Andrew's jumper and nestled into a cardboard box in front of a heater in the Gallery Space. The eggs were then carefully relocated to an incubator at Andrew's house and three days later immersed in the organisation of gallery events David received a text message from Andrew: ‘Might be a bit late today Dude, 9 eggs went in a 9 ducklings came out.' And sure enough 9 beautiful ducklings were hatched and squeaking for attention.

But now what? How were they to look after the new arrivals? They had no pond!

Several phone calls later and we are delighted to report that a new foster home has been found for the little uns at a bird sanctuary near Uttoxeter. All are doing well and will be released in to the wild later in the year. A happy fairy tale ending for the Stoke on Trent ducks.