ARTISTS TALKING

# 22 [5 August 2011]

Opps!  Has it been a year already... well I suppose we have been quite busy at the gallery.

There is now less than a year left in this amazing building, it feels like a flash and we are already planning our last exhibition.  

We have high hopes for a big bang when we leave this space, but as long we don't go out with an impotent fizzle I will be happy!

Artside has just finished, and was twice the size it was last year, after promising oursleves that we would reduce the amount of artists - we doubled them. Next year, and I mean it, no more than 20 artists. AND we are starting earlier, actually we need to start now!

The gallery has been filled with amazing artists again this year.  The last exhibition DELIVERANCE, showed Rosalind Davis, Noam Enbar and Leanna Moran.

It is funny how a show comes about, and i am sure this is different for everyone who curates, but this one was fairly typical in its inception then growth, for me anyway.  

Noam's strange and wonderous films had caught my eye fairly rcently and I very much wanted to exhibit them. I have always loved Rosalind's work though would never have normally placed them together.  But when I saw Leanna's drawings, who had literally just walked out of the Southend college from her Fine Art BA course, I just knew the three of them would really play off each other.  It was quite a dark, almost sinsiter exhibition but not without hope.

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While running this project space, i have felt so honoured to have been able to meet and work with some really talented artists that I have admired. I have learnt so much from this experience, as a curator but also as an artist.  

We have been so lucky to have been able to spend time in this inspiring and unconventionally beautiful space.

# 21 [19 July 2010]

Artside has totally taken over my life and has consumed me completely!

It has been incredible to meet all these new people, seeing different practices in full flow.  I find my job simultaneously inspiress and supresses my own practice.

# 20 [30 June 2010]

NO News from the funding void.  So still non the wiser on whether I can apply for a job elsewhere - may just go and do it...hmmmm, what job to go for?? 

Am feeling the pressure of the empty wallet, yet have a distinct lack of time as I seem to be working pretty long hours with very little time off.

On the up side the pink 'rimmer' was looking good.

I had popped back into work tonight because the Vibe cube software needed to be installed.  It was really quiet in the gallery, except a loud buzzing of a bee weird seeing it hanging from the winch.

Nearly all done, which is good as the Artside project is more than close to the launch party now!  25 artists and 14 or so Venues - excellent - we just need to co-ordinate them all now before the 8th.

I guess in a way, if the funding came in now I would have a whole load more programme to think about, yep must keep thinking on the positive side of it all!!

# 19 [23 June 2010]

ARRRGGGGHHHH the flipping frustration of it.

Contacted the people dealing with the funding today, only to find they are also banging (their heads) on the door (brick wall) of someone else - who are about to be axed.

I am left with the words 'get back to you, hopefully with good news, as soon as possible' stuck in my empty throat.

Need money, need to have a job - need to know where I stand.

# 18 [23 June 2010]

TAP?COEXIST?TAP?COEXIST....??

This might clear up any confusion..

CoExist and TAP, although undeniably interwoven, are seperate - understandbly, sometimes, people mistake them for being the same thing.

CoExist is our organisation - our baby!!  currently: studios, galleries and projects.

TAP is a Project set up in partnership -between CoExist, Metal and ESW.  The TAP project is the building - the space that houses the arts organisations that work from inside.

For now, it is CoExist time and studios that keep the building running

How about some history on the project?

Essex and Suffolk Water had an emplty building, which was going to be knocked down and a development was to happen.  Metal had been working with them already and had a built up a good relationship with ESW.

The next project planned with Metal fell through due to the current financial climate and the development was axed.

The building sat empty - as so many do - oooh what we could do with them...

At the same time I had written a proposal to Southend Borough Council for an artist run space and they passed it on to Metal - who had just set up in Southend.

Metal contacted us.  They offered us the chance to used the ground floor of, the then derelict, Chalkwell Hall as a temporary gallery - and we did. Showing 30 artists in 6 shows in as many weeks. This was in July 2008.

After that we started a search for the next space and came up against blanks.

Meanwhile - ESW's plans had fallen through and they could not now sell the building and asked Metal if they wanted tio use it.  Metal didn't need it, so asked us if we wanted to use it for our artist run space idea - we jumped at the chance.

But first - we had to write proposals, go to a fair few meetings and do presentations for ESW to prove that our idea was sound and viable.  Thankfully, they loved our idea - now down to months of business for us!

ESW asked Metal to take on the lease as we were not, at the time, incorporated and they already had a working relationship with Metal.  Which was fair enough.

CoExist put in our first ever bid to ACE for help with the building works - a relatively small amount considering the size of the building.  But we kept everything as basic and modest as possible.  Our ACE bid was successful for the CoExist artists run space with studios and gallery.

Metal came to us with the idea that the project could be expanded.  They would apply for more funding and other organisations would join the project as partners.  CoExist would project manage it.

Ta daaah...  TAP :: temporary arts project was born.

Now including: The White Bus Cinema, IDEA13 and Level 4.

** In July 2009, CoExist had our first exhibition at TAP

** In September 2009 TAP launched.

** In March 2010 CoExist were awarded Ace funding for our exhibition programme.

** In March 2011, the building goes up for sale 

... we will just have to see what happens!  I'm open to suggestions.

We are eternally grateful to Metal and ESW for the risk they took with us as rookies and the chances they gave us. Hopefully we have proved ourselves worthy  :-)

# 17 [17 June 2010]

Tumble weed on the money front ... The funding Metal got for TAP and for the project management fee dried up in March.

CoExist put in a new bid for a programme of courses for the local community as well as for artists - and for a project managment fee.

We were successful - YIPPEE!  Hmmmm, wait for it....theres a BUT coming.

BUT ... PURDAH happened.... purdah being a kind of political silence.

Shhhhh!  it all goes quiet, and no one is allowed to make decisions about public spending untill they know the outcome of the election ...bummer the Tories :-(  THAT MEANT CUTS...chop chop chop.

The TAP project management fee is my bread and butter job and it ran out in March, but the job doesn't stop and I still work...for nothing.

It's a bit weird as I can't even get out there and apply for another job, as the funding application has been successful but still 'being dealt with.'

So I am left in a cashless void.

It is pretty weird having to apply for the funding that covers your own wage - somehow it feels wrong... but why?

Lots of wages come from funding, someone had to apply for them but because I am so used to not being paid for running projects and spaces it feels weird.

Just to put this into perspective, this bid is not just for CoExist but for all the partners that exist inside TAP, and I am not being paid for the time I have spent writing the bid, going to meetings and doing presentations.

We have always directed CoExist totally voluntarily, we do have ACE funding for exhibition programme now, but we have never paid ourselves for the hours spent.

I personally do it because I truely love running a gallery and working with other artists - meeting new people - seeing peers given a chance to show and them get a fee for it.

People work voluntarily mostly because we love the cause or get something out of it.

# 16 [17 June 2010]

CoExist are working on a big exhibition for the Southend high st.  ARTSIDE!

The town centre partnership wanted an event which bought art into the high street, so we were asked by the council if we would co-ordinate a project for them. 

I constantly feel honored by peoples belief and confidence in us.

So, we have pulled together a team who are working really hard to get really excellent emerging artists into the town centre to push peoples views on this british day-tripper seaside desination and seaside art. 

There are already some cool artists lined up, including Hayley Lock who made the poster, as well as katy Beinart and Birgit Deubener.

So far it is pretty frantic and I'm sure it will get worse as we only have 3 weeks left till launch night.... arghhhh!

# 15 [17 June 2010]

The galleries are going pretty well now, got some really amazing artists exhibiting.  I still feel suprised and honored that people want to show their work with us.

We are also starting to get a nice little momentum going with getting the publicity material out in good time.

I have to say it helps that we have more people helping out - when we first started out it was just Emma and I.  Jon now helps run the exhibitions and Kit has recently been a legend helping with the promo stuff!

The Studios go through various types of energy, sometimes buzzing and sometimes still, people are so busy trying to keep jobs going, exhibitions on the horizon, homes and children happy, careers moving...and on and on.

# 14 [4 June 2010]

Even though the curator of our latest exhibition had clearly labelled every piece 'PLEASE TOUCH' - the social barriers between Art and viewer were still in the air – at first. 

Laura Kennedy's white soaps were darkly beautiful and poignant.  Human worries stamped so deeply that it was a real effort to wash them away.

For about the first hour of the private view the soaps lay there dryly gasping for water, people picking them up, reading them and respectfully placing them back into their case.

It took a gang of kids crowding round the sink, scrubbing away the words from the fragrant soaps, to break down the gallery/viewer barriers - and once they had fallen, they were gone.  

This change in attitude showed itself most strongly in Helen Sturgess' Black, a plasticine piece, painstakingly placed on the wall.  In the artists statement she talks of how the plasticine transfers a trace of itself on to the fingers of the viewer.  Though what in fact happened was so much more than that. 

At first there was a similar restraint shown towards this piece but pretty quickly people were furiously pulling it apart and reshaping it - even removing it completely.  The artist was shocked to see her piece treated in this aggressive fashion, and was left with the urge to abandon her work, to disassociate herself from its new abject form.

This is understandable to a degree, but I enjoyed watching the people get their fingers right in and witnessing the audience expressing themselves was really exciting.     Seeing the piece spreading across the wall around the corner onto another wall and across the floor...that loss of control. Even the other artists in the exhibition were in there, scraping and scratching at it. 

Perhaps it is a comment on what happens when the viewer is released from a pent up restriction or perhaps it was disrespectful distruction.

I guess, because plasticine is a creative material, it begs to be played with ... we all have at some point ... it is very hard to resist, maybe not what the artist intended to happen but definitely intriguing to see what happens when barriers are not just broken but smashed to pieces - totally obliterated.

Was the viewer taking part in a destruction or creation?  Is creativity an aggressive action?  It is certainly never passive.

Removing the ‘normal’ constraints of the gallery changes the relationship between art and viewer and here it made something happen - with this particular piece it was a forceful and uncompromising response.

All the other pieces were very much experienced, enjoyed and touched - just not in the same way, somehow the barrier around the other works seemed more tangible.   It seemed to be that peoples natural reaction to the plastcine and the label PLEASE TOUCH were gutteral...

Oh and an interesting fact - this private view had the lowest consumption of alchohol, in relation to people, we have ever seen.

Artists:

Alteregorelativamentesensibili | Sara Korshoj Christensen | Ole Hagen | Sam Holden | Laura Kennedy | Chris Mercier | Silver & True | Karen Stor | Helen Sturgess

PLEASE TOUCH curated by Michaela Freeman, invites the audience to become a part of the work - the transaction between viewer and work intended to complete each piece. 

http://www.coexist.org.uk

PLEASE TOUCH is on till 25th June 

OPEN: Thur & Fri 10-2pm and Sat & Sun 12-4pm

# 13 [21 December 2009]

This project has kept me so busy over the last 2 years, that my own work has been put on a slow cook.

There are moments of real crazyness where I flip wildly between desperate urge to make work, the guilt of never spending enough time with my son and a feeling of inertia at seeing the studios around me filled with productivity.  Darn that irrational monkey that sits on my shoulder whispering sweet nothings...

However, in the back ground - squeezed in, between CoExist, TAP, writing proposals, going to meetings of one sort or another and looking after my six year old - I have been sneaking attention to my own practice, and it feels like a guilty pleasure.

Since I don't quite get totally uninterrupted time in the studios, I have taken to wandering around in a slightly nomadic fashion, with my bag full of kit.  This way i can sit bonding 'yarns' from shreds, wherever I am.

Now I am close to finishing the first piece in a series of work I made the maquettes for in 2007. 

The idea of humans need to fulfill potential being more about the journey rather than the end result, never felt so relevant.

One must imagine me happy!