- Venue
- The Space
- Location
- South West England
Back to Square One by the sculpture group Quercus, showed at The Space Gallery, Stroud in February 2010. The exhibition coincided with a discussion event hosted by Quercus, exploring the role of collaboration in the Visual arts, with contributions from people of artistic professions where collaboration is very much the norm, such as in music and theatre, leading us to understand there are many different strands to the meaning of ‘Collaboration’. The act of 5 sculptors, coming from materials-based backgrounds, to collaborate towards any final outcome is pretty rare, constantly asking where the ego comes into play and whether this hinders or enriches the collaborative process.
Quercus is a group of 5 sculptors; Anna Usborne, Emily Smith, Alison Cockroft, Ann-Margreth Bohl and myself Aimee Lax, formed at Stroud Valleys Artspace in 2008. The recent birth of my baby daughter meant I was unable to take part in this recent Quercus venture but it enabled me to stand back and view this exhibition as well us our collective. For Quercus the collaboration does not focus on the outcome or in this case, the exhibition solely. The collaborative process is on-going, it is going on the minute we each enter our shared studio space and continues well into the night through email and text conversations. Transparency in communication is vital but so too is the aim or reason behind taking on a show of this nature, exploring what it is we wanted to achieve, or whether the actual doing/making/organising along the way was the actual achievement in collaboration.
The tangible achievements in the various forms of sculpture were transparent on opening night, each piece displayed was carefully considered and an individual approach to another Quercus members’ task or request. A simple method to mix things up, this enabled a question to be asked by one Quercus artist and answered by another and the culmination of the works displayed together highlighted the artist differences and similarities to these same questions. Task one was to draw a dandelion with an HB pencil and write four words to describe the plant. Task two was to cut into a round canvas and to introduce other materials. Task three was to present a beech tree nut shell in a context that is meaningful to the artist using any materials and any scale. Task four was to find a functional object (preferably for £1 or less) and change its use; the finished object could have a whimsical or practical application.
One theme that particularly struck me was the quiet restraint of these works that very much celebrated nature but were all too aware of our human controls over it. In response to Cockcroft’s beech nut shell task, Usborne littered the floor with the shells that seemingly wanted to take over the space, but at the same time were constrained by the gallery walls. This achieved a large scale work that reminded the viewer of ‘out there’, bringing the outside in. Smith responded with the same task by projecting a shadow of a single shell onto the wall, creating a large ethereal shape, a trick of the light. It’s movement was enthralling. Bohl adapted a single small round canvas into a sphere, made from a collection of hollow semi-spheres in papier mache, a capacity to create volume using materials that are diametrically opposed to her usual medium of stone, in this work she continues to explore the perceptions of weight versus mass. Cockcroft’s cut paper flower shapes, in response to the £1 object-changing task, reminded me of a ‘make-your-own’ flower garland stencil, complete with graph paper to ensure absolute perfection in making. Only on closer inspection do you see evidence of pencil rubbings and mistakes.
The piece that appears to most celebrate the exhibition’s title is the square composed of 4 separate drawings of a dandelion that was Smith’s task. Each artist drew their dandelion, each drawing very different. Back to the drawing board, or back to square one, all Quercus artists use drawing to initiate and build ideas. The idea of starting over, re-assessing or indeed discovering seems to be a vital moment in time for Quercus. The collaboration, a worthwhile exercise in learning new skills. The questions now arise for us all, for the majority of us who work part-time to make ends meet, or are raising a family, is there time for ourselves, our own egos as well as a part to play in a group? Quercus is very keen to hear about other artists groups and how they operate. Please email us if you would like further info about discussions in this area or if you would like to participate in this research or share your experiences.
All of the artists will be opening their studios in Stroud for the site10 arts festival, 12-13th and 19-20th June. For more information about the festival visit: