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Paintings for the next exhibition were already stacked up in the space when we arrived to take our exhibition down. Such is the nature of the Independents. One blink of an eye and everyone has moved on to the next one……….

After packing our work up as carefully as possible…. ( though a comparison to Christmas decorations was made by one of the artists over two of the more ‘fiddly’ works!) .. We loaded everything on to the van and it made its way up to Leeds. Here it will be stored for a month before it is unpacked again and displayed one more time in the UK.

In the meantime… we all go back to our boring every day jobs and life takes on some sort of normality again.

So, unless anything drastic happens… I can give this blog a rest for a month and carry on with my own work.


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…. and so, one door is almost closing and we begin to approach another, waiting to turn the handle.

The closing event of Inhospitable at the Bridewell actually began at various times, as people started to wander in as soon as we got there. The venue has quite strict security rules – main front door to always be locked behind you as you enter the premises and all doors within the building ( studios and office) ditto. But, as there were a few of us around, we asked if, just for once, we could prop open the front door and keep it open.

….and that’s when people started to enter. People that had wanted to come in, in the past, but were too ‘scared’ to.

I remember when the Ceri Hand gallery was in Liverpool and I felt the same apprehension over visiting on my own. It was in an ‘uncomfortable’ area of Liverpool and you had to ring a bell to gain entry to the gallery. I only ever went there once – to a private view, when there was safety in numbers. That’s probably why she packed all her bags and moved south ( if everyone else felt the same)

The choice of venue is so important if you want people to ‘follow a trail’. I was talking to someone recently, who was really excited about setting their work up in a venue not normally used as an exhibition space and as soon as I heard the address, my heart sunk and I thought ‘no one is going to visit there’.

Then there is the other extreme…. after finishing our invigilation shift at the Bridewell on Saturday, I walked up to Copperas Hill with fellow exhibiting artist KImbal Bumstead, to check out at least some of the Biennial. I only had half an hour, as I had to meet up with someone, so only got to see one part – The New Contemporaries . As far as I could see, the work with quite impressive and worth a second visit, but the building is so distracting! It’s a massive disused postal sorting office and it really overshadows the work. I found myself staring up at the ceiling, the beams, the pulleys…almost everything that was left in the building, rather than looking at the work itself.

But anyway………. in an ideal world, we would have liked a more central space where people can just walk in, invigilators are paid and the building just has plain floors and a ceiling……but that wasn’t ever going to happen. We do this for our work to be seen – to whatever audience is there and to whatever venue we are lucky enough to secure.

Up at the other side of town, the door stayed open and although it was bitterly cold in the corridor, our Closing event at the Bridewell was very well attended. Kimbal did his presentation – a variation of the one he did in Stockholm, but just as enthralling.

Our second venue – at Albert Dock was an empty shop. People saw it as just that and wandered in – because it was there. There was very rarely a time when no one visited. Tiring and stressful as it was to have two venues open at once, I can honestly say that it has been hugely successful.

The van from Leeds will arrive on Tuesday, we will pack up the two venues and head north.


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I started to wear my winter coat again this week and reaching into the depths of zipped up, rarely used pockets, I found paraphernalia on SUPERMARKET. It was SUPERMARKET that brought us where we are today – manically hovering between two exhibitions and trying to coordinate 20 + artists, 6 of which live and work overseas.

I would have liked to have done SUPERMARKET again next year, but we achieved what we set out to do – to take our work to Stockholm, communicate ideas with artists over there, and bring the experience back to the UK, to then share with the public.

So, the exhibition is reaching its final days……in Liverpool that is. ( the next stage is already in the pipeline)…… and we have had a sudden flurry of visitors. We are going to have a closing event as we’ve found that these usually work well in bringing in visitors that didn’t get round to , or simply forgot to, see the exhibition beforehand. http://www.independentsbiennial.org/2012/10/10/inhospitable-closing-event-at-the-bridewell/

It could have been the publicity I sent out that reminded these recent visitors that we are here – or it could have that they were coming anyway. Whatever reason, It was good that they came.

Two more days of either coordinating invigilators, or having to invigilate myself.

Oh to go back to exhibiting in a gallery space that does all this for you : /

http://www.supermarketartfair.com/

( scroll down to exhibition stands, and we are there – SCIBase )


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There was an open newspaper in the office, dated sometime in September. In it was an article about proposed changes of business rates to several art related venues in Liverpool. The fact that it hadn’t been thrown away, highlighted the uneasiness the article had provoked.

One venue – Mello Mello, had recently learned it is to lose 80% discretionary business rates relief that was provided by the council, leaving it facing an annual bill of £30,000.

The article goes on to say that many other arts based organisations that will still receive rate relief will have to demonstrate their work with deprived communities.

The only other venue that was mentioned was Static Gallery – who recently held an auction to raise funds, but both The Bridewell and Royal Standard were mentioned when chatting to other artists at our PV. Minutes of recent meetings were left pinned on the notice board. Not really meant for the prying eyes of visitors such as myself, but still no secret was being made of the fact that they need to start some cash making ideas themselves.

We lost several arts venues in Liverpool last year, so it is quite worrying that another cull is scheduled. I hope it doesn’t happen. The Bridewell in particular have been very hospitable to us ( following the Biennial theme to the letter!)


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What brings you to Liverpool? asks the man in the cafe to the two students that have been staying with me. ‘We’re here to get some work experience with the Biennial’. ‘What’s that?’ asks the man. ….and that, so it seems, is the general opinion of the average person on the street here.

I wonder if they are bored with it all? There’s always exhibitions popping up in Liverpool, so has the Biennial really made any difference?

I took the two students over to Liverpool this morning and received a text on route, from the next two who are staying over. I must say, this ‘Collaborative Arts Society’ at Leeds Uni certainly has some enthusiastic members – I just wish some of it would rub off here!

So students #1 stayed at the Albert Dock unit while students #2 did a tour of the Biennial, then swapped over early afternoon. While I did the long and lonely trek up to the Bridewell.

How many visitors did you get today? asked Ed, one of the gallery /studio directors. Three I replied. Wow – that’s fantastic! He enthused. The last exhibition had days of no visitors at all.

ho hum


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