Standpoint Futures Residency Programme

Leo finishes residency at Standpoint

Leo Fitzmaurice began his residency on 21st February 2011, living at Vulpes Vulpes (http://www.vulpesvulpes.org/) for the duation of the residency.

Leo began work straight away in the studio, using the archive of imagery taken on his mobile phone as a departure point. Over four hundred images printed as average photograph size were spread over the walls and tables of the studio.

Leo decided to choose seventy-eight images and put them into groups, forming a sequence where some of the images were selected for a particular non-literal aesthetic or narrative, these being in direct response to Leo’s personal interpretation.

Combined with this Leo began to experiment with object based sculptural works, creating new works and re-visiting old pieces. The nature and substance of these works reflected the slight, easily missed happenings where object and architecture for example, meet in an often surprising, witty fascinating ways, as framed by the archive of mobile phone images. Various conversations took place between Leo, Matilda and Fiona about how the archive could be presented in the exhibition at the end of the residency.

At the beginning of the third week Camilla Brown, a freelance curator based in London visited Leo in his studio. This was not part of the prearranged studio visits and was more of an informal visit organised by Leo. The next day Leo had a formal studio visit with Donald Smith from Chelsea Arts Space.

Leo then continued to work on a way of ‘presenting’ the archive of imagery. Leo and Matilda worked on a video of the images which presented the archive like a presentation, combined with a certain generic yet humorous piece of music found on Leo’s computer, similar to the ‘demo’ piece of music found on old style retro keyboards. How this work could potentially fit with other works downstairs in the gallery space was discussed at length.

The forth week of the residency was particularly busy, beginning with an off site visit to see the Director from Bookworks Jane Rolo. The next day freelance Curator Sarah Carrington visited Leo in his studio as part of the informal visits and Sally Shaw, Senior Cultural Strategy and Projects Officer for London City Government visited as part of the formal studio visit. On the Thursday Leo and Fiona visited Joe Scotland, Director at Studio Voltaire as part of an informal gallery visit. On Friday Kirsty Ogg, Curator at Whitechapel Gallery and Tim Marlow from Artistic Director from White Cube visited Leo in his studio as part of the formal visits. By this stage Leo had brought work down into the gallery space where various conversations took place about the curation of the show.

After the studio visit with Sally Shaw, Leo made a decision to keep the printed photographs, as originally taken on his mobile phone, arranged in the studio upstairs. Leo felt that presenting the video of the images as planned, downstairs in the gallery, would portray the archive as a finished piece of work. This is something that Leo, Sally Shaw, Matilda and Fiona all agreed upon. The decision was made to keep the photographs upstairs in a ‘working’ context, presenting the archive to be seen within a space that allowed a variety of interpretation, with no fixed portrayal or outcome. Downstairs new and old work was arranged with the assistance of both Fiona and Matilda.

Tomasso Corvi-Mora, Director from Corvi-Mora Gallery visited Leo on the first morning of the public exhibition. Leo then gave his talk in the evening. Dave Hoyland from Seventeen Gallery and The Two Jonny’s from The Two Jonny’s Project Space came to visit Leo and see the exhibition. The talk was based around Leo’s practice, finishing with an informal discussion about the archive of images in the studio in relation to the sculptural work in the gallery.

The exhibition was open the next day on Friday, with visitors including Sally Shaw, Tim Marlow, John Walter from Eye Magazine and Mark Pearson from Backlands Project. Leo then left in the evening back to Liverpool.

Text from Leo Fitzmaurice exhibition at Standpoint, installed on four pieces of A4 paper.

The car I am in is travelling fast in heavy rain – any more rain it seems and the air would become water. The car passes under a bridge and, for a fraction of a second, there is complete silence, and absolute dry.

On a train leaving Liverpool’s Lime St Station I looked out, across the platforms, and saw the Liner Hotel. It appeared to moving forward too… only more slowly.

In Birkenhead I noticed a beautiful image of crashing waves, like the work of the Japanese artist Hokusai HokusaiHokusaiHokusai – the picture, though, was more vividly coloured than the traditional woodcut print. As I got closer the image revealed itself, not to be a rendition of the famous artwork, but a reflection in a severely dented metal-shutter covering one of the windows.

Walking on Parkgate promenade I noticed a group of gulls hovering, quite still, in the breeze. Directly beneath them, and facing the same way, was a white Nissan QASHQAI . All of its doors including the tailgate were open.

Samantha Donnelly (Stanpoint Futures pilot program,2010) in exhibition The Shape We’re In, 176, London

Samantha Donnelly who completed a residency at Standpoint in 2010 http://www.standpointlondon.co.uk/Samantha%20Donnelly.html is currently in The Shape We’re In – a series of three exhibitions taking place in a range of context and focusing on recent sculpture and installation by 22 emerging and established contemporary artists, including some of the most original artists making work today.

The Shape We’re In (London) will feature new work by emerging artists including Rachael Champion, Samantha Donnelly, Peggy Franck, George Young and Jack Strange, alongside existing works from the Collection. These artists have been invited to realise new installations during a short residency of one month leading up to the exhibition. By facilitating this kind of open-ended process, the Zabludowicz Collection encourages emerging artists to develop their practice for public exhibition.

Please see http://www.zabludowiczcollection.com/london/exhibitions/the-shape-were-in

Information for upcomng show – Leo Fitzmaurice

An exhibition of work as part of Standpoint Futures Residency Program 2011

24 March 2011 12-8pm; artist’s talk and drinks at 6.30pm
25 March 2011 12-6pm

Otherwise known for his bold installations and sculptures using marketing and packaging materials, Leo Fitzmaurice has for several years collected ‘sculptural happenings’, recorded on his mobile phone. As they accumulate they have become a diary of his visual acuity, a intriguing archive of the serendipitous alignments that can be discovered every day, and a resource for open interpretation by other people. He
presents these images to the public for the first time at Standpoint, in an (by nature and intent) experimental and provisional format. The photographs are suggestive: an invitation to our curatorial eye, containing an captivating and un-finished openness difficult to achieve in more complex and developed installations.

These images are accompanied by several sculptural works, chosen because they keep the particular tone of the photographic archive – the lightness of a fleeting moment captured, witty connections made and discovered, slight adjustments to found objects, and arrangements that link object to architecture.

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2011 Walsall New Art Gallery, Walsall, ‘Post Match’, developed with Locus Plus, CUBE,
Manchester, 2010 Leo Fitzmaurice, Kim Rugg, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, ‘Transfomations 3’ commission, Lowry Gallery, Salford, 2009, ‘You tell me again I’m not interested’, Deptford X, London.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2011 ‘How to Divide a Cookie into Five Equal Parts, Without Making any Crumbs’, Tenthaus International, Oslo, Norway, ‘Beyond Pattern’, UH Galleries, Hatfield, England, 2010 ‘Wife Drawing’, Curated by Luke Droz, London, ‘Korean International Art Fair’, Static gallery, Seoul, Niet Normaal, De Beurs Van Berlag, Amsterdam, ‘Beyond Pattern’, Oriel Newtown, Wales and Touring, EV+A Limerick, Ireland, ‘The way we do art now’, curated by Pavel Buchler, Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin, ‘From Here to There: work from
the Arts Council Collection’, Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, ‘Urban Origami’, PM Gallery, Ealing, London, ‘Undone’, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, ‘24th June- 31st July’, Seventeen Gallery, London, ‘Remake/ Remodel’, National Glass centre, Sunderland.

This special two-day presentation is part of Leo’s participation in the Standpoint Futures Development Residencies for Regional Artists program. It will include a talk at 6.30 by the artist on Thursday 24th, and an opportunity to meet and talk to Leo at any time in the 2 days.

The residency’s chief aims are to provide high quality, individualized opportunities to develop an artist’s practice and career, and to integrate London and the Regional UK art world to promote dialogue and interchange.

Further information:

Fiona MacDonald: 0207 739 4921 / [email protected]
Matilda Strang: [email protected]

Standpoint Futures is supported by Arts Council England, Arts Council Wales, arc, Castlefield Gallery, Eastside Projects, OUTPOST, Spike Island and Peacock Visual Arts.

The good thing about a residency is leaving things behind. This is also the bad thing about a residency. In a way I feel as though I have brought with me, on this residency, material that I have, over the years, left behind- or at least neglected. For many years I have been collecting observations (in the form of mobile phone shots and also short text messages, saved also on my phone). I periodically download this material but only recently have I become aware of it’s accruing and increasing potential. With this residency I have chosen to think about this material – it is after all quite portable.

Looking at the images and texts in the studio I have become aware that it reflects my interests in a way I could not have pre-planned. The observations are almost always unpremeditated. These are things that catch me by surprise – usually when I am on my way to somewhere else and when my head is somewhere else. I think of these observations as significant as they pull me out of one state of mind and demand, however gently, my attention. They say something about my mind and something about the world. I have begun to realize this ‘work’ represents the start of everything I do as an artist.

I read a quote by Ruskin which I cannot remember word for word but it went something like:

What is the point of learning how to write if one has nothing to write about or learning how to draw if one has nothing to draw. But learning how to see – when one sees – everything else fall into place.

This is a real butchery of the original I am sure, but the point for me is that, from clear observation a path will become apparent. So for this residency I intend to look back over my recent seeing.