15.12.2010
S1 Artspace new premises presents Fifteen. With works by Kate Allen, Simon + Tom Bloor, Theo Burt, Ross Chisholm, Chris Clarke, Katie Davies, Sean Edwards, Josephine Flynn, Babak Ghazi, Tommy Grace, Jerome Harrington, Steve Hawley, Paul Housley, George Henry Longly, Duncan Marquiss, Haroon Mirza, Ryan Mosely, Emily Musgrave, Steve Dutton + Percy Peacock, James Pyman, James Richards, Florian Roithmayr, Giles Round, Matthew Smith, Sarah Staton, Graeme Stonehouse, Shaan Syed, Rosanna Traina, Nicole Wermers, Julie Westerman & Katy Woods. Curated by Louise Hutchinson and George Henry Longly.
Opening: friday 10.12.2010
Open: 11.12.2010 — 05.02.2011
S1 Artspace new premises presents Fifteen. With works by Kate Allen, Simon + Tom Bloor, Theo Burt, Ross Chisholm, Chris Clarke, Katie Davies, Sean Edwards, Josephine Flynn, Babak Ghazi, Tommy Grace, Jerome Harrington, Steve Hawley, Paul Housley, George Henry Longly, Duncan Marquiss, Haroon Mirza, Ryan Mosely, Emily Musgrave, Steve Dutton + Percy Peacock, James Pyman, James Richards, Florian Roithmayr, Giles Round, Matthew Smith, Sarah Staton, Graeme Stonehouse, Shaan Syed, Rosanna Traina, Nicole Wermers, Julie Westerman & Katy Woods. Curated by Louise Hutchinson and George Henry Longly.
Opening: friday 10.12.2010
Open: 11.12.2010 — 05.02.2011
Inhabiting any new premises requires its potential occupant to conduct a survey and inspection of the building to test its condition and value. For an artist-led space, this survey involves more than an assessment of bricks and mortar; it has to be tested in other ways. To mark the inauguration of its new premises and the occasion of its 15th anniversary as an artist-led project, S1 Artspace has invited over 30 artists to survey its new space, to test it out according to the criteria of their specific practices.
The exhibiting artists have already played a key part in S1’s history: the list includes previous and current studio holders as well as artists who have contributed towards S1’s programme over the last 15 years. However, the exhibition attempts to turn the tables on the concept of the survey show: it is not an occasion of looking backwards, a retrospective survey that simply attempts to celebrate what has already been. Rather, the exhibition itself is presented as a testing space, where selected artists have been invited (back) based on their capacity to both reflect and test out key concerns and issues considered intrinsic to S1’s programming (past, present and future).
Certain artists have been selected to address the architectural potential and limitations of the new premises, where the industrial layout and double-storey height of the space presents a new set of productive constraints against which to work. Others deal more explicitly with the mechanisms and vocabulary of display and presentation, using the context of a new exhibition space to interrogate the process of exhibition itself. Collegiate or collaborative approaches are made central elsewhere in the exhibition, where the line between individual and collective practice is wilfully blurred.
Some works are conceived as support structures or frameworks for hosting or housing the practice of other artists; as emergent environments that establish their own rules, relations and dialogues between artworks and site. The critical concerns of the exhibition (and issues relating to artist-led activity more broadly) will be further addressed and tested through a series of talks, panel discussions and events, collectively entitled S1 Assembly. Together, the exhibition and events programme operate both as a survey of S1’s (past) activity and for surveying its new premises and the potential therein; where the past is drawn upon as a way to test the conditions of the present, as a point of provocation against which to develop and debate possibilities for future action.
The exhibiting artists have already played a key part in S1’s history: the list includes previous and current studio holders as well as artists who have contributed towards S1’s programme over the last 15 years. However, the exhibition attempts to turn the tables on the concept of the survey show: it is not an occasion of looking backwards, a retrospective survey that simply attempts to celebrate what has already been. Rather, the exhibition itself is presented as a testing space, where selected artists have been invited (back) based on their capacity to both reflect and test out key concerns and issues considered intrinsic to S1’s programming (past, present and future).
Certain artists have been selected to address the architectural potential and limitations of the new premises, where the industrial layout and double-storey height of the space presents a new set of productive constraints against which to work. Others deal more explicitly with the mechanisms and vocabulary of display and presentation, using the context of a new exhibition space to interrogate the process of exhibition itself. Collegiate or collaborative approaches are made central elsewhere in the exhibition, where the line between individual and collective practice is wilfully blurred.
Some works are conceived as support structures or frameworks for hosting or housing the practice of other artists; as emergent environments that establish their own rules, relations and dialogues between artworks and site. The critical concerns of the exhibition (and issues relating to artist-led activity more broadly) will be further addressed and tested through a series of talks, panel discussions and events, collectively entitled S1 Assembly. Together, the exhibition and events programme operate both as a survey of S1’s (past) activity and for surveying its new premises and the potential therein; where the past is drawn upon as a way to test the conditions of the present, as a point of provocation against which to develop and debate possibilities for future action.