Coming up…

Due to what I can only put down to being a momentary lapse in concentration, I seem to have inadvertently got myself into the position of having tangible objects on show in exhibitions over the coming weeks …not only once, but on three separate occasions!

GOODS In

Saturday 28th June, 4-8pm
332 – 346 Moseley Road [map and directions]

First is GOODS In: a one-day exhibition curated by Charlie Levine and Harminder Singh Judge

warehouse space

This is a group show with the works chosen for the theme of “mechanics, engineering, the factory and multiples” in response to the location: a disused bed warehouse.

This is a must see – of course for the work, but also for the building itself (of which, unfortunately, you will see only a tiny fraction). There’s a lot of potential here and the owner, Sham, is working hard to turn what is a HUGE amount of space into a viable venue. Help get the momentum going.

I’ll be exhibiting a series of simple cardboard mechanisms that interact with the space.

Contents May Vary

Thursday 3rd July, 6-8pm
Castlefield Gallery, 2 Hewitt Street, Manchester. M15 4GB.

Ages and ages ago I submitted some work for the second Contents May Vary publication.

The gap between what we can assume lies beneath the visual world and the potential possibilities of what it conceals has given our imagination the opportunity to wander. Our minds reason that the inside of a rock is simply more of the outside. But we can never quite come to terms with the possibilities of what is hidden. To split the rock in a quest for this knowledge is futile when you discover that instead of revealing the internal, all you have achieved is even more known external. As artists we are faced with a decision on the format with which to start a discussion. With accepting what we see is real, a book as object involves seen and unseen material. This inanimate object can engage us on many levels when we begin a relationship with it as both creator and viewer.

My work is a map relating to the Sites of Potentiality Guidebooks series.

The publication is a 16 page, black and white limited edition with contributions from myself and artists: Andrew Bracey, Alice Bradshaw, Chris Clarke, John Dellar, Stuart Edmondson, Michael Farquhar, David Martin, Liz Murphy, John Sauve and Richard Shields.

You can pick up your copy at the free launch event at Castlefield Galley or, after the launch, by sending an A5 SAE to: CMV issue 2, Castlefield Gallery, 2 Hewitt Street, Manchester M15 4GB, UK.

theweatherproject

July 11, 2008 – April 19, 2009
Stiftung Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Lingnerplatz 1, 01069 Dresden, Germany

Part of the 2°. Weather, Climate, Man exhibition at what looks to be a really interesting institution. I’ll be flying out for the opening, not for the networking – which I’m terminally hopeless at, even in my native language – but to see if the exhibitions live up to my high expectations based almost entirely on this image from their website.

For those who don’t know, the weatherproject began in late 2000 when I started asking volunteers to collect samples of weather for me. Each person gets an identical weather-collecting kit and can then choose when and where to collect their weather. Some of the results are documented online, but, despite difficulties in asking people to take mysterious containers abroad with them nowadays, actual numbers are now something like 300-400 jars (I can never keep track) and still increasing…

the weatherproject

Here are the names of the people whose jars will go into the show:

Sophie Maughan, Lucie Slámová, Nigel Prince. Graham Dix, Suping Tian, Gill Lawson, Sandy Hewat, Afaq Qureshi, Petra Nieth, Kate Lang, Elizabeth Batters, David Taylor, Astrid Bergmann, Emma Hunter & Charles West, Cathleen Jackson, Martin Weaver, Rachel Jack, Judith Evans, Scott Smith, Clark Crawford, Xenia Snetkov, Jane Tapley, Simon Tapley, Tomoko Okada and Sylvia Gardiner.

Only 30 collections have been selected for exhibition, but I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has contributed to the project over the last 7 years or so.

Um, also, if anyone has any suggestions for a cunning storage solution for several hundred small glass jars…