Three exhibitions
dal 17/7/2015 al 18/9/2015
Segnalato da
17/7/2015
Three exhibitions
Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea
'The Bear Pit' operates as both studio and exhibiting space: 3 artist-run spaces have been invited to curate a programme of events. 'Graphics Interchange Format': a multi-screen installation showcasing a collection made up of hundreds of GIF animations. Sophie Sleigh-Johnson investigates the idea of the 'flicker'.
Gallery 1
The Bear Pit
‘The Bear Pit’ is a purpose-built installation, which simultaneously operates as both studio and exhibiting space. Visitors are restricted to a raised gantry which surrounds and creates a viewing point for an enclosed area below. Three artist-run spaces from around the UK have been invited to curate a programme of events, exhibitions or residencies for a period of three weeks each.
The design for the construction is drawn from a student facility at Middlesex University, which was formerly based in an old industrial building in Wood Green, London, during the late 1990s. Nicknamed for its formal resemblance to the 19th century bear enclosures in parks and zoos, the space consisted of a series of raised walkways over a studio and performance area. This intimidating environment reinforced an intense interaction between audience and performer, shifting the power relationship more typically assumed.
This exploration of the conjuncture between institution, audience and artist will be further unpacked through Focal Point Gallery’s installation, which will also provide access to the developmental stage of the projects – inviting viewers to observe development, rehearsals and set-up from the gantry. A live-feed from the space will be displayed on the external Public Screen in Elmer Square, adjacent to the gallery.
Full prorgamm on the web site
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Gallery 2
Graphics Interchange Format: 25 Years of Focal Point Gallery
‘Graphics Interchange Format: 25 Years of Focal Point Gallery’ is a multi-screen installation showcasing a collection made up of hundreds of GIF animations.
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is a technology that has been in use for around twenty-five years, it was developed as an early method of compressing digital images for distribution through the internet.
As part of the gallery’s twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations, we have invited every artist who has exhibited or worked with FPG over this period to create one or more GIFs. The collection can be continually added to, and will eventually be archived on the gallery’s new website, launching in 2016.
The project is produced in collaboration with Fraser Muggeridge studio.
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Display Cabinets
Sophie Sleigh-Johnson
Chthonic Index
Focal Point Gallery is pleased to present ‘Chthonic Index’, a two-part project between Focal Point Gallery and Southend’s Central Museum. For the work, Southend-based artist and writer Sophie Sleigh-Johnson investigates the idea of the ‘flicker’, a term used to describe a moment in flux, emphasising the oscillating space between light, inscription and objects.
For the project, Focal Point Gallery’s foyer cabinets are transformed into a closed or hermetic display space, which appear unfinished or in a state of shift.
A series of partly-obscured objects and artworks, placed within the cabinet, reveal shifting connections between temporalities. Fragments of Mesopotamian cuneiform (the earliest known written language) occupy the same space as a library photocopier, which has been used to produce a series of blown-up elements of the artist’s written text, tentatively proposing a hidden archaeology of the present. Reference to the flash of a photocopier simultaneously instigates a further flickering instant within this moment of inscription, an alternation between appearance and essence; reality and representation.
Stoneage artefacts, which were discovered in the Thames Estuary and are on loan from Southend Central Museum, draw a parallel between the Mesolithic landscape of Doggerland (an area of land now buried under the North Sea), and Mesopotamia, a word derived from the Ancient Greek for ‘land between the rivers’.
A related hour-long audio work will play daily at 12:00 noon, in Southend Museum, while a replacement plinth, bearing some of the artist’s text, has been inserted into the museum space, where the Mesolithic artefacts typically stand; an inversion of sort.
Press contact:
Laura Bowen Tel: +44 (0)1702 534108 laurabowen@southend.gov.uk
Launch event: Saturday 18 July, 6pm – 9pm
Focal Point Gallery
Elmer Square Southend-on-Sea Essex SS1 1NB United Kingdom