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Uncommon
Chemistry
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20.03 - 17.04.2016
Observer Bld,
Hastings |

Uncommon
Chemistry installation
view
(l-r:) Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard
Jumpers (what must I do to be saved) (2013);
Hannah Lees
A past and a Future IV (2015); Jacqui
Hallum The Sun
(2016); The Grantchester Pottery
This will is not religion; this is love #1
(2016); Gino Saccone
Steep Hill (for Tango) (2016)
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BLISS
(Simon Bayliss &
_____ Lucy Stein)
Lydia Brockless
Adam Chodzko
Esther Collins
Julia Crabtree &
_____William Evans
Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard
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The
Grantchester Pottery
Jacqui Hallum
Sophie von Hellermann
Clyde Hopkins
Dan Howard-Birt
Nicholas Johnson
Henry Krokatsis
Harry Lawson |
Hannah
Lees
Fiona MacDonald
Tim Meacham
Simon Periton
Gino Saccone
Toby Tatum
Susan Taylor
Pauline Wood |
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Uncommon
Chemistry is an exhibition
interested in the parallel artistic leitmotifs
of material agency and arcane spirituality,
and how the conscious engagement with one or
other of these territories provides valuable
analogies for the broader understanding of
art-making and art-viewing. Namely that there is
always something which lurks beyond the artist’s control,
which brings a work to life and enables it to mutate and evolve
through different contexts of time and place.
Intensions are fine;
honed skills are a rich resource; practiced
methodologies are a scaffold, but
there are always some unexpected or uncontrollable
factors which influence works as they are made
in the studio, or as they are viewed
in a gallery.
Contingency is that
breath of life that allows artists’
works to be free of the tyranny of ideas and authorial
predetermination. Contingency is the influence
of the world beyond the artist’s control
on the shaping of an artwork’s form
or significance. Contingency is the muscular
tightness, or anxiety that prevents a painter’s
stoke from elegantly describing
a perfect contour. Contingency is the impact
of a damp studio on the patina of a sculptural
surface. Contingency is the unscripted
dialogue or attitude in an actor’s
performance. Contingency is the changing
light conditions on a pigmented surface
in an exhibition space.
Contingency is the way breaking news or personal
experience refocuses an artwork’s casual
allusion, bringing unexpected issues centre
stage. Contingency is the acknowledgement that all
art making is in some way a dialogue,
and that meaning can only temporarily
coalesce somewhere between the maker
and the object or document. And, that likewise,
meaning is fugitive for the viewer
as they engage with a film or a painting within
a temporary exhibition.
Material agency and the realm
of the spiritual are contingencies. A given material’s inbuilt
behaviour such as the crystalline flowering of chemical
sulphates or the globular puckering of melted
plastics can be harnessed by an artist within their process,
but only so far. Spirituality proposes
an even stranger furnace for a work to be forged.
Archly irrational, the conjuring of ley
lines, dope hallucinations and religious rituals all securely
place an art object on the edge of what might plausibly
and logically be comprehended. Material agency
and spirituality meet in alchemy, but each retain
their own distinct power to affect, inform
and undermine.
The progressive and
utopian drives of the 20th and early 21st
centuries are periodically interrupted by
unexpected dalliances with the blatantly
irrational, often at moments of extreme cultural
anxiety such as global conflict, the wholesale failure
of political ideologies, the explosion
of networks for personal influence or the digital atomising of individual
identity. It is no surprise then that some artists
today are bending to the potency of these
irrational contingent factors within their studios. |
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(l-r):
Jacqui Hallum,
Aclimatisation (2016); Hannah
Lees, A
past and a Future IV (2015); Jacqui
Hallum The Sun
(2016); The Grantchester Pottery
This will is not religion; this is love #1
(2016); Gino Saccone
Steep Hill (for Tango) (2016); Sophie
von Hellermann, Going up in Smoke
(2016) |
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(l-r):
Simon Periton,
The Lookout (2014); Adam
Chodzko, White Magic Kent,
UK and Brooklyn, NY (from 'Design for
a Carnival') (2006); BLISS,
Ding Dong / The Wind's Vagina (2016);
Nicholas Johnson,
'The bush around said nothing...' (2015) |
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Henry Krokatsis,
Levitation I (2006) |
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Esther Collins,
Matched Pair: Light (The Blend)
(2016) |
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(l-r):
Harry Lawson,
Untitled (2016); Dan
Howard-Birt, Stone
Circle with Lightning Strike (Janus) (2016);
Toby Tatum, Mental
Space (2014) |
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(l-r):
Gino Saccone,
Steep Hill (for Tango) (2016); Sophie
von Hellermann, Going up in Smoke (2016) |
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Pauline
Wood, (detail
of) At the Round Earth's Imagined
Corners (2016)
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(l-r): Harry
Lawson, Still Lives (2016);
Sophie von Hellermann,
Going up in Smoke (2016) |
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The Grantchester
Pottery, This
will is not religion; this is love #2
(2016) |
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(l-r):
Gino Saccone
Steep Hill (for Tango) (2016);
Jacqui Hallum,
Aclimatisation (2016); Fiona McDonald,
Rite (2014-15); Hannah
Lees, A
past and a Future IV (2015) |
Adam
Chodzko, White Magic Kent, UK
and Brooklyn, NY (from 'Design for
a Carnival') (2006) |
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Harry
Lawson, Untitled (2016) |
(l-r):
Fiona McDonald,
Rubbing in a Wood (with
Norway Maple) (2016); Clyde
Hopkins, Hepworth
and BB King (2015); Fiona
McDonald, Rubbing in
a Wood (with Beech)
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Tim Meacham,
Vapour (2016) |
Toby Tatum,
Metal Space
(2014) |
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Fiona McDonald,
Rite (2014-15) |
(l-r): Lydia
Brockless, One,
Many (2014); Susan
Taylor,
The Outline of Things
as They Are (2015);
Lydia
Brockless, Lipsticulum (2014) |
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(l-r):
Pauline
Wood, (detail
of) At the Round Earth's Imagined
Corners (2016);
Esther
Collins,
Matched Pair: Light
(My Chains Fell Off) (2016) |
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(l-r):
Toby
Tatum, Metal
Space (2014); Pauline
Wood, (detail
of) At the Round Earth's Imagined
Corners (2016);
Simon Periton,
Celestial
Agriculture (2014); Hannah
Lees, And
in the nowhere I & II (2016);
Henry Krokatsis,
Levitation I (2006);
BLISS,
Ding Dong / The Wind's Vagina (2016);
The Grantchester Pottery,
This will is not reigion; this is love
#2 (2016) |
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(l-r):
Pauline
Wood, (detail
of) At the Round Earth's Imagined
Corners (2016);
Simon Periton,
Celestial
Agriculture (2014); Henry
Krokatsis, Levitation
I (2006); BLISS,
Ding Dong / The Wind's
Vagina (2016); Esther
Collins,
Matched Pair:
Light (My Chains Fell Off) (2016);
Hannah Lees, And
in the nowhere I & II (2016);
The Grantchester Pottery,
This will is not reigion; this is love
#2 (2016); Fiona
McDonald,
Rubbing in a Wood (with Norway Maple)
(2015); Lydia
Brockless, Lipsticulum
(2014); Clyde
Hopkins,
Hepworth
and BB King (2015); Jacqui
Hallum, Nervous
System (2016) |
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(l-r):
Simon Periton,
The Lookout
(2014); Adam
Chodzko,
White Magic Kent, UK and Brooklyn,
NY (from 'Design for a Carnival')
(2006); BLISS,
Ding Dong / The Wind's
Vagina (2016); Hannah
Lees, And in
the nowhere I & II (2016);
Nicholas Johnson,
'The bush around said nothing...' (2015);
Jacqui
Hallum, Nervous
System (2016);
Pauline
Wood, (detail
of) At the Round Earth's Imagined
Corners (2016);
Lydia
Brockless, One, Many (2014);
Esther
Collins, Matched
Pair:
Light (The Blend)
(2016);
Lydia Brockless, Lipsticulum
(2014);
Susan
Taylor,
The Outline of Things
as They Are (2015)
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(l-r):
Susan Taylor,
The Outline of Things
as They Are (2015);
Lydia
Brockless, One, Many (2014);
Lydia
Brockless, Lipsticulum
(2014);
Gino
Saccone Steep Hill (for
Tango) (2016);
Jacqui
Hallum, Nervous
System (2016);
Hannah
Lees, A
past and a Future IV (2015); Dan
Howard-Birt, Stone
Circle with Lightning Strike (Janus) (2016) |
|
(l-r):
BLISS,
Ding Dong / The Wind's
Vagina (2016);
Tim
Meacham,
Vapour (2016); Fiona
McDonald, Rubbing
in a Wood (with Norway Maple) (2016);
Fiona
McDonald, Rubbing
in a Wood (with Beech) (2015) |
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(l-r): Clyde
Hopkins, Hepworth
and BB King (2015); Julia
Crabtree & William Evans,
Things (2016) |
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(l-r):
Jacqui Hallum,
Aclimatisation (2016); Fiona McDonald,
Rite (2014-15);
Hannah Lees, A
past and a Future IV (2015) |
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(l-r):
Jacqui
Hallum, Nervous
System (2016);
Lydia
Brockless, One, Many (2014);
Hannah
Lees, And
in the nowhere I & II (2016);
Susan
Taylor,
The Outline of Things
as They Are (2015);
Lydia
Brockless, Lipsticulum
(2014);
Pauline
Wood, (detail
of) At the Round Earth's Imagined
Corners (2016);
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(l-r):
Tim
Meacham,
Vapour (2016); Simon
Periton, Celestial
Agriculture (2014); Henry
Krokatsis, Levitation
I (2006); BLISS,
Ding Dong / The
Wind's Vagina (2016); Esther
Collins,
Matched Pair:
Light (My Chains Fell Off)
(2016);
Fiona
McDonald,
Rubbing in a Wood (with Norway Maple)
(2015) |
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Hannah Lees,
(detail of) And
in the nowhere I & II (2016) |
|
(l-r):
Esther
Collins,
Matched Pair:
Light (My Chains Fell Off) (2016);
BLISS,
Ding Dong / The Wind's
Vagina (2016); Pauline
Wood, (detail
of) At the Round Earth's Imagined
Corners (2016);
Fiona
McDonald, Rubbing
in a Wood (with Norway Maple) (2016);
Fiona
McDonald, Rubbing
in a Wood (with Beech) (2015);
The
Grantchester Pottery,
This will is not reigion; this is love
#2 (2016); Nicholas
Johnson,
'The bush around said nothing...' (2015);
Jacqui
Hallum, Nervous
System (2016);
Esther
Collins,
Matched Pair:
Light (The Blend) (2016);
Pauline
Wood, (detail
of) At the Round Earth's Imagined
Corners (2016);
Lydia
Brockless, One, Many (2014);
Lydia
Brockless, Lipsticulum
(2014);
Susan
Taylor,
The Outline of Things
as They Are (2015) |
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 |
|
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(l-r):
Pauline
Wood, (detail
of) At the Round Earth's Imagined
Corners (2016);
Jacqui
Hallum, Nervous
System (2016);
Jacqui
Hallum,
Aclimatisation (2016); Hannah
Lees, A
past and a Future IV (2015) Dan
Howard-Birt, Stone
Circle with Lightning Strike (Janus) (2016);
Harry
Lawson, Untitled (2016); Tim
Meacham,
Vapour (2016); Simon
Periton, Celestial
Agriculture (2014); Henry
Krokatsis, Levitation
I (2006); BLISS,
Ding Dong / The Wind's
Vagina (2016) |
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Iain Forsyth
& Jane Pollard Jumpers
(what must I do to be saved) (2013) |
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all photos
by Tim Bowditch |
some thoughts about the curatorial approach... |
In
putting the show together the works' materiality became fundamentally
important. The texture of the jacquard tapestries, or the vegetable
dye stained beanbag, or the crystal-blooming cement each change
the way that the sculpture or painting is looked at. You can't get
away from the haptic sense of surface, and by implication an understanding
of the artists' processes in making the work, and that part of the
making which was began by the artist, but continued by the chemistry
of her materials themselves. This type of looking is completely
different from other types of looking - such as spectacle, which
is passive, or reading, which turns objects into signs. All of these
types of looking are going on in the mind and body of the viewer
at the same time, but an insistence on the behaviour of materials
is both a slower kind of looking and a more intimate kind. Slowness
is important as it allows for all the other types of looking to
come to the fore and then to retire (sometimes over and over). And
so, even looking fails to be static and fixed. Meaning begins to
coalesce between types of looking, and it is affected as you peripherally
glimpse another artist's work, or the fabric and history of the
room, of the building. Works like this are like clusters of energy.
They have porous boundaries. The are infectious and permeable.
I have talked a lot about spirituality in the notes for this show.
The show is not about belief or faith, or lack of these. It's not
even about agnosticism. It is perhaps about the infitesimal moment
before faith is called into question. It is about complicity. It
is about being prepared to draw a card from the tarot. It is about
reaching out your hand toward to splayed deck. After this action,
pretty much anything is possible.
Dan Howard-Birt, 2016 |
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