1
2
7 march - 7 april 2012
3
4
Introduction
... p. 7
David Amar
... p. 8
Benjamin Beker
... p. 12
Natasha Conway
... p. 16
Edward Coyle
... p. 20
Aidan Doherty
... p. 24
Anna M. R. Freeman
... p. 28
Alejandro Guijarro
... p. 32
Simon Harlow
... p. 36
Justin Hibbs
... p. 40
Colin McDougall
... p. 44
David Ben White
... p. 48
Tobias Wootton
... p. 52
Contact Details
... p. 57
5
6
Drift is a group show envisaging a utopian future in which the spatial
distinction between the external ‘urban’ and the internal ‘domestic’ has been broken down via the free interplay of fine art, architecture, and design. The exhibition will open for one month from 7 March 2012, and will take place at Lumen United Reformed Church – an RIBA award-winning Modernist building in King’s Cross. Presented by Blockwork Art, Drift takes its lead from the Situationist notion of derive (literally, ‘drifting’) – a world in which nomadic urban dwellers can drift seamlessly through hybrid domestic/urban zones of habitation, or ‘constructed situations’, with the power to ‘stimulate new sorts of behaviour’. To this end, the show will feature an eclectic mix of work by emerging artists, makers, and designers – with traditionally-defined fine art and design placed alongside those practices that sit resolutely between the two. Through this process, Drift seeks to question the validity of such distinctions in the first place.
7
David Amar’s design practice rejects functionality as a central precept, allowing the tool or component to direct form according to their intrinsic dictates; just as a certain bracket hints to a certain type of connection, the parts of a dismantled chair may ask to be reassembled altogether differently... 8
David Amar 9
10
Born in 1976, David Amar has studied at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, and at ENSCI Paris. He graduated with distinction from Bezalel’s Industrial Design department in 2004, before to moving to London. In 2008, Amar was awarded the Clore scholarship for MA studies at the Royal College of Art in London, and, in 2010, graduated from the Design Product department. His work has received several awards, and has been exhibited in museums, galleries and shows around the world, including: the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the London Pavilion of Art & Design, Sotheby’s London, Design Miami, the Gallery de la Manufacture (Paris), the Al-Sabah Art & Design Gallery (Kuwait), and the VIA gallery (Paris).
Selected Exhibitions and Achievements:
• • • • •
Old Friends New Directions, Sotheby’s London, 2010 Fragiles, Design Miami/Al-Sabah Art & Design Gallery (Kuwait) Clore Bezalel Scholarship 2008 1st prize, Israel Design Journalists’ Prize for Excellence in Design 2006 Also exhibited at: Tel Aviv Museum of Art, London Pavilion of Art & Design, Gallery de la Manufacture (Paris), VIA gallery (Paris).
11
Benjamin Beker’s work draws inspiration from the 1950s-60s Communist/Modernist building that put Le Corbusier’s vision of a city as an idealised social model to the test, and examines the darker reality of current life in such a constructed environment... 12
Benjamin Beker 13
14
‘“The Blocks” are a collection of manipulated images of Socialist housing estates, built on dried marshland in Belgrade during the 1950s and 60s. The Blocks, as these buildings have come to be known, are a series of large, monolithic structures adhering in their design to the strict functional edicts of architects such as Le Corbusier. These buildings were to house government offices, but also became home to thousands of Belgrade citizens. By placing the core form of each building on a plain grey background, I have transformed each building from the everyday and utilitarian, to a patterned form that has a delicate beauty to it. As with earlier work, I represent a familiar image as something unthreatening, almost toy-like.’
Selected Exhibitions and Achievements: • • • • • • • •
Winner of ArtSway Open 2008 Winner of The Worshipful Company of Painters and Stainers Prize Winner of the RCA Society and Thames & Hudson Art Book Prize reGeneration 2, Tomorrow’s Photographers Today (London) Recontres Internationales de la Photo (Fez) Caochangdi PhotoSpring Festival (Beijing) Gallerie Azzedine Alaia (Paris) Centre Gallery, Miami Dade College (Miami)
15
Natasha Conway’s painting fosters creative intuition, working towards an unknown result that is ultimately left unresolved; hovering on the verge of ‘becoming’, her work reflects that uncertainty characteristic of the contemporary... 16
Natasha Conway 17
18
Natasha Conway’s (b. 1984, Ireland) work follows the imperatives of creative intuition, with each painting approached as an open-ended exploration, experimenting with the interplay between sparse fragile spaces and densely-worked surfaces. Her practice explores that fluid, complex hinterland where abstraction meets the real world, with each piece functioning according to its own internal logic, but ever-firmly rooted in, and alluding to, the realm of experience.
Selected Exhibitions and Achievements:
• • • • • •
Jerwood Contemporary Painters 2010 Saatchi’s New Sensations 2009 NUI Art Prize 2009 Quietly Loud; Alisha Kerlin, Natasha Conway, Cassie Raihl Solo exhibition at Thomas Erben Gallery (New York) Work featured in: The Office of Public Works, Dublin City Council Collection, The National University of Ireland collection
19
Edward Coyle 20
Edward Coyle’s paintings overlay images of existing architecture, adding and subtracting elements to create a sense of arrested development – a picture plane of potentiality – that tests our sense of scale and provenance... 21
22
‘I am intrigued by architectural and constructional processes; the accumulation of plans, materials and structures, and the way that each stage in this process sequentially obscures the previous stage as construction advances, brick by brick, towards its intended conclusion. A vast body of architecture exists only in the realm of the unbuilt, in the form of ideas, drawings or models. To engage in dialogue with these unrealised projections allows us to read beyond the surface of buildings. My paintings represent my own (falsified) documentation of a building’s existence, where both real and invented architectural features percolate space. The painted layers of architectural structures can refer to the past, present or future of a building as well as the unrealised futures of any abortive projections. Architectural processes have parallels with my own painting technique, both in terms of how my compositions are conceived and also in the way they are executed. My practice utilises sampled architectural imagery taken from architectural plans and conceptual designs, as well as from memory and imagination. I work these sampled structures or planes up onto canvas and then expand, disassemble or destroy them with each new layer of paint. The resulting works show an oscillation between the real and abstract, the temporary and the constant.’ Selected Exhibitions and Achievements: • • • • •
Exhibited for John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize 2010/2011 New Paintings, The Light 2010 (London) Shortlisted for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2009 One of top ten student artists selected by Editor of Saatchi Online in 2008 Northern Graduates, The Curwen and New Academy Gallery 2008 (London)
23
Aidan Doherty 24
Aidan Doherty’s paintings investigate texture, abstraction, and geometric forms, creating formal relationships between random elements by building layer upon layer, which he then excavates to discover new and unexpected scenarios... 25
26
‘My work investigates abstraction, texture, geometric forms and plays on the idea of formal relationships between organic ‘things’, pattern, and motif. My method of making art is a bit like archaeology: I like to work over areas of paint and to remove layers to discover patterns and forms that have been buried over time, which can then be formalized and defined into a shape or space. The result of my method leaves me with peculiar situations and shapes that sometimes look strangely familiar and could maybe allude to something else – like real-life objects that have been slightly abstracted. People always say they see things in the work; ‘it looks like two ducks kissing’, or ‘it looks like a stalk carrying a baby’. I really appreciate these reactions. There are no boundaries in my work so there should be no boundaries as to what the painting could be about. I take inspiration from anything; it could be retro design, architecture, images in magazines, patterns on train seats, old worn posters, etc. However, on the journey of making a painting I like things to occur naturally and organically. I approach the making of art very openly and do not restrict myself by trying to focus too much on an idea; my work is not conceptual, so I find that thinking too deeply about the work holds me back. The word is simply about the process of making of art.’ Selected Exhibitions and Achievements: • • • • • • •
Crash Now Open 2010 – selected by Mathew Collings Royal Academy Summer show 2008, 2010 Jerwood Contemporary Painters 2009 Saatchi’s New Sensations 2008 Salon 2008, 2009 Shortlisted for The Landmark Prize for Painting 2008 Shortlisted for Celeste Art Prize 2007
27
Anna M.R. Freeman’s paintings of interior environments create a sense of longing through contrasts of scale and context, incongruity, separation, and juxtaposition...
28
Anna M. R. Freeman 29
30
Freeman understands space to be of great psychological and metaphysical significance. Recent source material for her work has ranged from the interiors of churches, to those of junk shops, filled with bric-a-brac and out-of-place architectural accessories. The common ground between the two is the artist’s particular interest in the functionality of place and the role of scale, as well as an engagement with the sensation of displacement – of longing. A sense of yearning pervades all her works via allusions to the transitory nature of the space, and the subject’s imminent relocation. These spaces of incongruity, separation, and juxtaposition – of the miniature and the gigantic, the detail and the whole, the functional and the beautiful – evoke within the viewer a nostalgic longing for some other space; a more permanent, less transitory, lasting space than this fragmentary world. Selected Exhibitions and Achievements: • Current Artist-in-Restaurant at Michelin-starred Pied a Terre • Florence Trust Studio Residency 2010/11 • Some Domestic Incidents, MAC 2011 (Birmingham) • Expanded Painting, Prague Biennale 5 2011 (Prague) • The Blyth Gallery 2010 (London) • Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2009 • Work featured in numerous private collections worldwide, including: the Saatchi Collection, and the Howard and Roberta Ahmanson Collection.
31
Alejandro Guijarro makes photo-works that suggest spatial expanse through the absence of image, in which hazy subjects emerge from out of grey nothingness, and by which the artist undermines the apparent authority of photographic representation... 32
Alejandro Guijarro 33
34
Alejandro Guijarro is a London-based artist who works primarily with photography. Born in Madrid in 1979, and graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2010, his work is the result of a thoughtful investigation of the spatial relations in photographic representation, exploring what photography is still allowed and able to do. He makes contradictory and paradoxical images, where the boundaries of the photographic image break down, creating a tension that goes back and forth between what can be seen and what can be understood – a simultaneous sense of appearance and disappearance. By undermining our familiar modes of seeing, he questions the solidity and the authority of the photographic image and its ability to refer to reality and to truth. Alejandro has exhibited in Spain, Italy, and the UK. Selected Exhibitions and Achievements: • 2010 E-Creative Award Finalist • 2009 Man Photography Prize Finalist • Exploration and Intervention, New Landscape Photography, George and Jorgen Fine Art (London) • The Uneasy Landscape, Fold Gallery (London) • 2007 ITS SIX (International Talent Support) Finalist • Work featured in One Hyde Park collection (London)
35
Simon Harlow creates colourful and dynamic interiors, furniture, sculpture, and 2D works: sometimes funny, sometimes serious, his art operates in dialogue with its context, thereby inviting the viewer to look upon that context with a fresh pair of eyes... 36
Simon Harlow 37
38
‘I am formally trained in fine art but now, more specifically, work in design, producing objects with a broader functionality – namely, furniture, lighting and interiors. My strong belief that object/viewer relationships have the power to enlighten, encourages within my practice a rich sculptural palette in the form of everyday objects that are efficiently produced, enjoyable to use, and which offer a twist both on the nature of materials and traditional forms. I aim to produce works that are resilient to everyday use while maintaining an engagement with the user through an interesting form or finish. Beautiful and sometimes humorous, my work is always very well made, using the best and most appropriate materials. My current practice is steered towards the use of entirely natural materials and finishes, their promotion, and their use in varied contexts. Of great interest to me is the accelerating science of biosynthetic materials. Currently, most of the best adhesives, lacquers, and laminates are highly polluting during production and ultimately unsustainable. But we are entering a glorious age of naturally compatible materials that outclass old and current synthetics – and I relish it!’ Selected Exhibitions and Achievements: • Winner of ‘most stylish boutique’ in the Scotland With Style Award for Che Camile shop interior design and build • Worked with artist Lucy Skaer on sculptural design, fabrication, and install, since 2007, including for her Tate Britain Turner Prize exhibition in 2009 • Design and build of new bar for ‘ARCHES’ club, with Timorous Beasties 2011 (Glasgow) • 40,000 sq ft interior design and build of new premises for Dog Digital web designers and developers 2008 (Glasgow) • Development of new solid surface material ‘SIYRO’ (due for product launch late summer 2012)
39
Justin Hibbs’ practice renegotiates the visual language and ideological legacies of modernism through painting, drawing, sculpture and architectural interventions...
40
Justin Hibbs 41
42
Hibbs draws upon the rich information encoded within modern architectural structures – from social and political, to aesthetic agendas – and comprehends architectural space as a catalyst or cipher for a range of emotions relating to contemporary experience. Drawing is central to Hibbs’ work, with an on-going series of drawings from photographic images of architectural spaces providing a starting point. These images become ‘host’ to a series of reduced geometric interventions – of lines, trajectories, and simplified forms – that grow parasite-like from the original image and subvert and re-imagine its spatial relationships. Oscillating between representation and abstraction, these works acknowledge the artificial nature of spatial depiction by drawing attention to the two-dimensionality of painting. These enquiries often transmute into site-specific installations and sculptures that engage directly with the architectural space itself. Recent works have taken windows as transitional zones between one space and another, and as a found space for intervention, with Hibbs approaching them in same way that he does the photographic source material for his drawings. These tape drawings confound the normal spatial reading of the window, questioning the relationship between two and three dimensions. Selected Exhibitions and Achievements: • • • • •
Critical Dictionary, Work Gallery 2012 (London) Working Space II, Lucy Macintosh Gallery 2008 (Lausanne) New British Landscapes, Takecourage Gallery 2010 (London) Zoo Art Fair 2003 (London) Pulse Art Fair 2006 (Miami)
43
Colin McDougall 44
Colin McDougall designs and makes architecture-inspired furniture, taking the lead from Modernism in his attempts to achieve that perfect balance between aesthetic form and no-nonsense function... 45
46
Colin studied product design at Glasgow School of Art, followed by three-dimensional design at the University of Northumbria, while also working with the contemporary craftsman Fred Baier. He is a furniture and product designer who has merged his two main creative interests – sculpture and design – to develop a new hybrid, with form not simply following function, but being function. Deploying bold outlines and striking shapes in a wide range of materials and finishes, he creates unique, functional solutions suitable for every environment.
Selected Exhibitions and Achievements: • The Chalet Collective, Collins Gallery 2011 (Glasgow) • Common Thread, Southside Studios 2010 (Glasgow) • Streetland Govanhill, GI Festival, The Chalet 2010 (Glasgow) • Homes and Interiors, Scotland Exhibition, Editors Choice Stand, SECC 2009 (Glasgow) • The Ideal Home Show, SECC 2008 (Glasgow) • Six Cities Design Festival, Che Camille 2007 (Glasgow)
47
David Ben White’s practice investigates the complex dialogue between personal domestic desires and the de-personalised machine aesthetic of high modernist design...
48
David Ben White 49
50
‘My practice engages with the self-conscious creation of the domestic space. Television design shows, shop windows enacting domestic interior configurations, interior decorating and furniture magazines, etc, all elaborate a familiar language of domestic nostalgia, which we, in turn, aspire to re-create in our own homes. Phenomena like the Ideal Home Exhibition and Ikea showrooms set out to replicate the domestic experience, but, at the same time, expose its artifice. This can be strangely discombobulating, with the domestic space both familiar and alienating simultaneously. I am particularly interested in connecting with and investigating modernist architecture and design in relation to this process. At its best, it was clear, beautiful, and extremely powerful in its purity. However, it also refused the homeowner a way of imprinting something of their own DNA into the structure, without unsettling this purity. The desire to create an environment that reflects our own individual tastes and personal histories, and its relationship with the depersonalised machine aesthetic of high modernism have, for me, become an interesting dynamic to explore. By deploying painterly references from different tropes of modernism and home design, I am interested in the conversations between formal elements of design and painting. Aware of modernism’s self-reflexive questioning, a fundamental aspect of its own internal discourse, my work aims to disrupt this authoritarian language with that of domestic, decorative design to broaden the discourse away from the internalised, self-involved strictures of Clement Greenberg’s location in ‘Modernist Painting’ by adding ingredients that unsettle its own self-contained parameters.’ Selected Exhibitions and Achievements: • The Chalet Collective, Collins Gallery 2011 (Glasgow) • Common Thread, Southside Studios 2010 (Glasgow) • Streetland Govanhill, GI Festival, The Chalet 2010 (Glasgow) • Homes and Interiors, Scotland Exhibition, Editors Choice Stand, SECC 2009 (Glasgow) • The Ideal Home Show, SECC 2008 (Glasgow) • Six Cities Design Festival, Che Camille 2007 (Glasgow) 51
Tobias Wootton explores human interference in natural landscapes – how we process and alter existing environments, and manufacture new landscapes useful to us – through images that confound the viewer with questions of locality, scale, and authenticity... 52
Tobias Wootton 53
54
‘As a lens-based artist in a time where CGI has become so omnipresent, and we thus have learned to no longer trust photographic images, I am interested in further exploring the boundaries of the artificial in the real. In my work I seek to draw attention to processes of human interference within landscape. Instead of documenting and delivering answers about specific places, I am interested in posing questions about purpose, locality, originality and reality of the depicted scenes. I offer a visual framework of imagery that can be interpreted, adapted and contextualised by the viewer.’ Selected Exhibitions and Achievements: • • • • •
Thomas-Dachser Remembrance Prize 2011 (Kempten/Allgäu) 1st Prize, Hoepfner Foundation Photography Award 2011 Scholarship awarded by Thomas and Margeret Roddan Trust 2009-2010 Scholarship awarded by German National Academic Foundation 2007-2009 Artist in Residence at FLACC 2007 (Belgium)
55
56
www.blockworkart.co.uk info@blockworkart.co.uk @Blockwork_Art Sarah Haden 07989 414 702 57
58