I have contributed an essay for the forthcoming exhibition at the Bluecoat, Portfolio NW. The private view is tomorrow night Thursday 25 July 6-8pm.
Portfolio NW
- Fri, 26 Jul 2013 – Sun, 15 Sep 2013
- 10.00 AM – 6.00 PM
Rebecca Chesney, Tadhg Devlin, Dave Evans, 0point3recurring (David Henckel, Dan Wilkinson & Leon Hardman), Hannah Wooll, Kai-Oi Jay Yung
Celebrating creative talent in the region, Portfolio NW brings together eight artists who have been specially commissioned to make new works. Committed to supporting artists and practitioners at significant stages of their career, the Bluecoat continues to embrace the ethos of support established by artists who founded the art centre over 100 years ago.
Preston-based artist Rebecca Chesney’s new work was developed during a recent artist residency in Romania and involves investigation of an abandoned village. Using video, sound and studied artefacts, her installation for the Bluecoat will examine village life and myth through connections between birds, humans and catastrophe.
Tadhg Devlin (Wirral) explores the theme of immigration in Liverpool in a new series of photographic portraits. Devlin is in the beginning stages of a long-term project to document the Irish in Liverpool, from people who came to the city in the 1950s to new immigrants who have arrived in the last several years due to the economic crisis.
Dave Evans (Liverpool) pursues his ongoing fascination with science fiction, time and history. Considering what he terms an “economy of means” alongside the “ambition of narrative,” Evans attempts to articulate the mundane and the epic in sculptural objects, using simple materials such as paper and recycled tinfoil.
Hannah Wooll’s (Macclesfield) surreal drawings and paintings focus on female portraiture, referencing historical and contemporary depictions of women, from fine art traditions to the pages of glossy fashion magazines. Wooll’s mesmerizing and strange figures are often located in forests or imagined landscapes, and sometimes accompanied by tiny creatures.
Performance features critically in MODZ, the work of collaborative project 0point3recurring, artists David Henckel, Dan Wilkinson & Leon Hardman. However cars, rather than people, are the performers in this interactive audio-visual installation. MODZ documents 3 modified cars with custom audio setups being used to play analogue synthesisers while driving around Preston, including a visit to the city’s iconic bus station.
Similarly blurring boundaries between what is video, sound, sculpture and performance, Kai-Oi Jay Yung (Liverpool/London) transforms the gallery into a dance studio in new project Shadow Dance. Through workshop collaboration with local dancers, she sets out to learn new choreographic skills, before passing on her new knowledge and teaching others. Yung will document the process, allowing her to chart her progress and further develop her performance practice.
Portfolio NW includes literary contributions by artist and writer Jack Welsh in an exhibition publication produced in collaboration with the Bluecoat Print Studios, and also a series of blog-posts for a-n from invited writers Darren Murphy, Linda Pittwood and members of Islington Mill Art Academy.
**Open call for FREE dance workshops** Take part in a series of experimental dance workshops with artist Kai-Oi Jay Yung during the week of 5 – 9 August. Click here to find out more.
– See more at: http://www.thebluecoat.org.uk/events/view/exhibitions/1634#sthash.FQnpMp7B.dpuf