Category Archives: Exhibitions

Exhibitions at Stockwell Street

The Performativity of Painting Review

The Performativity of Painting, Artists’ Talk

On the 10th February 2018, the Stephen Lawrence Gallery, in conjunction with the Creative Conversations team, hosted the Performativity of Painting, Artist Talk event. Taking place in the month long exhibition (16th January – 16th February), the talk, described as a choreographed meeting, gave the attendees a chance to join the artists in conversation surrounding their work, in relation to the gallery space.

The casual nature of the event brought forth some great discussion from the crowd, who at first, appeared apprehensive, especially notable during the performance by Rebecca Molloy. The boldness of her work helped the audience feel closer to the artists, and a round of questions began to fly around the room. There was a great sense of inspiration felt, as the artists detailed their own creative process, shedding light on the “behind the scenes” side of the art-world that is rarely discussed.

Here are some key images and quotes from the afternoon:

“How does something behold the viewer? How does the artwork draw you in?”
“Why Stephen Lawrence Gallery? We wanted a space that would allow us to research.”

“How painters perform isn’t necessarily what you see in the galleries, but the behind the scenes rituals at the studio.”
“A sense of memory seems become clear in a gallery space.”
“Is painting a place where spatial transformation occurs?”

“You don’t want to paint something obvious. There is a push and pull between paint and play, you want room for more to happen.”
“There may be certain layers that are showing, and certain layers that aren’t.”

This event was a joint effort from the Creative Conversations Team and The Stephen Lawrence Gallery. For more, visit our websites, and follow us on social media.

Creative Conversations:
@CreativConvers

Creative Conversations

The Stephen Lawrence Gallery:
@Uoggalleries

On Now

Matthew Healey

The Granular Performance and Colloquium: review

The Granular Performance and Colloquium was a great weekend full of music, noise, art and talks. Regretfully, I did not get a chance to see our keynote speaker Greg Hainge or any of the other speakers on Saturday morning, so this will only be a review of the performances.

That moment in the darkened TV studio, where all the seats were full, and after a short speech by David Waterworth, David Ryan raised his hands, the music started and the Granular event, that had been planned for so long, became. What followed was a weekend of talks and performances that all in some way, involved something becoming, changing and/or ceasing to be.

What became of David Ryan and Ensemble’s performance of Recitativo was a visual music piece filled with dramatic tension. In moments the dark, powerful lows of Joe Zeitllin’s cello thundered and mixed with the crisp, tense highs of William Crosby’s guitar, as Italian whispers of Cristina Grifone interweaved with the out of sync, English whispers of Kelcy Davenport. Expertly switching between moments of high volume and low volume, confused, whispered, overlapped speech and emphasised words. What resulted for me was a fragmented experience where I only caught bits of what each speaker was saying. The music was tense and dynamic and this combined with the visuals of Roman statues, and smoky, volcanic rocks produced an experience where the visuals matched the sounds, and became like another part of the orchestration. Overall a fantastic performance filled with tension and dynamics.

On Saturday after lunch, Rob Smith and Charles Danby’s performance started with a bowl of quicklime, with a cable inside, attached to a speaker that Rob carefully poured water over. What started to happen was the quicklime expanded and broke apart. Rob poured water over another bowl of quicklime that ignited and a video of the bowl was projected onto the side of the lecture theatre. As the quicklime burned you could hear the fizzing sound amplified by the speakers. Then the presentation of the paper began. Equally narrated by Rob and Charles, the paper focused on the working landscape of canals, quarries, tramways and kilns that serviced the lime industry of the rural Black Mountains which in turn fed the nations heavy industries that roared through South Wales. When these quarries are not used anymore they become heritage sites and serve a social function in the community. After the presentation of the paper had ended the quicklime continued to burn for another minute or so before burning out and thus ending the performance. Overall, a very good piece about change, history and heritage, with a unique way of presenting.

After Rob and Charles’ performance there was another performance of Recitativo in the TV studio. This time however, it was just a small part and featured David Ryan on clarinet, Ian Mitchell on bass clarinet, and Cristina Grifone and Kelcy Davenport on vocals. The booming sound of the bass clarinet was deeply satisfying to the ear and again the piece was filled with tension. Whispers in both Italian and English and words with emphasis, again created a fragmented experience of Lucretius and Negri’s writing. However, for me the stand out for this performance was Cristina Grifone’s vocal work. She never missed a note of the high range and her whole body moved as she dramatically embodied a kind of crying or prickling pain, in ahs and ahhhhs, like she was about to sneeze. A truly unique and fantastic performance.

The last performance of the day was Russell Duke. I had the privilege of speaking to Russell as he was setting up in the project space and he walked me through his set up. An EKG (what doctors use to check the heart’s electrical functioning) attached to a plant, which produced a boing noise when you flicked one of the leaves. A synth and a bunch of pedals and knobs and dials. Oh, and a few fidget spinners attached to a hat. And yes, these made noise.

Beginning loud and staying loud, Russell’s piece was like going to a rock concert in an art gallery. I enjoyed seeing how Russell’s manipulations of the instruments available to him interacted with each other and changed the course of the piece. With an improvised feel and a range of exciting methods of creating sound, Russell’s piece was noise at its finest.

As the event came to an end everyone had a drink and enjoyed the exhibition. It was very satisfying to see all the work of planning and organising come to fruition, in what was a successful event. Like the exhibition, each piece of work or performance seemed different but when put together they really complimented each other. Granularity was at the core of each and it was great to see artists and academics of different backgrounds, from far and wide, come together and explore these ideas together.

Review written by Wesley Sloan

The Performativity of Painting

A public Q&A and open forum with the artists: discussing the exhibition’s inquiry.

Artists: Tobias Buckel, Liz Elton, David Lock, J.A. Nicholls, Selma Parlour, James Pimperton, Rebecca Molloy, Alex Roberts.

Painting – the performance of structures, fragments and use of space within the perceived painted frame, and the relating inherent surround.

Tickets for the event are free and can be found here.

Broken Plate: Events Schedule

With the Broken Plate weekend fast approaching, here we share a timetable of the events that will take place within the Stockwell Building.

Together with locally based arts company, Emergency Exit Arts, and the University’s Department of Creative Professions and Digital Arts with the Literature, Language and Theatre Department we have created a series of interactive experiences that are visible inside and outside the building. Through this project we hope you will enjoy discovering the building and look at what we can produce here.

Tuesday 17 – Friday 20 May 12.00pm – 2.00pm and 4.00pm – 6.00pm

Saturday 21^st May 12.00pm – 3.00pm and 5.00pm – 8.00pm

Before I Die I Want to Learn……

Express your thoughts and hopes about what it is you want to learn and experience in life on our big chalk boards.

Arjunan Manuelpillai, Anna Bruder

Tuesday 17 – 21 May 9.00pm – Midnight

Silhouetted World – Night Projections

Animated silhouettes, negative spaces and creative abstractions take the viewer through an imaginary narrative where people and technologies are heavily inspired by Victorian Greenwich, steam-punk, and surrealism.

Manos Kanellos, Rob Hurley, Gabriel Radvila

Friday 20 May 4.00pm – 6.00pm

Saturday 21 May 6.00pm – 8.00pm

Time Travel TV

An opportunity to become a character from the past and the future and tell us a memory, a story or an opinion that will be live on camera in our mini TV studio.

TV film maker: Danny Santos Amaral

Andrew Macklin as your host

Abstracted Greenwich,

A hybrid digital video, hovering somewhere between an advertising poster and abstract animation – inspired by the history and recent excavations of Stockwell Street.

Sarah Daniel, Mike Feeley, Sinead McCarthy, Jelena Sipilova

A-Line Market

Enter the A Line market, an interactive colouring-in installation for all the family. Pick a flower, a plate of food or a pair of glasses from one of the stalls and get colouring! Inspired by the old flea market that inhabited Stockwell Street.

Artist: Anna Bruder – A Line Arts;

Sound recordings: Diana Nechilcuic

Film: Kyle Graham

Paper Cities

Immerse yourself in this video installation, created with local school children from James Wolfe Primary School, which creatively explores ideas surrounding changing places, developing communities and celebrating the heritage and future of Stockwell Street. Through a series of workshops the young people have explored ideas about Urbanism and how Urbanist thinking can affect the way that we live and behave in the places around us? It is this fundamental understanding of what makes places unique and how we can act to appreciate our environment that underpins the thematic content of the collaborative artworks and film.

Artist: Alex Evans with Film Maker: Kyle Graham, Sound and poetry: Arjunan Manuelpillai

Words from the Well

Discover the storytelling well and tales of what lies beneath Stockwell Street and old Greenwich. Hear short tales, tall tales or make up your own from the words in the well.

Storyteller: Arjunan Manuelpillai; Musician: Nick Cattermole

The Pub Under the Stairs
A cynical barmaid, a lady from the council and customers from another era all meet in a pub that time forgot. Inspired by the curious objects and artefacts that were dug up when the new Stockwell Street site was built, this 15 minute performance brings together live action and filmed images into a shared reality. Who and what was here and will you ever leave once you have arrived?

Directed by Jillian Wallis, film by Ed Currie.

Performers: Amy Bentley, Ruby Brown, Harriet Gandy, Daniel Ward-Nixon, Abbie Woolcott

Loops and Tides

An imagined Greenwich, looped in change, yet always returning, is evoked through animations, soundscapes and performance along with local residents’ views on how the centre of Greenwich has changed. The piece explores time and space and their impact on the area.

Lisa Hayes, Zhan Wang, James Riordan, Rory Dempsey

Sand

Sand is a mass participatory interactive projection work. It enables people to connect, communicate and play through drawing and writing. Sand is based on an online experiment, written by Output Arts member Jonathan Hogg, which was designed to allow people to draw interactively together across the internet, making simple, colourful marks that fade within moments.

Jonathan Hogg, Andy D’Cruz

Creative coordinator, University of Greenwich- James Hobbs:

Stephen Kennedy

Artistic Director (EEA): Deb Mullins

Project Manager (EEA): Elena Grice

Poster and Programme design: Shaan Blackford

Thanks to:

David Waterworth and the Stephen Lawrence Gallery, Greenwich Bright, Amelia Lind and James Wolfe School, Greenwich Heritage Centre, Dave Hockham, John Dawson, James Corner, The Mitre Pub, Tony Othen and Mr. Sabo

Arts Council England

Broken Plate: Drawing on the Past, Looking to the Future

An artistic collaboration between the University of Greenwich (Department of Creative Professions & Digital Arts) and local arts company Emergency Exit Arts that will trace the stories of the people and the built environment connected to the site of the University’s new Stockwell Street Building.

From 17 – 21 May the public will be able to view video projections on the university’s new award-winning building and interact with giant blackboards outside the building where they can express their ideas and views in writing.

On the evenings of 20 and 21 May the University’s doors will be open to Greenwich residents and visitors who are invited to experience a series of digital art installations, performances, storytelling, animations and hands-on arts activities created by artists and students. Local residents, businesses and children from James Wolfe Primary School have also contributed their memories, stories and drawings to the project.

This is an Arts Council England funded project.

Times: 20 May 4.00pm – 6.00pm, 21 May 6.00pm – 8.00pm.

Events are free and suitable for all ages.
Artist-Anna-Bruder-Photographer-Martin-Brown-1-960x300_c

Background: The new university building in Stockwell Street, Greenwich, sits on a site once occupied by malt houses serving the pubs of Greenwich. Three deep wells were excavated during the construction of the building and numerous artefacts were uncovered, including a broken plate depicting redundant gravediggers sitting idle while a mechanical digger does the work. This scene resonates with the new building, a beacon of technological advance that signifies the passage of time and the passing into memory of former industries and practices. In response to the heritage of the site locally based arts company, Emergency Exit Arts, and the University (Department of Creative Professions and Digital Arts and Department of Literature, Language and Theatre) will create a series of interactive experiences throughout the building that will be open to the public over two evenings on 20 and 21 May.

Drawing on the history of Stockwell Street and imagining the future of the city has inspired work created by multi-disciplinary artists, filmmakers and designers. Their work will trace the stories of the people and the built environment connected to the site. From 17 – 21 May a digital collage, created by artist Jim Hobbs with graphic design students, will be projected at night onto the windows of the building’s foyer. In the day time people passing by will be encouraged to complete the sentence ‘Before I die I want to learn….’ by writing on giant blackboards. Artists have recently worked with local residents, businesses and children from James Wolfe Primary School who have shared memories, stories and drawings that have been incorporated into the installations and performances. On the evenings of 20 and 21 May the University’s doors will be open to Greenwich residents and visitors to take a look inside this amazing building and celebrate the innovation and experimentation happening within.

Participating artists: Jim Hobbs (Creative Consultant), Jillian Wallis, Ed Currie, Alex Evans, Lisa Hayes, Zhan Wang, James Riordan, Rory Dempsey, Anna Bruder, Arjunan Manuelpillai, Nick Cattermole, with students and graduates from the University of Greenwich.

About Emergency Exit Arts: EEA has been a leading light in outdoor arts since forming in 1980. EEA is the company with the imagination and experience to deliver unforgettable theatrical and participatory events in public spaces using visual performance, processions, puppetry, music and pyrotechnics. The company is based in Greenwich and has a national and international reputation for inspirational, celebratory and participatory performances, happenings and events. Through our exemplary community and cultural engagement we create the conditions for artists and participants to work together to create extraordinary artistic experiences in public spaces.

Where Is My Mind? The Work of Vaughan Oliver and the Pixies

Where Is My Mind: The Work of Vaughan Oliver and the Pixies

26^th February – 8^th April 2016

Private View and lecture – Thursday 25^th February 2016

The Stephen Lawrence Gallery & Project Space; Stockwell Building, 10 Stockwell Street, Greenwich, London, SE10 9BD

Curated by Nic Clear

First major exhibition celebrating the long-standing collaboration between legendary Art Director and designer Vaughan Oliver and cult American band the Pixies.

There are layers and then there are layers of layers. There are layers where images and text mix and layers where image becomes writing and layers where text becomes image or object. And then there is the sound, another layer, an immense gigantic layer.

You can appreciate and love the music and the images separately but together they create one of the most celebrated artistic collaborations of the last thirty years. When the creative output of one of the most important music groups, I avoid the words ‘rock band’ as they were so much more than that, intersects with the visual genius of a hugely influential designer working in collaboration with a team of highly innovative photographers and illustrators the results can only be described as epoch defining.

From Come on Pilgrim to Indie Cindy and beyond the combination of Vaughan Oliver’s art direction and the Pixies unique sound has resulted in a sonic and visual partnership, a synthesis of music, image and text that combine to create a strange, surreal and wholly beautiful body of work.

There are two parts to the exhibition; the first part, located in The Gallery, is a retrospective of the artwork emanating from the Pixies six studio albums, associated releases and rarities. As well as final artwork the exhibition will feature original work up material exploring Vaughan Oliver’s creative process. Organised around a linear chronology the exhibition presents a comprehensive overview of the designs that emanated from this remarkable alliance.

The second part of the exhibition, in the Stockwell Street Project Space, is a collaborative installation between Vaughan Oliver, Creative Lead of Graphic Design in the Department of Creative Profession and Digital Arts, and Nic Clear Head Of Architecture and Landscape at the University of Greenwich. The installation is based upon the Pixies Minotaur limited edition box set and incorporates a range of text, image, video and objects organised as a series of layered spaces to create an uncanny labyrinthine environment.

Nic Clear 2016