Fire Station Commissions: Matt Stokes - Lead Artist

ART IN THE STATION LAUNCH - 3 MOVING IMAGE COMMISSIONS
Thursday 25th January, 4 - 5.30pm
Newcastle East Community Fire Station (situated near Byker Metro station), Union Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE6 1EH

Dane Watkins
Louise K Wilson
Anna Woodford in collaboration with Claire Mason

It is with great pleasure that Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service announces the launch of the ART AT THE STATION project.

The Fire Service is showcasing silent moving image artworks at six new Community Fire Stations, sited across Newcastle, Gateshead and Sunderland. Between 2005 - 6, three artists were commissioned to produce original artworks to be shown on prominent rear projection screens installed above the external entrances of three of these buildings, and displayed on flat-screen monitors inside three additional stations. Throughout the development of the artworks, the artists explored the role of the Fire Service and its activities, and how it interacts with people and groups within the local communities.

You are warmly invited to join us at 4pm - 5.30pm on Thursday 25th January, at Newcastle East Community Fire Station to officially launch the artwork on display at the stations. This event will give everyone the chance to view the artwork on display on one of the outdoor projection screens, and to speak to the artists involved and Fire Service.

Light refreshments will be served.

The Art At The Station project is the result of a collaboration initiated by Commissions North and Art Council England North East between the Fire and Rescue Service, Napper Architects, Jarvis and lead artist Matt Stokes.

Ginny Reed in 'Delineate'

Top: Ginny Reed "Door Draw"
Friday 26, 6pm- late
The Project Space, Patrick Studios
St Mary’s Lane, Leeds LS9 7EH
Exhibition runs from 26 January – 2 February 2007
Opening hours: 10am-5pm daily

And

Saturday 27, 12–2pm
Crossley Gallery, Dean Clough
Halifax HX3 5AX
Exhibition runs from 20 January – 31 March 2007
Opening hours: 10am-5pm daily

An exhibition over two sites, Delineate showcases a diverse range of contemporary visual art exploring the possibilities of line. Ranging from more traditional to experimental approaches, artists push the- boundaries of mark-making to include found objects, sculpture and digitally formatted drawings.
An education programme will run parallel to the event. Watch this space for more details. A catalogue with curatorial essay will also be available at both sites.

'Delineate' its part of the RouteMap programme supporting community-led renewal through creative activity, and gratefully acknowledges the support of ERDF funding from the European Union.

The Project Space in Leeds hosts 11 artists working in performance, participatory, interactive, installation and video works. Artists interpret and respond to the theme of line within the public realm, fostering intervention and exchange. The preview event on 26 January will offer an interactive audience experience with work developed specifically for spaces throughout the building by artists Teresa Carneiro, Rachel Gomme, Maggie Hall, Natasha Light, Onya McCausland, Rosemarie McGoldrick, Janie Moore, Corinne Mynatt, Corinne Noble, Ginny Reed and Matthew Shelton.

The Crossley Gallery in Dean Clough, Halifax shows the work of 17 Yorkshire based artists, reflects innovative and resourceful approaches to the conventional use of wall space. Ranging from more traditional to experimental approaches, artists push the boundaries of mark-making to include found objects, sculpture and digitally formatted drawings. The Crossley Gallery exhibition includes work by David Baker, Richard Baker, Eirini Boukla, Kelly Cumberland, Sophie Flynn, Kate Genever, Andrew Lister, Robert McConnell, Juliet MacDonald, Laimonis Mierins, Lucy Merchant, Paul Miller, Lisa Murphy, Ryan Riddington, Andi Robinson, Matthew Shelton, and Greg Townend.

See www.esaweb.org.uk for more details. An education programme will run parallel to the events. A catalogue with curatorial essay will be available at both sites.

‘Delineate’ is curated by Lara Eggleton and Nichola Pemberton as part of East Street Arts’ Critical Programme and is supported by ERDF and Leeds City Council funding.

Cath Campbell & Miles Thurlow: NO NO NO NO NO - a new public artwork for Gateshead

'NO NO NO NO NO'
2007
Powder Coated Aluminium, LED lights, Plywood, Paint
Sited at Hymers Court Railway Arches, Gaetshead.
Commissioned by Gateshead Council.
Photo by Joe Clark

NO NO NO NO NO

A new thought-provoking artwork commissioned by Gateshead Council as part of the town Public Art and Regeneration Programme has just been installed (Wednesday 24 January).

The temporary artwork encourages passers by to question the world around them and draw their meanings from the piece which simply states, 'No, No, No, No, No'. The text is made from aluminum and LED lights, which create a halo effect and are set onto plywood. It is sited on five archways that form part of a railway viaduct in Hymers Court, next to the Tyne Bridge.

The viaduct is a historic structure dominating the perimeter of the Town Centre and is on a newly created pedestrian route linking the Town Centre to the Gateshead Quays.

Artist Miles Thurlow works with sculpture and installation and this will be his first public art commission. Thurlow is a co-founder and co-director of Workplace Gallery in Gateshead, and is Head of Sculpture at Sunderland University. He lives and works in Newcastle and Gateshead.
Cath Campbell works in architecture, drawing and sculpture. Campbell's permanent commissions include 'Escapology' for Northern Stage Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne, and 'Detour', for Nexus Art on Transport Programme. She was recently awarded the ING Discerning Eye Drawing Bursary

Miles said: "We were interested in the idea of installing a text piece that raises questions about its surroundings and what that could mean. It is deliberately ambiguous. By giving an answer, it forces you to find a question. The meaning comes from the person who's looking at it, and not directly from the piece itself. It works like a mirror, making you reflect and question your surroundings, political situations and perhaps even your personal life.

"It's very simple, right down to the simple Helvetica font of the text. It's very subtle and you almost don't notice it as you walk past, it's designed to catch the corner of your eye, and to start you thinking. We liked the idea of people just chancing upon it and wondering why it is there and what it might mean."

Anna Pepperall, Public art curator at Gateshead Council, said: "People have been interested in this work from the early planning stages, and we hope it will create a context for debate and discussion about public art in site specific locations."
Cllr John McElroy, Cabinet member for Culture at Gateshead Council, said: "This artwork is a thought-provoking piece, it is part of the town centre improvement scheme, marking routes to Gateshead Quays. It is a temporary piece that challenges what we think about ordinary locations and can give benefit and improved awareness to our environment."

Commissioned by Gateshead Council Town Centre Partnership and funded through the single regeneration budget with support from Commissions North.

Workplace Gallery on Vernissage TV (NADA Miami '06)

Miles Thurlow talks about artist Matt Stokes who won the Beck’s Futures prize 2006 for his 16mm film, Long After Tonight. Workplace Gallery also exhibited two other works by Matt Stokes at NADA Art Fair 2006: Real Arcadia and Crave Concept MK2. Workplace Gallery at NADA Art Fair Miami 2006, December 6, 2006.

http://www.vernissage-tv.com/06/1206/matt-stokes.mp4

Matt Stokes 'Lost In The Rhthym" Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin

Matt Stokes - Lost in the Rhythm

Preview: Tuesday, January 16th , 6-8pm
With Old Skool DJ Colm Connolly on decks 7pm until late
Exhibition continues until February 24 th 2007
Temple Bar Gallery and Studios' first exhibition of the New Year is a solo show by British artist Matt Stokes, recipient of Beck's Futures 2006. Lost in the Rhythm , Stoke's first exhibition in Ireland , opens at Temple Bar Gallery and Studios on January 17 th and continues until February 24 th 2007.

Matt Stokes' practice is marked by anthropological enquiry and his abiding interest in how social events and informal movements bind people together. Music subcultures have been central to the development of his recent projects, which focus on music's propensity to influence and affect the way people live. Research plays an essential role in Stokes' work, as he actively engages with his immediate surroundings and explores participatory elements.

This distinct approach has partly evolved from Real Arcadia , an ongoing project begun in 2003 during a residency in the Lake District , documenting a series of illegal “cave raves” held in the area in the early 1990's. Stokes has archived and interpreted the clandestine experience of those who attended these parties, amassing paraphernalia associated with the now defunct acid house organisation “Out House Promotions”, some of which will be re-contextualised for the gallery exhibition. With assistance from an eclectic network of participants, Stokes' project aims to push the perception of rave culture beyond the prevailing media hype to probe the real impact of its lost ideals on the survivors.

In addition to Real Arcadia at Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Stokes presents Long After Tonight (2005); this outstanding film contributed significantly to Stokes being awarded Beck's Futures 2006 . Stokes recreates the magic of the Northern Soul scene on Super 16mm film by uniting original “soulies” inside a Scottish Episcopalian church in Dundee, parts which were used during the 1970's for some of the city's first “Northern” nights. The camera work is carefully choreographed to match the pounding beats, flitting from the sweat drenched bodies and trances of the dancers to the surrounding religious imagery. By staging the event in the unique gilded interior of the church nave, Stokes creates a connection between the location and activity, as expressions of faith, commitment and shared purpose.

Matt Stokes has exhibited widely in the UK and beyond, most recently with a solo show at Collective Gallery ( Edinburgh ), group shows at Witte de With ( Rotterdam , Netherlands ), East international 06 ( Norwich ) and was the winner of Beck's Futures 2006 . He lives and works in Newcastle upon Tyne , UK .

For images or further information please contact e claire@templebargallery.com t. + 353 1 671 0073.

Cecilia Stenbom at Waygood "Little Jewel Cinema"

11 - 17 January 2007
GADGETS
Cecilia Stenbom


Stenbom’s unscripted monologue discusses her personal relationships to ‘indispensable technical equipment’.

This fifteen minute film has a definite conversational quality with the artist chatting away directly to the audience. From ipod to laptop, dependence to luxury the narrative is seemingly legitimised through the presence of Aitkins, supplier of electrical gadgets next door to THE MOBILE CINEMA.

Stenbom explores aspirations through gadgets examining notions of identity and relationships in a mediated world.

"The White Night" Paul Moss & Miles Thurlow, Tyne Bridge Tower, Newcastle, UK

We are pleased to present:

The White Night
by Paul Moss & Miles Thurlow

A New Collaborative Installation In the North Tower of Newcastle & Gateshead’s Famous Tyne Bridge

Opening: Thursday 30th November 5 – 9pm
Installation continues from 31st November – 9th December
Thurs – Sat: 5pm – 9pm (Free Admission)

Some words from our sponsors:

NewcastleGateshead’s International Festival of Light

Thurs 30th Nov – Sat 2nd December
Thurs 7th – Sat 9th December
5pm – 9pm

NVA, one of the UK’s leading public art and event producers has been commissioned to curate Glow, NewcastleGatesheads first International Festival of Light in partnership with NewcastleGateshead Initiative. Glow brings a brilliant array of celebrated artists and emerging talent to the city and offers an internationally significant visual arts programme with striking light installations and projection work, alongside popular and innovative community-based commissions. Working with local arts organisations and galleries NVA have invited a broad range of artists and designers to show pieces that will intrigue, amuse and bring warmth and life to the darkest winter night.

http://www.visitnewcastlegateshead.com/1982/Glow_Trail.html

The NewcastleGateshead Winter Festival takes place throughout December. One element of the festival, GLOW, which has been curated by environmental arts organisation NVA, will bring a brilliant array of world class lightworks to the city over the first two weekends in December. Celebrating both iconic landmarks as well as hidden and quirky buildings and features, the programme will offer a fascinating glimpse of a stimulating and enchanting world set within familiar landscapes. Working with local arts organisations and galleries, nva, have invited a glittering host of artists and designers working with light to create original illuminations and installations that will intrigue, amuse, and bring warmth and life to the darkest winter night.

The Winter Festival is part of NewcastleGateshead’s world-class programme of events and festivals. The programme is managed by NewcastleGateshead Initiative and supported by Arts Council England, North East, Gateshead Council, Newcastle City Council, Northern Rock Foundation, One NorthEast and TyneWear Partnership.

Darren Banks and Ginny Reed in "Electrical Activity"

Electrical Activity:
Creative experiments with Lightning and Power

Star & Shadow Cinema, Ouseburn
Open Air Cinema, High Bridge

Preview Thursday 30th November 5-11pm

Electrical Activity
‘Electrical Activity’ is an exciting programme of classic and experimental film and art, investigating the electrical and cultural power of light. Films will be presented at public ‘Open Air Cinema’ screen in Newcastle’s High Bridge, in the Mobile Cinema caravan, and throughout the Star & Shadow Cinema.

Light is both the form and content of cinema, but rarely do we think about the electricity powering the projector, and its effect on our lives. The films and art works explore many different aspects of electrical power. Electricity occurs ‘naturally’ in the form of lighting and static energy, and is used to create a sense of magic, awe and wonder within film and photography. Water and glass can act as a prism for the projection of light and sequential images. Electrical light is the hallmark of cinema and forms the basis of many film distributors’ graphics. In narrative fiction, electricity is used to create monsters and special powers.

Lenin famously described Communism as Socialism plus electricity, highlighting the role of electrical power in implementing the infrastructure of the communist state. Harnessing electrical energy to create light has completely changed society and human behaviour: from media and information to altering work patterns. Yet we have not necessarily used it wisely, and take its presence for granted as a cultural as well as an energy provider.

On Saturday 2nd December Honor Harger will discuss ways in which artists have worked within the electromagnetic spectrum. Elin Wikström will present a proposal for a ‘Power Cut’ conceptualising a moment with no electric power.

For details on individual artworks and films: www.starandshadow.org.uk/ea

The Electrical Activity Programme is part of GLOW, NewcastleGateshead's festival of light: http://www.nva.org.uk/new-projects/glow/

Curated by Ele Carpenter with Natalie Frost and Flora Whiteley and the Star & Shadow Cinema. The Open Air Cinema is curated by the Star & Shadow Cinema and organised in association with Waygood Gallery and Studios. The Star & Shadow is supported by Arts Council England, and Newcastle City Council and the Ouseburn Development Trust.

'The City Is Ours?' - organised by Matt Stokes

THE CITY IS OURS?
Wednesday 22nd November, 7-8pm
George Scott Barber Shop, The Side, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1PR

THE CITY IS OURS? is the first in a series of three events, which explore Newcastle’s heritage and treasures by considering their connection to 'alternative' aspects and social networks of the city.

Over the past 10 years, the urban fabric of Newcastle/Gateshead has undergone radical changes. As a consequence of these transformations, our relationship to the city has also altered and adapted.

This introductory event brings together key people from within the city who influence and manage the changing landscape and cultural climate; from the regeneration of our surroundings and the commissioning public art, to the collection of artwork and programming for galleries/museums. Through informal discussion, it will examine issues of ‘public-ness’ and question how these activities shape the identity of both the place and its people.

Panel members include;

Elisabetta Fabrizi, Curator, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead

Julie Milne, Curator, Laing Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne

Matthew Lennon, Public Arts Officer, Newcastle City Council

Paul Rubenstein, Director of Policy and Assistant Chief Executive, Newcastle City Council

Peter Rogers, PhD graduate of Newcastle University, and currently Research Associate at the School of Environment and Development, Manchester Metropolitan University, whose interests focus on urban and cultural sociology

The evening will be punctuated with light entertainment provided by the Abacus Barbershop Quartet, and refreshments will be available.

The event is FREE, but due to limited capacity booking is strongly advised. To reserve a place or find out more please email socialspaces@hotmail.co.uk


This event has been organised by Matt Stokes in association with the BBC2 series by Simon Schama, 'The Power of Art'. It is one of ten ‘Art-Tripper’ commissions taking place in cities across the UK, funded and coordinated by Arts Council England.


Coming soon …

A 1000 Days in Sodom
Metal music culture and the paintings of John Martin
Wednesday 29th November, 7-8pm
Pre-Raphaelite Room, Laing Art Gallery, New Bridge Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 8AG


The High Seas
Maritime heritage and surfing the Northeast coast
Thursday 14th December, 7-8pm
Trinity House, Broad Chare, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, NE1 3DQ


Both forthcoming events are also FREE, but booking is advised. To find out more or to reserve a place please email socialspaces@hotmail.co.uk

Paul Moss & Miles Thurlow in "International Enquirer" at Art Gene

An Exhibition of work by artists who currently extend their practice by running organisations, curating, designing and writing.
Curated by Paul Moss

17th November - 17th December
Wed - Sun, 12.30 - 4.30. Late Night Thurs untill 6pm
Art Gene, Bath St, Barrow in Furness, Cumbria

1, 2, 3, 4

1,2,3,4

Maurice Doherty
Mick Peter
Owen Piper
David Sherry


4th November – 2nd December 2006
Thurs - Sat, 12 -5pm (or by appointment)

Preview: Friday 3rd November, 6 - 9pm

Workplace Gallery are pleased to present 1,2,3,4 a group exhibition of new and existing works by four artists currently living and working in Glasgow: Maurice Doherty, Mick Peter, Owen Piper, and David Sherry.

Maurice Doherty's art employs a variety of techniques - lens based, sculptural and two dimensional. For 1,2,3,4 Doherty will be presenting artworks from a new series titled 'Readymaids'. Creating a playful idiom, Doherty calls to mind early twentieth century avant-garde terminology and processes. In contrast to the iconic pieces of early modernism, aesthetic delectation is central to Doherty's latest works.
Mick Peter’s sculpture is highly improbable: simultaneously vulgar and breezily complicated. The objects interweave familiarity with oddity; the conceptually ludicrous and aesthetically irresponsible begins to reveal bits of brutalist architecture or clunky public sculpture. For Workplace Gallery he has made an improvised structure that uses motifs from recent works with added ‘sculpturistic’ sculpture in the form of casts of jugs and teapots.
Owen Piper often constructs replicas of existing objects in alternative materials, creating a space where the boundaries between sculpture, furniture and abstract structures are blurred. Usually employing domestic materials Piper alters and amplifies the final construction allowing interplay between scale, subject, and meaning.
David Sherry is interested in the social rules and regulations that fill up every human head to bursting point. For him even walking past a stranger in the street has a number of checks and balances to be acknowledged.
His current work such as ‘Breaking the hug barrier’ looks at commonly accepted social patterns. These works establish frictions that offset normal situations, highlighting how the artist filters actions and near paranoiac social preconditions. Sherry plays with these preconditions in an effort to plunge beneath an accepted normality.

Spanning traditional definitions of art including drawing, painting, performance, sculpture, and video, 1,2,3,4 presents artists working with the most appropriate material to communicate their intentions, rather than any labored attempt to work within a specific genre. All four artists create layers of sophistication, language, and humour. Social norms and aesthetic conventions bear the brunt of their enquiry raising questions about how we engage with the most basic human activities. Combining the familiar with the odd they make work that deliberately doesn’t quite add up and evades conceptual closure.

Since 1997, Doherty has exhibited widely, in Britain, Ireland, Europe and the US. His recent solo exhibitions include Catalyst Arts - Belfast, Tramway - Glasgow and The Floating Series, Kochhannstraße 14b - Berlin. He has also exhibited at AK28 – Stockholm, the Collective Gallery – Edinburgh, Three Walls Gallery – Chicago, and Künstlerhaus Bethanien – Berlin.
Mick Peter’s recent exhibitions include a solo show at Transmission Gallery in Glasgow, Cell Projects, London, Galerie Nomadenoase at Fortescue Avenue, London, and a publication in collaboration with Transmission Gallery is due this winter.
Owen Piper has exhibited at Tramway, Glasgow and Witte de With, Rotterdam, Holland. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at Kaiserpassage 16/21a, Karlsruhe, Germany, Inbox: Glasgow, Centro Nacional de las Artes, Mexico City, and Busco Similar at Collective Gallery, Edinburgh.
David Sherry was shortlisted for ‘Becks Futures’ in 2003. His solo exhibitions include Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Schnittraum, Cologne, Germany, and Collective Gallery, Edinburgh. Group projects include I don’t know my name‚ Tart Contemporary, San Francisco, I’m trying to tell you I love you‚ Kunstraum Kreutzberg, Berlin, and Zenomap at the Venice Biennale, 2003.


For more information about this exhibition or Workplace Gallery please contact: info@workplacegallery.co.uk

Ginny Reed in Liverpool Biennial

Eric Bainbridge & Miles Thurlow in "Legacies of Dissolution" at Colony, Birmingham

'Untitled (Sculpture)' Miles Thurlow, 2005, No More Nails Adheshive, Found Chipboard Plinth, Emulsion, Gloss Paint.

Legacies Of Dissolution

10 October - 12 November 2006
Colony
85 Spencer Street, Birmingham, B18 6DE, UK

Terry Atkinson
Eric Bainbridge
Emma Barlow
Casey & McAree
Kev Rice
Miles Thurlow
Neil Zakiewicz

The exhibition considers the (interesting) problem of what an individual work is trying to say in the context of a gathering of works, and the further problem of the disparity between the intentions of a thematic gathering and the voices of individual works.

Too often the idea of a group show is to suggest that there are shared interests - that this valiant curatorial effort is a reflection of artistic groundswell. But what if we are trying to enforce a different set of resources back onto individual works, to see how they stand up? And what if these individual works are too belligerently trying to side-step some sense of the markers of interpretation?

Taking the idea of materials and a renegotiation of post-Modernist legacies as the show's starting point, Colony brings together eight artists whose interests lie with questioning some sense of the possibilities and accepted boundaries of art practice.

Cath Campbell in Jerwood Drawing Prize 2006

"All I need is the air that you breathe Part VI" Cath Campbell, 2006, Graphite and Ink on Cutout Paper.

The Jerwood Drawing Prize is the country’s leading award in drawing, and is the largest and longest running annual open exhibition dedicated to drawing in the UK. Established in 1996 as the annual Cheltenham Open Drawing Exhibition and renamed The Jerwood Drawing Prize when the Jerwood Charitable Foundation became the principal sponsor in 2001, this year marks the tenth annual exhibition of the annual open drawing show. In celebration of this, a separate anniversary exhibition, Drawing Breath, will be held at the gallery at wimbledon college of art, 8th September -22nd October 2006.

In the region of 2,300 entries by artists resident or domiciled in the UK were submitted for consideration by the selection panel of The Jerwood Drawing Prize 2006. A shortlist of 43 artists have been selected for the exhibition by Jason Brooks, Artist; Yvonne Crossley, Director of The Drawing Gallery, London; and Paul Thomas, Artist and Co-founder of The Jerwood Drawing Prize. The shortlist includes highly regarded, established artists as well as relative newcomers and students fresh from art school.

Selector, Dr Yvonne Crossley commented: “The Jerwood Drawing Prize has been one of the major instruments in raising the profile of drawing in the UK over the past decade and in its influential wake drawing is now an acknowledged and significant presence in all areas of visual art practice, theory and debate.”

The shortlisted artists will show their nominated drawings in an exhibition at the Jerwood Space, London SE1 from 20th September to 22nd October 2006. The awards will be announced by Marjorie Allthorpe-Guyton, Director of Visual Arts, Arts Council England at 7pm on Tuesday 19th September 2006. The exhibition will then tour in the UK, to galleries in Cheltenham, Birmingham, Bury St Edmunds, Durham and Cardiff.

Roanne Dods, Director of the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, commented: 'It is a great privilege for the Jerwood Charitable Foundation to be able to support and be associated with this prize which celebrates and demonstrates the quality and imagination of artists working within the discipline of drawing in the UK'

The 43 Artists shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2006 are:
Zoë Anderson
Axel Antas
Charles Avery
Sharon Beavan
Bermingham & Robinson
Cath Campbell
Robert Clarke
Jane Dixon
Matthew Draper
Roy Eastland
Susan Eaton
Maryclare Foá
Josephine Gallagher
Mark Harris
Vincent Hawkins
Yao-Chih Ho
James Hobbs
Charlotte Hodes
Diane Howse
Amy Ison
Neil Kelly
Roger Kelly
Annie Kevans
Chie Konishi
David Leapman
Ralph Macartney
James Martelli
Mick Maslen
James McLellan
Ian McNamara
Zoë Mendelson
Max Naylor
Simon Parish
John Patterson
Lisa Peachey
Kerry Phippen
Julia Polonski
Benjamin Senior
Michael Shaw
Helen Sykes
Toby Wiggins
David Willcock
James Wright

Wolfgang Weileder: 'Transfer' curated by Milton Keynes Gallery, UK

Wolfgang Weileder

Transfer

Curated by Milton Keynes Gallery transfer will be constructed between 25th of September and 15th of October 2006 at Station Square, Central Milton Keynes.

During a three week period a group of builders from R.Bau aided by students from Milton Keynes College will simultaneously construct and deconstruct a full-scale replica of Milton Keynes Gallery. The process is synchronized so that the construction and de-construction is choreographed sequentially: Each sidewall is built once at a time, so that the structure slowly moves around until transfer is completed. Over the duration of the project, the complete shell of Milton Keynes Gallery, 9 m high and 18x18 m wide, will materialise although never in its entirety.

Matt Stokes in 'Street: Behind The Cliché' at Witte de With, Rotterdam

Street: Behind The Cliché
Witte de With, Rotterdam
September 9, 2006 - November 19, 2006

Witte de With is pleased to present the thematic group exhibition Street: behind the cliché. Open from 9 September until 19 November 2006, it features work in a range of media by 28 international artists.
Opening 8 Sept. 2006, 6 p.m., in conjunction with De Appel (Amsterdam).

What – and who – fills the socio-cultural space of our day-to-day surroundings? Nowadays it is rare to encounter critical reflections on aesthetic representation that do not involve the concept of ‘space’. Especially in the Netherlands, where the notion of ‘public space’ is a perennially popular topic of discussion, the time is ripe for a reconsideration of how public space operates. As part of Witte de With’s ongoing self-examination, we seek with this exhibition to explore the institution’s complex and problematic position in relation to ‘the street’.

Transcending purely local situations, Street: behind the cliché investigates the public spaces of supermodernity – as defined by Marc Augé – presenting artists whose works embody alternatives to the anonymity of the globalized world and render visible the underlying structures and mechanisms of public space. For example, Martin Boyce’s installations dissociate street furniture from its usual context, presenting distorted bins or gleaming fences as theatrical props; Laura Horelli carries out a subjective analysis of post-Soviet public space; Tobias Buche and Sascha Hahn intertwine personal history with media images and historical references to create poetic documentaries in differing forms; David Blandy carries out a very personal quest to establish his own identity within the media-hyped stereotypes of hip-hop culture; and Gareth Moore will spend a month in Rotterdam, creating a site specific work in the building from materials and ideas found in the city.

Rather than presenting ‘the street’ as the infrastructure through which people move from A to B, the exhibition considers this particular section of ‘public space’ rather as a local theater, a stage on which the complex stratification of cultural codes is acted out and identity is formed. Street is an analysis of the interrelated phenomena that we encounter in our immediate surroundings, such as the fraught relationship between pop culture and subcultural identity, how ‘underground’ is now big business.

Following the exhibition, a publication will provide a platform from which to further explore the ideas proposed by the show. The writers will have the chance to visit the exhibition and incorporate an analysis of the experience in their texts. The book will then be presented in February 2007 on the occasion of the conference The Periphery Complex at Witte de With.

Artists: Joachim Baan (NL), David Blandy (UK), Henning Bohl (DE), Martin Boyce (UK), Tobias Buche (DE), Jason Dodge (US), Marius Engh (NO), Gardar Eide Einarsson (NO), Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard (UK), Isa Genzken (DE), Pieterjan Ginckels (BE), Sascha Hahn (DE), Laura Horelli (FIN), Pieter Hugo (ZA), Ian Kiaer (UK), Germaine Kruip (NL), Klara Liden (SE), Gareth Moore (CA), Alex Morrison (CA), Chloe Piene (US), Robin Rhode (ZA), Ugo Rondinone (CH), Matt Stokes (UK), Aram Tanis (NL), An Te Liu (CA), Luc Tuymans (BE), Silke Wagner (DE), and Tobias Zielony (DE).

Curators: Renske Janssen and Nicolaus Schafhausen.

Thursday 9 Nov
7:30 p.m. Artist’s talk
Matt Stokes (b. 1973), is a Newcastle-based artist and winner of the 2006 Becks Futures Prize. Interested in popular and particularly music culture, he is best known for his video Long After Tonight (2005) documenting the vibrant nostalgia of a 1960s Northern Soul venue. Stokes will be in conversation with Nicolaus Schafhausen at Witte de With prior to his performance Sacred Selections.
Language: English
9:00 p.m. Sacred Selections, a pipe organ recital featuring experimental transcriptions of underground music in St. Laurens Church, by Matt Stokes. Grotekerkplein 15, Rotterdam (nearest metro station: Blaak).
Entry € 3.50
The ticket to the performance gives one free entry to Witte de With and an exhibition ticket from Street gives free entry to the performance.

Catherine Bertola in 'Fine & Fashionable'

Fine & Fashionable
Saturday 9th September until Sunday 29th April

Fine & Fashionable features one of the world's largest collections of lace. It was put together in the 19th century by the father and son, Anthony and Arthur Blackborne, master lace dealers. Trading from premises in South Audley Street, London, they sold to the fine and fashionable around the world.

This celebration of lace shows more than 200 pieces from The Blackborne Collection, many never before on public view. The Collection has been generously given to the Museum by descendants of the Blackborne Family.

Presented with work by Vivienne Westwood and by British artist Catherine Bertola, the lace is shown with Fine & Decorative Arts from The Bowes Musuem and from the V&A. A new generation of design is represented by Northumbria University Fashion Marketing Students, University of Sunderland Glass Department and Cleveland Collecge of Art and Design.

For more information go towww.thebowesmuseum.org.uk

Catherine Bertola in 'No Place Like Home'

"no place, like home"
9 Sept–1 October 2006
The title of the 2006 Beacon project is 'no place, like home' in which the interplay of the possibilities of home being a specific location or a state of mind are explored.

A series of commissioned temporary artworks by Jordan Baseman, Catherine Bertola, Lucy Gibson, Jane Porter, Adele Prince, Jennie Savage and Roy Voss will be at hidden heritage sites in and around Boston, Lincolnshire.

Over the course of the four weekends there will be a programme of performance art by Melissa Bliss, Gitte Bog, Lucy Clout and Lorrice Douglas.

Catherine Bertola
Bridge Farm, Bicker
Responding to the architecture and history of Bridge Farm, Bicker, Bertola will look beyond the immediate appearance of the debris and dust inside this abandoned house. Her interest is in the traces of past lives left behind and what is hidden beneath the surface, identifying and responding to these lost narratives. By subtly intervening in the space her installation in the front room of this house will create the possibility for the construction of other narratives.

Access to the art and sites is through the FREE return Beacon coach excursion which departs from Boston railway station on Saturdays and Sundays at 12.30 pm.

When We Were Here

Matt Stokes: 'Pills to Purge Melancholy'

29 JULY – 16 SEPTEMBER

PILLS TO PURGE MELANCHOLY.
MATT STOKES.

Pills to Purge Melancholy sounds like a dubious chemical answer to Victorian depression, but is in fact a fusion of the sacred and the profane in the form of the first solo exhibition by Matt Stokes, winner of this years Beck’s Futures. Stokes’ projects combine anthropological enquiry with a love of underground music genres and communities, encompassing the likes of Northern Soul, pipe organ recitals, and other diverse subcultures.

FREE GUIDED TOURS Saturday 12th, 19th and 26th August, 2pm Collective Gallery
These free informal tours will be lead by gallery staff and act as an accessible and informative introduction to the work. Duration approximately 30 minutes.

SACRED SELECTIONS Thursday 24 August, 7.30pm (approximate duration 90 mins) St Giles’ Cathedral, Royal Mile, Edinburgh, EH1 1RE
An off-site performance in St Giles’ Cathedral of ‘Sacred Selections’, a
pipe organ recital featuring experimental transcriptions of underground
music; Northern Soul, Happy Hardcore and Black Metal. The performance in Edinburgh will offer the unique opportunity to hear the complete repertoire of music in the series for the first time. No need to book - Admission Free

PREMIERE Thursday 24 August, 9 - 10.30 pm Collective Gallery
Premiere screening of artist Matt Stokes' newly commissioned film.
Refreshments are available.

ARTISTS TALK Friday 25 August, 2pm Collective Gallery
Beck’s Futures winner Matt Stokes will be in conversation with the
Collective’s Director Sarah Munro discussing the work on show. No need to book - Admission Free
BOOK LAUNCH February 2007
The launch of Matt Stokes’ first monograph especially commissioned for the Collective in collaboration with Art Editions North.