ARTISTS TALKING

When I was younger my local leisure centre comprised simply a swimming pool and obligatory vending machine dispensing lumpy hot chocolate and fake Vimto. The new leisure centre at Stratford-upon-Avon bears testimony to the revolution in the concept and social function of the leisure centre. It is awash with an array of public facilities: swimming pool, sauna, gym, badminton courts, skateboard park, weights room, trendy coffee bar-cum-meeting place and, within this multitude of leisure activities, a space for contemporary art.

The Gallery scores bumper Brownie points within New Labours' cultural manifesto for access to the arts and offers an intriguing case study for the way in which the visual arts and museum/gallery culture has been recently placed within the all-consuming context of leisure. Cynically, it is easy to see how The Gallery was an 'after-thought' in the minds of the district council's architects – a neat way to fill wall space and add an element of decoration. But curator Annabelle Longbourne has confronted Stratford's twee sensibilities and is fast developing an important outpost for emerging Midlands-based artists.

This approach is exemplified by a newly-commissioned exhibition by Ben Sadler, 'I am the Leisure Centre'. Sadler has transformed the gallery space into a subversive parody of the leisure centre. In this self-made universe, rock music, cartoons, video games and the simple pursuit of passing time are all part of the new vocabulary of Leisure – a world in which, as Sadler succinctly writes, "watching TV is given more credence than watching your weight".

Sadler's thoughts are manifest through a makeshift installation in which visitors are invited to play space invaders, watch a video, strum a guitar or listen to compilation tapes specially created by skaters at the adjoining skate-park. A photocopied booklet/comic is free for all visitors and outlines the philosophy of the alternative leisure centre experience. Crammed with Saddler's idle doodling, it contains amongst other things 'solutions for keeping little people occupied' and a practical guide to making furniture from cardboard boxes.

For all its humour and comic playfulness 'I am the Leisure Centre' functions as a satirical swipe at the hegemonic, state-sanctioning of leisure. Saddler's enduring defence of personal choice in the face of the collective pressure to conform is summed up in his rallying declaration: "We are the Leisure Centre!"