http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 Fabrica summer exhibition 2008 Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:58:16 +0100 a-n rss generator a-n The Artists Information Company and contributors edit@a-n.co.uk technical@a-n.co.uk http://sites.a-n.co.uk/img/logo.gif http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 At the tail end of last year I was asked by Mathew Miller, one of the two directors of Fabrica, to prepare the groundwork needed to exhibit a newly commissioned work by Vincent Mauger, an artist whose sculptures several members of Fabrica had seen at the Centre Colombier, Rennes in 2005. Although Vincent has visited a few times this will be the first time his work has been exhibited in Britain. Vincent lives in Rennes, in north western France, as the crow flies not that far from Brighton. Disappointingly it is simpler, cheaper and quicker to travel by eurostar via Paris and London than it is to nip across the Channel on a ferry as I’d hoped, another romantic notion quashed. Just before Christmas we invited him over to look at the gallery and to meet all the people who are involved with Fabrica and generally get a feel of the place. Everything went well. Vincent liked the space, and we think that we can work with Vincent. So, for the past month, in amongst other work, and exhibitions we have been in that weird pre-match flux state, talking on the phone each week, batting ideas between us, trying out conceptually different plans for the installation. How big? What materials to use? How will we pull it off? What events to have alongside the show? Should we have an artist animator working alongside the exhibition? What can we afford? Discussions further complicated by the fact that I can’t speak French, and Vincent can’t speak English. Thanks to the patience of Cecile in her role as translator, a frustrating task I suspect, we are getting through it. The only thing we know for certain at the moment though is that Vincent Mauger will be showing work at Fabrica, and that the exhibition will start with a preview at 6pm on Friday July 4th. One hundred and forty five days away, but then, who is counting?www.centrecolombier.org'... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 Since we first met Vincent Mauger in the first week of December he has had two exhibitions one at Code magazine in Brussels, which has just closed and the other at gallerie LH in Paris, this continues until the end of February. Because he is so busy we have a pre-arranged discussion on the phone every Thursday, slowly we edge towards an understanding of what the exhibition at Fabrica might involve.Like most artists Vincent operates using a variety of media and several different styles at the same time. Sometimes those elements contradict each other, ebbing and flowing in importance. Over the past few years Vincent has made very neat and well crafted, stand-alone sculptures built from commercial chipboard, mdf or ply. Some are raggedy, painted off cuts fitted together and look similar to meteorites. Others look as if they were laser cut, though Vincent insists they were done by hand. These remind me of the cloudbusting machines from Kate Bush videos, or perhaps Leonardo’s helicopter drawings. The overall feel of them is computer-aided design.This methodology follows through into huge, site-specific installations that literally fill churches with CAD style landscapes again made from readily available materials, typing paper, plastic tubing and insulation bricks. They look as if they are landscapes that have escaped from the backgrounds of computer games.Recently Vincent has being producing video projection and light box pieces that seem blend nicely into ad hoc spaces or white walled galleries. Using scanned images of dripping paint they offer another virtual room beyond the one you are currently in. They also cross the line between video and painting and, though I haven’t seen them in the flesh, they look very powerful in photographs. At the moment we are still trying to get an idea what the new commission will look like. For any gallery it is easy to spot an image of an art work that is five years old, progress towards commissioning a version of that with the compliance of a nervous, and grateful artist only to realize that they have moved on radically from that point and currently they are working in a completely medium and, more specifically to the large space that is Fabrica, they have changed the scale of their work. It is the art world equivalent of the model of stonhenge in Spinal Tap   Obviously I’d like the result to be bold, fill the gallery with interest and create the strong visual effect that Vincent’s videos have, that’s one of the reasons we wanted to work with him. But against this I don’t want to push Vincent into something that doesn’t feel right for him or the way he sees his work developing. Clear communication will be vital.http://codemagazine.typepad.com/photos/vincent_mau...www.galerielh.com ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 For the past few days we have been chewing over how you could disguise yourself from military satellite cameras, and the connected tracking software. One thing we came across was satellite photographs (montage?) of this contemporary large scale site specific sculpture in China.www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/19/huangyangtan_myst...re. disguises? Decided that Hoodies were the best and cheapest option. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 For the past month this part of the South Coast has been invaded by timber. Pine planks of different sizes have drifted up onto the beaches. 2000+ tonnes of the stuff from a Greek freighter that sank off Dorset. Tidal patterns in the Solent has meant that it has ended up in Sussex, a sixteen mile viral sculpture that apparently spreads from Littlehampton to Hastings. On Brighton seafront the general topic of conversation, you can hear the chorus of mutterings, “what a shame” then “what an (environmental) waste” and, finally, because they’ve time to come up with an idea, “why isn’t anyone building sculptures with it!” It always seems to be why isn’t anyone else doing it, rather than why aren’t I taking an initiative and making something with it myself. Surely this is mess for community artists to clear up, that should salve our collective guilt.Personally, I like it as it is; that natural circumstances can cause such random beauty without the tamperings of artists. The timber is going to be there for a long time, it will get used for many things, Wooden planks have always been a basic building block, a bit like large Lego, it doesn’t require a bureaucratic, or even individual arts initiative to prompt people into action. I spoke to the company hired to dispose of the timber, what they did say is that this is the second ship from the company to sink in the same stretch of the Channel in ten years. A bit negligent? Perhaps the people sauntering on the prom should use their creative energies finding out why it happened. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 Vincent has sent me a few loose design proposals. Initially he was contemplating working with pallets, then ply (delicious French word, contreplaque), chip board (agglomore) and now OSB. Orientated Strand Board, the kind of stuff they use for emergency boarding. Lovely material, not as damaging as MDF, easier to work with but with the usual niggly complexities. Nothing is ever as straight forwards as it initially seems. So, for the past week, I have been on a massive strand board learning curve. Getting advice and chatting with a wide spectrum of artists, producers and local suppliers trying to get a picture of what OSB is. What shape, width and varieties it comes in, and perhaps most critically what it will cost and whether anyone would be willing to sponsor it. I really enjoy talking with a purpose to people I’ve never met. Cold calling companies with a query, wheedling my way past defensive secretarial staff, getting the name of the person that matters, then finding the phone number or email of their boss. Why waste time? Everyone is so gracious, so full of information and helpful chat; talking to them is like travelling without having to move from my work table. One morning I had a mug of tea, two coffees and a whole bowl of porridge whilst having a long complicated chat with a rep as he went up the M23 and round the M25 we only stopped because he disappeared down Dartford Tunnel. White rabbits. www.smartply.comwww.norbord.com ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 After a bit of shifting of ideas we now have far more accurate working drawings. Vincent has designed an impressive pavilion that is made from a complex mesh of connecting planks of OSB and will sit about ten feet off the gallery floor. Viewers will be able to walk around under its arches; events will be able to be held under it. It will completely affect the way people will view the gallery and the internal architecture of the whole building. The two sketches are in Max SP and have the cartoon reality that is in all computer-aided design.  All of us pored over the plans. Front of House and those in the office, the people who will have to make it and those that will have to live with it for the next few months. Everyone threw in suggestions, a thought about how this would work or how this could be done. So many skilled people, working as a group, all with so much enthusiasm, it all feels very exciting. Vincent promises even more detailed drawings next week. I’ll post these on this blog when they arrive. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 The designs for the sculpture have a church architecture feel to them. The whole project will be quite a complicated piece of engineering, whilst discussing these complexities Mathew Miller announced that it was most definitely an undercroft. He just plucked the word from the ether, didn’t blink. Great sounding, very juicy rich, very medieval English, very not a contemporary art exhibition but what did it mean? An arch vaulted basement underneath a church. A precise description of Vincents drawings and a perfect title for this exhibition. The perfectest, just there, just like that. What a relief. These things normally get chucked around for weeks, getting progressively worse and more drab. The printer, or rather John, the guy that designs the publicity usually having to make a desperate, deadline necessitated decision. For me a good title for an exhibition, a band, a novel is almost as important as the work itself. It is a cue from which other things can be bounced off. A succulent word or phrase also helps me with writing and talking about the exhibition. You don’t want something you have to cringe behind, you want to play with something you can enjoy. THE UNDERCROFT. THE UNDERCROFT, hurrah.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undercroft ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 Over the past few day I have been nipping into Fabrica to discuss the logistics of The Undercroft exhibition. Shockingly, rather than the usual hum of admin and low level art discussions, everyone was fervently talking about past crimes and criminality. Partly this is because the exhibition that starts this weekend concerns forensic science but also because all offices run along at quite a tepid, mundane level and that crime is exciting and gets the collective adrenalin going. Even if we were driven to distraction by it at the time, fifteen years later it feels somehow refreshing to hear an argument about the relative merits of the differing evidences used against Rose West. Let the imagination loose on the facts. More Crime Exhibitions Now.'Indelible: every contact leaves a trace' starts this Saturday, 12th April and runs until 18th May.http://www.fabrica.org.uk ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 Probably because of stress or administrative convenience it is all too easy to hold onto an exhibition, keep the plan close to your chest or within a small clique, bouncing one or two obvious ideas backwards and forwards but not getting much further than that. So in the past week I have made two presentations about THE UNDERCROFT. I wanted to hear different angles and views about Vincent’s work, to give a wider group of people a chance to swill the whole thing around, throw in their ideas before the programme is decided and the brochure written. Once the publicity goes to the printers, even with the new communication technologies, an exhibition tends to be set unerringly on course. That’s it! An immovable, and unalterable, cultural feast.   Preparing the powerpoint made me realise how disciplined, how focussed Vincent is in his practice and how much work he has done as a result. I had been thinking that Vincent was influenced by those sketchy, green hill far away scenes that lie behind the crucifixion in classical renaissance paintings or the contemporary version, the unsubtle backgrounds used to give computer gamers their slim foothold on reality. Now I realise that he is wresting with modern materials and media to create a similar illusion of depth and space. I suppose that is stating the obvious to sculptors.   I spent the week deliberately avoiding using the words Explored and Investigated.   Unexpectedly, I did come across the enclosed image; one of a series of prints produced by Vincent last year. It sums up for me, using the most basic of 2D materials, what Vincent’s work, and THE UNDERCROFT is about.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 At the moment Vincent Mauger has an exhibition at the Frac in Carquefou on the outskirts of Nantes. I can’t quite figure out whether a Frac is the gallery or the regional arts organisation, most likely both. An institution with a home base.   Vincent presents a whole collection of new pieces. When he is on a roll, Vincent really churns out top quality work. His focus on the single point of enquiry is teaching me a lot. It makes me very aware of my own scattergun approach to art work and living, the very opposite of the cool and calculated approach deemed successful in the commercial world.   The Frac link is www.fracdespaysdelaloire.com/   Also interesting on the same site are the International Workshops residencies held for a couple of months each summer since 1986. They seem to have finished for now but the studios and what they were offering sound like just the tonic needed. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 For the duration of THE UNDERCROFT exhibition David Parfitt will be animateur in residence. David is a stimulating figure, provoking warm-hearted discussions and providing heaps of obscure information in his wake. As part of his sculptural practice he would like to introduce the writings of anthropologist Marcel Mauss specifically The Gift and Heuretics by Greg Ulmer into the exhibition. It was David that suggested that THE UNDERCROFT be seen as a glade, a clearing in the wood and that his work place be a campfire by the rock at the mouth of a cave. His residency will add another, lateral and enjoyable element to the show. He has already started writing a blog documenting the course of the residency.   http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/si... ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 Vincent has sent plans for the structure and instructions as to how he would like to build it. These images look fantastic but the next fortnight will be a knackering slog, guaranteed. Preparing the publicity I’ve been having strange flashbacks to Dominique De Beir’s exhibition last summer. It finished with a weekend of demolition. An eager group ripping down her cardboard construction, the wreckage left for public examination for the final two days of the show. Photographs show me leaning on a broom, smugly surveying the destruction, a distinct hint of megalomaniac German Romantic Hero looking over a mountain landscape. Once you get this matrix into your head it’s hard to remove. Vincent’s earlier drawings and his recent studies for The UNDERCROFT are beginning to remind me of Casper David Freidrich’s painting of Icebergs. The end of last years summer exhibition morphing into the start of this years.www.allposters.fr/-sp/The-Wanderer-Above-the-Sea-o... www.allposters.com/-sp/The-Polar-Sea-1824-Posters_... ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 At last, we have finished the construction of THE UNDERCROFT. It is open to view, until 25th August. It looks as impressive as was hoped and everyone seems to enjoy it’s splendor. A magic mountain and a leafy glade in one huge sculpture, filling the gallery with abstracted shadows and the smell of wood.    It took seven of us two weeks. Building it went pretty much according to our precarious schedule but it was incredibly physically hard work. One week later I am still completely knackered, a husk of my former self, and I was doing the easy work.    We split the work into three teams. One with Vincent; drawing and cutting each piece, the second constructing, destroying and reconstructing our full size working maquette, the third team, up and down scaffolding piecing together the final sculpture. An assembly line in Fabrica’s nave, a large place that became a small, cramped world of it’s own whilst everyone worked away, jeux sans frontier style.    What amazed me, and continues to intrigue me, is that Vincent kept all the complexities of the design and structural considerations in his head. It may look like CAD but Vincent did, literally, make a freehand drawing, not with a computer but with wood. Taking each identical sheet as it came, he decided what shape it should be cut to and then hours, even days later, he was able to remember exactly where the piece went in the temporary model and the final sculpture. Through this process, slowly a beautiful structure emerged. Sheets of wood going in one end, big sculpture coming out the other. Making THE UNDERCROFT was a group exercise in trusting a vision.   THE UNDERCROFT, an in situ sculpture by Vincent Mauger is at Fabrica, 40 Duke St Brighton BN1 1AG. 5 July-25 August. Wed-Sat 11.30-5.30 Sun and Bank Holiday 2-5.30... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 The physical and mental space that Fabrica occupies is an important resource in Brighton city centre. Even though I live round the corner it has taken me a long time to realise how critical this is.  Having somewhere central that is dry, warm and stimulating is crucial to my cultural life, particularly if it is also somewhere that it is possible to put on events that in the short term wouldn’t be seen as commercial viable. The Undercroft exhibtion has made it possible to put on four talks by four sculptors each of which have been attended by about thirty interested people. The discussions, before and afterwards, in Fabrica and in the pub were socially as important as the talks.Vincent Mauger gave his thoughts that lay behind THE UNDERCROFT and where it sits along side his other work. David Parfitt explained how he proposed to intoduce the concept of the gift into his role as animateur during the exhibition and showed us his model, Little Fabrica, that enabled everyone to apprecate the satisfaction of creating large scale sculptures, without large scale construction problems. Jo Lathwood illustrated the process involved and showed work from her three month ‘Coup de Pouce’ residency at the L’H du Siege in Valenciennes. Gavin Peacock told how his Flat Pack idea had spawned sculptures, Mail Art, 3D film and glider building.sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/432285creative-process.com/sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/423070 www.jolathwood.co.ukwww.themanfromicon.com/... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 Fabrica, as an ex church, lends itself well to sound and music events. So we took the opportunity to keep THE UNDERCROFT open each Thursday until eight and invite acoustic performers in to perform for the last hour. A break in the  routine for the volunteer invigilators who have to keep an eye on the gallery all day. It brought in different groups of people to experience the work and was a chance for accidental viewers, out for a summer evening strole around the centre of Brighton to wander into something that they might not expect. All doors were open, the sounds and sight of a focussed audience drew people in.Even for me the events felt like something unpredicted. Low key encounters you come across on sultry evenings deep in the orchard after the harvest has been brought in. Kirsten Norrie with Capt H. Morgan on acccordian played out three very moving and disconcerting breathing and groaning rituals on the floor under the sculpture. Max Sweatman and her partner Bill duelled with their hurdy gurdies,  beautiful instruments which originate in rural France so it felt fitting with the sculpture. Barbara Keal invited fellow members of her choir along to watch her make and perform with her acoustic pots. That Barbara is eight and a half months pregnant visually balanced some of the larger pots and added to the dramatic tension. Vitamin B12 used the hour to set up, sound check their ad hoc instruments, then left. I really enjoyed all of them. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231 Last day of THE UNDERCROFT today. 2-5.30pm   Tomorrow we have four days before the gallery is needed for another event. All hands on deck. From the 20th of September Vincent Mauger has a huge new sculptural installation at the Espace d’exposition des Instants Chavres, Brasserie Bouchoule, 2 rue Emile Zola, 33100 Montreuil, Paris.  Gavin Peacock will be showing his stereoscopic cloud films at the Permanent Gallery, Bedford Place, Brighton BN1 2PT 12-24th September www.themanfromicon.com The Incommensurable Banner by swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn is the next exhibition at Fabrica. It is part of the forthcoming Brighton Photo Biennial and starts on 3rd October until 16th November. www.bpb.org.uk Holed Up in the Grey Area, 31 Queens Rd, Brighton BN13XA is a selection of my photographs showing the vain attempts by high street banks to plug gaps left in their buidings by the ad hoc removal of redundant ATMs. 3-19th October. www.thegrey-area.blogspot.com/... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100 http://sites.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/410231