Sad Day at Spacex ... But High Hopes for 2015

It was a sad day today (21 November) at Spacex, as I did my final volunteer shift. The exhibition programme has been curtailed now that Spacex funding has been slashed by the Arts Council, and Scott King’s De‑Regeneration was the last show in the current programme - at least until the outcome of a new funding bid is known.

This week has been especially busy for Spacex staff with the new bid being finished, a visit by Exeter Uni Arts Society to the gallery, and a series of workshops with primary school children. The last of these was on Friday afternoon.

The kids took a tour of the exhibition and then made their own images and models using projectors, wire, scrap store materials - and a lot of imagination. Despite, or perhaps because of, the weather we also had a number of adult visitors who seemed to enjoy viewing the exhibition alongside the lively and enthusiastic 6 year-olds. 

Although not to everyone’s taste, for me this has been a good exhibition to finish with. It combines humour and cartoon art with some serious questions about the role of public art. It is a hard balance to pull off well but I think that Scott King managed it. The kids particularly enjoyed the illuminated pylon, and a number of them made excellent models of it in the workshop sessions. 

Spacex will continue to run events in the gallery during the first quarter of 2015. Then, hopefully, it will be back with a new programme of exhibitions and activities, subject to the approval of new funding by the Arts Council. We’ll all keep our fingers crossed.

Spacex in the 1980s

You can still add a message of support on the Spacex website here (messages will not appear until they have been moderated).

Phil Root at Spacex to 13th September - Final Week

This week is your final opportunity to see Phil Root's installation, Phantom Limb, at Spacex. The work has been put together specifically for Spacex and is a fun but potentially thought-provoking exhibition.

As it says in the blurb, "Phil Root references history and memory, producing artworks through a process of intuitive layering and erasure of both physical and historical attributes."

The work originated in a collection of corroded and damaged coins. Phil has manipulated the coin images and explored the connections with trade and social labour, while producing blown-up pictures which could be distant moons or views through a microscope.

An eery soundtrack adds to the ambiguous atmosphere. Standing in front of the trestle table in the main gallery is, on one level, like standing on an alien craft - but with echoes of trading schooners from the distant past.

In the projection gallery a video tells the story of the Phantom Limb and there is a peek beyond at a hidden layer or image. 

You have until Saturday 13th September to catch this spare but cleverly constructed show.

Mathew Sawyer at Spacex until 12th July

He would probably hate it but ‘quirky’ is surely the right word to describe Mathew Sawyer. His work is wry and amusing, but also warm, familiar and even, in a way, nostalgic ... and I mean that in a good way.
 

There are more serious underlying issues in his stuff but they are well wrapped in a sugar coating of comedy. He is the slightly odd but amusing bloke next door who you wouldn’t mind having a pint with.

 

This is Sawyer’s first solo show in a public gallery: A mixture of work spanning a number of years which includes paintings, ‘art documents’, a bit of sculpture, some digital artwork and a couple of videos. It’s all quite interesting – even if there is nothing which really shocks or surprises.
 

The more I think of it, the more I think that ‘quirky’ is the right description of what he does – although at times I get an uneasy feeling that he is straying into Jeremy Beadle territory with his anonymous intrusions into the lives of strangers. The most appealing of his pieces I found to be the one about the owl in his garage – until it turned nasty and (spoiler alert) the owl encountered the snake.

If you see him playing guitar with his band you realise that he is actually from a different time. At 37 years old he has been doing his stuff, music and art, for well over ten years - and I suspect he seemed out of his own time when he started. Musically, he’s difficult to place. He seems familiar but didn’t we stop listening to this kind of stuff years ago? 

He can, perhaps, be likened to a sort of melancholic Billy Bragg - but without the politics or the edginess (and that’s not really Billy Bragg, is it?). He appears slightly worried throughout the set but is also amusing, reassuring and comfortable – even when he starts singing in Exorcist-like voices. By the way, check out his video in the gallery foyer and you will see him ‘out-Oursler’ David Bowie by seven years, just by sticking his head through a hole in a box.

This sounds as though I disapprove. Don’t get me wrong: Even though the art and the music seems familiar it’s all enjoyable - and surely it does no harm to revisit more comfortable times?

After all, the underlying questions about how people relate to one another, and the need for community and support are, more than ever, relevant to our lives today - aren’t they?

So, check out his stuff at Spacex. I defy you not to smile wryly ...

Exeter College FdA Exhibition Open Evening

The FdA open evening was a great success and was an opportunity to catch up with people not seen very often (at least in one place). It was good to see Rowan from Spacex; Jez from the Sparks in Electrical Jelly blog; and Mary, doing well on the final year of her photography degree at Plymouth. We also got to see old Access chums, now on the photography FdA, who we rarely bump into these days. Below I have posted some pre-show photos of the Fine Art students' work, followed by a few snaps taken at the open evening:

Danny

Ruth

Kelly

Jas

Steve

Karen

Elly

Enya

Debbie

Abby

Phoebe

Clare

Clare

Katy

The following photos are from the open evening. Unfortunately a number did not turn out well as my juggling with a glass of wine and the camera produced shaky results. The photos also tend to focus unduly on my sole board at the exhibition, where I was lurking, listening to viewer's comments ...

Art lover ignoring my video on the show reel

Art lovers

My board

Friday 16th May is the last day, so get along and see it if you can (details in previous post).