Basic overview:

Dates: In May and June 2018 I made 2 test shows at Stryx Gallery in Birmingham; The shows each opened at the end of a 2 week development residency in the space. The first in May the second on the 7^th June

Stryx is  woman artist run space at Minerva Works, Digbeth Birmingham. 

The shows were titled: Elements I & II

My aim was to speculatively and within the space of the gallery explore elements of materials I had gathered at Dyffryn, I wanted to work with them in relationship to the space, thinking through possibilities practically and seeing what happened. I was hoping that I might put some things together in ways that elicited an affective response from viewer and that I might create affective / affecting atmospheres in the space, that the space would in pockets become redolent of the space the materials were from. I also wanted the process to develop through the doing, any

feedback and reflection. So again an ever developing and altering methodology.

I was also working in the space with Kirstin Adkins, a film maker and journalist who I had made collaborative works with previously – but for this we were exploring the juxta position of our current works in progress and our own works separately. 

2 exhibitions were made, with 2 opening nights. . I am only going to talk in this about my own ‘elements’ of work in the shows.

The space had a darker area painted grey and also  much lighter areas painted white with large windows in. The windows faced out on to the street, at the other side of the space is a doorway leading to solid stairs, the space is on the first floor. 

Elements I:

The first period of residency / research – I got together a range of materials, still images, audio and video elements to work with and a range of equipment including screens, projectors and speakers, I also had different surfaces to test projecting onto such as wooden frames and tracing paper, boards and plain paper. 

I started of just setting some things up, a projection, a screen, some image and some audio – seeing what they felt like in the space.

I had some elements from  the outside rooms – and also some from Florence’s Room. I decided to concentrate on these two sets of materials.

The first ‘show’ I used an area in the lighter part of the room where I had a screen of video and some still images projected all with audio tracks that were from some of the outside areas, from the fernery and the grassland area. These were titled according to location and then date of gathering.

And also work in the darker area, 2projections of videos of windows in Florence’s room with audio, again titled as location and date.

The darker space felt more contained, the audio filled it, but mingled with other sound at the border between it and the rest of the space, the brighter quality of the projections in the dark space gave them as feeling of windows of light, but somehow in the darkness, which felt off.  The elements from outside felt rather constricted on the set up and to quiet for what else was happening in the space. The opening night had been rather noisy, the work had not held up well. But people who came to see it in the following few days seemed to engage with its quiet ness more and pay it attention.

Yvonne Hindal came, we had an interesting conversation about the pieces - especially the one in the dark space; how that its shifts and movements took you from looking at them as things from other places to ‘being in this places’; how it sort of made a bodily response occur that took you from viewing somewhere else to being in the now and aware of the you and now and where you were in this moment. So in some ways it had done some of what I was hoping for.

Reflecting while being in the space over those few days the first iteration was open, I realised that the area of the while space with the windows, had a parallel with the window images from Florence’s room at Dyffryn House, and that this would be good to explore further in the second part.

N.B.

Having since made the book – can see how much the shows worked with the audio giving information from outside the view of the video or still images – the speciality of the downstairs / below window audio etc. this expanded space –  and part of what I increasing think makes an affecting encounter? I also think that the permeability with the space it is in and the things around, links the work to the local of showing.

Elements II:

Having had some time to think after the first iteration, I decided to work only with the materials from Florence’s room and to think about the transposition of the structurer / layouts of that space at Dyffryn to the space at Stryx, and particularly the larger open light space with windows along one side. I also wanted to consider the space’s own audio, from the windows, through the door and up the stairs – and also of the people in the space. A parallel to the space at Dyffryn and continuing from the tests at the SofA and Shee Water work around permeable spaces. The structure, in this case in the form again of layout, is something that was very useful as a starting point, and to give a ‘firm’ element to start developing from, it is not something that I doggedly adjeared to, but a rough structure as a starting point. Because the way that audio functions spacially, it seemed to work very well, as in the set up for the second iteration the space felt expanded across the room, through the windows and down the stairs, listening to the sounds of people moving below and the piano being played. A mingling of the hear / now everyday – with the there / then everyday of the other space.

I chose in the end to print stills from the views of the windows and have those with the shifting and changing audio, in part this was practical, the space was very light for projection and the screens felt too containing. The audio has no real beginning or end points, and was all of differing lengths (as both audio and video had been in the previous iteration and much of my work) so you didn’t meet the same elements ‘with’ each other repeatedly, but thigs shifted and changed, as well as being changed by the sounds around. Again, there were some parts that I felt didn’t work well at the opening, as the crowd was very noisy, and the work very quiet. But when people came separately or earlier on at the opening, it worked well with the sounds of people moving through, speaking, stopping, carrying on… (I did try and have a quiet opening, but people were not; I wonder now with a rise of neurodivergent openings, if that would be more posable?)

Sophie Hederwick saw the second show and spoke to me about how they (the works) transform where you are; that your aware of the other place, where they are from but become very aware also of / in the intent listening and watching - the small shifts in the imagery and sound - very aware of the act of hearing / seeing and again, very aware of where you are encountering it.

I am constantly aware that the viewer makes the final ‘part’, element of the work for me, that they are integral to its being and coming to be active, so Showing / sharing work is for me an essential activity. The slippage and the seepage between the constituent parts that I am working with, the ideas and modalities of working, the things I might make and them as they are put into a new physical space. These then joining with the light and sounds that are there and the things that are brought to the work by the viewers, the sounds they make, the shifts through their movements. also the audiences understanding and experiences that they bring in that moment with them. The bodies both human and not, meeting in their own particular ways. These are all part of what make a work, work. I feel on reflection that there were parts of these 2 shows that did work well, and there are things for me to carry forward and understand from making them