Paul Cordwell / Dave Griffiths / Jessica Longmore / Lee Machell / Dan Mort / Untitled Gallery
Five artists based at or affiliated with Manchester’s Rogue Artists’ Studios come together to show sculpture, video and installation. Although not working to a group manifesto, their practices display intrinsic commonalities. Lee Machell employs a variety of commonplace objects, such as matches, tools and stationery, within a practice that incorporates sculpture, installation and drawing. Jessica Longmore takes up residence in other artists’s spaces, making work with the found objects and materials their studios contain. And building on some of the artist’s affiliation with Manchester’s Untitled Gallery, curator Katie Rutherford will be developing projects throughout the exhibition in a scaled down facsimile space at PSL.
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The Artists
Paul Cordwell co-opts
the subtle vagaries of physical substance into a central role in
sculptural presentations of mass-produced objects and fabricated
materials behaving inappropriately. Characterised by playfulness,
Cordwell’s quirky sculptural pieces allow their obdurate materiality to
become a factor in theatrical representations of physical laws.
Dave Griffiths works with video, sculpture, animation and print.
Recent work dwells on the cinematic, attempting to activate the
critical potential of moving images for narrative and spatial
recombination, or as channels of cultural memory.
Jessica Longmore's work 'Objects for a Studio' involves a series
of one day residencies in other artists’ studios. The artist arrives at
each studio equipped with only a camera in order to create work within
another artist’s space, using only the objects she encounters there.
Each residency results in the documentation of a single piece of work
in the form of a photograph.
Lee Machell employs a variety of commonplace objects within a
practice that incorporates sculpture, installation and drawing.
Overlooked banal materials, such as matches, tools and stationery
provide the basis for his work and the economical construction of each
piece mirrors the simplicity of its components.
Dan Mort’s sculptural works attempt to seduce and infuriate.
Imbued with conflicting narratives, Mort’s works oscillate with
multiple meanings inherent in their mass-produced and hand-crafted
components. Appropriating objects amassed over time, Mort’s works are
Contemporary Art’s equivalent of Frankenstein’s monster through the act
of conjoining disparate objects to create uncanny new works.
Untitled Gallery is a contemporary art gallery that occupies an
intimate room in the basement of the Friends’ Meeting House in
Manchester city centre. Building on SFTI artist’s affiliation with the
gallery, curator Katie Rutherford will be developing projects
throughout the exhibition in a scaled down facsimile space at PSL.
Enter a Small Room Arranged for this Purpose
is a series of three exhibitions in Project Space Leeds’ version of Untitled
Gallery. Enter A Small Room Arranged for this Purpose Part One: Rick Copsey
and Lee Machell Materials play a central role in both artists’
work, albeit with distinct approaches to surface. Copsey’s Seascapes present close-up
phototgraphs of brushstrokes which create trompe-l’oeil images whilst works by
Lee Machell are the result of the artist’s experiments with matches to
delineate various objects – a riot of sparks creates the negative imprint of
the object on cartridge paper. Enter A Small Room Arranged for this Purpose Part Two: Dave
Griffiths and Mike Chavez- Dawson Dave Griffiths’ Views from Inner Space (2010)
comprises of three prints that invenstigate the cue-dot, a visual indicator
that indicates a transition from one film reel to the next. Imperceptible to
the viewer, the cue dots sole function is to signal to the projectionist that a
reel switch is imminent. Re-Trans-Informer is a series of laser
drawings by Mike Chavez-Dawson. These works oscillate between their status as
objects, documents and performance. Enter A Small Room Arranged for this Purpose Part Three: Christine
Wong Yap ‘Give Thanks’ A new site-specific
installation of responses to the question,“What are you grateful for?” by New York -based artist Christine Wong Yap. Responses
were generated from a public call, which explained that the exercise of listing
gratitude elicitors has been found to increase subjective well-being. A few
responses from the artist- who examines optimism and pessimism in her work- are
also included.
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Dave Griffiths 'Six Pack'
Lee Machell 'Stripes'
Dan Mort ' Parisian Street Scene'
Untitled Gallery - Photo by Simon Warner
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