Stanley Picker Gallery

Live Performance: 7pm Wednesday 15 January 2014 / All Welcome

MeleCh is a new audio-visual installation by artist, performer and Chicks on Speed band-member Anat Ben-David, comprising a triptych of screens featuring mythical singing characters in perpetual movement, presented alongside a photo-collage demonstrating Body Image Exercise; a callisthenic technique devised by the artist to interact directly with the camera.

The installation and associated live event are accompanied by a 12″ vinyl edition and printed booklet, available for sale directly from Stanley Picker Gallery as a standard black vinyl edition (£15) and special-edition signed yellow vinyl (£30).

The works presented in MeleCh – the Hebrew word for King – have been developed using an improvisational method of speaking or singing words into a sound oscillator and observing their rhythmic effects. The sonic patterns created trigger new ideas about what words to utter and how they might be performed. The themes developed are then constructed into visual narratives through choreographed body movements performed for the camera in a process the artist has named OperaArt.

This working method, honed during Ben-David’s current PhD research at Kingston University, is based on biomechanics and performance improvisation that entails a form of subjective bifurcation; the artist split into the two entities of performer and producer by distancing herself from both her body and voice through interacting with digital interfaces.

What would it mean to design or manufacture with no society to serve or sell to?
What might happen to the pursuit of function or beauty if neither trade nor fashion existed?

In an effort to imagine this scenario,  this project introduces The Last Man –  the final, lone member of humanity – who gamely continues to design and build his own material world, free from societal norms or constraints of time.

There has been no disaster, the buildings stand, the shelves are still stacked, there are simply no other people. The Last Man puts aside his grief and looks to the future, constructing his own surroundings replete with an array of artefacts that perfectly suits his practical and emotional needs, transforming himself  from passive consumer to active protagonist. With no prior skill in making, collected together the objects, environments, images and writings of The Last Man will describe the joy, obsessions, frustrations and ingenuity of a single person struggling to maintain hope and purpose through an engagement with his material world.

The Last Man: Chapter 1 Improvement  consists of a mass participatory experiment that saw students, staff and others create  new objects for The Last Man that focus on progression and improvement in contemporary product design.  Over a three week period, Gallery visitors were invited to take away one of fifty existing found objects, and improve it in any way they choose over twenty-four hours. The object must then be returned and made available for other participants to adapt; the process repeating across the three weeks with all participants remaining anonymous.

The ongoing project provides a speculative vantage point to consider issues relating to product design and consumerism, manifested through a series of experiments that call on the views, tastes and skills of multiple participants to produce objects that represent the work of  The Last Man.

Throughout December 2013, Gallery visitors were invited to borrow an object from The Last Man‘s collection, make an improvement to it, of whatever kind, and return it the following day. The object was then available to be chosen by another participant, whose improvement could alter previous work. Exactly what constitutes ‘improvement’ was the fundamental question at play. Individual contributions are anonymous, voluntary and impermanent, but each was documented and published online  in a visual log of up to two years of The Last Man‘s solitary yet hopeful acts of labour and imagination.

Gallery Residency: 4 – 21 December 2013
Collection Times:  3pm to close (Tue-Sat) / Return Times:  11am to midday (Tue-Sat)

A Crafts Council Touring Exhibition

Sound Matters considers the connections between craft practice and sound art. Seven contemporary works have been selected to illustrate ways in which these two distinct practices can collide. Exploring the physicality of sound, the works are characterised by both their sonic properties and materiality.

The makers and artists represented in this exhibition demonstrate how an engagement with sound also implicates an engagement with matter. Drawn from across creative disciplines, each work is indicative of a different approach: looking to traditional craft heritage and processes such as weaving and woodturning to create new sound forms, playing with shared technologies and language and revealing the sounds of materials.

With its equal emphasis on sound and form, Sound Matters offers a new and multi-sensory engagement with craft, with each work demanding to be heard as well as seen. With works of varying scale and volume, it is as important to listen as to look to fully experience the show.

Sound Matters is produced by the Crafts Council with David Toop, Professor of Audio Culture and Improvisation at University of the Arts London, as curatorial advisor, and with exhibition design by Faudet-Harrison, Lecturers at Kingston University.

Marloes ten Bhömer’s aim is to completely replace the standard and regimented approaches to footwear design and manufacturing with the working processes of engineering. This method, which purposefully shirks fashion trends and styles, is based on research into the structural parameters required to support a foot (in a high-heeled position) while in motion.

Displayed throughout the exhibition are artifacts from a series of structural, aesthetic and cultural experiments and outcomes, conducted and produced over the course of a year. The White Prototypes (2013) are test pieces, mapping out specific combinations of foot and ground contact points derived from anatomical and kinematic studies. Alongside them are a collection of sketches, construction rigs, slow-motion video footage, pressure-mat analyses, prototypes of various complexities, film compilations, prints and slides. Intuitive experiments and analytical studies, observations and inferences, triumphs and failures, are all presented here together.

As demonstrated in the projected video Material Compulsion (2013) the high-heeled woman is a complex construct, one designed for, and ultimately sanctioned to, the man-made environment. When placed in alternative settings (through the narrative of a film, for example) or when forced to walk through unique substrates, a woman in heels loses her equilibrium (both physically and culturally) and begins to slip, trip, sink or tumble, thereby transforming her perceived identity.

The consequences of ten Bhömer’s extensive research methodology, developed over the course of her Stanley Picker Fellowship at Kingston University, are two-fold: First, the approach reveals a link between rationalised parameters, aesthetic intuition and structural understanding. Second, by considering ‘the woman in motion’ as an engineering problem, she exposes and questions the role high heels play in the cultural construction of female identity.

Marloes ten Bhömer was appointed Stanley Picker Design Fellow in 2011 and is now Research Fellow at the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture, Kingston University. Her work is published and exhibited internationally, including the Krannert Art Museum Illinois, Modemuseum Hasselt, Galerie Lucy Mackintosh Switzerland, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Design Museum Holon, Israel, Spring Projects Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum London.

A special thank you to: Ioannis Belimpasakis, James Brouner, Marc Bultitude, Kenny Evans, Laura Hodson, Phil Hollins, Graeme MacKay, Stephanie Jane Price, Emma Rummins, Nicola Swann, Jane and James at Sugru, Per Tingleff, Noam Toran, Nick Williamson and the Stanley Picker Gallery team.

Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape is showing at Wasps Studios, Glasgow as part of Glasgow International 2016 from 8-25 April 2016.  Lecture Event: 23 April 7.30pm

Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape is an elaboration in space of the ideas presented in the lecture of the same name. In the lecture staged by Andy Holden together with curator Tyler Woolcott, the pair put forward an idea that we can use the laws of physics as they appear in cartoons, to help us devise a possible way of understanding the landscape “after the end of art history…a landscape where it seems like anything might be possible, but not everything is, there are rules that begin to emerge as we make observations”.

This gallery presentation, developed as the culmination of Holden’s Stanley Picker Fellowship, intends to expand on the lecture with a different approach. Here the Laws of Motion are placed in juxtaposition with new works by Holden intended to explore the multi-morphic space of cartoons as a possible interpretative framework for making sense of his recent pieces. Some of the works, such as the giant Ontograph and the slide projection Great Escape (Silhouette of Passage), relate directly to the laws and the lecture, whilst other pieces relate to the cartoon landscape through their material construction or conceptual premise. The gallery becomes a cartoon landscape whilst the cartoon landscape becomes a way for us to make sense of the works presented.

The central piece Quarry is a group of machine knitted textile replicas of rocks collected by the artist on a trip to Finland, containing tape recorded compositions of voice, environmental sound and prepared piano, emitting quietly from inside each stone. One end of the gallery is taken over by Tribute, a collection of sixty “Ornamites” on curious pallet-like plinths, works so top heavy that at times they seems to be on the edge of the Newtonian laws of gravity, and instead answering only to the cartoon laws. From a constructed projection tower we see a video interpretation of “Law 1” – Anybody suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation – a montage of cartoon characters seemingly hovering above the gallery before realising they are no longer supported and should therefore fall into the exhibition space. Here the cartoon clips become a way of thinking about the relationship between consciousness and unconsciousness, and how this might relate to the making of art.

The Picker House was designed in 1968 by architect Kenneth Wood for Stanley Picker to live amongst his growing collection of art and design objects. The immaculately preserved home, undisturbed since Stanley’s death in 1982, has now become the subject for a series of artistic projects that reflect upon the house and its collection more than a quarter of a century since Picker himself occupied the property.

The Occupants celebrates the home in its unadulterated yet delicate state, providing contemporary perspectives that interpret and challenge our evolving understanding of the social, historical and cultural values of the property, its architecture and its collection.

The exhibition includes new photographic studies of Picker House interiors by artist Bridget Smith, sculptural interventions by Cullinan Richards and Andy Holden, a text-based work by Tom Morton and a collaborative piece with Matthew Darbyshire, and a re-staging of 2012 Turner Prize nominee Elizabeth Price’s Stanley Picker Fellowship piece At the House of Mr X.

For his current Stanley Picker Fellowship artist Matthew Darbyshire has developed a new site-specific work for the venue exterior, using printed architectural hoardings to create a temporary ‘site-wrap’ that redirects public access into the building; addressing the venue’s earnest aspirations for its refurbishment, whilst subtly parodying the clichés of its suburban location.

The Occupants presents ephemera and period photographs of the Picker House from the Stanley Picker Trust archives and is accompanied by the UK publication launch of Stanley Picker Fellowship commission A Day in the Life of Ernesto Bones by Ab Rogers Design and a new short film by Fiona Fisher and Gilly Booth/hijack about Kenneth Wood’s wider career which can be viewed on the Stanley Picker Trust page of this website.

The exhibition marks the publication launch of The Stanley Picker House and Collection: A Late 1960s Home for Modern Art and Design by Jonathan Black, David Falkner, Fiona Fisher, Fran Lloyd, Rebecca Preston and Penny Sparke. Published by Philip Wilson Publishers this book is the first publication dedicated to the extraordinary private house and art collection of the founder of the Stanley Picker Trust.

Event: Wed 21 Nov 2pm. Free Entry. All Welcome
Matthew Darbyshire Stanley Picker Fellowship Lecture
Venue: Main Lecture Theatre, Knights Park Campus, Kingston University
Darbyshire discusses his wider practice and recent Stanley Picker Fellowship commission currently showing as part of The Occupants: Contemporary Perspectives on the Picker House.

No Competition! is an offsite programme of artist projects that explored the relationship between art and non-competitive sport. Three new commissions by Paul Farrington, Charlie Murphy and Ian Whittlesea launched individually over the programme’s three month duration to coincide with celebrations leading up to the London 2012 Olympics as part of Go Kingston 2012.  The programme was staged at various locations in Kingston, central London and online whilst the the Stanley Picker Gallery was closed for refurbishments (May-Sept 2012).

Paul Farrington Kingston Navigation Wheel
No Competition! commenced with a series of new cultural walking-trails developed by designer Paul Farrington as part of a Royal Borough of Kingston initiative – funded by the Mayor of London’s Outer London Fund and Design for London – to create new ways for pedestrians to discover and enjoy Kingston town centre. Research for the project was informed by the history of Surrey Walking Club, Victorian photographer Eadweard Muybridge, the sporting pursuits of Orienteering and Pedestrianism – popular in the late 1800s – and interviews with local residents. For No Competition! Farrington designed the Kingston Navigation Wheel, a special cardboard disc that visitors can use to explore alternative routes around the town, discover individual and collective histories, and newly observe the details that make up their everyday surroundings.

Charlie Murphy The Kingston Big Wheel
For her Kingston Big Wheel, artist Charlie Murphy recruited local gymnasts, dancers and athletes to form a spectacular chain of human locomotion presented as a special live performance for the  International Youth Arts Festival 2012. Incorporating a series of choreographed movements inspired by the iconic motion-sequence imagery of Kingston-born Victorian photographer Eadweard Muybridge, the piece responded to formal public displays, dance spectaculars and protest traditions. An accompanying new digital video work, celebrating the stroboscopic qualities of this epic athletic endeavour was shown at Kingston Museum accompanying the exhibition Olympic Celebration: Athletes in Motion.

Ian Whittlesea The Demonstration of Gentleness &  Mazdaznan Health & Breath Culture
In Ian Whittlesea’s film commission for No Competition! identical twins Helen and Kathryn Cartwright are seen demonstrating the Ju-no-Kata, a choreographed pattern of judo movement. The film references artist and judo devotee Yves Klein’s Les Fondements du Judo (The Foundations of Judo), published in 1954 and translated into English by Whittlesea in 2009. Whittlesea’s second project for  No Competition! relates to the exercises that Swiss artist and teacher Johannes Itten taught his students at the Bauhaus. Itten was a devout Mazdaznan and derived these exercises from the book Mazdaznan Health & Breath Culture by  Dr. Otoman Zar-Adusht Ha’nish. Whittlesea produced a newly illustrated and annotated edition of this book, published in collaboration with Open Editions, London, together with a set of posters depicting Kingston University Art & Design Foundation Course students performing the original Mazdaznan exercises, seen here.

About the artists:

Paul Farrington leads Studio Tonne, whose eclectic portfolio has included interactive screen-based solutions for Moby and Depeche Mode, print work for the RCA and large scale installations for Imperial College London. Trained as a graphic designer at the RCA, Paul works  in the spaces between art, illustration, identity, publication, website, music, soundtoys, exhibition and public space design. His work has been shown at  events and festivals such as Mutek (Canada), Transmediale (Berlin), Lovebytes (UK), Sonar (Spain), Ars Electronica (Vienna), Sintensi (Naples), Domus Academy (Milan), Experimenta (Lisbon) and the Kulturhuset (Stockholm).

Charlie Murphy graduated in Fine Art (Photography) from the RCA in 1999 and works across a wide range of media including photography, video, performance, sculpture and light installations. Often making work  in response to specific sites and opportunities, her art has engaged an eclectic range of subjects and communities including dentistry, trout tickling, cartwheeling and country dancing.  She has exhibited throughout the UK and internationally, including presentations for the Wellcome Collection (2011), Tate Modern (2007),  the Edinburgh Festival (2006) and  the Venice Biennale (2005).

Ian Whittlesea‘s work is often concerned with words, and with the lives and work of other artists and writers. It assumes many forms: from painstaking text paintings that take years to make, to ephemeral posters and transient projections. In 2003 he began to learn judo and translated Yves Klein’s 1954 book  Les Fondements du Judointo English. This generated a series of related events and ephemera, including recreations of Klein’s  Judo Académie de Paris at Tate Modern (2009) and Cokkie Snoei Gallery, Rotterdam (2009). He has exhibited throughout the UK and internationally, including at Payne Shurvell Gallery, London (2011), The Narrows, Melbourne (2010) and The Chelsea Space, London (2009), and is represented by Marlborough Contemporary, London.

Exhibition Launch: Wed 7 Dec 6-8.30pm All Welcome

We have become habituated to the screen’s presence, not just in the cinema or living room, but on mobile telephones, advertising hoardings and computer interfaces. It has colonised the art gallery, its increasingly high definition and contrast ratio blinding the viewer to its mediating presence. And what about the genre of landscape today, beyond the latest BBC wildlife spectacular, computer simulated Hollywood blockbuster, video game, or Google Earth?

The hi-tech screen threatens to mask an elemental experience of the world with a transparent optical illusion, a virtual window replacing multi-sensory and visceral encounters. Other forms of representation present material and tactile surfaces that offer the viewer flawed equivalents to the vagaries of human perception. For example, the simple anomaly of the photographed sun having the luminosity of white paper; the swirling meteorology of film grain, analogue video, or digital image compression; or the agglomeration, stratification and erosion of paint on canvas over time.

Using low-resolution images of landscape gleaned from the Internet as his starting point, Dan Hays constructs paintings that question the technology-driven obsession with high definition optical verisimilitude, and the passive observer this configures. Connections to the history of landscape painting, between the classical and the sublime, or Impressionism and Symbolism, are not explicit. More, they are shown to be a latent quality of any fugitive frame of YouTube video or crudely positioned ski-resort or traffic webcam. These images tend towards abstraction through disintegration, suggesting a broader sense of longing for something lost.

Hays’ paintings present a paradoxical visual realm where immaterial pixel and physical brushstroke coalesce. The digital screen’s icy crystalline matrix, seamless deliverer of watery flows of information, is rendered by pigmented oily mud on a weave of fabric.

Screen as Landscape is a Research Statement Exhibition forming part of Dan Hays’ Fine Art PhD thesis with the Contemporary Art Research Centre, Kingston University, to be completed in early 2012. Since graduating from Goldsmiths College in 1990, he has exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally. He was the winner of the John Moores prize for Painting in 1997.