Stanley Picker Gallery

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.