Curated by Ellie Barrett

LEAD ARTISTS
Ellie Barrett
Nisha Duggal
Beata Podstawa
Assunta Ruocco
Sarah Ryder

This was a lovely exhibition to be a part of, and I got to re-work ‘Loose Parts Paintings’ I’d originally made for a Ty Pawb commission in 2023 (for children to play with as they like, while the art gallery was transformed into a play space for the summer holidays). The process of making those paintings with the knowledge that childen would ultimately transform them into something completely out of my control was a very interesting and as much as it freed up my painting, I took care to make the paintings as seriously as any others I make. Watching children play wildly, and transform ‘Loose Parts Paintings’ into random pieces with an abundance of of holes, tears, and creases, was brilliant and became another process of liberation and way to push my work forwards, in my handling of materials.

When Ellie asked to show this work I was at first unsure about how it would work. Would it be an archival piece alone, or would it carry some resonance as an alive art work still?

Ellie was very open to how I worked, and we had fun installing – especially throwing the cable over the girder, which turned out to be alot higher than I’d anticipated. Installing was very much a collaborative effort, which I’m very grateful for the help of Ellie, Beata, and Jay.

Once the cable was over the girder I could then play with attaching a loose part painting to it. This element needed to feel as light and easy as always. I’m not into fussing and over-doing things. I’ll try out a bunch of iterations etc, but you know in your gut when somethings working. So I pretty much attached a piece and it asserted itself quickly in the space. I didn’t need to do anymore to it, which felt right me, as otherwise maybe I turn it into something too removed from what the children did.

As for the mound pile-up… that came about organically too. I’d seen an interesting form in a little public garden while eating my lunch in Lancaster. It was a cool gardening technique where you cut down a tree, but leave about 3 or 4 foot of a stump sticking out of the ground. Several of the cut off branches are then leant and layered up against the circumference of said stump. Then you leave nature to do the rest, in this mound I sat by, there were numerous plants growing out from under and between the gaps for the branches, and around this there were numerous creatures. The form as a whole was beautiful, and on close inspections it was like a dense metropolis of biodiversity. I loved it! It felt to me similar to my learnings and observations about play and mess. How fertile is mess! But also, how fertile is the process of tidying up mess, in preparation for being able to make a whole new mess. This inevitably brings me back to the sea, tides, breath, ebb and flow. Not ebb or flow, but a blurry process betwixt as much as the ebb and the flow.

Here’s some text from Ellie Barrett:

“Offering new models for making which venture beyond individual vision, works by five artists from across the UK present sculpture as a means of engaging communities, welcoming alternative perspectives, and positioning art practice as a collaborative field. Pieces on display include object-based artworks, sculptural environments and site specific projects exhibited via documentation. The exhibition morphs the gallery from a place of silent contemplation into a space for making, talking, exploring and playing.”

“This exhibition is part of a larger research project funded by Arts Council England, exploring co-production as a method for making sculpture. The project ends with a symposium at Morecambe Library on Saturday, 6th September. This event will include a panel discussion with the exhibiting artists, as well as speakers on this topic from across the UK towards sharing new models and approaches to engaging communities via sculpture making.”

Review of the exhibition in Corridor8

Photographs by Beki Melrose