David Bethell remembers -
Many exhibitions spring to mind when thinking about AirSpace Gallery, there is ‘Two’ by AndersonMacgee, AirSpace Gallery’s first Solo Show. Then there was ‘A Distance Between Two Points’ which saw Jo Coupe produce a really ambitious piece of work entitled “Solid Air” made up of ladders, magnets tied to interwoven coloured string. I can’t forget ‘Trying To Cope with Things That Aren’t Human (Part One)’ AirSpace Gallery’s touring show from San Francisco, which included the likes of Richard Hughes, Mariele Nuedecker and Marcus Coates. There was also ‘Journeymen’ which saw David Blandy produce an Arcade Game entitled “Duals and Dualities” and his amazing video “Child of the Atom”. Invigilation has never been so much fun.
There are so many highlights in the 6 years that AirSpace Gallery has been running and I am sure that, of the variety of the exhibitions that the gallery has hosted, everyone will have a favorite piece of work and exhibition.
For me the fondest memory of the Gallery has to be the first exhibition, as it was the start of a new adventure for those involved and for the city. One of the biggest challenges that we embarked on was finding and getting the Gallery up and running, ready enough to host an exhibition in the space of 3 months!
The space we located was J H Weatherby and Sons, an old potteries factory on Old Town Road, in Hanley.
The three months after finding the space were extremely tough and hard work. A lot of effort, sweat, blood and determination were put into making the factory space into a usable gallery. We had a lot of help from friends, family, partners and businesses to get the space open in time for the deadline. We made it, and it was at this point I knew that the project could grow into something special. Which I am pleased to say it did.
The first exhibition that the gallery hosted was a group show, entitled ‘Tide In/Tide Out’. The ambition that the artists put into the artworks mimicked the ambition of the gallery. The exhibition was a made up by seven graduates from Staffordshire University, embarking on their first steps into their chosen careers, just as we had the summer before. A year on and the gallery gave the opportunity for visitors and artists to consume Contemporary Art on a regular basis. Something that was not present in the city before.
A testament has to be made to the seven artists that embraced the ambition and vision of the gallery. This shone through in their artwork.
Michael Ashby produced a piece of work that was new, exciting and definitely a great opening to the show. That piece was called “Boy Racer”. A Car had been crashed and turned upside down into the stairs that lead to the entrance of the gallery. The car itself pumped out tunes that of rave culture and was filled with detritus of McDonalds. The work came to life on the preview of the exhibition with LED lights lighting the car from underneath. A truly stunning piece of work, that captured and demanded the attention from visitors. So much so that someone pinched the LED lights.
Once you walked into the freshly painted space, once inhabited by pigeons, you saw the work of Andreana Wardle and Andrea Smith. You are first greeted by a piece of work by entitled ‘Spill your Guts’ by Wardle which was made up of flowers planted in a corpse of a pig or sheep. The piece of work was contradictory in terms of materials and context. It was ephemeral yet structured; it was living yet it was dead. The work was riddled paradoxes. It threw up more questions and than answers. This lead on to Andrea Smith’s work which consisted of a greenhouse, madly covered in mathematical equations and formulas. Outside of the greenhouse were English Roses trying to grow in the piles of composts. Again there seemed to be a paradox with Smith’s work through systems and nature. There seemed to a strong element of growth and reflection within the whole exhibition.
Leo Gavin produced a piece of work that seemed to grow organically within the lift space of the factory. This section of the building was disused and had un-white washed walls making the work look at home. The space and work were both revealing. A wave of carpet tiles greeted the viewer, only it was their underbelly that was visible. The carpet tiles were old, and recycled from various sources. The tiles were grouped and brought together to make up a sea textured material, that embraced its new form as a breathtaking sculpture.
Ephemeral concepts were explored in Stella Heathfield’s work. Working in photography, she used objects that were brought together to give the impression of life drawn from various fragments of hair, soil, fish, and clipped nails, so that the viewer was looking at something that was spiritual and sublime. It also seemed that the salt on the floor was brought to life in the gallery space as it perspired into drops of water.
As you walked around the gallery space you saw telescopes pointing towards various architectural elements within the space. Like a kid to a cookie jar, your eye looked through the telescope to discover scenes of horror, playfulness and humour. Little models were placed together to make a diorama. One scene included a priest being stabbed with a great knife, while another saw a polar bear stuck on a white wall. Not only would the viewer look at the work, he or she were then subconsciously. naturally gazing at the space around them.
Rediscovery could be associated with Katie Shipley’s work entitled ‘All or Nothing: A Reconstruction? (13)’. Upon first glance you could see bright lights and hear the sound of a slide projector, click, click, as it moved from one image to the next. The images were abstract and distorted by scratches on the surface. The revisited memories were played over and over again. Certain slides and photographic negatives had been placed on plinths and on lit perspective shelves. This composition was that of a star constellation (13). This was maybe suggestive of a mapping exercise to try and remember memories attached to the slides and negatives. There were also signs of attempting to rescue some of these memories as some were placed under a magnifying glass or had been pinned together.
I think it’s fitting to end on an artist’s work that deals with memories and recollection when trying to reflect on AirSpace Gallery’s history.
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