Darren Edwards
KG50/49-52
Coated polyamide, polyester webbing, tuff pegs, braided nylon guy lines, aluminium poles, nickel eyelets, nylon and aluminium small parts
3 x 15 x 20 meters ( 9.8 x 49.2 x 65.6 feet)
2009

I am interested in the desire to 'escape' to the outdoors, and the value we place on this desire.

I build works that arise from a collective longing for, and exploitation of, wilderness; historical and personal experience form the groundwork for sculptures that use the literal and symbolic materials of outdoor living.

The processes and materials of tent making and woodcraft evoke camp life, and contemporary ideas about ecology and the re-emerging interest in bushcraft. Neon and gold-based photography connect with the 19th century alchemy of westward expansion and wealth generation; all in their way have shaped our perception of the outdoors.

Whenever possible the sculptural works are located at least once in the actual landscape. The outcomes of these temporary installations further develop the work's narrative content and final form, and become the subject of parallel work in drawing, photography and moving image.

Darren Edwards, London

Steve Newberry
Island 1 (detail)
2010
2 x 4 wood, drywall, rigid insulation, ABS pipe, copper pipe, electrical wires & connectors, nails, screws, caulking

Primarily a sculpture and installation artist but comfortable working in a variety of media, Steve Newberry's work often examines and questions society's connections to the natural world.

Buoyed by a belief that human beings have an innate desire to be connected to nature, Newberry's work looks at how we go about making those connections in a world that is becoming increasingly urbanized and commercialized.

Themes of 'natural vs. artificial' run through his work, as he often mixes wood and other natural materials with mass-produced 'junk' that is found or bought in common hardware and 'dollar' stores. 

His sculptures and installations often recreate or mimic natural eco-systems or phenomena while being made of trite and disposable objects.  The pieces serve to question not only our own relationship to the natural environment, but further questions our motives behind the representation of nature, as seen through the lenses of art and popular culture.

Steve Newberry, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Neil Hedger
A Plasticine Powerplay
2010, painted bronze, edition of 3
82cm x 60cm

The work of Neil Hedger is made in response to the problem of why we should conceive, manufacture and covert representations of ourselves today and how meaning is attached to such images. Hedger asks what the contemporary image of human being might be in the first decades of the 21st Century and how this image relates to representations of the self.

Hedger's practise involves the fashioning of brightly coloured, seedy, soiled, proud, pathetic and profane effigies from simple materials - plasticine, tinfoil, sticky tape, wire, spray-paint. These figures are presented singly and in groups, sometimes in the original rubbish materials, sometimes cast in brightly coloured plastics, and sometimes cast in metal and painted to create a trompe l'oeil effect of the original materials.

Leaving a career as a sculptor in the film industry, Hedger studied Art Practice at Goldsmiths College and was selected for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2008, The Matt Roberts Salon Selectors Prize 2009, and the group show She Awoke With a Jerk, Andrea Rosen Gallery, curated by Nigel Cooke 2010.

Neil Hedger, London

Ellen Driscoll
Fastforwardfossil#2, 2009
harvested plastic, 30' L x 7'H x 12'W
SmackMellon, Brooklyn

My recent studio practice is the continuation of a multi-year investigation in sculpture and drawing of the architecture and landscapes that result from natural resource harvesting and consumption, with a particular focus on oil and water. The sculptural landscapes are made from thousands of PET plastic milk and water bottles harvested from the recycling bags of urban streets. The plastic bottles that once contained our purest drinks, milk and water, are transformed into ghostly translucent landscapes that extend themselves telescopically from the intimate local daily act of quenching thirst to the unseen counterweight on the other side of the world: from the North Pacific whirlpool of atomized plastic to the rogue fires "bunkered" into the Nigerian pipeline. The drawings engage dialectically with the sculptures, imagining a future world in which the refugee camp is pitched atop the water tower, the North Sea oil rig shares the ocean's horizon with wildfires and garbage scows, and the McMansion development plots are abandoned to spontaneous communities of slums. The worlds in the drawings are drained of color, and yet filled with the flux, fluid, and spillage of a chaotic, dystopic future.

Ellen Driscoll, New York

Rosie Leventon
somewhere a door slammed.... 2009 - 10
paperbacks
182 x 147 x 150 cm

The books are paperbacks,  mainly Romantic Novels that have titles like " Confessions of a Vicars Wife" and "Cold Heart Canyon". They have been formed brick-like into a rectangular tower which stands about 1.83 metres high. In it are regular shaped windows on 2 sides which allow a view into the interior. The titles of the books are visible on the outside of the walls, and looking through the windows people can see the pages of the books have been roughly carved - softened,  so that they may look a bit like flat pieces of stone or an ancient ruin. Living in Central London as I do, we all live in or walk past huge tower blocks every day. But what do we know of the lives of all the people who live in the flats? Peoples lives in which so many major and minor events, joys and sorrows, are contained.  References to archaeology and ancient cultures run right through my work, also looking through and behind the surface. I aim to provide a link between the present and contemporary life and the distant past.

Rosie Leventon, London

Shannon Donovan
Exuberance is better than taste
2007-2008
Wallpaper, wood, ceramic objects

About my practice:
I create pseudo-domestic environments in which ceramic is the primary medium. These environments ask us to think about décor as an expression of social status and taste. Through color and form, I aim to inspire unabashed, unconstrained delight. My work crosses boundaries of expectation in rendering the functional decorative, and in challenging ideas about the appropriate use and meaning of ceramics. Through transformation of mundane objects and cultural detritus, I promote interplay between nature and artifice, foster a cycle of cross-pollination between outdoors and in, and champion Flaubert's claim that exuberance is better than taste.

Shannon Donovan, Pennsylvania

Traci Talasco
Detail of "Support System ", 2010
10 x 6 x 3 ft.
installation, red carpeting, architectural model parts, blue interior paint, moulding, chair rail.

Throughout my art career I have created sculptures, installations, and video works. While the medium changes, there is a common theme dealing with romantic relationships, in a humorous way. As a wife and mother, I am navigating my way through the ups and downs of family life and have learned that things are not always as they appear. My personal experiences are the basis for my ideas.
 
Using home as a stage, the work focuses on communication issues between couples, societal expectations, and disappointments.  The physical space of home, the objects we choose to decorate it, and the emotions we associate with it, all play a role.  The work contains implied narratives that often straddle a line between humor and vulnerability.  I frequently use construction materials and everyday objects such as plywood, carpeting, wallpaper, and coffee mugs. As part of my working process I either use writing as a springboard for my ideas, or I play with a material I am attracted to and work with its inherent associations.

Traci Talasco, New York

BM Box 5163
London
WC1N 3XX
United Kingdom

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