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Studio Voltaire: Richard Slee Camp Futility Jimmy Merris Deep Joy on Home Soil - 25 Apr 2012 to 26 May 2012 Current Exhibition |
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Gallery 1:
Richard Slee Camp Futility 25 April � 26 May 2012 |
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Gallery 1: Richard Slee Camp Futility 25 April – 26 May 2012, Wednesday – Saturday, 12 – 6pm Preview: Tuesday 24 April 2012, 7 – 9pm Press view: Tuesday 24 April 2012, 10am – 12pm Studio Voltaire presents a new commission by Richard Slee, comprising of a series of objects and installations made specifically for the exhibition. Slee is an important figure within contemporary ceramics and the exhibition will be his first presentation in a public gallery since From Utility to Futility, a solo exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2010. Central to Slee’s exhibition at Studio Voltaire is a number of works based on vernacular objects such as wood saws, hammers, pick axes and camping equipment. Inspired by a recent residency at Alfred University, in upstate New York, the works investigate particular myths and the symbolism of our ideas of America such as the great outdoors and the pioneer spirit. Lashed together workbenches that refer to old mining equipment, various scattered tools and an abandoned camp-fire can be read as an allegory to abandoned industries where whole communities move on to find employment elsewhere. Ideas challenging the economy of productive labour are implicit in Slee’s combination of the hand-made and the found object. The uncanny hybrid of the de-skilled ready-made and the crafted object convey a subversive humourous vision that playfully investigates the limits of the ceramic tradition. Mass produced, everyday objects are meticulously realized with highly glazed, bright colours. These seductive surfaces recall a Pop or post-modern aesthetic that belies the more psychological, underlying cultural references of an object's utility. Slee (born 1946, Carlisle) works and lives in London. He studied Ceramics at Central School of Art & Design and the Royal College of Art. Until last year, he was a senior Professor at the University of the Arts in London. His work has been shown in London and internationally since the late 1970s and recent exhibitions include Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970 – 1990, V&A Museum, London (2011-12), The Peir Arts Centre, Stromness (Solo, 2004) and Tate St Ives (Solo, 2003). Slee is represented by Hales Gallery, London Sponsored by SIMONE Supported by The Henry Moore Foundation Gallery 2: Jimmy Merris Deep Joy on Home Soil 25 April – 26 May 2012, Wednesday – Saturday, 12 – 6pm Preview: Tuesday 24 April 2012, 7 – 9pm Press view: Tuesday 24 April 2012, 10am – 12pm Studio Voltaire presents a solo exhibition by Jimmy Merris featuring a new single channel video piece displayed across a bank of monitors. Jimmy Merris works across video and works on paper, as well as performance and events. In addition, he is currently living in Studio Downturn in Peckham, South London. The studio consists of a printing press, spray painting facility (for both vehicles and artworks) and Downturn EntaPriZe Careerz Centa, a career advice centre for recent graduates. Merris’ video works are heavily constructed, utilising a number disruptive devices such as collaged sound and music, animated text cut from email exchanges and mixing found and made video footage. There is particular sense of economy within the practice, both in its lo-fi production values and an overriding concern with (un)employment and down-at-heel consumerism. A number of works document the process of making work, whether filming the actual production process or including references to certain prevalent forms of technology such as the Internet and desktop editing. Many of the videos are filmed at the studio and around the local Peckham environs, with the inclusion of Landlord Padwick, friends and neighbours within the works or as collaborators. Without being confessional, this documentation of his daily life engages a cultural and emotional response. Overarching Merris’ practice as a whole is a kind of positivism, with works titled accordingly - Portraits of Domestic Bliss, Amazing and aah (Have a nice day), You Can Make It If You Try, Happiness is just around the corner, etc. You get a sense of what it might be like to be a part the community around him, and the potential difficulties of producing work. This presentation forms a part of the Member’s Show Award, where one artist from SV12 Member’s Show is given the opportunity to make a solo presentation at the gallery and awarded £1,000 towards the production of new work. The award was selected by Jenni Lomax (Director, Camden Arts Centre), Mike Nelson (artist) and Joe Scotland (Director, Studio Voltaire). Jimmy Merris (1983) graduated from LCC in 2007. Recent solo exhibitions include Economics 101 (with Terry Dennett), SPACE, London (2011) and Finding Your Feet In The Times Of The Worried Man (2011), Seventeen Gallery, London. |
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