Where Studio Meets Gallery

As we are now in May, the countdown to the exhibition has well and truly begun. I keep getting messages from MAPS festival saying 'only 3 weeks to go' etc. Amongst the artists there is a flurry of activity, as everyone tries to get their individual pieces underway, whilst juggling jobs and other projects they are working on.

From my perspective, I have just embarked on the project Objects for a Studio for Artranspennine 08 and this itself has given me an insight into the exhibition As If By Magic.

Objects for a Studio involves me doing a series of 1 day residencies in artists' studios in and around Manchester. My first residency took place on Friday 2nd May, quite conveniently in the studio of Mandy Tolley and Nina Chua. As Nina handed over the keys, she jokingly said, 'this will be good practise for you when doing As If By Magic...' Until this point I hadn't fully appreciated the very different standpoints each artist is taking to As If By Magic... For me, an artist whose sculpture is generally stripped down to the minimum elements, who not only is used to creating work for a white cube gallery space, but works in a standard white cube studio space, I cannot help but respond to what on the surface appears to be an incredibly chaotic environment; to a venue, which already carries several distinct personalities; to a room that has virtually no empty space, and everything in that space is insistently vying for the attention of the viewer. For me the challenge is this unconventional environment, the motivation is the instinctive responses that working in that space and visiting that space inspires. But this, I feel is not the case for everyone.

In complete contrast to this must come the work of Mandy and Nina. The venue which I find an unnatural site to produce work, must for them seem entirely logical. Their studio shares a number of characteristics with that of House of Haynes, and from the perspective of an onlooker, may be seen as being born out of chaos. Perhaps their work feels more at home in this environment, than in a conventional gallery space. It would be interesting to hear a response from either artist, as to whether or not this is the case and how they feel House of Haynes as a venue will impact on their work.

It is a really exciting opportunity to be able to produce and exhibit work outside of the confines of the gallery establishment, and it will be interesting to see what results are produced.