BV studios: July 2013

Peter Lyons at The Searchers Contemporary, Bristol

Peter Lyons from G1 is showing a new video installation 'Hyrogliphics' at The Searchers Contemporary from the 20th-27th July.

'Hyrogliphics' is a documentation of performance; exploring identity and how the tales we tell about ourselves can be interpreted in any number of different ways according to our audience.

Open daily: 12-5pm

14 St Michaels Hill, Bristol, BS2 8DT.

Paris Higgins at 44AD, Bath

'Days of Scorpio' is a solo exhibition by Paris Higgins from G9 at 44AD in Bath until 21st July.

Days of Scorpio brings together a selection of recent work by Higgins, which present a polarity between two conceptual and stylistic approaches to painting. Despite a clear divergence, both approaches are grounded in the same theoretical standpoint: a critical engagement with painterly discourse in relation to contemporary visual culture, seeking to deal specifically with notions of signification and aesthetic language.

The paintings are indirectly tied to cinematic and musical culture through the mediated use of certain visual phenomena that can be associated with both. Some reformat that which they draw upon, abstracting, not literally, but on the level of interpretation. And in doing so signification becomes detached, established visual associations, which are bound up in both the recollection and comprehension of a wider cultural sphere are placed in a state of antagonism.

Others follow a process of aesthetic simulation, drawing on relatable themes in an attempt to expand on an existing cycle of mimicry, which although specific (associated directly with the photography of William Eggleston in relation to his influence on cinematography), stands as an example among many.

What can be said of all the work on show is that the painting process itself not only informs the production of these displaced visual products, but is responsible for building a visual language that is significantly separate from the sources it initially draws upon. The paintings thrive because of this; they facilitate fantasy, not through illusion but through their ability to allude with a potency, which is quite inconspicuous. The paintings don’t operate by proxy; they manufacture their own meaning, their own coherence, and in doing so become inherently ambivalent. Here lies their irony; as such a process is laden in contradiction.

This aspect of the work indirectly points to a defining characteristic of contemporary visual culture: incongruity as a consequence of mass signification, and in this, the seaming inevitability of a variable yet structured understanding informed and dictated by individual identity.

Martyn Cross at Pallas Projects, Dublin

Take Me To The Other Side

Mark Beatty (IRE), Martyn Cross (UK), Jad Fair (USA), Shona Harrison (UK), Jane Lives (IRE), Kathy Nugent (IRE), Richard Proffitt (UK), Liam Ryan (IRE), Jason Thompson (UK)

Project Space at PP/S
18/07/13 – 28/07/13

An encounter with objects, images and artworks charged with the mysticism of tribal rituals, punk spirituality, psychedelia, occult symbolism, primitive crafts, folk traditions, and magic.

Selected and arranged by Michael Hill and Richard Proffitt.

For further information please check out the ‘Get Involved’ page at www.pallasprojects.org

Preview
6-8pm, Thursday, July 18

Gallery Hours
12-6pm daily, Friday, July 19 - Sunday, April 28

Pallas Projects/Studios, 115-117 The Coombe, Dublin 8, Ireland

Catherine Knight at Circle Hospital

In conjunction with Artolo, Catherine Knight has work in the new art collection at the Circle Hospital, Bath.

Catherine Knight takes her inspiration from collections of old black and white family photographs. She selects elements from these photos and combines them to create new landscapes. The use of translucent layers of brightly coloured paint gives her large paintings a dreamlike feeling.

www.catherineknight.com

Gallery

Founded in 2009 by artist Penny Jones, Motorcade/FlashParade was an artist-led project space in Bristol. It provided a platform for emerging artists, particularly from the South West region, and hosted an annual programme of exhibitions and events.
S
adly, practical considerations forced the closure of Motorcade/FlashParade at the end of 2013.

Motorcade set out to excite. We offered a tantalising vacuum to fill, an empty space ready for exploration, experimentation and adventure; where boundaries could be pushed, ambitions exceeded and where both artists and audience could be challenged.
Our full programme of solo and group exhibitions included a competition for curators - Blueprint, and the hugely popular INCUBE8 - a series of competitions offering artists their first major solo show. We also ran an annual Summer Residency, a mini-residency and exhibition for our team of volunteers, and our annual National Open Competition. We also hosted a range of other important activities to support contemporary practice, foster peer learning and invite participation from a wider audience.
Artist Ruth Piper added her organisational skills in November 2010, joined by Gordon Bonn. Julie McCalden joined in April 2011 and thus began Motorcade's strongest period. Our busiest year was in 2012... Arts Council funding enabled a glorious expansion to our programme and we showed some sensational work. Julie was integral to this intense year and when she left at the end of December 2012, she was very much missed.
Throughout the four years of its existence, Motorcade was supported by hosts of volunteers, always willing to give of their time and energies. In particular Garry Edison Cook, who time after time produced remarkable posters for our exhibitions. He also designed our brilliant logo and, not least, provided chilled DJ-ing at most of our Private Views.
Big thanks also go to Elizabeth Dismorr, Poppy Pitt (who established MotorMouth - regular peer critiques) and Charlie Cousins, who curated the last show, also Will Kendrick and Tom Johnson for their consistent technical support. Core volunteers included the redoubtable James Mark Whittet, Heather Wallace, Alex Hardy, Gareth Pitt, Lisa Friedberg, Joe Deighan, Charli Clark and Zara Bird-Wood, artists all. Gratitude and admiration extended also to Steve Norton, whose photographs of many of our PVs form part of his unique and invaluable archive of artist-led projects connected to the University of the West of England.

PENNY JONES