BV studios: A Wave Looks the Same from Above and Below

Curated by Charlotte Cousins

Online Curation by Will Kendrick

Private View: 22nd August , 6 - 9pm

Online works go live at 6pm Home-Platform.com

Unit 6D, The Old Malthouse, Little Ann Street, BS2 9EB Bristol

Exhibition text: As Far As The Archives Can See

by Trevor H Smith (https://www.facebook.com/thsmithartistwriter)

The world stops again and watches itself watching a breach in the seamless surface of a world of equal access and ability to reproduce. What else is there but to record and store? Where else to look but back at ourselves?

In a world of balloon-enabled connectivity and donkey-driven solar panel-powered water purification units, our product is our progress.

The couple on the beach turns to face the setting sun. Each with one arm raised they capture the moment forever. A thousand years later that sunset has become a landmark; the rocks a monument to a moment in time that was never really a moment at all.

The trees remain. And the image’s unbroken reign stretches back as far as the archives can see.

A watermarked photograph of a 3D printed copyright symbol is undone by a screenshot, a copy and paste, and a picture of a repost of a blog about a tweet about a tweet about copyright and then it’s lost.

Are they crease-marks on the screen?

We build that we may continue to call ourselves builders, and we store that we may recall how we built, from Egypt to Lasceaux, in formats that neither human nor artificial brain could ever fathom.

A wave looks the same from above and below.

What’s yours is mine.

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