Ingredients, Method, Serving Suggestion
Curated by Alaena Turner, recipient of A.P.T Curatorial Fellowship 2016.
A.P.T Gallery, 6 Creekside, Deptford, London SE8 4SA
PV Thursday 21st July 2016, 6pm-9pm
22 July- 11 September 2016 (Gallery open Thursday to Sunday 12noon- 5pm)
Dan Howard Birt, Katrina Blannin, Jane Bustin, Kieran Drury, Eddie Farrell, Ben Jenner, Sarah Kate Wilson, Natasha Kidd, Jo McGonigal, Bruce McLean, Sarah McNulty, Sarah Pettit, Robert Rivers, Damian Taylor, Alaena Turner, Gary Woodley, Susannah Worth, Jack Vickridge and Jo Volley.
Ingredients, Method, Serving Suggestion, brings together an intergenerational group of artists to explore the relationship between contemporary art and the everyday, through the conceptual framework of the recipe. The instructive form of the recipe enables material knowledge to be shared through collective acts of repetition and interpretation, situating the recipe as the historical precedent for open-source models of knowledge distribution. The notion of the recipe is expanded by asking how an artwork itself may function as a recipe, engaging with the history of conceptual art made through instruction.
Central to this exhibition is a series of paintings made by 14 artists in response to a Yoko Ono score, ‘Time Painting’, “Make a painting in which the colour comes out under a certain light at a certain time of the day. Make it a short time. (1961 Summer)”. While working from the same conceptual starting point these paintings display a diverse range of creative interpretations, utilising phosphorescent pigments, reflections, light-sensitive emulsion, and shadows, and referencing imagery of lenses, windows and sun-dials. As a collection of responses these paintings both host and inhabit the original Yoko Ono score, drawing out the poetic quality of the original linguistic gesture, and challenging the apparent opposition between conceptual art and painting practice.
To complement this collection of paintings, new works which frame production processes have been generated by Natasha Kidd and Bruce McLean (working in collaboration with Eddie Farrell). These works have been developed to present the ‘live’ moment of a creative practice, positioning painting as verb rather than noun. Natasha Kidd’s work proposes a system for a painting that makes itself, encouraging the aesthetic contemplation of the routine application of paint on a surface. Bruce McLean offers a re-enactment of his 1969 work ‘Underwater Watercolour’, which has been produced into a film by Eddie Farrell, making visible the narratives that emerge through the act of repetition, and signalling the absence of the original artwork.
Gary Woodley has been commissioned to produce a ‘Mobile Kitchen Workstation’, adapted from a 1963 design ‘Kitchen Box’ by Italian designer Joe Colombo (1930-1971). This artwork will facilitate the re-enactment of artist recipes and presentations using food during the program of events, and is developed from an earlier design of a ‘Mobile Workstation’ developed with Jo Volley, as a resource and teaching aid for the graduate painting department of Slade School of Fine Art, UCL.
Over the course of the exhibition period, a series of 15 ‘DO-IT’ Instructions from Han’s Ulrich Obrist’s ongoing global project will be realised in the exhibition space. These instructions have been selected for their innovative propositions of how to use everyday materials, and it is intended that this ongoing activity will frame A.P.T Gallery as both exhibition and work-space.
Upcoming events:
Paint-making workshops, with exhibiting artists Ben Jenner, Sarah Petitt and Jo Volley, co-founder (with Gary Woodley) of the Materials Research Project of Slade School of Fine Art.
Thursday 28 July 2pm-4pm
Sunday 28 Aug 2pm-4pm
Recipe Swap symposium, with contributions by Susannah Worth and Chris Fite-Wassilak.
Thursday 18 Aug 7pm-9pm
PaintClub discussion, led by Catherine Ferguson.
Thursday 8 Sep 7pm-9pm
All events are free to attend, but places must be booked in advance as capacity is limited. Please e-mail ingredientsmethodservingsuggestion@gmail.com to book.
Ingredients, Method, Serving Suggestion, is kindly sponsored by the A.P.T Curatorial Fellowship Award, WRoCAH network (White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities- Knowledge Exchange Partnership Award) and CePRA (Centre for Practice-Led Research in the Arts, University of Leeds). We would also like to thank Danish Art Workshops for supporting the production of new work for this exhibition.
Alaena Turner is a practising artist based in London and a PhD candidate at the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds.
Leave a Reply