James Nicholas will be doing a performance for Portal
Seminar Two : Triangle of U / Kwakwaka'wakw
Turf Transportation / Death of Grass
Kwakwaka'wakw are a tribe in Northern America who still perform Potlatch.
Triangle of U is a theory of wheat cross breading.
http://jammienicholas.com/
Monday, 26 October 2009
PORTAL
PORTAL
Private view: 29.10.09 6-8pm
Exhibition: 30.10.09- 05.11.09 12-4 pm
A group of London based artists studying at Central St Martins and University of Westminster primarily working with video, projection, performance; time based, and technology based mediums. The shop space will become a temporary screening room/stage for work exploring a range of different themes and concerns, transposed from an established cosmopolitan and creative hub to somewhere with an exciting and vibrant up and coming arts scene.
THE JEFF COOMBS PROJECTS aim is to utilise empty retail and office spaces for Manchester based art projects and events. Artists are invited to take part in creating site-specific artworks that also relate to their current practice. JCP’s encourages artists to work together on projects to create a new found aesthetic inspired by Manchester’s creative community and understand their own work better through the communications with others.
The exhibition space has moved from the Karen Millen unit to the Old Gant unit.
This will be the last exhibition in the current Jeff Coombs Projects series.
Friday, 23 October 2009
Barnaby Lambert
Return (2009)
I brought a six kilogram slab of Sculptors Clay. I took it back to the raw clay soil of Epping Forest near my family home, and I returned it to the earth.
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Monday, 19 October 2009
Jeff Coombs Projects location change.
'Surrogate' will be the last show that is being shown in the Karen Millen unit. I will update you shortly on the venue for the last exhibition 'Portal'. You won't have to go too far though as it will still be in the Triangle.
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Article from jotta
Jeff Coombs Project
By Millie Ross published on Monday, 12 October
Manchester Metropolitan University student and curator Sophie Coombs, under the moniker of Jeff Coombs Projects, utilises empty retail and office spaces around Manchester, encouragng site-specific work from artists and in turn creating a new found aesthetic inspired by Manchester’s creative community. We ask her about co-curating the recent jotta show Space Within.
Could you briefly describe the common thread in the work of the three manchester artists, and why you curated them together with the jotta artists?
I'm very good friends with all of the Manchester artists, so I know all their work very well. They all have a wonderful ability of sourcing and working with found objects. That, combined with beautifully positioning and lighting, makes the pieces appear almost filmic and it becomes a complete experience. All of the Manchester artists work completely personifies them, I suppose by working with people you don't know you get a pre-concieved idea of how they are through the work they make. Then when you get to know the artists you have a completely different outlook on the work and you see how it relates to them, it's like being let in on a secret. The whole event was a quite a social experiment. I always think that art is based on a form of communication between the artist and the viewer, but rather than this lasting a couple of minutes, for me it was for a week.
What interesting elements did you note in the way the artists worked together in the space? Did they work well together, was their a communal/collaborative feel?
I realised that I had unintentionally put together a show that was all men. Once I had acknowledged that, I realised there was also a lot of wood used in the works - in very different ways. The London artists were using more bought wood, whilst the Manchester artist were sourcing a lot of their wood from skips. I suppose these similarities in medium meant there was a lot of sharing of tools and helping each other out, which would not have necessarily ocurred if it was a mix of video and painting etc. They all got on really well, I left the artists often to just get on with their pieces, so the London artists really had to communicate with each other and the Manchester artists if they needed to source material in town.
What glitches, if any, were encountered?
Opening and closing times are annoying because you have to stick to shopping hours. Also, as it is a family shopping centre there were a few shocked responses to the Fuck Machine. This meant that I had to turn it around so that you could only read 'IT'S MAGIC' instead of 'THE FAMOUS FUCK MACHINE!' (but to be honest I think that it added to the piece).
http://jeffcoombsprojects.blogspot.com/
By Millie Ross published on Monday, 12 October
Manchester Metropolitan University student and curator Sophie Coombs, under the moniker of Jeff Coombs Projects, utilises empty retail and office spaces around Manchester, encouragng site-specific work from artists and in turn creating a new found aesthetic inspired by Manchester’s creative community. We ask her about co-curating the recent jotta show Space Within.
Could you briefly describe the common thread in the work of the three manchester artists, and why you curated them together with the jotta artists?
I'm very good friends with all of the Manchester artists, so I know all their work very well. They all have a wonderful ability of sourcing and working with found objects. That, combined with beautifully positioning and lighting, makes the pieces appear almost filmic and it becomes a complete experience. All of the Manchester artists work completely personifies them, I suppose by working with people you don't know you get a pre-concieved idea of how they are through the work they make. Then when you get to know the artists you have a completely different outlook on the work and you see how it relates to them, it's like being let in on a secret. The whole event was a quite a social experiment. I always think that art is based on a form of communication between the artist and the viewer, but rather than this lasting a couple of minutes, for me it was for a week.
What interesting elements did you note in the way the artists worked together in the space? Did they work well together, was their a communal/collaborative feel?
I realised that I had unintentionally put together a show that was all men. Once I had acknowledged that, I realised there was also a lot of wood used in the works - in very different ways. The London artists were using more bought wood, whilst the Manchester artist were sourcing a lot of their wood from skips. I suppose these similarities in medium meant there was a lot of sharing of tools and helping each other out, which would not have necessarily ocurred if it was a mix of video and painting etc. They all got on really well, I left the artists often to just get on with their pieces, so the London artists really had to communicate with each other and the Manchester artists if they needed to source material in town.
What glitches, if any, were encountered?
Opening and closing times are annoying because you have to stick to shopping hours. Also, as it is a family shopping centre there were a few shocked responses to the Fuck Machine. This meant that I had to turn it around so that you could only read 'IT'S MAGIC' instead of 'THE FAMOUS FUCK MACHINE!' (but to be honest I think that it added to the piece).
http://jeffcoombsprojects.blogspot.com/
Jotta Curator Ellie Greig reponse to 'Space Within'
Ellie helped curate the show and came to Manchester to see some of the installing
What do you think Manchester has to offer as a cultural city?
From what I have observed form only two visits to Manchester, the genral vibe I get from artist/curator relationship is that there is a huge amount of creative support from both sides. There also seems to be an active encouragement from landlords and organisations, making it fairly easy to occupy unused spaces.
Have you noticed any particular themes in visual aesthetics that are common within Manchester based artists?
I can only comment on artist that I have seen come out of the MMU, but there seems to be a current mode of practise concerned with using what one finds-a very economical approach to use of material. I also observed that O'Sullivan and Pickles both explore themes related to myth and landscape, which is interesting.
What was your initial reaction to the space?
Throughout my time spent curating exhibitions the space its self has nearly always been the very first stage of engagement. The recession has had a huge effect on independent curators and artistic collectives as it has opened up new opportunities to work within unconventional, often free architectural vacant spaces. Each space, from shopping centres, to Victorian warehouses has influenced the approach taken by the curator, artist and spectator. In the case of SPACE WITHIN we constructed an exhibition that 'attacked' the modern interior with materials found in the area and sculptures that disrupted a modern idealism found within buildings like the Triangle. Through the Triangles failure as a commercial consumer hub, we created something that engaged with the environment in which it was shown, as well as offering a fresh approach to the topic of regeneration.
Was it interesting working with an unconventional exhibition space? Do you find that it inspires the artists to push their creativity to produce a more original form of artworks than within an original gallery format?
I think working with found spaces is a challenging experience and there is more risk of the space dominating over the work, rather than support. It does to a degree, dictate what work can be shown in a particular space, and site specific works often work best in 'unconventional' spaces.
What do you think Manchester has to offer as a cultural city?
From what I have observed form only two visits to Manchester, the genral vibe I get from artist/curator relationship is that there is a huge amount of creative support from both sides. There also seems to be an active encouragement from landlords and organisations, making it fairly easy to occupy unused spaces.
Have you noticed any particular themes in visual aesthetics that are common within Manchester based artists?
I can only comment on artist that I have seen come out of the MMU, but there seems to be a current mode of practise concerned with using what one finds-a very economical approach to use of material. I also observed that O'Sullivan and Pickles both explore themes related to myth and landscape, which is interesting.
What was your initial reaction to the space?
Throughout my time spent curating exhibitions the space its self has nearly always been the very first stage of engagement. The recession has had a huge effect on independent curators and artistic collectives as it has opened up new opportunities to work within unconventional, often free architectural vacant spaces. Each space, from shopping centres, to Victorian warehouses has influenced the approach taken by the curator, artist and spectator. In the case of SPACE WITHIN we constructed an exhibition that 'attacked' the modern interior with materials found in the area and sculptures that disrupted a modern idealism found within buildings like the Triangle. Through the Triangles failure as a commercial consumer hub, we created something that engaged with the environment in which it was shown, as well as offering a fresh approach to the topic of regeneration.
Was it interesting working with an unconventional exhibition space? Do you find that it inspires the artists to push their creativity to produce a more original form of artworks than within an original gallery format?
I think working with found spaces is a challenging experience and there is more risk of the space dominating over the work, rather than support. It does to a degree, dictate what work can be shown in a particular space, and site specific works often work best in 'unconventional' spaces.
Lizzy Rose
In my work I am interested in old pictures in books, crumbling monuments, bad taste videos, housing estates, boot fairs, the seaside, charity shops, floristry, and the pathos of film.
In this work I hope to convey the limitlessness of consumerism but to also show how we are connected in what we own and discard.
Friday, 9 October 2009
Katie Hare
Sweet valley monodramas 2, a selection of short dramatic pieces adapted from the sweet valley high series of Young Adult novels. Love, death, comas and bowling.
Millie Findlay: One of the artists that will be featuring in PORTAL
I am currently interested in the issue of identity and image, and have recently been using images of myself for the first time.
I enjoy the passport photo as a portrait, as it is mechanical, meaning that there is no personal relationship, just the machine and myself. I am also awarded only three choices of photograph in most cases, meaning a snap decision about my image is made.
Seeing out of the corners of my eyes is sometimes quite frightening.
Millie Ross, editor of jotta, response to Manchester.
What do you think Manchester has to offer as a cultural city?
From my two brief visits Manchester seems to be a buzzing hub of young, proactivity as far as the arts are concerned. I've been impressed with the supportive community spirit that enables young artists and curators, and self starter art groups to organise their own shows in fantastic and unexpected spaces across the city.
Have you noticed any particular themes in visual aesthetics that are common within Manchester based artists?
Perhaps the use of found materials and objects in sculpture and installation.
What was your initial reaction to the space?
I was excited by the slick interior of the Karen Millen store- I loved the displacement of the works in such a polished retail environment, and the reflective surfaces were great!
Was it interesting working with an unconventional exhibition space? Do you find that it inspires the artists to push their creativity to produce a more original form of artworks than within an original gallery format?
Yes seeing how the artists reacted and delt with problems that working in a "non-art" space was very interesting, and it seemed a challenge for them. Also the way in which they responded to each others work as it developed in the space, they might have found inspiration there, and in having to scour the inner city shopping district for supplies seemed to have incited a lot of feeling in some- not always positive!
From my two brief visits Manchester seems to be a buzzing hub of young, proactivity as far as the arts are concerned. I've been impressed with the supportive community spirit that enables young artists and curators, and self starter art groups to organise their own shows in fantastic and unexpected spaces across the city.
Have you noticed any particular themes in visual aesthetics that are common within Manchester based artists?
Perhaps the use of found materials and objects in sculpture and installation.
What was your initial reaction to the space?
I was excited by the slick interior of the Karen Millen store- I loved the displacement of the works in such a polished retail environment, and the reflective surfaces were great!
Was it interesting working with an unconventional exhibition space? Do you find that it inspires the artists to push their creativity to produce a more original form of artworks than within an original gallery format?
Yes seeing how the artists reacted and delt with problems that working in a "non-art" space was very interesting, and it seemed a challenge for them. Also the way in which they responded to each others work as it developed in the space, they might have found inspiration there, and in having to scour the inner city shopping district for supplies seemed to have incited a lot of feeling in some- not always positive!
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Surrogate: Private view 15th October
Surrogate
| Sam Derounian |Joshua Duncan | Hannes Hellström | Ross Little |
| Tom Marshallsay | Claudia Nova | Max Prus |
Private view: 15.10.09 6-8pm
Exhibition: 16.10.09 - 21.10.09
Opening hours: 12-5pm
Address: Karen Millen unit, Triangle Shopping Centre,
Exchange square, Manchester M4 3RT
Jeff Coombs projects has invited Glasgow based artists to respond to the empty retail space with their response to art and popular culture.
The crowd rejoice in the dance. A dance that is no more fabricated than ourselves and our relationships with each other and the world. The dance is both glorious and tragic.
I don't hardly know where to begin. I remember, we were cruisin' home from the art gallery. I'd had such a wonderful evenin' sittin' there watchin' my art screamin' and tearin' her hair out and carryin' on. She was sooo full of life. Then... Well, we were about three miles from home when all of a sudden it started to rain. And I do mean rain - I couldn't hardly see nuthin'! Well, we kept drivin' for about another mile when all of a sudden I see this stalled car right smack in front of me! Well, I wasn’t about to slam on the brakes 'cause I didn't have none to start to with. So I swerved to the left, and what do I see? Some mush-head, on a motorcycle, headin' right at us!
And I knew at last, me and my art were about to meet the leader of the pack.
Well, when I come to I looked around, and there was the leader, and there was the pack, and over there was my art. And over there was my art. And way over there was my art! I want my art back, gotta have my art back, I miss her oh, so much, can't live without her touch. [Wind, digging] It's been many months now since that fateful night, and you know somethin', I've tried, believe me I have tried - but I just can't make it without my art.
So, I've decided I'm gonna have back her one way or another.
Oh art, I dig you so much. A-heh-heh! [thud] Hot dang - pay dirt!
[Creaky door opening, shuffling, creaky door closing]
[Muffled] I got my art back, now I got my art back, I love her oh, so much, can't live without her touch, I got my art back.
THE JEFF COOMBS PROJECTS aim is to utilise empty retail and office spaces for Manchester based art projects and events. Artists are invited to take part in creating site-specific artworks that also relate to their current practice. JCP’s encourages artists to work together on projects to create a new found aesthetic inspired by Manchester’s creative community and understand their own work better through the communications with others.
Monday, 5 October 2009
Space Within
Robin Shepherd Untitled 2009 Wood, Manchester Bricks and paper Dimensions variable
Craig Barnes Everything is repairable. Everything is broken.
2009
Dimensions variable
Andrew Brown - I Want To Tear You Open & Then Sodomize You With My Vehicular Sex Utility (I Also Fucked Your Mum)
2009, Mixed Media, Dimensions variable
Theo Turpin - 'As Things Stand' - A Proposed Sculpture for the Triangle Shopping Center, Manchester
2009, Gouache, Ink and Pencil on Paper, 92x65cm
Patrick O’Sullivan - Untitled
2009, Flour, Dimensions variable
Daniel Pickles - Overdressed, Unconcerned And Comfortably Numb. (Indulging In The Pleasures of the Wealthy.) Oh Somebody Make Me Afraid of What I've Become…
2009, Treated Wood & Found Objects
Dimensions variable
Paul Allcock - Empty Pallet
2009, Burnt Cardboard, 30 X 21 cm
Sunday, 4 October 2009
Space Within Opening Night
published on friday, 02 october
jottaContemporary and Jeff Coombs Projects unveiled Space Within in Manchester tonight, which saw a week-long social experiment of sorts, as five selected jotta artists from London travelled up, slept on floors and in dorms and created site specific work in an old Karen Millen store.
First of the Londoners to arrive in the space was Joe Stevens. His site specific sculpture entailed buying, finding or taking 23 discrete items from the ground floor, 30 items from the first floor and 28 items from the lower ground floor of the Triangle Shopping Centre, according to the sequence set out by a previous work in which he used a 3 colour system of confectionary to produce a minimal floor sculpture (Mento System, 2008). Following this logic Stevens constructed a new sculpture dependent upon the random variable of what is discovered within the Triangle.
Next up to Manchester was Craig Barnes and jottaContemporary curator Ellie. Kindly driven by Carig, Ellie brought up Theo Turpin's work, a plan for a proposed sculpture for the Triangle Shopping Centre, and Paul Allcock's a sculptural work exploring braille like binary forced into found bits of wood with oak and compressed charcoal and Empty Pallete, a cardboard etching. Robi Shepard also arrived that day and together he and Craig set up studio on the disused shop space. An old Karen Millen shop, thus it was designed in her typical aesthetic, with rough unpolished wood floorboards and stairs, large glass walls and glass shelving, and one particularly reflectove, curved black glass wall with panelling that gave rise to a surprising and complimentary mirror effectone the pieces were in place.
During their time planning, sawing, building, drilling and generally getting handy, Craig and Shepard discovered the differences in creating work on site, and in a retail space. Number one was a lack of wall sockets, they also had an interesting time wandering around Manchester city trying to find hardware stores, eventually finding a Swedish hardware which supplied their needs.
They were aided and inspired by the Manchester artists, Daniel Pickles, Andrew Brown and Patrick O'Sullivan, who all also created their works on site. Daniel taking Craig and Shepard on a day trip to Burnley to hunt out his found objects, including a pair of unusually small antlers from an antique market.
Have a look at the jotta website to see Patricks work on the home page.
http://www.jotta.com
Space Within: jotta and Manchester join forces
published on wednesday, 30 september
Three Manchester Metropolitan University students and exciting new talents Daniel Pickles, Andrew Brown and Patrick O’Sullivan will be exhibiting their works alongside jotta artists and anticipation mounts as the exhibition nears. jotta speculates on what we can expect from the site specific transformation of an empty shop space.
Rarely does a vacant shop cause us to ponder the philosophy of an empty space. However, this October jottaContemporary in collaboration with Jeff Coombs Projects and Manchester Metropolitan University will be posing such questions with 'Space Within', an exhibition which occurs inside an neglected shop in Manchester’s Triangle Shopping Centre.
Daniel Pickles’ work has a primary interest in mankind’s endless pursuit of happiness, but more specifically, a fascination with faith and how it compels people to exceed the limitations of the body. Pickles also has an interest on the affect of the invisible, of that which cannot be proved or asserted but is, nonetheless, followed devotedly. His work assesses the significance history, events and emotion have on items while his use of ‘found objects’ echoes the work of Marcel Duchamp as he finds a beauty, romance and significance in what is often discarded.
The artist’s instalment for ‘Space Within’ is a meandering collection of various ‘found’ objects including boots, bottles and plants. The snaking composition of everyday finds embodies the timeline of human existence and the objects also work as a comment on consumerism, specifically the notion that in order to be happy one must obtain endless possessions.
Andrew Brown’s work examines what he considers to be the myths that surround sub- cultures in modern society, from science fiction to rock music. Through his art Brown endeavours to explore the invisible flow of information that surrounds these various niches, believing that often exclusive areas become accessible to a more general audience because of the knowledge they share, which at the same time debunks the whole notion of sub-cultures cut off from the mainstream. His sculptures pose these questions in their reluctance to offer substantial meaning, suggesting the reliance culture has on ‘entry points’ into an object’s understanding, a theme that fits well with the dissection of meaning in the ethos of ‘Space Within.’
Patrick O’Sullivan’s work explores how the human mind understands its environment. His theory revolves around the idea that all human minds have a physical and visual affinity for natural images such a mountains, plants and even mud as they have forever been familiar to the viewer. O’Sullivan’s goal is to challenge these previously forged relationships, producing work that supplies the viewer with something that is non-specific, something that removes all prior natural attachments and makes the viewer ‘invent, suppose and exaggerate’ a new attachment to the work. In doing this, he fills in the space between the viewer and the work allowing a free and independent attachment to form based purely on the relation the object has to the space it is occupying. When viewing O’Sullivan’s work neither prior knowledge or understanding of it is needed, whatever feelings or thoughts occur when viewing the pieces are all correct and individual, there is no definitive understanding.
All these mind -boggling theories will be actualised at ‘Space Within’ and although these artists have their manifestos it is important to enjoy the art for what it is and what it brings to Manchester; filling in an empty space, giving it purpose again.
If you are in Manchester join us for the Private view of the show
Friday, 02 October 2009 |
16:00 - 18:00 |
Karen Millen unit, Triangle Shopping Centre |
Exchange Square |
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