Adrian Lee "Don't let them leave"

Adrian Lee "Don't let them leave" performance for The Endless Descent, 3/12/2009

Invigilators and attendants have always been present in large, permanent galleries but security guards in small art exhibitions are becoming more common. They could suggest that the work (or equipment) on show has a high financial value, that it is a stipulation of the exhibition insurer or the collector(s) that lent the work, that the work on show could be easily damaged by the viewers or that the viewers could be damaged by the work on display. They fall in the category of ‘overlookable’ and ‘to be ignored’, like plug sockets, fire extinguishers and picture hooks. Unlike the gallery staff, it is understood that the security personnel are not working in an intellectual capacity, they have no special interest in the work on show, they are purely a physical presence.


Our interest is piqued though when they become animated, running in the street, calling for back-up and we rubber-neck, looking for action. We catch intriguing snippets of radio-speak and catch a glimpse through the doors to the back-stage areas where these modern wizards of Oz live with their banks of cctv monitors.

The Endless Descent Flyer

The Endless Descent

The Endless Descent brings together artists from Birmingham, Bristol and London; the exhibition will be installed on the distinctive 1930’s Modernist stairwell, lobby, lift and entrance areas of Rea Studios playfully exploring the dormant potential of a site that exists to be passed through not lingered in and the potential meanings of either the space or an endless descent itself.

There is a sympathetic relationship between the concept of the Show and the function of the space itself as a transition between the floors and rooms in a building with the diverging identities of what goes on behind those individual doors. Endless Decent, like the function of its location is an imaginative space for passing through, for connecting diverse approaches and unexpected enquiries.

Exhibiting Artists: Dylan Atkins, Arlene Burnett, Jamie Fowkes, Gene George Earle, Anne Guest, Adrian Lee, Andrew Mania, David Miller, Paul Newman, Cathy Wade, and Justin Wiggan.

PV Thursday 3rd December 6 - 8.30

Show Open
Fri 4th to sun 6th 12 - 5pm
Fri 11th to Sun 13th 12 - 5pm

Rae Studios, 90 Floodgate Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B5 5SR

Dylan Atkins

Dylan Atkins, Landscapology, oil on Ply, 2007.

In challenging a number of key art movements – by invoking a series of apparently disconnected aesthetic parodies – what exactly is achieved?

Could it be some truth regarding the normalisation of art that occurs when it is converted into history? This then would be no concrete constructivist truth, but instead an unveiled Heideggerean truth of correspondence or aletheia.

www.foldgallery.com

Arlene Burnett

Arlene Burnett, Secret Garden (Series), 2008.

Arlene Burnett is a Birmingham based artist. Her work is primarily interested with the transformation of spaces, where she often inhabits spaces in a state of flux and creates temporary artworks in response to the environment. The process and outcomes are documented with photographs which often become the work in their own right.

http://arleneburnett.wordpress.com

Gene George Earle

Gene George Earle, Untitled, 2009

Currently my work is informed by an intensive studio practice, and operates within a formal and intuitive framework, often in response to a particular space or material. Preferring pre-existing images and materials for the work, I am wholly appreciative of oddity and imitation, of cartoon like forms and coded visual language, and how one may be mistaken for the other. My interest lies in how forms might relate to its psychology and the conditions or context within which it becomes plausible.

Jamie Fowkes

Jamie Fowkes, Hobbs Moat Lane Church, 2009

I predominantly produce paintings from fabricated buildings or structures that I find interesting. The buildings or structures are fabricated by recreating them out of everyday objects and materials such as cardboard, foil and found objects. These models serve as the subject matter for my paintings.

The models that I make are not exact recreations of real buildings or structures. Recently I have been interested in creating paintings from models I have made from 1960’s – 70’s buildings, such as shopping centres, car parks and churches. My process of painting results in my paintings of such buildings to be ‘Baroque’ in style, which is very different from the actual buildings, that are rigid and in ornate.