Next to Nothing: An Exhibition on the Price of Nothing and Value of Everything

The Light (Top Floor), Leeds City Centre. 15th Sept – 1st October, 2011.

DIY art collective Black Dogs returns once more to the group show format with an exhibition containing contributions from over thirty individuals and collectives. Advancing Black Dogs’ critique of the institutional artworld, the contributors occupy various positions in relation to the label ‘artist’; raising questions about when something is art, who can make it and what the worth of calling it art is anyway.

The exhibition results from a series of collective meetings and conversations around notions of value. What is the radical potential of thrift and an economical approach? When and why is something cheap? What does it mean to be not-for-profit or operate in a non-capitalist fashion? How do we value our time and how does this find expression through the things we do or make? When are we working and when do we play?

The backdrop to these discussions has included state-enforced austerity measures, global financial crises and Marx reading groups appearing across the country alongside instances of rioting and looting. Whilst the exhibition avoids directly addressing or representing such issues, they undoubtedly provide context and resonance for the various works. Projects include: sculpture made from scrap, unmasked secrets of visual merchandising, advice on how to be a good shopper, a freely assembled Arcade Machine, traces of ‘everyday resistance’ at work, a homemade Mellotron, unrealised tattoos, reflections on sustaining an art practice when unpaid, and much more in the way of hand printing, diagrams, photography, objects, video and performance.

Next to Nothing takes place in an impressive empty unit in The Light shopping centre in the commercial heart of Leeds, a space and site that is as integral to the exhibition as the works displayed within it. Alongside the exhibition are a programme of events including evenings of music, performance and films held on and offsite. In addition, Black Dogs have used meetings as an opportunity to produce a collaborative fanzine that will be available for free to take away from the exhibition. Both the publication and the exhibition are not intended as end points or conclusions but rather markers of a moment in a collective interrogation of how we value our own and other’s activity and the cost of living.

Next To Nothing opens on Thursday 15th September at 5pm. All are welcome and refreshments will be available. There is a post-opening party and gig featuring Picore from Spain amongst other acts from the DIY (not-for-profit) music community held at Wharf Chambers club for members and their guests.

The exhibition continues Monday to Friday 4 – 7pm and Saturdays 12 – 6pm until 1st October.

Entry is Free.

See www.black-dogs.org for details

Contributors include:

Adam J Maynard
Alice Bradshaw
Amelia Crouch
Andy Abbott
Bristow & Lloyd
Bryony Pritchard
Charlotte A Morgan
Claire Adams
Conway & Young
Craig Barnes
Dan Robinson
Dave Ronalds
David Thomas
Eva Rowson
Grace Harrison
Harriet Bevan
James Hill
Jonny Hill
Jon Slight
Kathy Gray
Liz Murphy
Luke Drozd
Michael Burkitt
Mick Welbourn
Nicolas Jones
No Fixed Abode
Patrick Coyle
Phillip Welding
Rory Macbeth
Rose Borthwick
Rowan Bailey
Sarah Bradley
Sarah Bowker-Jones
Shakeeb Abu Hamdan
Sheila Mone
Simon Wright
Steven Allbutt
Tom Railton
Yvonne Carmichael

plus more,

]]> http://www.artinunusualspaces.co.uk/home/next-to-nothing/feed/ 0 http://www.artinunusualspaces.co.uk/home/music-television/ http://www.artinunusualspaces.co.uk/home/music-television/#comments Mon, 11 Apr 2011 09:31:52 +0000 Yvonne http://www.artinunusualspaces.co.uk/home/?p=1518 MUSIC TELEVISION

Music Television is a creative media opportunity funded by Lumen, It seeks to bring together young and emerging filmmakers and musicians from Leeds and the West Yorkshire region to collaborate on short-film projects and music video.

Over 2011 we aim to produce three Music Television films. The first in the series is currently being edited and will be launched on April 28th 2011 > event details below.
…
Episode 1 is called ‘1981’, Directed by Matt Green and Produced by Matt Green and James Islip. The video features work by students from Leeds Film School, young people from Cloth Cat / Old Chapel Studios in Holbeck and Armley-based punk rock band The Magnificent.

The film identifies the tough situation faced by young people growing-up in under-developed areas of our city, such as Holbeck. The story looks at teenage life around the time of Charles and Diana’s Royal Wedding, juxtaposed with modern images of teenagers on the waste-grounds created by the demolition of Leeds Council Housing.

Through music and filmmaking, we hope to create a positive and sustainable outlet for young people involved in the project.

Launch event

‘1981′ will receive it’s premiere on Thursday April 28th 2011 on the Fourth Floor of Leeds Shopping Plaza. The event will run from 6pm and 8pm and will feature screenings, live music, drinks and snacks. The launch event is in association with Art in Unusual Spaces, Old Chapel Studios and Lumen. Facebook event at

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=147532478647869#!/event.php?eid=147532478647869

‘1981′ is a three-minute music video which will be screened multiple times during the event.

A Serious Waste of Time

Andy Abbott

(Non-works in Progress)

In his first solo exhibition Andy presents a selection of videos, photographs, prints and audio pieces born of four ongoing and intertwined projects. The starting point for each project was a hobby, a spare-time activity or simply slacking off.

Andy’s interests are in the critical potential of play and time outside work. In an era where work creeps into every moment of our lives and even our self-initiated activity risks being instrumentalised by the State, we might ask what space is left for thought and action that breaks with the market-led, competitive and essentialist logic of capitalism?

Actions that include regularly cycling along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, swimming in Shipley Pool, walking up the hill to Baildon Moor or playing guitar in a DIY punk band are reframed, translated, expanded and performed in an effort to unpick notions of the authentic ‘post-capitalist’ self.

In seemingly disparate activities recurring themes crop up and linkages are proposed: between Birmingham Grindcore band Napalm Death and Andy’s falconry enthusiast father; the heavy metal rhythms that are held in the pre-industrial Bell Pits of Baildon and those performed by improvising musicians that swim; and memories of a ‘home’ in the Scottish Highlands embodied in the landscape of the Aire Valley and uncovered by repetitious journeying.

‘A Serious Waste of Time’ draws these projects into one space (a former flax spinning mill in Leeds industrial district) to better examine the resonances and discord between them. Whilst autobiographical in the main, the exhibition aims to go beyond a solipsistic self-analysis by proposing that resistance to a capitalist mode of being can be unearthed in the most everyday and innocuous of activities. Such work is never finished, perhaps because it is not best described as work.

‘A Serious Waste of Time’ opens at 6pm on Thurs 17^th March. Refreshments and entertainment will be provided. All are welcome.

The exhibition then runs from Friday 18^th March to Sat 26^th March 11am – 6pm daily.

The location is Number 7 Marshall’s Mills, Marshall Street, Leeds LS11 9YJ (the bungalow on your right as you enter the Marshall’s Mill car park).

‘A Serious Waste of Time’ is realised in partnership with ‘Art in Unusual Spaces’ (a Community Interest Company using vacant spaces in Leeds for artistic purposes) and ‘Leeds Creative Timebank’ (an organisation creating a non-cash economy for the creative community in the city) with support from the University of Leeds and Igloo Regeneration.

Andy Abbott’s Biography

Andy Abbott (born 1980, Scotland, lives and works in Saltaire and Leeds, West Yorkshire respectively) is an artist, writer, musician and educator.

Since 2003 Andy has worked as part of the artist collective Black Dogs and has exhibited nationally and internationally: from self-organised public interventions in Leeds, to commissioned events at Tate Modern and presentations and workshops in Italy and Greece. Recent Black Dogs projects include the initiation of ‘Black Lab’ – an autonomous knowledge-production project (free art school) in South Leeds – and a dialogue-focused exhibition at MK Gallery that asked Milton Keynes residents to imagine and describe a future city situated on the recently discovered planet Gliese 581 g. Andy’s individual practice has ranged from the organisation of public events working with amateur and hobby groups in postindustrial towns (the ‘Festival of Pastimes’ projects) to self-contained video and book works.

He is currently undertaking practice-led research for a PhD in Fine Art at University of Leeds and is in his third year of study. His practice and research is focused on socially-engaged, political and activist art exploring the boundaries of that which we might consider a socially transformative praxis. A critique of capitalism, waged-labour and work permeates his activity. His interests are primarily in Postanarchist, Autonomist Marxist, and Situationist theory.

Andy’s entrance point into art and self-organised cultural activity was through his involvement in the DIY music scene. He continues to play in bands that tour the global DIY network and releases records through his own imprint and other independent labels. Andy lectures part-time in Fine Art on the foundation course at Leeds College of Art and is a steering group member of Leeds Creative Timebank (a project that alternative non-cash economy to help support artistic activity in the city) and Art in Unusual Spaces (a Community Interest Company that helps make vacant and disused city-centre spaces available to artists).

Websites:

www.andyabbott.co.uk,

www.black-dogs.org,

www.festivalofpastimes.org,

www.thatfuckingtank.co.uk

Previews of this exhibition:

Leeds Guide

Critical Network

]]> http://www.artinunusualspaces.co.uk/home/a-serious-waste-of-time/feed/ 0 http://www.artinunusualspaces.co.uk/home/alternative-strategies-temporary-space-leeds/ http://www.artinunusualspaces.co.uk/home/alternative-strategies-temporary-space-leeds/#comments Thu, 10 Mar 2011 10:07:31 +0000 Yvonne http://www.artinunusualspaces.co.uk/home/?p=1495 From the 16th till the 31st of March 2011, a huge, previously unused space on the top floor of the light in Leeds will play host to a series of open discussions, screenings and workshops which stem from the desire to look creatively, critically and productively at different ways of approaching self organised Education and methods for building on and disseminating knowledge. From positions within and alongside the institution to engagements which seek to adapt and reform, and those which function completely outside the dominant model.

Self organisation as a way of empowering individuals and communities to engage with groups and activities which are more attuned to there interests and beliefs, And to shape there own experiences of living and learning.

Invited Groups/Individuals include:

Aesthetica, York

Black Dogs, Leeds

Creative Services, Edinburgh

Derek Horton, Leeds

Derive, Manchester

Ely Art School, Edinburgh

Free University of Liverpool

Islington Mill, Manchester

Leeds Salon

Line Magazine, Edinburgh

Millpond, Leeds

Really Open University, Leeds

more to be confirmed.

‘Alternative Strategies Temporary Space LEEDS’ is facilitated by aritists Rachael Claughton and Grace Harrison. It is to run alongside the 2011 interim exhibtion at Leeds College of Art (Vernon Street site off Millennium Square) The project intends to expose the many alternative educational platforms active in the city, bringing together groups and individuals with art as its departure point.

Calendar of Events

The Space will be open daily from noon.
There will be a temporary Library of relevant texts and selected publications available to read and for free distribution.
We are currently programming a series of workshops and screenings.
Below is a list of confirmed events.
Come at any time for a chat or alternatively half an hour prior to any event for a summary of previous discussions.

Friday 18th March 7pm. Open Discussion.
Within, Without: Critical action and the education institution. Talking with groups who have emancipatory, supplementary and subversive engagements with educational institutions.

Sunday 20th March 3pm. Open Discussion.
The contemporary state of Art Criticism: As the guiding voice of the critic becomes usurped by the opinions of the masses, do we need new pedagogical models to stimulate society towards an academic predilection? Or is the current ‘anything goes’ state of critique one to be celebrated?

Thursday 24th March 7pm. Open Discussion.
Education Cuts or Amputations? Will the recent cuts and tuition fee trebling serve to further privatise education, and deepen divisions for access to knowledge or stimulate an era where critical thought and discussion become dislocated from market forces making intelligence an unquantifiable product?

Tuesday 29th March 7pm. Open Discussion.
Alternative Education: approaching structure in independent, collaborative learning. When setting out to teach one another, how do we use structures which are useful to create continuity and feelings of mutuality in development without being limiting, prescriptive and static. Can we have structure without compromising on the ideological position of an alternative to institutional education. Are there structure that are responsive to analysis and action?

Thursday 31st March 6pm. Open Discussion.
The Big Society and The D.I.Y ethic. Self organisation, complicity and resistance to government policy in creative thought and action.

http://alternativestrategies.blogspot.com/

http://ex-interim.blogspot.com/

Alternative Strategies Temporary Space LEEDS

With thanks to The Light for use of the space.

Life is Probably Round

Joanna Aldoori

42 New Briggate

Friday 25th February – Friday 4th March

A performative sculptural investigation

Opening event: Friday 25th February 6 – 8pm

Closing event: Friday 4th March 6 – 8pm

Life is Probably Round is the attempt to re-enact a phenomenon recently discovered while the artist worked in her studio.

Presented within 42 New Briggate, the installation isolates the moment of discovery as an art piece in itself. Playing once again with the materials; water, plaster and wind, the final form expects neither success nor failure, simply another step in the development in the artist’s practice.

As a metaphor for the creative process itself, Life is Probably Round presents us never with a finale, but develops and teases, altering states over its duration. Its form changes, reliant on intelligent play, interaction and sympathetic to the chance developments that present themselves during the period of exhibition.

Text by Simon Boase

Image courtesy of the artist.

This will be the last project to take place in the 42 New Briggate unit.  The space has hosted a number of projects since October 2006 and as of March 2010 it’s to be redeveloped by Leeds Grand Theatre.  A big thank you to the Grand for use of the space.

]]> http://www.artinunusualspaces.co.uk/home/life-is-probably-round-by-joanna-aldoori/feed/ 0 http://www.artinunusualspaces.co.uk/home/cinema-corporel/ http://www.artinunusualspaces.co.uk/home/cinema-corporel/#comments Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:22:18 +0000 Yvonne http://www.artinunusualspaces.co.uk/home/?p=1447 10th February · 19:30 – 22:30

Arch Z (Next to The Hop) Granary Wharf

Dark Neville St,

Leeds LS1 4BR

An evening of experimental film, expanded cinema and live performance…

…Cinéma Corporel will bring together filmmakers, artists, and musicians in a unique location in the heart of Leeds to showcase explorative, experimental and playful approaches to performing with film and the moving image.

/ super 8 / video / 16mm film / projector performance / (de)generative film / installation / found footage / multiple projection / live reading / cut ups / tape loops / interactive celluloid / slides / performance / intervention / noise /

Featuring work by: Maria Anastassiou / Kerry Baldry / Violaine Bergoin / Joanna Byrne / Chris Paul Daniels / Chris Hall / Ian Harker / Robin Kiteley / Mark Pickles / Andrew Staveley / Harry Wheeler / Unravel / plus more TBC

“The haunting of the image and its fragile traces: not memory, record or preservation, but the living object, aging skin and decaying body…
…ephemeral cinema is the flicker of the breathing moment.” [Bradley Eros]
www.oko-lab.blogspot.com

For use of the space thanks to…

Exhibition opens 25th November until Thursday 2nd December.

Open every day 4-7pm.  Closing event will take place on the final day of the programme 2nd December 6-8pm.

Encore will include documentation of the last two months activity in the space.  A great opportunity to see what has been happening as well as contribute ideas for future projects.

“SLICE was formed in October 2009 in response to a lack of interaction between the art students of Leeds. Leeds Metropolitan, Leeds College of Art and Leeds University all offer creative courses, but there didn’t seem to be an easy way for the students to cross-pollinate their ideas between institutions. Many students leave Leeds after graduating as they feel the city lacks opportunities and infrastructure for young artists.

SLICE started to hold small events, usually held in people’s bedrooms or living rooms as a way of getting students together to talk or discuss. We held a series of ‘Bedroom Lectures’ about areas of interest that weren’t necessarily art, such as organ donation, the Stasi and grime music. It was important that the places that we held events were not affiliated to a particular institution. Also that the events were not exhibitions as such, as we felt this wouldn’t contribute to what SLICE aimed to achieve.

SLICE were invited to run a programme of events in 42 New Briggate between September and December. We wanted to create a space that would become a hub for student art activity. Somewhere that would develop as the people using it wanted it to. One of the main things we did organise was the ‘Triple Glazed’ residency programme. This consisted of four small groups of students working together in 42 New Briggate for one week each. The residents would be from all the institutions, ranging from Foundation to final year BA, and from courses from Fine Art to Visual Communication.

As well as the residencies, the space became used for weekly film screenings, discussion groups and more generally as a place for people to congregate in a creative environment.

This show collects together images, text and artifacts from what has been a hectic and fruitful two months collective work within 42.”

]]> http://www.artinunusualspaces.co.uk/home/encore-end-of-slice-programme/feed/ 0 http://www.artinunusualspaces.co.uk/home/slice-at-42/ http://www.artinunusualspaces.co.uk/home/slice-at-42/#comments Sun, 24 Oct 2010 08:44:16 +0000 Yvonne http://www.artinunusualspaces.co.uk/home/?p=1386 SLICE

at

42 New Briggate

SLICE is a collective who believe in collaboration and interaction between the art institutions of Leeds.

SLICE welcomes the art students of Leeds to 42 New Briggate, a shop unit next to the Grand theatres box office in the centre of Leeds. For over two months the space hopes to become a hive of activity and collaboration, 42 New Briggate will change weekly into a work space, a gallery and a hub for the students of all the art institutions of Leeds. SLICE hopes that this programme will provide an opportunity for art students to make a connection with the city and other artists as well as an opportunity to make and present work.

Programme of Events

Thurs 30 th Sept – Thurs 2 nd Dec

SLICE Thursdays!

A regular opening night for 42 New Briggate

welcometofortytwo

6-8pm Thurs 30th Sept

A welcome exchange and sharing evening, bring your art or make some in the space.

4-7pm Fri & Sat 1st & 2nd Oct

42 New Briggate is open showing art work from welcome event. Come down to the space and find out more about how to get involved.

Deadline for applications for artist residencies

Fri 1st Oct

See the Get involved section of the wesbsite for more details on how to apply.

www.artinunusualspaces.co.uk/home/calling-all-art-students/

SLIGHT: LIGHTNIGHT

Fri 8th Oct

Films by Leeds art students projected onto Parkinson Building and in 42 New Briggate.

Tripled Glazed (1)

Sat 16th Oct- Thurs 21st Oct

The first artist residency – artists and artwork can be viewed through 42 New Briggate’s window.

6-8pm Thurs 21ST Oct: Residency Showcase – Audiences are invited into the space to view work created during the first artist residency.

Triple Glazed (2)

Sat 23rd -Thurs 28th Oct

The second residency

6-8pm Thurs 28th Oct: Residency Showcase

Leanne Watkinson
Sarah Johnson
Lester Drake
Paul Price
Matt Wheldon
Mike Burrell

Triple Glazed (3)

Sat 30th Oct- Thurs 4th Nov

The third residency.

6-8pm Thurs 4th Nov: Residency Showcase

Sam Sewell
Hannah Carpenter
Joe Frost
Henry Stanford
PollyAnna Hudson
Laurence Dorrington
Mike Winnard

Triple Glazed (4)

Sat 6th Nov – Thurs 11TH Nov:

The fourth residency.

6-8pm Thurs 11th Nov: The final Residency Showcase.

Clara Walsh
Joe Whitney
Alex Gilmore
Melanie King
Alex Dogdson
Michael Ainsworth
Ashleigh Owen

Encore

An exhibition reviewing the last two months activity in 42 New Briggate.

Exhibition open 4-7pm Fri 26th Nov – Thursday 2nd December

6-8pm Thurs 2nd December:

Finale: Closing of closing show

If you would like to be on to receive further info about these events as they happen email ‘mailing list’ to asliceofart@gmail.com.

check out following websites for further information:

www.sliceleeds.blogspot.com

Both image designs by Catherine Chialton: www.catherinechialton.com

Created by Interactive arts trio Invisible Flock.
8th Oct – 19th Nov 2010,

Bring The Happy, Previously located at the Light but now will be moving to Kirkgate Market details tbc.

Invisible Flock, having recently shown work a the ICA, The National Theatre and Latitude music Festival
launch their latest and most ambitious project yet in their home city of Leeds.
Transforming a empty shop unit in Leeds city centre, Bring the Happy over the course of two months will
attempt to collect, investigate and map the happiness of the city onto a giant 3D map.
The shop will be open during normal trading hours and hopes to be the perfect antidote to the recession,
the concept of a broken Britain and the idea that everything is closing down, including ourselves.
Over 2 months Invisible Flock will collect as many stories as possible from across the community of Leeds; in
the shop, in local schools, online and around the streets.
Participants will be invited to leave their happy memory of Leeds, where it happened and how happy it made
them on a scale of 1 to 10. Each individual memory will be given a corresponding marker which will then be
placed onto the map. The giant acrylic map, which occupies the entire shop floor, will gradually transform into an
undulating three dimensional graph of the city’s happiness.
Bring the Happy is a wholly participatory project and invites people to share their memories routed in the
community. The project has a key online element, as each of the submitted memories will also hosted with their
own marker onto a custom made Google map, available for browsing on the internet as well as in the shop.
CREATING COMMUNITIES
Bring the Happy is the largest artistic investigation into wellbeing and a cross sector collaboration between
artists, businesses, large corporations, councils, education authorities, schools, and individual people off the
street, all contributing to this exploration into the what, the how, and the where of our happiness.
MAPPING THE HAPPINESS OF THE WHOLE CITY
Invisible Flock will be performing a number of Happy Interventions in areas that the map suggests are lacking
in generating happy memories, including a specially commissioned red K6 phone box.
Working with the award winning alternative arts festival Forest Fringe the shop will also host a series of works
from national and local artists.
In association with the LEA and Artforms ‘Bring the Happy’ will visit 10 city wide schools where we will run a
series of two day workshops addressing the happiness of the pupils both in the school environment and their
local communities.

WHO WE ARE
Invisible Flock are an interactive trio of Leeds based artists making work both nationally and in the region. They
have previously shown their work at the National and the ICA in London, Bristol Old Vic, and Latitude Festival,
this is their first large scale event in their home town of Leeds.
Invisible Flock are Ben Eaton, Victoria Pratt and Richard Warburton.
Invisible Flock have just been short listed to represent the UK in the UK young artists 2011 programme.

For more info visit: WWW.INVISIBLEFLOCK.CO.UK / WWW.BRINGTHEHAPPY.CO.UK

Bring the Happy is made by Invisible Flock with current support from Arts Council England, Artforms, Leeds
City Council, Art in Unusual Spaces, The Light, The image group and Vitae Selection.