Maximum Exposure

Maximum Exposure is a new SAW project supported by Arts Council England’s Grants for the Arts Funding Programme. The project will support SAW in developing curatorial skills within the organisation and the county's wider artist community. The funding has offered SAW the opportunity to work with a Guest Curator who will contribute to the development of curatorial skills and critical debate in Somerset. The project will include the delivery of a series of three new visual arts commissions, exposing enigmatic or unknown aspects of Somerset. The project aims to attract new audiences through bringing new and dynamic work to the region, and through a series of associated events.

Between October 2011 to April 2012, SAW appointed Guest Curator, Karen Gaskill to support the overall delivery of the project. We worked with Karen to select and deliver commissions, exposing enigmatic or unknown aspects of Somerset, by three international artists, Karen Guthrie, Barber Swindells (Claire Barber & Steve Swindells) & lluminos (Matt & Rob Vale). Also in Art Weeks 2011 in September, we worked with international artist, Lisa Cheung to deliver a curatorial project, Cafe Konvertible in Art Weeks 2011.

We are currently developing a Curatorial Toolkit for artists. A Curatorial Development Workshop will be held on 20th April 2012. Details of how to apply are in the attachment at the bottom of the page.

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New commissions across the county of Somerset

Working with Guest Curator, Karen Gaskill, SAW successfully selected three projects for the Maximum Exposure commissions. Selected for their vision and originality, each project considers through its subject matter a challenging aspect of Somerset culture.

lluminos are a lighting designer and film/installation artist brothers. Using website, archive, projection and endurance, for Maximum Exposure Illuminos will be creating a unique video projection event along the Taunton Stop Line. Built during World War II, the Taunton Stop Line consists of hundreds of ‘pill boxes’ - military bunkers designed to stop a potential German advance from the west. Between Friday 24th February & Sunday 4th March 2012, the pillboxes will be illuminated and projected upon in turn, using imagery and iconography from the structures original usage. Stopping at several sites each evening, by the end of the ten days the one hundred structures forming the Stop Line will have been brought into the light as part of a continually-moving art happening; drawing a historic line across the county. For more details and take part: www.tauntonstoplinelive.co.uk

Karen Guthrie is an artist and film-maker based in rural Cumbria. For Maximum Exposure she will be creating a video work about the context and culture within and around the prison, HMP Shepton Mallet. Prisons are often positioned near rural, often-affluent communities for whom the institution creates ambivalent and complex feelings, with care often being taken to conceal the presence of the institution from tourists and locals. Guthrie’s work will explore the duality and connection of these two worlds.

Claire Barber and Steve Swindells form the artist collaboration Barber Swindells. For Maximum Exposure Barber Swindells will be responding to the history and current industry of glove making in Yeovil and the surrounding district. They intend to record and document stories, histories, legacies, myths and human archaeologies centred on the purchase, use, wear, status and craft of gloves. In this context the duo also wish to work with the community and meet members of the public who have a story to tell regarding gloves they own or once owned. Combining these two approaches Barber Swindells will collage their ideas to inspire new designs, artist video work, photographs, drawings and writings, produced on location in Somerset that connects glove-making craft, art and community.

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About Karen Gaskill

SAW is delighted to appoint Karen Gaskill as guest curator for the project. Karen will take an overview of the commissions and create the project's overall identity, work with SAW to present the main commissions in Somerset, and work with the Reveal Partnership to present the work further afield. Karen will also be responsible for commissioning a piece of critical writing about the project and nurturing critical debate around the new commissions.

Karen Gaskill is an independent curator and freelance researcher based in London, UK. Karen works nationally and internationally across independent venues and commercial gallery spaces. Recent exhibitions include Constellations at Cornerhouse Gallery, Manchester, co-curated with Michelle Kasprzak; the co-curation of the FutureEverything 2010 arts programme, and Save Us, Macclesfield, July 2010.

Karen was the founder, co-director and curator of Interval from 2005-2009, an arts organisation providing regular exhibition opportunities and a critical forum for emergent artists using technology in their practice.

Karen is a Senior Lecturer in Photography at Sheffield Hallam University, and guest lectures at institutions across the UK. She has a PhD in Social Curation, an MRes in Fine Art and a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Textiles.

www.occasionallysomewhere.org

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Somerset Art Weeks 2011 Curatorial Project: Cafe Konvertible

International artists group Konvertible (Lisa Cheung and designer Sammy Delgado Escobar) used a 1970’s classic VW Camper Van as a mobile, collaborative design studio. The studio toured venues around Somerset, inviting participants to attend free craft workshops on the theme of café life. Café ‘Konvertible’ worked with more than 200 participants, amateurs and professionals, using found materials to create objects unique to each area. Cafe Konvertible is co-curated by Lisa Cheung & Zoe Li.

http://www.somersetartworks.org.uk/cafe_konvertible

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