NotLost Festival

Towards an Architecture is part of NotLost Festival, a 3 week long arts festival based in Nottingham. Click here for more information.

Towards an Architecture

Sixes & Sevens present Towards an Architecture. An installation featuring works by Nottingham based artist Simon Franklin and Brighton based artist David Bance.

The practices of both Bance and Franklin are concerned with the re-evaluating and re-use of Modernist ideas and motifs. Specifically those of high-Modernist and Constructivist architecture, Suprematist and Minimalist non-figurative art and domestic design.

Whilst both artists share an interest in the achievement of Modernism to blend visual form, conceptual content and a social purpose, Bance and Franklin present differing contemporary positions.

David Bance creates paintings and installations blending visual form and conceptual content with an interest in the physical substance and formal qualities of paint. Bance’s work counteracts the bullish sloganism of the early 20th Century avant-garde and the hubris of high-Modernist architecture with a painterly interest in the qualities of his medium, using brushstroke and mark making in a cautiously experimental way to create strange semi-abstract spaces. His works are rendered in a manner which can be either deliberate and methodical or indifferent and combative, slipping between representational and abstract modes. These contradictory spaces create a more tainted, melancholic interpretation of Modernist art and design.

Simon Franklin’s sculptures reference geometric abstraction and high-Modernist design. His use of bold, matt colours, sleek curves and sharp edges suggest a utilitarian functionality reminiscent of mid 20th Century domestic design. However, his choice of materials (Franklin primarily uses paper) and a playful treatment of scale create uncertainty regarding the artworks’ density and strength resulting in more delicate objects which, as in Bance’s practice, corrupt the Modernist iconography apparent within the work, showing evidence of the artist’s hand, craft elements and ideas of fragility and failure.

The exhibition does not simply re-deploy these historical styles and debates, but presents a more fragile, human understanding of the ideologies and achievements of the Modernist period. Each individual work informs another whilst simultaneously blurring any linear path. This creates a strange space of jarring contradictions; social/Socialist utopia and anti-humanist dystopia, high art and utilitarian design, representation and abstraction, subject matter and material.

Private view: 8th July 7pm - 9pm

Opening times: 09th July - 12th July 12pm - 5pm

Location: Backlit

www.sixesandsevenscollective.co.uk
www.backlit.org.uk
www.notlostfestival.co.uk

Pile at Chapter Gallery - Images

Images courtesy of Phil Barbot and Chapter Gallery.

'Pile' at Chapter Gallery, Cardiff

Sixes & Sevens members David Bance, Lotti V Closs and Simon Franklin exhibit works at Chapter Gallery in Cardiff from 04.02.11 ~ 20.03.11 as part of 'Pile'. For more details click here.

Gods and Rockers

Gods and Rockers is a look at how two entities can create themselves. For believers, both speak truth and exemplify a way of life, for the detractors they are based on what may appear to be delicate reasoning. Bringing together artists who work with myth, ritual, idolatry and belief, these three events aim to begin a conversation about the creation of enigmatic figures seen as ‘Gods’ by their followers, and to discuss, perhaps, the nature of authenticity when considering systems or movements that are based on debateable truths.

David Blandy’s work involves ideas of pilgrimage and of searching for truth, authenticity and experience. In ‘Crossroads’, he looks to discover a true experience of the blues whilst traversing the Mississippi Delta in search of the spirit of Robert Johnson, a mysterious figure within the annals of musical history. Blandy’s pilgrimages are fixed in cultural movements. In ‘Five Boroughs of the Soul’ he brings together the discipline of the warrior in Kung-Fu and a fascination with musical personalities and the meaning of ‘Soul’ in his Barefoot Lone Pilgrim. Both works involve ideas of discovery and ritual as well as visitations to places made significant by extraordinary acts or events, whether well documented or mythical.

‘Rock My Religion’ discusses ideas of how rock and roll became comparable to a religion. Dan Graham brings together facets of idolatry (both created and incidental) with the response of those whose lives intertwined with a cultural shift. The audience, or followers, embellish the myth of the figure by creating expectation and hysteria; a movement is created not just by its leader, but by those who choose to exacerbate what is created.

Ben Judd uses ritual to question the nature of belief. His interest in the out-there’ and the not-so-normal intertwine with the exclusivity of secret societies and occult practice to question how and why people are drawn into circles of belief. The performative acts often question the role of the participant as a carrier of perceived truth, leading to a discourse around ideas of the viewers’ perspective and the willingness to believe.

Ben Judd

Nottingham Contemporary, 26^th November, 11am, 1pm and 3pm, beginning in the foyer.

Free, no booking necessary.

11am – Sue Tribe, Shaman
1pm – Robert Hawk, Shaman
3pm – Jenny Cross, Psychic Medium

Nottingham Contemporary

Weekday Cross

Nottingham

NG1 2GB

David Blandy

Nov 30^th – Dec 5^th, The Black Swan, Tether. Tether is open Thursday – Sunday 12-5pm. Free, no booking necessary.

The Black Swan

Tether

17a Huntingdon Street
Nottingham
NG1 3JH

Dan Graham

3^rd December, Tethervision Studio, 8pm,. Free, please see sixesandsevenscollective.co.uk for booking information.

Tethervision studio

Tether

17a Huntingdon Street
Nottingham
NG1 3JH

Curated by Dan Green

Pile

Sixes & Sevens present a comprehensive sculpture exhibition co-curated by Simon Franklin and the artist Craig Fisher.

20.11.10 ~ 11.12.10

Private View: 19.11.10, 6pm - 9pm

Price: free

'Pile' sets out to question the conventions of exhibiting work within a group exhibition. The works interact with each other in some cases becoming ‘piled’ on top of one another. Rather than stand as works in their own right, a sense of autonomy will be lost to the curator’s vision. The collection of individual objects will become one overarching piece, a visual spectacle, where the works act as the material and start to make the definition between the artist and the curator.

The exhibition will feature works from Nottingham based artists, as well as emerging and more established artists from the East Midlands and the UK. Participating artists include, David Bance, Jonathan Baldock, Katriona Beales, Lotti V Closs, Sean Cummins, Sean Edwards, David Ersser, Craig Fisher, Dan Ford, Simon Franklin, Lynn Fulton, S Mark Gubb, Frank Kent, Brendan Lyons, Laura McCafferty Zoe Mendelson, Jock Mooney, Audrey Reynolds, Lucienne Simpson, Derek Sprawson, Debra Swann, Lee Triming, Gerard Williams, Annie Whiles and Neil Zakiewicz.

Location:
Surface Gallery

Surface Gallery is an independent, volunteer run, contemporary art gallery in Sneinton. It's core interest is to support the professional development of early and mid-career artists, curators and people wishing to work in the arts.

Address:
16 Southwell Road
Nottingham NG1 1DL

See map: Google Maps

The Other Interior

Sarah Duffy presents The Other Interior; a series of immersive overnight experiences for one participant at a time in a hotel room in the city centre of Nottingham.

Drawing on cinematic and literary depictions of hotel rooms such as those of David Lynch and the magical realist hotels of Haruki Murakami Novels, The Other Interior, will reveal to the participant, the hidden inner life of a hotel room, filled with the residue of previous occupants and the lingering presence of others.
If you are planning on visiting Nottingham to see Sideshow and the British Art Show 7 and are currently looking for somewhere to stay, then why not combine your overnight stay with becoming a participant of a unique one-off personal performance by booking into the Ibis Hotel, 16 Fletchergate in the heart of Nottingham's city centre, just up the road from Nottingham Contemporary.

Sarah Duffy is a Nottingham based artist who has exhibited in both the UK and Japan. Her practice is interdisciplinary and encompasses performance, installation and video work. She has also been involved with curation, both inside and outside of ‘Sixes & Sevens’.

The Other Interior will take place on 30, 31 October / 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21, 27,2 8 November / 4, 5, 11, 12, December.

If you would like to experience this unusual performance you will also be able to make use of Ibis hotel's special Sideshow reduced rate of £50 per room.

Pre-Booking essential. Please note booking is for 1 person per room, per 1 night experience only.

To book a room please email: marie@sideshow2010.org and leave details of your name and address plus a contact telephone number. The artist will then be in touch with further instructions about how to book into the hotel for your exclusive 1 night experience.

This project has been made possible through kind permission of Ibis Hotel, Nottingham. Sarah Duffy and Sideshow would like to thank manager Richard Carline for all his assistance.

IBIS hotel
Fletchergate
Nottingham
See map: Google Maps

Sideshow is funded by: