JT project 09
14 Oct – 01 Nov 2009
London
E9

The James Taylor Gallery has invited six local artist-run organisations to each occupy a room within their vast Victorian warehouse…the project provides the opportunity to see shows by these peer organisations simultaneously. *JT 09*

There were a couple of reasons that I wanted to get down to this exhibition. One was that this is a collection of Artist lead organizations, under one roof who, I hoped and indeed found to be, approaching their exhibitions with idiosyncratic focus and answering the questions brought about by sharing space. Another reason is that there are artists exhibiting here who’s work I have come to know and admire, so any opportunity to see them-well I’m going to take it.

Over the past year or so I have become more and more disinclined to visit the big white boxes, the big money shows, the Artists who seem to perpetually do the rounds. I have wanted something else, a freshness of approach to exhibiting, a freshness of approach to subject and ideas and most importantly Artists I am not familiar with. I have been finding what I need in Artists lead organizations/galleries. Its crucial that organizations like these are celebrated and supported.

TRANSITION GALLERY

…….presents a series of delicately constructed scenarios through which the viewer is invited to share a series of heart quivering sensations. These portals range from images of intense urban wilderness to washed out beautiful boys via Baudelaire’s Fleur du Mal and fragile Northern landscapes. *Transition*

Cathy Lomax-Heart Throb (Romeo, Valentino, Young Worther, Shelley, Elvis, Valentine, Xavier, Edward C, Heathcliff, Jim Stark, Byron) features ten paintings of brooding young men all made from the same image.

‘I am almost committing an indecency. I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you – the secret which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence… the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell though we desire to do both. We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something which has never actually appeared in our experience.’C S Lewis he went on to name his ‘inconsolable secret’ sehnsucht and it is this indefinable allure of unspoken truths, heartache and longing that inspires Transition Gallery’s presentation for JT Project 09. *Transition*

Alli Sharma-Foal, 2008, oil on canvas, 160 x 130 cm

Paul Kindersley- Witches, Witches, Witches, 2009, mixed media

Joel Tomlin-Hobbs 2009
The inspiration for the Transition exhibit hammered on the right buttons for me and paralleled some aspects of my own practice, and it does it with out making me feel left behind or lost, intimidated or hopeless. Instead it makes me think deeply about why I am making the paintings that currently take up my time and brain/heart space and makes me want to make more.

JAMES TAYLOR GALLERY

‘The pier’ is the largest instillation within JT 09. The water is creamy white, though in the semi darkness can seem green and grey, it also gives the illusion of depth the further the viewer walks out along the wooden structure . Piles of old tires add to the derelict, forgotten or even post disaster atmosphere (natural or otherwise) and the bright light at the far end didnt feel like rescue. I walked it several times.

Julia Crabtree and William Evans

THE CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE present TRIUMPH OF THE WILL
Curated by Cathrine Borra, Olivia Hegarty & Matthew Stone

TRIUMPH OF THE WILL emerges from questions surrounding Leni Reifenstahl’s 1934 propaganda film commissioned by Adolf Hitler. see the film HERE
How do we understand the aesthetic legacy if this event?
Does any aesthetic embody and bear responsibility for the final solutions of ideology?
In the contexts of both the film and the works in this show, what is the power of the individuals depicted and those implicated as audience? *The Centre of the universe*

David Ferrando Giraut-Road Movie – Perpetuum Mobile,Single channel video
View Road Movie HERE

For me this film was stunning in its apparent simplicity. The sound brings on chills, and the images evoke powerful feelings of fear and isolation. An event has taken place, its not clear if this is a solitary event or if it is only an example of wider destruction. However perhaps the interpretation of this film is where the true horror exists, perhaps we can be made to believe almost anything through the media of film. A predisposition that we have exploited.

James Balmforth-Our sons their fathers failing language see,2007,Video projection

GALLERIES TAKING PART
Centre of the Universe
Fieldgate Gallery
Five Years
James Taylor Gallery
Katie Guggenheim
Supine Studios
Transition Gallery

The work within JT 09 is wide reaching, challenging and at times beautiful and I have in no way done the exhibition justice with this blog. Please make room in your life to go and see this. There is so much to see and its total anti-FRIEZE….thankfully the art is way better than THAT rubbish joke.

I was lucky enough to make it down to the private view, and was made to feel very welcome by the Artists. Thank You.

also, i must apologize for the quality of some of my photographs of late, you will be pleased to hear that I am getting a new, pocket sized, camera!!