Open Submission, Louise Atkinson, Jenny Baines, Alice Woodhouse and Felicity Warbrick
4 - 19 June 2005
Sheffield’s contemporary art gallery Bloc Space continues its recently launched annual programme of exhibitions with its first ever open submission show.
The carefully selected exhibition will bring together four female artists who are either from, or have a relationship to the Yorkshire region.
Artists from across the country were invited to submit their work for the show. Richard Bartle, co-curator and founder of Bloc, says, “It seemed that we were getting far more applications from men than women, so we were keen to address this and maintain a balance within our programme. The response has been phenomenal.”
The exhibition features work by Yorkshire-born artists Felicity Warbrick and Louise Atkinson, Jenny Baines who studied in Sheffield and Alice Woodhouse, whose work features images of Yorkshire skies.
Works selected include Jenny Baines‘ sculpture of a house made of live matches, one of a series of works that the artist describes as representing almost absurd solutions to ‘everyday emergencies’. Reminiscent of hobby model-making kits, here the small house possesses a somewhat sinister quality.
Alice Woodhouse presents photographs of clouds from skylines across the world, manipulated to enhance the manifestations that she sees within them. This manipulation of the real to illustrate fantasy builds cinematic scenes, emphasises kitsch icons and creates religious miracles.
Felicity Warbrick’s monoprints of architectural shelters and structures are partly inspired by her upbringing in a small rural part of Yorkshire. Her work evolves from the notion of building one’s home and being self sufficient. Images are gathered whilst travelling on buses and trains in the UK and abroad. Some images are memories of travelling to and from home in North Yorkshire, while others are found in old black and white souvenir travel picture books, postcards and discarded family photo albums.
Louise Atkinson’s work derives from ideas about identity and the human condition, and consists of sculptural installation using textile media and techniques. For Bloc Space’s open submission she will be showing a series of technological objects such as hi-fi separates constructed using these traditional methods.
