Tertiary Matter
(commission)
For Art Sheffield 08 George Henry Longly has looked at composers Baez and Morricone’s anthemic homage to Sacco and Vanzetti; the two Italian American anarchists that were controversially sentenced to death in 1927 for crimes that many believe they did not commit. Longly uses the song (entitled ‘Here’s to you’) as an example of a piece of music that uses a repetitive short lyric and crescendo to convey an emotional and rousing message.
The idea of latent potential in objects is expressed by a collection of objects and props borrowed from Sheffield theatres, including theatre lights that now displaced from their natural environment shine intensely and seemingly scrutinise the gallery context searching for some suggested event to happen.
Additionally to this Longly has produced a series of prints that include depictions of natural wonder and cultural phenomenon. Stripped of their original tones and changed
into rich monochromatic colour-ways, the prints are blown up to expose their dot printing technique.
Esther Stocker
I cannot in all conscience do what you request
Posters on Bloc billboard & fly posters around the city
A series of posters, stating phrases of polite refusal or firm declining appear on fly poster
sites around the city, a different phrase for each of the six weeks of the event. All six of
the statements also appear, collected on Bloc billboard on Eyre Lane. Perhaps referencing a form of subtle resistance made famous by novelist Herman Melville in the fictional figure of Bartleby, whose perpetual response was ‘I would prefer not to’, the works carve out a position of agency, freed from obligation whilst at the same time working within the strict bounds of etiquette.
Host Artists’ Group
Host 8: Observatory
Audio bulletins from artists are replayed in the courtyard at Bloc, via a tannoy system, returning this narrative on artistic production to the site of that production - the artist studios. Part of this piece will take the form of an installation running concurrently at the Millennium Galleries.
Eveline Van Den Berg
Colliding Sides of Unwillingness
In her installations and photographic work,Eveline Van Den Berg creates evocative situations using everyday materials, from simple hardware to the odd bits and pieces that people either keep and collect or discard as waste. Often, text enters into her work in the form of short notes or quotes that, like the objects, have an ambiguous character, seemingly casual remarks or fragments of inner monologue, they turn out to be sharp comments on moods and emotional states as well as reflections on the conditions of artistic practice.
The photograph Colliding Sides of Unwillingness shows a square patch of industrial grey carpet flooring with a wide circle neatly cut out off its center, merely leaving a frame of carpet behind at the edges. The carpet patch lies on the floor in a space that looks more like a workspace or studio rather than a domestic environment. The spatial arrangement of this peculiar object for the camera resembles a concise gesture that points towards a certain ambiguous feeling and state of mind, a state of exhaustion that is equally also a state of potentiality, something is used up, yet in its emptiness and wastedness it equally also awaits a new interpretation. It may be the situation of awaiting inspiration in the studio, yet, in a wider sense, the state you are in, when precisely in the moment in which you feel most exhausted, worse for wear, coming apart at the seams, you find yourself being exceptionally open and ready for any event, idea or encounter that may come your way.
For more information visit www.artsheffield.org
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