PUBLIC - YOU & ME
REBECCA DAVIES SELINA OAKES
June 3 - 28, 2019
A month long, open house testbed programme of events, talks, screenings, workshops and socials - to scope out a new approach to Public Programming.
Who is it for? What is to be done? You & Me, we're putting into action the fleeting chats and in-depth conversations, down the pub, on the street and in the gallery – because public isn't a solo-act.
Public – You & Me is a test-bed project open to all. Inviting artists and designers to share their modes of cultural production and the public to take part through discussion, workshop and events.
In The Company She Keeps, Celine Condorelli describes this as 'making things public: the process of connecting things, establishing relationships, which in many ways means befriending issues, people, contexts.' It's about friendship being a form of solidarity.
Over four-weeks, AirSpace Gallery is activated as a space for You & Me: a place for artists, makers, neighbours and visitors to participate in this test-bed project. Public - You & Me will mobilise, make visible and extend the work currently done by AirSpace, establishing a fresh Public programme for its audience.
So, what is to be done?
Taking AirSpace Gallery’s Artist Led and Action Research approach, the project takes three strands:
1. TO QUESTION (talks/discussion)
2. TO LEARN/UNLEARN (workshops/seminars)
3. TO ACT (performances/events).
This project of multidisciplinary arts activity – a series of workshops, talks and socials – sees us work with PLANE STRUCTURES to collaboratively design and co-build reusable furniture for the gallery. Artists KATE OWENS and ED PICKSTONE are delivering workshops which challenge our perception of print, while ROSE NORDIN from OOMK joins us to co-create zines which promote the autonomy of each and every member of our growing community.
Throughout, the Gallery is open for public-use with the guidance of lead artists Rebecca Davies and Selina Oakes, both of whom are also working in the space. The building is activated further through a series of Weekly Socials where we welcome PHOEBE DAVIES (Synaptic Island) for an evening of sound and music and performers from FIGS IN WIGS for a closing party extravaganza.
It's your space, my space, our space. Public – You & Me.
TEXT
Binding Social Fibres: Public – You & Me
by
Laura Robertson
Strand I: To question (unravel)
Rebecca Davies and Selina Oakes’s multifaceted public programme for AirSpace Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent – Public – You & Me – demonstrates what Boris Groys calls education by infection: teaching art is teaching life. Its deceptively simple and generous set-up – a constellation of free, open door events, which will in turn help shape the gallery’s future exhibitions – is a portal for a complex set of ideas; moored in education, inclusivity, health, activism and usefulness. It is joyful, welcoming. In short, Public – You & Me questions what the gallery can do for its public, and vice versa. What makes it unusual is its artists and contexts.
At first glance, Public – You & Me could be understood as a measure of potential: testing AirSpace’s strength as Stoke’s first and only contemporary visual art space, yes, but also its role as something more ambiguous: what Hans Ulrich Obrist would call a laboratory, or a place of knowledge production. Internationally, galleries are striving for programming that is no longer peripheral to its exhibitions. Rather, educational events (discussions, symposia, classes) for visitors entwined with curatorial production as one, core offer; equivalent to a rope woven from many fibres. In reality, public programming might rub up against the art presented, but is notoriously difficult to interlace. Large institutions have dedicated departments that typically work on the same projects, but disconnectedly, instead of in harmony; rare, too, is the programme that establishes hardy roots in its local communities.
Public – You & Me concerns itself with making with others: strangers, non-artists, friends and ‘friends in action’
For AirSpace, Davies and Oakes invited artists and designers to share their own modes of cultural production with us; contributing to a carefully considered, month-long series of workshops, performances, group crits, film clubs and socials. Drawing on Céline Condorelli’s vision of ‘making things public’, from her 2014 book The Company She Keeps (whose namefellow, Mary McCarthy’s 1942 novel, charts her protagonist’s life and emotional development), Public – You & Me concerns itself with making with others: strangers, non-artists, friends and ‘friends in action’. Principal questions, learning and action are inherently socially engaged. The results (permanent, like Matt Foster’s Plane Structure CoBuild of chairs, tables, benches and information stands that now enhance the gallery in perpetuity; or more fleeting, such as a screening of Andrew Kötting’s feature-length documentary, Gallivant, 1996) are not the point: the point is to create a shared experience.
This collaboration could be called art education, as the process is certainly a studious one. The teachers – who would probably protest at being called so – are professionals with years of experience in fabrication, publishing, printing, filmmaking and graphic design, and who encourage critical thinking. An integral part of Public – You & Me are the dialogues we have about the teachers’ work – including why they do what they do.
It’s clear that Public – You & Me is a knotting together of makers who utilise collaborative models of working to address social inclusion; from the invited artists, including Phoebe Davies (whose programme contribution, A Soundtrack for Stoke, played locals’ favourite songs, encouraging the sharing of city-based memories and stories) and Kate Owens (whose event Block Print on Fabric (and dance if you want to) had participants stamping on soft furnishings with specially-made, inked shoes, gradually synching their choreography), to those who already reside and work in Stoke, including AirSpace co-director Anna Francis and Public – You & Me curator Davies (who co-run The Portland Inn Project community pub: a living artwork of buoyant karaoke sessions, kids café and classes in ceramics and opera). AirSpace’s regular, critical programme expresses inclusivity through food; Francis’s Artist Soup Kitchen has historically created a space for people to congregate and debate everything from image appropriation to family art activism.
Strand II: To learn/unlearn (twist)
The metal letters (tin and lead) are tricky to pick up and slot into parallel lines. We’ve chosen a gothic typeface, so struggle to identify the alphabet from dark licks and curls. Everyone in the group is sat on chairs built a few weeks ago; each wooden leg bound to the seat with thick, black elastic (hair?) bands.
Three Adana presses are oiled, official-looking – intimidating, but less so after Edwin Pickstone’s demonstration. Typography technician at Glasgow School of Art, he tells us (in no uncertain terms) that we are now overseers of the print resources and will be, in using the equipment, making the facilities easier to use – by being organised, checking everything is working as it should be and (this is important) coming back to teach others.
The workshop is called Celebrations and Declamations; we’re encouraged to write short, memorable political statements. We concentrate on setting our sentences, brows furrowed, before rolling ink over raised surfaces; pressing small cards with each message. One declares: ‘The Revolution Has Compassion’.
The learning is troublesome, slippery. It doesn’t stick to a curriculum
Edwin says that he once burned a print-on-demand book, so that he could manufacture ink from the ashes; a method to question artisan and digital production methods. What are we doing, but that?
The learning is troublesome, slippery. It doesn’t stick to a curriculum, nor does it have an Ofsted inspector. It cannot really be measured by matrix or exam. The materials can be misused; the ideas veer off wildly, reconstituted, misinterpreted. A lexicon is distilled from the pop-up library and wall hangings – friendship, solidarity, civic pride, co-operation – in a process of subtle influence.
Sandy finishes early and helps out. Made redundant from a job in social care and youth justice, she says that there is little work for young people in Stoke. The Pits and The Pots, meaning the coalmines and the potteries, have closed, leaving only non-transferable skills; each a key part of the production line but useless without it. One person would roll clay into balls, another would fire-up the kiln. No individual was taught how to create a pot from initial sketch to dinner table. And here we are, studying analogue equipment in order to pass that knowledge on.
In our pockets, we pass fingertips over the scalloped edges of print club loyalty cards.
Strand III: To act (bind)
It’s not hard to appreciate the service that AirSpace – as gallery, laboratory, social club, classroom or workspace, or all of these things – offers Stoke. Its residents are at major risk of poverty and financial exclusion (food bank usage has increased by 46% since the introduction of Universal Credit in 2013). There isn’t an abundance of free schemes like Public – You & Me or The Portland Inn Project.
‘Socially engaged’ programming doesn’t have to dominate every exhibition, nor does it have to work miracles – like improve health and wellbeing (although we know that art can, most recently from Aesop’s 2018 Healthcare and The Arts: GP Survey: revealing that two in three doctors believe that ‘public engagement with the arts can make a significant contribution to the prevention agenda’), or become an art school (as Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA) has done this year, teaming up with Teesside University to provide BA and postgraduate qualifications in Fine Art). As a workroom for socially engaged action, AirSpace can do a lot just by opening the doors and making it easy for us to join in.
So, once we’re a part of Public – You & Me, what is to be done? The fibres of our ideas could be teased out, identified, and re-woven as we wished. We could think about our work – our ‘public’ activity or collective action – as we do the Friction Hitch: a knot that can be adjusted, but one that locks in place, from friction, when the load is heavy. As Davies says, we do the best that we can and the most that we can.
To act means to bind, stamp, dance, listen, speak, watch, draw, carry, choose, pass on, peel back, come back
If Public – You & Me is a turn towards an educational model that is looser, more experimental, more critical, and perhaps more useful for the future, then we can play. We can build a model of programming in such a way as to increase its length and tensile strength; a united community that will carry the gallery through times of uncertainty (lean years, budget cuts, reduced arts provision, or other trials). We can rename the arena in which we learn and make and talk. We can create a space less exclusive and more open to all sorts of unexpected experiences that expand our friendship circles, confidence, abilities and imagination.
We could each fill in the blanks, writing (re-writing and re-writing) a modern manifesto that makes us more resilient. You & Me might think about what it means to act:
To act means to bind, stamp, dance, listen, speak, watch, draw, carry, choose, pass on, peel back, come back. To act is to __________, to act is to make __________ obsolete.
To act human, we must __________. Everyone should question __________.
We are tired of waiting for __________, and wasting time on __________.
We have never used the medium of __________ to create art, and why not?
Let’s not forget that we have an abundance of __________.
What we think now, here, together, in this moment, means to shake-off long-standing presumptions of __________. We must think carefully about __________.
To act is to invent a new name for art. __________ is art’s new name, and it gives us freedom.
Look round: we can learn to __________, and to unlearn __________.
Public – You & Me looks like __________, and we celebrate it as we continue to shape it in our own image.
If we need to, we screw up this paper and we start again.
Laura visited Public – You & Me at AirSpace Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent, June 2019
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
WEEK ONE
Monday 3 - Friday 7 June
11am-5pm<
Plane Structure CoBuild
Drop-in - Free and Open to All
Join in and work with Plane Structure's MATT FOSTER as he opens up his working methods to explain, instruct and co-build a set of bespoke furniture - chairs, tables, benches and information stands for the New Gallery.
Thursday 6 June
6-9pm<
Programme Launch // Film Club
Free and Open to All
Join us for the launch of Public - You & Me and enjoy a series of short films in good company. The evening is an opportunity to hear more about the month-long test-bed programme and how you can get involved. To set the scene, we’ve selected films by which reflect upon ideas of the public and the private, counter-narratives, our relationship to space, making friends, befriending issues and imagining the unimaginable.
WEEK TWO
Tuesday 11 - Friday 14 June,
11am-5pM
Free Drop-In
Open to All
The Gallery will be open all day with a free library and seated area, and a chance to talk to Rebecca Davies and Selina Oakes about what you'd like to see happen in a City's Art Gallery
Tuesday 11 June
6-9pm
Crit Night
Free Drop-in
Open to All
An opportunity to share your work in a safe space, with critical friends. We are excited to begin Crit Nights - a chance for us all to see work that's being made in the city and exchange constructive ideas with one another. Whether we're in a creative block or want feedback on navigating an art profession, it's about support and critical conversation. Register your interest in sharing your work at the Gallery during opening hours.
Wednesday 12 June
6-8pm
Print Club Induction 1 with Rebecca Davies
Free but Booking Required
Rebecca will be working with AirSpace Print Room's Adana Presses, introducing participants to basic type setting and letterpress printing. The night serveS as an induction, which opens up the Print Room membership to those who take part.
Friday 14 June,
6-9pm
Weekly Social - Film Club
Free and Open to All
A special showing of feature-length documentary Gallivant (1996, 1h40min) by Andrew Kötting. The film documents a journey the director took clockwise around the coast of Britain accompanied by his 85-year-old grandmother, Gladys, and his seven-year-old daughter, Eden, who was born with Joubert syndrome. The film reveals the growing closeness between Gladys and Eden and is underpinned by a shared sense of impending mortality.
Saturday 15 June,
1pm-5pm
Kate Owens Workshop
Artist and designer KATE OWENS generates printed and appliquéd motifs through the unlikely channels of performance and participatory workshops. She cultivates methods of doing two things at once, partly as an economical way to live, but also as a technique to stimulate creative thinking.
Kate takes a side-step from traditional block printing in her workshop, Block Print On Fabric (and dance if you want to), by exchanging the print block for a wooden sandal. Participants are invited to design their print-block footwear and to use their weight to transfer ink – walking or dancing a design across the fabric. The results of this one-day workshop will inform Kate's creation of soft-furnishings for the space.
Materials provided
Sunday 16 June,
11am-5pm
Kate Owens Studio
Drop-in Free and Open to All
Following her workshop, Block Print on Fabric (and dance if you want to), Kate Owens will be creating soft furnishings to accompany Plane Structure’s co-built furniture. Kate will be working in the Gallery, using the printed fabric from the previous day’s workshop to produce items such as cushions and cloths. The Gallery will remain open and members of the public are welcome to drop-in and chat with the artist about her making-process.
WEEK THREE
Tuesday 18 - Friday 21 June,
11am-5pm
Free Drop-In
Open to All
The Gallery will be open all day with a free library and seated area, and a chance to talk to Rebecca Davies and Selina Oakes about what you'd like to see happen in a City's Art Gallery
Wednesday 19 June,
6-8pm
Print Club Induction 2 with Rebecca Davies
Rebecca will be working with AirSpace Print Room's Adana Presses, introducing participants to basic type setting and letterpress printing. The night serve as an induction, which opens up the Print Room membership to those who take part.
Thursday 20 June,
11am-5pm
Graphic Design Commission Workshop
Visual language / visible language:
Collaboratively designed modular* letterforms
What do letters look like?
How can typefaces, through their construction and appearance, communicate a place or community?
This workshop considers the role that typefaces, type design and words play in defining and communicating the identity of a place.
Using research collected by the design studio work-form as a starting point for discussion, participants will collaborate to develop sketches for a typeface that might represent the people, places, history and ambitions of the area around Airspace Gallery and Stoke-on-Trent more widely.
Friday 21 June
11am-5pm
Graphic Design Commission / Typeface Exhibition
Free and Open to All
6pm-10pm
Weekly Social - Phoebe Davies (Synaptic Island)
Building on her research with Synaptic Island, PHOEBE DAVIES will collaborate with AirSpace to devise a live mix tailored for the Gallery, mixing references, tracks, samples and field recordings. Over the course of the evening, residents of Stoke are invited to make song requests responding to themes from Public - You & Me such as connectivity, solidarity and the space between us. These tracks will form the base of the mix - A Soundtrack for Stoke - that will be collectively listened to in the Gallery.
Saturday 22 June
11am-3pm<
Ed Pickstone Workshop with Rebecca Davies
ED PICKSTONE focuses on the material nature of print and is well-versed in letterpress technology. Based in Glasgow, Edwin's work spans academic, artistic and design worlds, and he has a particular interest in the history of typography, graphic design, the nature of print and the book. He is Lecturer in Typography Technician and Designer in Residence at The Glasgow School of Art, where he cares for the school’s collection of letterpress printing equipment.
Edwin is working with Rebecca Davies to activate the AirSpace Print Room and its Adana Presses. This workshop will end with an artist talk.
3.30-4.15pm<
Ed Pickstone Talk
Edwin Pickstone focuses on the material nature of print and is well-versed in letterpress technology. Following his workshop with Rebecca Davies, Edwin will speak about his practice and show examples of recent projects created in Glasgow and further afield. A short Q&A session with Rebecca will conclude the talk.
WEEK FOUR
Tuesday 25 - Friday 28 June,
11am-5pm
Free Drop-In
Open to All
The Gallery will be open all day with a free library and seated area, and a chance to talk to Rebecca Davies and Selina Oakes about what you'd like to see happen in a City's Art Gallery
<
Wednesday 26 June,
1pm-4pm
Rose Nordin Workshop - 2 Days
ROSE NORDIN is a graphic designer with an interest in self-publishing and DIY culture. She is one third of OOMK (One of my Kind) art publishing collective which focuses on supporting self-publishing to enable activism, conversation and education. Rose is co-founder of Rabbits Road Press, a community studio space and Risograph printing press in Newham, and is artist in residence at Somerset House Studios, London.
For this programme, Rose will be leading a two-day workshop which experiments with notions of the public, the private, the visible and the permeable. She will introduce participants to the zine-making process in a creative and collaborative way – the outcome being a series of short zines which reflect the conversations fostered in the space.
6pm-8pm
TALK: Rose Nordin and Kerry Campbell
ROSE NORDIN from OOMK and KERRY CAMPBELL, Artistic Director at Mansions of the Future, will speak about representation: Rose will be reflecting on representation in her graphic design practice and Kerry will be focusing on representation in programming.
Thursday 27 June
11am-4pm
Rose Nordin Workshop
2nd Day of 2 day workshop
Friday 28 June
6pm-9pm
Closing Party with Figs in Wigs
An extravaganza! With live, immersive performances from members of FIGS IN WIGS, accompanied by rhythms and beats from DJ Calum Murphy. Figs in Wigs exist in the nooks and crannies of live art, theatre, comedy and cabaret. 'Aficionados of deadpan dance routines, we have been throwing up shapes ever since we first discovered we had limbs'. Promising to dazzle, raise eyebrows and incite belly laughs. Dance the night away and celebrate with us - the end of our four week programme and the beginning of our long term, fresh public programme.
This project is delivered with funding support from Arts Council England
THE ARTISTS
Plane Structure's MATT FOSTER is a fabricator and installer of art, display furniture and bespoke joinery. Matt founded Plane Structure in 2011 to fulfill a need for skilled art fabricators in Birmingham. Since then, the company has grown to deliver specialist carpentry and joinery as well as gallery installation for arts organisations, architects and creative businesses.
Matt has been commissioned to design a collection of furniture and surface-tops for AirSpace Gallery: seating, shelving, table-tops and screens will be realised through a co-build week, where visitors will be invited to join in with fabrication and assemblage processes. This commission will be stored at the Gallery for future use.
----
Rose Nordin is a graphic designer with an interest in self-publishing and DIY culture. She is one third of =OOMK (One of my Kind) art publishing collective which focuses on supporting self-publishing to enable activism, conversation and education. Rose is co-founder of Rabbits Road Press, a community studio space and Risograph printing press in Newham, and is artist in residence at Somerset House Studios, London.
For this programme, Rose will be leading a two-day workshop which experiments with notions of the public, the private, the visible and the permeable. She will introduce participants to the zine-making process in a creative and collaborative way – the outcome being a series of short zines which reflect the conversations fostered in the space.
----
Artist and designer Kate Owens generates printed and appliquéd motifs through the unlikely channels of performance and participatory workshops. She cultivates methods of doing two things at once, partly as an economical way to live, but also as a technique to stimulate creative thinking. Kate takes a side-step from traditional block printing in her workshop, Block Print On Fabric (and dance if you want to), by exchanging the print block for a wooden sandal. Participants are invited to design their print-block footwear and to use their weight to transfer ink – walking or dancing a design across the fabric. The results of this one-day workshop will inform Kate's creation of soft-furnishings for the space. Materials provided, pre-booking required.
Figs in Wigs (Rachel Gammon, Suzanna Hurst, Sarah Moore, Rachel Porter and Alice Roots) exist in the nooks and crannies of live art, theatre, comedy and cabaret. “Aficionados of deadpan dance routines, we have been throwing up shapes ever since we first discovered we had limbs (back in 2010). Eight years on and we've finally mastered the art of dancing like nobody's watching too closely.”
We are excited to welcome Figs In Wigs to Stoke-on-Trent for our closing party – who we are sure will dazzle, raise eyebrows and incite belly laughs in their immersive performance.
----
Edwin Pickstone focuses on the material nature of print and is well-versed in letterpress technology. Based in Glasgow, Edwin's work spans academic, artistic and design worlds, and he has a particular interest in the history of typography, graphic design, the nature of print and the book. He is Lecturer in Typography Technician and Designer in Residence at The Glasgow School of Art, where he cares for the school’s collection of letterpress printing equipment.
Edwin is working with Rebecca Davies to activate the AirSpace Print Room and its Adana Presses. This workshop will end with an artist talk. Pre-booking required.
----
Artist and researcher Phoebe Davies investigates how people perceive their social framework, often working with and in response to individuals and communities, generating work through collaboration, collective action and DIT (Do It Together) strategies. Her outcomes are often project dependent and have included live performances, video, audio, print works and constructed social spaces.
Phoebe is a founding member of Synaptic Island – a womxn and non-binary DJ collective that hosts bi-monthly listening sessions and regular open deck workshops at Corsica Studios in London. Synaptic Island formed in 2017 following the Women’s Beat League Study Week at Wysing Arts Centre, they aim to create a space that enables peer-to-peer learning and access to resources.
Building on her research with Synaptic Island, she will collaborate with AirSpace to devise a live mix tailored for the gallery, mixing references, tracks, samples and field recordings - A Soundtrack for Stoke. Over the course of the evening residents of Stoke are invited to make song requests responding to themes from Public : You & Me - connectivity, solidarity and the space between us. These tracks will form the base of the mix that will be collectively listened to in the gallery.
----
work-form is a graphic design studio based in London run by Charlie Abbott, Jake Hopwood and Alex Hough. The studio designs visual identities, exhibitions, typefaces, publications and websites for a variety of different organisations. These range from individuals, community groups and independent businesses to cultural institutions and international brands. work-form takes an open, collaborative approach to every project, informed by detailed research and development.
The studio is particularly interested in exploring methods of production that disrupt the traditional client-designer relationship, and often seeks new ways of collaborating that include a range of audiences and stakeholders in each part of the design process. Education is a central part of our studio practice – the studio members currently lead the 1st year of BA (Hons) Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, and run projects and workshops at a range of universities and institutions.
----
Kerry Campbell is a freelance curator and producer. Beginning her curatorial practice in her hometown of Luton under the guise of TMT Projects, Campbell’s work is informed by her interests in regional curating, diversifying arts engagement and understanding the complex relationship between social class and barriers to arts engagement and representation. She is currently the Artistic Director at Mansions of the Future – an Ambitions for Excellence funded project in Lincoln, which privileges inherently social, site-specific, and collaborative ways of working.
Who is it for? What is to be done? You & Me, we're putting into action the fleeting chats and in-depth conversations, down the pub, on the street and in the gallery – because public isn't a solo-act.
Public – You & Me is a test-bed project open to all. Inviting artists and designers to share their modes of cultural production and the public to take part through discussion, workshop and events.
In The Company She Keeps, Celine Condorelli describes this as 'making things public: the process of connecting things, establishing relationships, which in many ways means befriending issues, people, contexts.' It's about friendship being a form of solidarity.
Over four-weeks, AirSpace Gallery is activated as a space for You & Me: a place for artists, makers, neighbours and visitors to participate in this test-bed project. Public - You & Me will mobilise, make visible and extend the work currently done by AirSpace, establishing a fresh Public programme for its audience.
So, what is to be done?
Taking AirSpace Gallery’s Artist Led and Action Research approach, the project takes three strands:
1. TO QUESTION (talks/discussion)
2. TO LEARN/UNLEARN (workshops/seminars)
3. TO ACT (performances/events).
This project of multidisciplinary arts activity – a series of workshops, talks and socials – sees us work with PLANE STRUCTURES to collaboratively design and co-build reusable furniture for the gallery. Artists KATE OWENS and ED PICKSTONE are delivering workshops which challenge our perception of print, while ROSE NORDIN from OOMK joins us to co-create zines which promote the autonomy of each and every member of our growing community.
Throughout, the Gallery is open for public-use with the guidance of lead artists Rebecca Davies and Selina Oakes, both of whom are also working in the space. The building is activated further through a series of Weekly Socials where we welcome PHOEBE DAVIES (Synaptic Island) for an evening of sound and music and performers from FIGS IN WIGS for a closing party extravaganza.
It's your space, my space, our space. Public – You & Me.
TEXT
Binding Social Fibres: Public – You & Me
by
Laura Robertson
Strand I: To question (unravel)
Rebecca Davies and Selina Oakes’s multifaceted public programme for AirSpace Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent – Public – You & Me – demonstrates what Boris Groys calls education by infection: teaching art is teaching life. Its deceptively simple and generous set-up – a constellation of free, open door events, which will in turn help shape the gallery’s future exhibitions – is a portal for a complex set of ideas; moored in education, inclusivity, health, activism and usefulness. It is joyful, welcoming. In short, Public – You & Me questions what the gallery can do for its public, and vice versa. What makes it unusual is its artists and contexts.
At first glance, Public – You & Me could be understood as a measure of potential: testing AirSpace’s strength as Stoke’s first and only contemporary visual art space, yes, but also its role as something more ambiguous: what Hans Ulrich Obrist would call a laboratory, or a place of knowledge production. Internationally, galleries are striving for programming that is no longer peripheral to its exhibitions. Rather, educational events (discussions, symposia, classes) for visitors entwined with curatorial production as one, core offer; equivalent to a rope woven from many fibres. In reality, public programming might rub up against the art presented, but is notoriously difficult to interlace. Large institutions have dedicated departments that typically work on the same projects, but disconnectedly, instead of in harmony; rare, too, is the programme that establishes hardy roots in its local communities.
Public – You & Me concerns itself with making with others: strangers, non-artists, friends and ‘friends in action’
For AirSpace, Davies and Oakes invited artists and designers to share their own modes of cultural production with us; contributing to a carefully considered, month-long series of workshops, performances, group crits, film clubs and socials. Drawing on Céline Condorelli’s vision of ‘making things public’, from her 2014 book The Company She Keeps (whose namefellow, Mary McCarthy’s 1942 novel, charts her protagonist’s life and emotional development), Public – You & Me concerns itself with making with others: strangers, non-artists, friends and ‘friends in action’. Principal questions, learning and action are inherently socially engaged. The results (permanent, like Matt Foster’s Plane Structure CoBuild of chairs, tables, benches and information stands that now enhance the gallery in perpetuity; or more fleeting, such as a screening of Andrew Kötting’s feature-length documentary, Gallivant, 1996) are not the point: the point is to create a shared experience.
This collaboration could be called art education, as the process is certainly a studious one. The teachers – who would probably protest at being called so – are professionals with years of experience in fabrication, publishing, printing, filmmaking and graphic design, and who encourage critical thinking. An integral part of Public – You & Me are the dialogues we have about the teachers’ work – including why they do what they do.
It’s clear that Public – You & Me is a knotting together of makers who utilise collaborative models of working to address social inclusion; from the invited artists, including Phoebe Davies (whose programme contribution, A Soundtrack for Stoke, played locals’ favourite songs, encouraging the sharing of city-based memories and stories) and Kate Owens (whose event Block Print on Fabric (and dance if you want to) had participants stamping on soft furnishings with specially-made, inked shoes, gradually synching their choreography), to those who already reside and work in Stoke, including AirSpace co-director Anna Francis and Public – You & Me curator Davies (who co-run The Portland Inn Project community pub: a living artwork of buoyant karaoke sessions, kids café and classes in ceramics and opera). AirSpace’s regular, critical programme expresses inclusivity through food; Francis’s Artist Soup Kitchen has historically created a space for people to congregate and debate everything from image appropriation to family art activism.
Strand II: To learn/unlearn (twist)
The metal letters (tin and lead) are tricky to pick up and slot into parallel lines. We’ve chosen a gothic typeface, so struggle to identify the alphabet from dark licks and curls. Everyone in the group is sat on chairs built a few weeks ago; each wooden leg bound to the seat with thick, black elastic (hair?) bands.
Three Adana presses are oiled, official-looking – intimidating, but less so after Edwin Pickstone’s demonstration. Typography technician at Glasgow School of Art, he tells us (in no uncertain terms) that we are now overseers of the print resources and will be, in using the equipment, making the facilities easier to use – by being organised, checking everything is working as it should be and (this is important) coming back to teach others.
The workshop is called Celebrations and Declamations; we’re encouraged to write short, memorable political statements. We concentrate on setting our sentences, brows furrowed, before rolling ink over raised surfaces; pressing small cards with each message. One declares: ‘The Revolution Has Compassion’.
The learning is troublesome, slippery. It doesn’t stick to a curriculum
Edwin says that he once burned a print-on-demand book, so that he could manufacture ink from the ashes; a method to question artisan and digital production methods. What are we doing, but that?
The learning is troublesome, slippery. It doesn’t stick to a curriculum, nor does it have an Ofsted inspector. It cannot really be measured by matrix or exam. The materials can be misused; the ideas veer off wildly, reconstituted, misinterpreted. A lexicon is distilled from the pop-up library and wall hangings – friendship, solidarity, civic pride, co-operation – in a process of subtle influence.
Sandy finishes early and helps out. Made redundant from a job in social care and youth justice, she says that there is little work for young people in Stoke. The Pits and The Pots, meaning the coalmines and the potteries, have closed, leaving only non-transferable skills; each a key part of the production line but useless without it. One person would roll clay into balls, another would fire-up the kiln. No individual was taught how to create a pot from initial sketch to dinner table. And here we are, studying analogue equipment in order to pass that knowledge on.
In our pockets, we pass fingertips over the scalloped edges of print club loyalty cards.
Strand III: To act (bind)
It’s not hard to appreciate the service that AirSpace – as gallery, laboratory, social club, classroom or workspace, or all of these things – offers Stoke. Its residents are at major risk of poverty and financial exclusion (food bank usage has increased by 46% since the introduction of Universal Credit in 2013). There isn’t an abundance of free schemes like Public – You & Me or The Portland Inn Project.
‘Socially engaged’ programming doesn’t have to dominate every exhibition, nor does it have to work miracles – like improve health and wellbeing (although we know that art can, most recently from Aesop’s 2018 Healthcare and The Arts: GP Survey: revealing that two in three doctors believe that ‘public engagement with the arts can make a significant contribution to the prevention agenda’), or become an art school (as Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA) has done this year, teaming up with Teesside University to provide BA and postgraduate qualifications in Fine Art). As a workroom for socially engaged action, AirSpace can do a lot just by opening the doors and making it easy for us to join in.
So, once we’re a part of Public – You & Me, what is to be done? The fibres of our ideas could be teased out, identified, and re-woven as we wished. We could think about our work – our ‘public’ activity or collective action – as we do the Friction Hitch: a knot that can be adjusted, but one that locks in place, from friction, when the load is heavy. As Davies says, we do the best that we can and the most that we can.
To act means to bind, stamp, dance, listen, speak, watch, draw, carry, choose, pass on, peel back, come back
If Public – You & Me is a turn towards an educational model that is looser, more experimental, more critical, and perhaps more useful for the future, then we can play. We can build a model of programming in such a way as to increase its length and tensile strength; a united community that will carry the gallery through times of uncertainty (lean years, budget cuts, reduced arts provision, or other trials). We can rename the arena in which we learn and make and talk. We can create a space less exclusive and more open to all sorts of unexpected experiences that expand our friendship circles, confidence, abilities and imagination.
We could each fill in the blanks, writing (re-writing and re-writing) a modern manifesto that makes us more resilient. You & Me might think about what it means to act:
To act means to bind, stamp, dance, listen, speak, watch, draw, carry, choose, pass on, peel back, come back. To act is to __________, to act is to make __________ obsolete.
To act human, we must __________. Everyone should question __________.
We are tired of waiting for __________, and wasting time on __________.
We have never used the medium of __________ to create art, and why not?
Let’s not forget that we have an abundance of __________.
What we think now, here, together, in this moment, means to shake-off long-standing presumptions of __________. We must think carefully about __________.
To act is to invent a new name for art. __________ is art’s new name, and it gives us freedom.
Look round: we can learn to __________, and to unlearn __________.
Public – You & Me looks like __________, and we celebrate it as we continue to shape it in our own image.
If we need to, we screw up this paper and we start again.
Laura visited Public – You & Me at AirSpace Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent, June 2019
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
WEEK ONE
Monday 3 - Friday 7 June
11am-5pm<
Plane Structure CoBuild
Drop-in - Free and Open to All
Join in and work with Plane Structure's MATT FOSTER as he opens up his working methods to explain, instruct and co-build a set of bespoke furniture - chairs, tables, benches and information stands for the New Gallery.
Thursday 6 June
6-9pm<
Programme Launch // Film Club
Free and Open to All
Join us for the launch of Public - You & Me and enjoy a series of short films in good company. The evening is an opportunity to hear more about the month-long test-bed programme and how you can get involved. To set the scene, we’ve selected films by which reflect upon ideas of the public and the private, counter-narratives, our relationship to space, making friends, befriending issues and imagining the unimaginable.
WEEK TWO
Tuesday 11 - Friday 14 June,
11am-5pM
Free Drop-In
Open to All
The Gallery will be open all day with a free library and seated area, and a chance to talk to Rebecca Davies and Selina Oakes about what you'd like to see happen in a City's Art Gallery
Tuesday 11 June
6-9pm
Crit Night
Free Drop-in
Open to All
An opportunity to share your work in a safe space, with critical friends. We are excited to begin Crit Nights - a chance for us all to see work that's being made in the city and exchange constructive ideas with one another. Whether we're in a creative block or want feedback on navigating an art profession, it's about support and critical conversation. Register your interest in sharing your work at the Gallery during opening hours.
Wednesday 12 June
6-8pm
Print Club Induction 1 with Rebecca Davies
Free but Booking Required
Rebecca will be working with AirSpace Print Room's Adana Presses, introducing participants to basic type setting and letterpress printing. The night serveS as an induction, which opens up the Print Room membership to those who take part.
Friday 14 June,
6-9pm
Weekly Social - Film Club
Free and Open to All
A special showing of feature-length documentary Gallivant (1996, 1h40min) by Andrew Kötting. The film documents a journey the director took clockwise around the coast of Britain accompanied by his 85-year-old grandmother, Gladys, and his seven-year-old daughter, Eden, who was born with Joubert syndrome. The film reveals the growing closeness between Gladys and Eden and is underpinned by a shared sense of impending mortality.
Saturday 15 June,
1pm-5pm
Kate Owens Workshop
Artist and designer KATE OWENS generates printed and appliquéd motifs through the unlikely channels of performance and participatory workshops. She cultivates methods of doing two things at once, partly as an economical way to live, but also as a technique to stimulate creative thinking.
Kate takes a side-step from traditional block printing in her workshop, Block Print On Fabric (and dance if you want to), by exchanging the print block for a wooden sandal. Participants are invited to design their print-block footwear and to use their weight to transfer ink – walking or dancing a design across the fabric. The results of this one-day workshop will inform Kate's creation of soft-furnishings for the space.
Materials provided
Sunday 16 June,
11am-5pm
Kate Owens Studio
Drop-in Free and Open to All
Following her workshop, Block Print on Fabric (and dance if you want to), Kate Owens will be creating soft furnishings to accompany Plane Structure’s co-built furniture. Kate will be working in the Gallery, using the printed fabric from the previous day’s workshop to produce items such as cushions and cloths. The Gallery will remain open and members of the public are welcome to drop-in and chat with the artist about her making-process.
WEEK THREE
Tuesday 18 - Friday 21 June,
11am-5pm
Free Drop-In
Open to All
The Gallery will be open all day with a free library and seated area, and a chance to talk to Rebecca Davies and Selina Oakes about what you'd like to see happen in a City's Art Gallery
Wednesday 19 June,
6-8pm
Print Club Induction 2 with Rebecca Davies
Rebecca will be working with AirSpace Print Room's Adana Presses, introducing participants to basic type setting and letterpress printing. The night serve as an induction, which opens up the Print Room membership to those who take part.
Thursday 20 June,
11am-5pm
Graphic Design Commission Workshop
Visual language / visible language:
Collaboratively designed modular* letterforms
What do letters look like?
How can typefaces, through their construction and appearance, communicate a place or community?
This workshop considers the role that typefaces, type design and words play in defining and communicating the identity of a place.
Using research collected by the design studio work-form as a starting point for discussion, participants will collaborate to develop sketches for a typeface that might represent the people, places, history and ambitions of the area around Airspace Gallery and Stoke-on-Trent more widely.
Friday 21 June
11am-5pm
Graphic Design Commission / Typeface Exhibition
Free and Open to All
6pm-10pm
Weekly Social - Phoebe Davies (Synaptic Island)
Building on her research with Synaptic Island, PHOEBE DAVIES will collaborate with AirSpace to devise a live mix tailored for the Gallery, mixing references, tracks, samples and field recordings. Over the course of the evening, residents of Stoke are invited to make song requests responding to themes from Public - You & Me such as connectivity, solidarity and the space between us. These tracks will form the base of the mix - A Soundtrack for Stoke - that will be collectively listened to in the Gallery.
Saturday 22 June
11am-3pm<
Ed Pickstone Workshop with Rebecca Davies
ED PICKSTONE focuses on the material nature of print and is well-versed in letterpress technology. Based in Glasgow, Edwin's work spans academic, artistic and design worlds, and he has a particular interest in the history of typography, graphic design, the nature of print and the book. He is Lecturer in Typography Technician and Designer in Residence at The Glasgow School of Art, where he cares for the school’s collection of letterpress printing equipment.
Edwin is working with Rebecca Davies to activate the AirSpace Print Room and its Adana Presses. This workshop will end with an artist talk.
3.30-4.15pm<
Ed Pickstone Talk
Edwin Pickstone focuses on the material nature of print and is well-versed in letterpress technology. Following his workshop with Rebecca Davies, Edwin will speak about his practice and show examples of recent projects created in Glasgow and further afield. A short Q&A session with Rebecca will conclude the talk.
WEEK FOUR
Tuesday 25 - Friday 28 June,
11am-5pm
Free Drop-In
Open to All
The Gallery will be open all day with a free library and seated area, and a chance to talk to Rebecca Davies and Selina Oakes about what you'd like to see happen in a City's Art Gallery
<
Wednesday 26 June,
1pm-4pm
Rose Nordin Workshop - 2 Days
ROSE NORDIN is a graphic designer with an interest in self-publishing and DIY culture. She is one third of OOMK (One of my Kind) art publishing collective which focuses on supporting self-publishing to enable activism, conversation and education. Rose is co-founder of Rabbits Road Press, a community studio space and Risograph printing press in Newham, and is artist in residence at Somerset House Studios, London.
For this programme, Rose will be leading a two-day workshop which experiments with notions of the public, the private, the visible and the permeable. She will introduce participants to the zine-making process in a creative and collaborative way – the outcome being a series of short zines which reflect the conversations fostered in the space.
6pm-8pm
TALK: Rose Nordin and Kerry Campbell
ROSE NORDIN from OOMK and KERRY CAMPBELL, Artistic Director at Mansions of the Future, will speak about representation: Rose will be reflecting on representation in her graphic design practice and Kerry will be focusing on representation in programming.
Thursday 27 June
11am-4pm
Rose Nordin Workshop
2nd Day of 2 day workshop
Friday 28 June
6pm-9pm
Closing Party with Figs in Wigs
An extravaganza! With live, immersive performances from members of FIGS IN WIGS, accompanied by rhythms and beats from DJ Calum Murphy. Figs in Wigs exist in the nooks and crannies of live art, theatre, comedy and cabaret. 'Aficionados of deadpan dance routines, we have been throwing up shapes ever since we first discovered we had limbs'. Promising to dazzle, raise eyebrows and incite belly laughs. Dance the night away and celebrate with us - the end of our four week programme and the beginning of our long term, fresh public programme.
This project is delivered with funding support from Arts Council England
THE ARTISTS
Plane Structure's MATT FOSTER is a fabricator and installer of art, display furniture and bespoke joinery. Matt founded Plane Structure in 2011 to fulfill a need for skilled art fabricators in Birmingham. Since then, the company has grown to deliver specialist carpentry and joinery as well as gallery installation for arts organisations, architects and creative businesses.
Matt has been commissioned to design a collection of furniture and surface-tops for AirSpace Gallery: seating, shelving, table-tops and screens will be realised through a co-build week, where visitors will be invited to join in with fabrication and assemblage processes. This commission will be stored at the Gallery for future use.
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Rose Nordin is a graphic designer with an interest in self-publishing and DIY culture. She is one third of =OOMK (One of my Kind) art publishing collective which focuses on supporting self-publishing to enable activism, conversation and education. Rose is co-founder of Rabbits Road Press, a community studio space and Risograph printing press in Newham, and is artist in residence at Somerset House Studios, London.
For this programme, Rose will be leading a two-day workshop which experiments with notions of the public, the private, the visible and the permeable. She will introduce participants to the zine-making process in a creative and collaborative way – the outcome being a series of short zines which reflect the conversations fostered in the space.
----
Artist and designer Kate Owens generates printed and appliquéd motifs through the unlikely channels of performance and participatory workshops. She cultivates methods of doing two things at once, partly as an economical way to live, but also as a technique to stimulate creative thinking. Kate takes a side-step from traditional block printing in her workshop, Block Print On Fabric (and dance if you want to), by exchanging the print block for a wooden sandal. Participants are invited to design their print-block footwear and to use their weight to transfer ink – walking or dancing a design across the fabric. The results of this one-day workshop will inform Kate's creation of soft-furnishings for the space. Materials provided, pre-booking required.
Figs in Wigs (Rachel Gammon, Suzanna Hurst, Sarah Moore, Rachel Porter and Alice Roots) exist in the nooks and crannies of live art, theatre, comedy and cabaret. “Aficionados of deadpan dance routines, we have been throwing up shapes ever since we first discovered we had limbs (back in 2010). Eight years on and we've finally mastered the art of dancing like nobody's watching too closely.”
We are excited to welcome Figs In Wigs to Stoke-on-Trent for our closing party – who we are sure will dazzle, raise eyebrows and incite belly laughs in their immersive performance.
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Edwin Pickstone focuses on the material nature of print and is well-versed in letterpress technology. Based in Glasgow, Edwin's work spans academic, artistic and design worlds, and he has a particular interest in the history of typography, graphic design, the nature of print and the book. He is Lecturer in Typography Technician and Designer in Residence at The Glasgow School of Art, where he cares for the school’s collection of letterpress printing equipment.
Edwin is working with Rebecca Davies to activate the AirSpace Print Room and its Adana Presses. This workshop will end with an artist talk. Pre-booking required.
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Artist and researcher Phoebe Davies investigates how people perceive their social framework, often working with and in response to individuals and communities, generating work through collaboration, collective action and DIT (Do It Together) strategies. Her outcomes are often project dependent and have included live performances, video, audio, print works and constructed social spaces.
Phoebe is a founding member of Synaptic Island – a womxn and non-binary DJ collective that hosts bi-monthly listening sessions and regular open deck workshops at Corsica Studios in London. Synaptic Island formed in 2017 following the Women’s Beat League Study Week at Wysing Arts Centre, they aim to create a space that enables peer-to-peer learning and access to resources.
Building on her research with Synaptic Island, she will collaborate with AirSpace to devise a live mix tailored for the gallery, mixing references, tracks, samples and field recordings - A Soundtrack for Stoke. Over the course of the evening residents of Stoke are invited to make song requests responding to themes from Public : You & Me - connectivity, solidarity and the space between us. These tracks will form the base of the mix that will be collectively listened to in the gallery.
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work-form is a graphic design studio based in London run by Charlie Abbott, Jake Hopwood and Alex Hough. The studio designs visual identities, exhibitions, typefaces, publications and websites for a variety of different organisations. These range from individuals, community groups and independent businesses to cultural institutions and international brands. work-form takes an open, collaborative approach to every project, informed by detailed research and development.
The studio is particularly interested in exploring methods of production that disrupt the traditional client-designer relationship, and often seeks new ways of collaborating that include a range of audiences and stakeholders in each part of the design process. Education is a central part of our studio practice – the studio members currently lead the 1st year of BA (Hons) Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, and run projects and workshops at a range of universities and institutions.
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Kerry Campbell is a freelance curator and producer. Beginning her curatorial practice in her hometown of Luton under the guise of TMT Projects, Campbell’s work is informed by her interests in regional curating, diversifying arts engagement and understanding the complex relationship between social class and barriers to arts engagement and representation. She is currently the Artistic Director at Mansions of the Future – an Ambitions for Excellence funded project in Lincoln, which privileges inherently social, site-specific, and collaborative ways of working.
