Grille (solo exhibition), Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh, 5th - 21st April, 2019
Grille was an exhibition of new, site-specific work. The exhibition continued with research focused on the visual forms of barrier materials and the repeated patterns / arrangements which are associated with them. Specifically, the exhibition focused on the windows of the gallery space which were each fitted with security grilles, barriers or bars. Drawing together a range of ways of working, encompassing representational painting techniques, through abstract painting processes and expansive and ambitious expanded field works, Grille showcased a personal process of 'spatialising’ the physical space of the gallery itself. By employing activities of making and re-making individual works, particularly through the repetition of painterly gestures, the aesthetic forms of the characteristic window grilles, bars and barriers were gradually distilled. Through this, these often unnoticed, yet important, functional elements of the Patriothall Gallery became the focus of the exhibition itself.
Grille was an exhibition which resulted from an international Open Call run by the Patriothall Gallery Committee in 2018. My work was selected at the proposal stage, when I made a case for developing a show based upon the form of the gallery space itself, which seemed fitting, given that it was the 30 year anniversary of the establishment of the gallery itself.
Patriothall Website:
The Patriothall Gallery is an artist-led initiative in the heart of Edinburgh, which aims to provide professional exhibition opportunities for artists. Artists from all over the world, national and local exhibit at the gallery, showing work in media ranging from painting, drawing to sculpture, installation, video and new media.
Created in 1988 when WASPS converted an old Co-op bakery into a studio complex, the ground floor area was left to be a gallery/project space managed by the artists in the building.
In 2004 the artists in the building won a campaign to save the building from developers. In the main due to a grant from the City of Edinburgh Council, the future of the building is now secure and a committee of volunteer artists and the gallery coordinator work together on developing the gallery space and exhibition programme.
