Peering Sideways

Three group shows by artists from London, Manchester and members of the Art House in Wakefield

10 September – 10 December 2011

In a new exhibition and programme of events at PSL, this ambitious project brings together artists’ groups from around the UK (London, Manchester, Wakefield) under the title Peering Sideways. Perhaps this suggests looking askance, or taking a fresh look, at something familiar. It also hints at the artist-peers taking part in the show, which aims to examine the idea of collectivity, whether through a collaborative practice, the formation of artists’ groups, affiliation through studio membership or simply choosing peers to present their work alongside in a group format.

The project also aims to expand the networks of the participating artists and groups, sparking new relationships and collaborations. The project comprises three separate group shows running concurrently, with some of the work developing in the space over the course of the project. The projects are ‘Other People’s Problems’, ‘Sorry For The Inconvenience’ and ‘Welcome to the Real World’.

Peering Sideways is kindly supported by The Works Recruitment, a specialist recruitment agency founded in 1991 with offices across the North - www.theworksrec.co.uk

PSL is supported by Arts Council England and Leeds City Council.

>> More images on Flickr

Events

A full programme of events will accompany the project including a performance, talk and screening weekend in November - date TBA soon!

Publication

Each group from Peering Sideways will be publishing a 12 page colour newspaper consecutively throughout the project, starting with Other People's Problems.

Each edition will be on sale at PSL for £3

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Other People's Problems Sophie Carapetian, Tom Crawford, Frauke Dannert, Ross Downes, Patrick Goddard, J L Murthaugh, Megan Rooney, Rehana Zaman Featuring peers from the MA course at Goldsmiths, University of London, this show brings together eight artists whose foundation for producing work is conceptual criticality and a shared concern for basing their work within a socio-political field of enquiry. Art, here, is a tool with which to take responsibility, an idea that is perhaps often shied away from.
About OPP Artists - Sophie Carapetian bases her work within a socio-political field of enquiry. Using discursive principles we find art being used as a tool with which to take responsibility.
Tom Crawford's work stems from a preoccupation with the politics of the urban environment. He often focusses his attention on the financial and governmental aspects of cultural development within the UK and its relationship to class and equality.
Frauke Dannert's floor based carpet installations take in the tropes of modernism whilst using the existing features or the structure they occupy to produce graphical interventions that make symbolic suggestions about negotiating that space.
Ross Downes' work uses a flippant institutional critique approach to dealing with socio-political concerns whether it be the contradictions inherent with the British cultural sector or issues of a wider political concern.
Patrick Goddard's video works utilise a minimal screen aesthetic to focus the viewer on the text and audio aspects. The absurd nature of the narratives usually illuminate upon banal everyday incidents.
J L Murtaugh has developed a new site-specific work analyzing the regeneration of Leeds, considering PSL's location in relation to the city's past and present socio-economic history.
Megan Rooney's film 'Rat boy' depicts a chance occurrence captured voyeuristically from a balcony over-looking an alleyway in East London. A young boy, immersed in fascination, amuses himself by using a pole to beat and move a puddle soaked dead rat.
Rehana Zaman examines the possibilities for agency within social structures; inventing fictions, isolating historical moments and drawing on personal accounts to convey how a set of relations might be narrated and embodied. Works may appear as monologues, diagrams, texts or videos but generally refer back to a notion of performance.

---------------------------------------- Sorry For The Inconvenience Paul Cordwell, Dave Griffiths, Jessica Longmore, Lee Machell, Dan Mort, Untitled Gallery/Katie Rutherford Five artists based at or affiliated with Manchester’s Rogue Artists’ Studios come together to show sculpture, video and installation. Although not working to a group manifesto, their practices display intrinsic commonalities. Lee Machell employs a variety of commonplace objects, such as matches, tools and stationery, within a practice that incorporates sculpture, installation and drawing. Jessica Longmore takes up residence in other artists’s spaces, making work with the found objects and materials their studios contain. And building on some of the artist’s affiliation with Manchester’s Untitled Gallery, curator Katie Rutherford will be developing projects throughout the exhibition in a scaled down facsimile space at PSL.
About SFTI* Artists* - Paul Cordwell co-opts the subtle vagaries of physical substance into a central role in sculptural presentations of mass-produced objects and fabricated materials behaving inappropriately. Characterised by playfulness, Cordwell’s quirky sculptural pieces allow their obdurate materiality to become a factor in theatrical representations of physical laws.
Dave Griffiths works with video, sculpture, animation and print. Recent work dwells on the cinematic, attempting to activate the critical potential of moving images for narrative and spatial recombination, or as channels of cultural memory.
Jessica Longmore's work 'Objects for a Studio' involves a series of one day residencies in other artists’ studios. The artist arrives at each studio equipped with only a camera in order to create work within another artist’s space, using only the objects she encounters there. Each residency results in the documentation of a single piece of work in the form of a photograph.
Lee Machell employs a variety of commonplace objects within a practice that incorporates sculpture, installation and drawing. Overlooked banal materials, such as matches, tools and stationery provide the basis for his work and the economical construction of each piece mirrors the simplicity of its components.
Dan Mort’s sculptural works attempt to seduce and infuriate. Imbued with conflicting narratives, Mort’s works oscillate with multiple meanings inherent in their mass-produced and hand-crafted components. Appropriating objects amassed over time, Mort’s works are Contemporary Art’s equivalent of Frankenstein’s monster through the act of conjoining disparate objects to create uncanny new works.
Untitled Gallery is a contemporary art gallery that occupies an intimate room in the basement of the Friends’ Meeting House in Manchester city centre. Building on SFTI artist’s affiliation with the gallery, curator Katie Rutherford will be developing projects throughout the exhibition in a scaled down facsimile space at PSL.

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Welcome To The Real World Ben Cove, Gill Greenhough, Victoria Lucas, Marion Michell, Aidan Moesby, Lois Palframan Removed from the virtual plane from which they were brought together, six artists based in geographical locations as far reaching as London and Newcastle exhibit together for the first time as members of The Art House.  These individuals have been united as part of a national network of people, through their commitment to the same principles laid out by the charitable organization. Autonomous motivations and remote geographical locations are reflected in these six varied art practices, however through the physicality of the gallery space the works presented ultimately form associations as part of a network of ideas.  The Art House is a national support network for artists of all ages, backgrounds and abilities, brought together and supported appropriately as individuals. In the act of bringing some of these individuals together, we question how networks shape our perception of the real world, of ourselves, and of each other.
About WTTRW Artists - Ben Cove is interested in the manner in which objects and images are assigned cultural and intellectual weight or allocated mystical or spiritual significance. The work is characterised by an exploration between object and image, both formally and conceptually.
Gill Greenhough expresses our natural resistance to inherent vulnerability, through the use of materials such as glass, which becomes a representation of the body as a vessel. A translucent material that evokes the unseen and unacknowledged whilst knowingly fragile and inherently dangerous, the works solidity is betrayed by the fragility and precarious nature of the material.
Victoria Lucas' practice considers traces of the past through the exploration of the present. In current works insects, animals, places, sentiments and people are depicted as a way to retell histories, stories and events; evoking an understanding of human emotion and mortality.
Marion Michell is looking for ways of considering difference and how it might be experienced. Most of her art touches on childhood, on growing up and its anxieties. It is as much an exploration of memory as of physical experience. Not necessarily concrete memories, more moods and atmospheres, interwoven with elements from myths and fairy tales.
Aidan Moesby focuses on memory and identity both from a cultural and personal viewpoint in his text based works, fascinated by how we communicate and connect. His work is further informed through the imagery and rituals we use to create and make sense of the everyday.
Lois Palframan documents colours, moments, experiences and thoughts encountered, through the act of drawing.