HALFWAY TO RUSSIA AND OTHER HORIZONS
Gocart Gallery @ Harrington Mill Studios
The concept of the Swedish leg of the exchange between Gotland, Sweden and Nottingham, UK took shape from the specific architectural ‘L – shape of the Harrington Mill exhibition space, an old industrial complex transformed into artists studios. Also included in the genesis of the idea were three instructions to make it easier to involve members of the GoCart Gallery Association, based on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. Firstly each artist was asked to interpret a theme of ‘the Sea’. Secondly artworks should stay away from the white walls and be hung from the ceiling to create a narrative vision of being in, or under, water level. The third resulted from the logistics – as there is no external funding for the exchange all works needed to be produced with lightweight materials for easy transportation. Within these restrictions around thirty artists, young and old and from different artistic styles and expressions, agreed to unite in a single visual concept and have produced specific works to form a collective installation for
the first time in the history of the Association.
The Sea has often inspired fairy tales and myths of hidden secrets and mysteries that dwell in the depths. Water and other words related to the Sea have more disparate interpretations today than ever before. Way back into history fishermen and salesmen fought over the biggest catches of Cod. Nowadays the word Tsunami has a huge impact on people. Gotland was raised up as a coral reef, out of a warm tropical sea, over four million years ago. We realize that no human has ever seen a tsunami in the Baltic Sea despite living on the edgy former borderline between the two socio-economic systems of the East and West. The island was historically heavily armed and is still, today, pierced with abandoned bunkers and tunnels. Our land and beliefs had to be defended against the Red Flag of the Communists.
On the other hand, what links the island together with the Scandinavian sub-continent are the huge ferries that fill the gap of the missing motorway crossing. Sometimes bad weather stops journeys, and the inhabitants, like Robinson Crusoe, have to maintain their serenity and remain on the island. The waters have been polluted with fertilizers and nitrogen from Swedish agriculture. Now another threat is coming from the former East. Dead animal bodies are leaching their flesh and even their souls into the rivers and watercourses that, in the end, reach open seas. The Baltic Sea is very nearly a dead sea half suffocated by algae.
The exhibition ‘Halfway To Russia And Other Eastbound Horizons’ is part of the newly started Lifeboat project of the GoCart Gallery (the Contemporary Art Gallery of Gotland). The first group show as part of this project took place at the international artist-run Supermarket Art Fair in the Kulturhuset in Stockholm in February this year. The Lifeboat project defines itself as already described and additionally views Art today as both witness to, and scientific proof helping people combat the diseases of contemporary society. It sees Art as a lifeboat in the global economic and cultural community.
The initial contacts for the exchange took place during the previous year’s Supermarket Art Fair in February 2010. By coincidence, members from both organizations met and through discussion arrived at this collaborative exchange that we are very pleased to see taking place this summer. Swedish artists are coming to Nottingham in June and Harrington Mill artists visit Gotland, Sweden in August.
Harrington Mill Studios @ Gocart Gallery
Fifty years ago Ingmar Bergman filmed on the island of Faro to the north of Gotland and created the first in a trilogy of masterpieces. Devoid of the post modern irony that nowadays plagues virtually all creative acts his profoundly moving tale of relationships and art's doubt in the face of sickness betokens a lost innocence for all artists. But many artists cling to a system of belief in the power of the object and potency of the image, and, despite the incessant blandishments of the media, an audience is equally as enraptured by such objects. What more is required by way of explication for the collection of artworks assembled here?
Relationships are at the heart of 'Through A Glass Lightly' and a set of quite arbitrary connections group together these artists. And yet, despite these random associations, some themes and directions may be glimpsed through the glass. For some this is a traditional and recognizable activity. For others Drawing, not so much as a physical act, but more a conceptual framework or a manner for creative procedure is something that couples a video work by Robert Luzar with a stitched photograph from Flore Gardner. So this became a guiding principle behind selection and by a happy coincidence the drawn object is mostly a portable one, another benefit when artworks are making their way across seas and sub continent.
And in the current social climate in the UK where deception and abuse of power is so highlighted through the scandal that has engulfed media tycoons, politicians and police what more potent symbol is there than doubt? We doubt our own systems and beliefs so much that we are forced to withdraw into our innermost creative gestures where, at the very least, uncertainty is simply a purely private concern unless we choose to share with others. And some of the work in this exhibition surely hints at some personal demons, private passions and terrifying presences.
And what is the final piece of this ramshackle creative construction? The notion of the human presence in the land, for Harrington Mills is landlocked - unlike Gotland where the sea is virtually ever present - and where its presence is a touchstone for its inhabitants. Indeed the Harrington Mills studios are pretty much as far from the coast as it is possible to be on our island. It is the land of medieval legend, of Robin Hood and Ivanhoe, of the forests of 'merrie England' and yet in the multicultural, trans-migratory and cosmopolitan nation that now makes up the UK there is doubt aplenty in its history, culture and identity.
In creating this show we have selected work from both HMS residents and guest artists who have featured in our exhibition programme. By this invitation we bring yet more artists to the party extending and developing the network of like-minded creatives. It provides another loose theme, of rhizomatic connectivity across creative ideas and physical distances.
Through A Glass Lightly hopes to illuminate some of those themes raised in this text. It forms the concluding part of the exchange between Harrington Mill Studios and the GoCart Gallery Association in Visby, Gotland. The realisation of this exchange, initiated through discussion at Supermarket Art Fair in Stockholm in 2010 is completed now but the dialogue and friendships forged go forward into the future.
David Manley
July 2011
Harrington Mill Studios