Out of Place

23 Jan – 3 Feb 2019

Artist’s Talk Sat 2 Feb 2.30pm

Participating Artists: Simon Darbey, Hanna ten Doornkaat, Judith North, Kate Proudman, Robinson & McMahon, Paul Smith and Charmaine Stimson.

Eight artists each make work as a direct response to the space at One Paved Court, whether to its location, its history, its current role or to the fabric of the building itself.

Number 1 Paved Court has had a varied past, having served as home to a surgical appliance manufacturer, a bird shop and as the backdrop to TV and film. In 2017 this early Georgian building underwent a major renovation and began its newest incarnation as a contemporary art gallery, One Paved Court. Retaining a strong character of its own, the building never fails to provoke a reaction from both visitors and artists alike.

Simon Darbey studied Fine Art at Chelsea. In his work, he combines text and everyday objects – paper bags, envelopes, wallpaper etc. – to create work that is both art and not art at the same time. During the show he will be producing ‘site-specific’ wallpaper by making a rubbing of one entire wall of the gallery, simultaneously revealing and concealing the wall surface beneath. The absurdity of the project is heightened by the use of graphite pencil for the task. Visitors are invited to take part in the process.

Hanna ten Doornkaat often uses drawings as a starting point for her 3-D pieces and has made a new 14 -part installation for the show, for one of the corner spaces in the upstairs gallery. The lines in the works reference space, perspective and 1 Paved Court, the building site.

Judith North’s paintings often explore interior and exterior spaces. These spaces, rooted in the real world, are constructed from observation and memory. For ‘Out of Place’ she presents a series of atmospheric paintings exploring the geometry and rhythm within the building.

In ‘Out of Place’, Kate Proudman focuses on the process of change the building has undergone, and how this is articulated through what has been concealed and revealed. She draws our attention to the way an architect can inform our understanding of the history of a building, and with these works specifically the back archway.

Robinson & McMahon is a collaboration of two artists with completely different painting methods who work on the same canvas. Finding a resolution to the arguments and discussions along the way, a finished work exists as a result of all marks made by both artists, whether they are still seen, have been obliterated or have just left a trace.

The paintings in ‘Out of Place’ have evolved like One Paved Court has; they were once other paintings, disliked and abandoned, but now renovated, rubbed back revealing old layers, forgotten histories, remembered colours and then new layers and marks added to hold up the structure. Newly rescued, for now.

Paul Smith is based in south-west London. After specializing in photography at UCA, he turned to studio practice as a painter in 2009. His current body of work, ‘Under Cultivation’, builds on his documentary training in a series that explores the repurposing of man-made materials in allotments and edgelands.  For ‘Out of Place’  Paul Smith has been inspired by found documents and images to produce collages and paintings which offer a new Paved Court narrative via Watteau, Dickens and local records.

Charmaine Stimson uses a range of media, with a particular emphasis on drawing. She has recently gone back to basics and is currently exploring the quality of the drawn line. Her work here takes inspiration from some of the processes involved in the renovation of the building; layers are built up gradually, areas are polished, sections are peeled back and features reintroduced.

Judith North and Charmaine Stimson, 2 of the co-founders of One Paved Court, have collaborated to produce ‘Inside the White Cube’ a series exploring the role of the gallery as a neutral backdrop. The images, created from various internal walls of the building, are part of the artists’ investigation into whether the character of One Paved Court can ever allow the visitor to view artwork free of context.