Pre-sliced Orange Segments opened last night which was excellent! Really busy, great conversations with loads of new and old people. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves, particularly when Campbell did his performance out on the street. Curating an exhibition is a lot of work because if the art doesn’t already exist, you end up being in a constant dialogue with the artists, discussing what would work with the space, how to take what they’ve done into a gallery context etc. This isn’t a negative by any means but it’s definitely something hard to wrap your head around if it’s not something you’re familiar with. The final press release is below.
Pre-sliced Orange Segments
PV 5th October
5th October - 26th October
Alexander Glass, Anaïs Comer, Billy Sassi and William Dalton, Campbell Mcconnell, Elliot Hewgill, Johanna Bolton, Owen Oppenheimer, Nina Coulson, Sid and Jim, Sophie Popper, Tonya McMullan
Curated by Sid and Jim
Artists and curators Sid and Jim present an exhibition at Light Eye Mind where the gallery acts a changing room; the preparatory and transitory space where conversations happen before the final event. This is where teamwork is visible and perhaps when it is most effective. Moving forward with the idea of teamwork and the space of the Footballer’s (or general sportsperson’s) dressing room, they have combined the idea of gallery and changing room, considered what these sorts of spaces represent and attempted to dissolve the constrictive joints to produce a new intermediate zone.
For many, sports are a catalyst for community and for others they represent a vehicle for upward mobility. The glamour of the modern professional athlete is attractive for the aspiring sportsperson, and the ritual of competition as well as the pilgrimages fans often undertake liken the ceremony of sporting events to that of a religious experience. Similarly, the locker room is seen as sanctum, a sacred place. There, the players shed their everyday clothing and change in to the uniforms that designate their specific roles. It is here where their minds focus forward onto the challenges ahead.
Pre-sliced Orange Segments takes its name from the orange slices offered at halftime during grassroots football games whilst also referring to co-operative perceptions; an isolated orange segment is not an orange, but it does contribute to one, creating a whole new entity which is “other than the sum of its parts”, Kurt Koffka, Gestalt psychologist. This collective activity of participating can be seen in sports teams and is not dissimilar from group art shows, such as this one. Art and Sport, Art fans and Sports Fans. While the two groups don’t need to be pushed together it’s interesting to consider the similarities and differences; how much of the mind set of one party falls into the same basket as the other.
Special thanks to Daniel Jeronymides-Norie and Tom Spicer.
Light Eye Mind, 176 Blackstock Road, London, N5 1HA
www.lighteyemind.com
Haven’t managed to scrape out any time to look at art in ages but now that this is complete that will change!