CONNECTED BY NY SPACE by James Hutchinson

CONNECTED BY

NY SPACE

Ny Space was a project space located in China Town, in the heart of Manchester city centre. Ny curated residencies and a gallery programme aimed at giving an international context to the work of early to mid-career artists based in Manchester. The space was situated at street level to raise the visibility of grassroots contemporary art in the city. The space that housed Ny Space is now a cafĂŠ. Ny Space was delivered with the support of East Street Arts, Arts Council England and Bruntwood.

INDEX

Introduction

Migrant Objects Manchester, UK Bilbao, Spain Featured artists

3D Glitch

Sunderland, UK Manchester, UK Rijeka, Croatia

Blue that binds

By Distance, Manchester, UK Op Afstand, Rotterdam, Netherlands Nearer, Manchester, UK Nearest, Rotterdam, Netherlands Featured artists

Colophon

6 8

INTRODUCTION Although initially conceived solely as artists’ studios, the nature of the space itself soon led Ny Space founders Janine Goldsworthy and Michael Branthwaite to develop an exhibitions programme. The neat and neutral architecture of office space is easily repurposed as a white cube, while the glass frontage opens the space up to the public, as such, an ideal space for display, even if this display occasionally brings about confused looks from passers-by. The fact that there is regular foot traffic outside Ny Space is another of its advantages, its city-centre location making the space literally more accessible than much of Manchester’s other artist-led activity, an important factor if an audience outside of the dedicated contemporary art-scene is to be reached. In spite of this, Ny Space experiences the same tenuous life as many other artistled spaces, the price of free and convenient space is the lingering threat that it could end at any moment if a more profitable purpose for the site is found. Permanence is an illusion when working at this level, as the nearby Rogue Studios found out, any perceived significance is meaningless to property developers.

connecting the local to the international with ongoing projects that link local artists to their European peers in a programme of ongoing cultural exchange. As such, Ny Space provides both familiarity, with well-known local names regularly featuring alongside founders Goldsworthy and Branthwaite, and the brand new, showing international artists who would not find themselves in Manchester in any other context. The regular presence of Goldsworthy and Branthwaite within the exhibitions programme is a reminder that they are artists first and curators second. However, by developing Ny Space they have developed cultural collateral greater than what they can achieve simply through their art practices, something to offer in exchange to create reciprocal opportunities with international artists and galleries.

that is why Ny Space’s work with galleries around Europe is so important, by taking artists from Manchester and the north of the UK and exposing them to new audiences, creating the potential for further opportunities. Outside of London, exhibiting locally will only ever be of limited benefit; once the local audience is familiar with who you are and what you do you will quickly exhaust the opportunities available.

Thus far, Ny Space have collaborated with galleries in Bilbao, Rotterdam and more for projects such as Migrant Objects and By Distance/Op Afstand, allowing Manchesterbased artists the opportunity to exhibit in both cities and vice versa. The aim of these projects is not just to create one-off exhibitions, but to develop long-term ongoing relationships, for example, By Distance/Op Afstand, which has thus far consisted Ny Space’s international focus of exhibitions at Ny Space, provides key opportunities for as well as Nachtsmid and Manchester’s emerging/mid- Mirta Demare in Rotterdam, career artists. When working Netherlands. independently in any area, it is important to build new The idea of relationshiprelationships and expose your building is where Ny Space work to new audiences in order differs from typical galleries. A to create further opportunities one-off exhibition – especially for yourself. It is essentially a with the typically low budget and The Ny Space programme question of visibility, are people brief running time associated fits interestingly within aware that you exist? Work that with artist-led spaces and Manchester’s art scene; it faces exists in a vacuum is work that smaller galleries – is of limited both inward and outward, will never lead to anything, and significance, a cultural pit-stop

generating limited exposure. However, moving beyond the one-off exhibition and towards ongoing partnerships creates the potential for something more significant. By connecting people and places on a more long-term basis, such as the continuing relationship with Rotterdam, there is not only greater exposure to the participating artists, but the possibility for greater connection, to form an understanding of new places and people and generate new ideas.

at odds with the nature of residencies, but readily available internet resources allow for the possibility of creative exchange without the need for physical travel. The project connects the physical to the digital, with the results being present within the gallery space, but the process enabled through a shared blog, group crits on Skype, and other resources. At other times, Ny Space have played with the idea of an artist’s presence within a space, as in ‘By Distance/Op Afstand’, where they screened a live stream from a simultaneous opening By Distance/Op Afstand happening in Rotterdam demonstrates one of Ny Space’s key aims, to enable Thus, with an innovative international exchange at eye towards keeping things as small a cost as possible. necessarily cheap, Ny Space The project’s core concept of find themselves providing a residency ‘by distance’ seems focal point between the local 7

and the global. As art funding is in increasingly short supply and the UK moves towards Brexit and away from the ease of cheap European travel that has been readily available, Ny Space’s investigation into cheap, digital modes of international exchange will become increasingly relevant. by Tom Emery

MIGRANT OBJECTS BILBAO a residency

Spring is the second residency and exhibition of a creative dialogue between Manchester, UK and Bilbao, Basque Country. The first project consisted of a residency in Ny Space Manchester with the artists Hilary Jack and Hondartza Fraga, culminating in an exhibition including the artists of Bilbao, Zuhar Iruretagoiena and Jorge Nuñez. This second project showed the work by Michael Branthwaite, Janine Goldsworthy, Saray Pérez, Iñigo Garatu and Hilary Jack at Poca Gallery in Bilbao. As you enter the Poca Gallery there are some common migrant elements, objects and materials like stone, paper, glass and ceramics, which speak about a landscape where the boundaries between time and space are blurred. Nowadays displacements could be geographical, imaginary or those arising from the consumption of information. The journey of any one individual is endowed with different meanings and intentions; traveller, explorer, adventurer, tourist... and the artist can work from any of these perspectives. According to Levi Strauss, a trip is unrolled simultaneously in space, time and the social hierarchy. We attend to a spatialisation of time; time becomes one of the coordinates of space and its properties are exchanged. The proposal of the exhibition leads

us to the idea of movement, borders and transference where objects or concepts can travel through space and time. Today everything is in a permanent state of impermanence without really knowing the direction and this transient state terrifies us. The work of the participating artists is almost poetic with a continuous creation of new ideas that open to a new place, for a new time. Michael Branthwaite tells us that objects do not exist only when there is a physical presence but also when we describe or talk about them from memory. Michael creates his work from a dialogue between the real and the re-created, he uses speculative narratives about the past that speak about the future, leaving a space for questions around the nature of objects. Michael Branthwaite, creates hybrid structures between real and figurative through photogrammetry and 3D printing.

Janine Goldsworthy performs an analysis of time. In her work the lightness of the paper contrasts with the weight of the stone, the paper seems to emerge from the rock. The rock is the origin and on the paper appears gemstone explosionss are placed like delicate embroidery. This installation is formed of multiple elements, there is a pendulum hanging from a torn paper in an orderly way. The pendulum is attached to the paper and is reflected in a mirror on the ground, where we can also see our personal reflection. The concern with time is present in many of her works; in the series of Killing Time she talks about the importance of boredom or timeout, the installation includes projections of videogame explosions, a common respite activity.

Iñigo Garatu presents the industrial landscape as a common place from which to access his creative process. The artist considers himself as a manufacturer of reflections, creating pieces that he calls spores. His landscapes are The artist Hilary Jack explores framed in wooden boxes; the impact of human activities memories and simple on our planet, working through geometries are folded and a research led process. She contained. He creates a new creates imaginary worlds horizon in the exhibition, space, that transport you, miniature which the artist understands as compositions through the use a factory, and where the public of postcards, rocks on a mirror is the worker. and small colored stones. The tiny light in the work reveals a possible path to follow.

Saray Pérez creates an orchard or Pomario, using a variety of doorknobs created in ceramics. These arise from conversations she had with people sharing their feelings and she creates a doorknob reflecting their moods. She constructs new sensorial landscape where she proposes imaginary doors that cannot be opened. In a Europe where notions of migration are a contemporary issue with several open discussions about limits and boundaries, the artists here create new relationships from this context, and raise new forms of making, collaboration and exhibiting. The works of art reveal journeys and become a catalogue of these Migrant Objects. Working globally

involves an understanding of a complex web of tensions that address concepts such as hybridisation, marginalisation, borders and peripheries. Inseparable terms related to movement that affect to how symbolic, immaterial or cognitive capitals circulate nowadays. The Spanish artist Eulalia Valldosera has likewise worked with the notion of Migrant Objects where she interviewed immigrants learning of their various household objects and referring to the symbolic capital of the object. The idea of liquid modernity defined by Zygmunt Bauman suggests that modernity no longer sets goals or confers the quality of permanence but rather promotes the state 9

of transience. Time flows, but not heading towards any destination. We flow, but the question is: Where do we go? Directed towards Migrant objects? by Laura Díez García

HILARY JACK

HONDARTZA FRAGA

JORGE NÚÑEZ

ZUHAR IRURETAGOIENA

JANINE GOLDSWORTHY

IÃ‘IGO GARATU

MICHAEL BRANTHWAITE

SARAY PEREZ

3D GLITCH In an age obsessed with digital perfection it seems appropriate to make an exhibition, which explores the anti-perfect. Looking at the difference between idea and execution and the philosophical glitch between the everyday and the imagination. 3dglitch explores the everyday altered, through chance, manipulation, data bending, error, accident, abstraction, distortion, scale, space, speed, humour sadness, space, sound and the uncanny. In a way 3d glitch evolved over a long time frame and a shorter one. The long could be said to be from the first 3d print I made for the Calm project in 1996/7. The Calm Project was organized by the Universities of Warwickshire and Coventry and linked artists and engineers in the production of 3d Prints . My Stereolithographic print for Calm was called Berlin London and consisted of a digital amalgamation of the two cities, inspired by internet communication potential / hyperbole. This project introduced me to technological and artistic collaboration and set me on the way to meet many of the artists involved in 3D Glitch .

Through The Calm Project and subsequent exhibition at ISEA 98 I Met Professor Keith Brown and through Keith, The Organization Ars Mathmatica. and its president, Christian Lavigne with whom I have worked with in many of its events over the years . In 1992, Christian Lavigne founded with Alexandre Vitkine the international artistic group “Ars Mathematica”, for promotion of new technologies in sculpture, and realized “The First World Wide Exhibition of Numerical Sculpture” (Paris, 1993). This event becomes a network of simultaneous and interactive exhibition: INTERSCULPT, and is organized each 2 years in partnership with the Computer and Sculpture Forum (USA) since 95, FasT-UK (GB) since 97, DAAP Zone (UP in Cincinnati, USA) since 97, Prism lab in AZU (USA) since 99, U. of HongKong since 99, U. of Wanganui ( NZ) since 2001, and IIT of Kanpur (India) since 2003. See: http:// www.intersculpt.org

files electronically to The University of Sunderland where with Graham Mitchinson & Colin Rennie in the Fine art and Glass departments we printed the majority of 3dworks for the show. The 3D Glitch Exhibition also draws on works by Staff and Student alumni from The University of Sunderland Fine art department alongside other English artists whose work was deemed appropriate. 3D Glitch was also influenced by ; my participation ‘All Glitched up’ Tate Britain London in 2014, my fascination with technological experimentation in relation to fine art, by notions of ‘The Wrong’ and years of experience of artist led collaborative projects and exhibitions.

3D Glitch has been exhibited in Priestman Gallery, Sunderland, Ny Space, Manchester, The Arts Centre Washington and Thanks to DR Dominic Smith and Support from the Research Department Of the University of Sunderland to Drugo More The shorter evolution of Rijeka Croatia in January 2017. 3d Glitch came about from attending and participating in Each iteration of the exhibition The Brown Symposium and has had subtle changes and Exhibition at Southwestern slight variations in artists, University in Georgetown, content and sculptural display Texas. Organized by Mary approaches. Each exhibition is See: Rapid prototyping Hale Visser, AM Vice president, an experimental investigation/ casebook JA McDonald, Professor of Art and Brown exploration into different cJ Ryall and DI Wimpenny Chair holder at Southwestern . aspects of glitch and has/will professional engineering Through This multi disciplinary consist of a mix of new specially Publishing LTD London 2001 Symposium I met many artists created and pre-existing 3D isbn 1-86058-076-9 and persuaded them to send works alongside screen based

works, embroideries, lenticular prints, 2D prints, and Sound works . 3d Works have been printed in Sunderland using Ultimaker 2 and Makerbot Printers. 3DGlitch also has Prints made by Keith Brown at Manchester University using 3D Systems ProJet 660 pro and Mcor Technologies IRIS A4 paper printer. 3D Glitch includes an evolving virtual gallery created using Unreal engine to explore some of the works within a game environment using a PS game controller. Martin Murphy made his htc Vive equipment available to experience some of the works from the show in a VR environment during the Preview at ACW and at The Fun Palace, a day full of free Art and Science workshops, activities

and demonstrations also at ACW

Alvin Sher, Dominic Smith, Robert Michael Smith, Susana Sulic, Sumit Sarkar, Helena An evolving e catalogue with Swatton, David Winslow Van more information on the artists Ness, Patrick Visentin, Mary is also available. See https:// Visser, Andrew Werby, Laura s h a u n p r o j e c t s p a c e . f i l e s . West and Derrick Woodham. wordpress. Thanks also to Alistair Big Thanks to all the 3D Glitch Robinson and the Technical Artists: Eric Bainbridge, Darren staff at The Northern Gallery for Banks, Sophie Beresford, Contemporary art Michael Branthwaite, Ruth Matthew Blythe and the staff Brewis, Ralf Broeg, Keith of the Arts Centre Washington Brown, Brit Bunkley, Nadine and Davor MiĹĄkoviÄ‡ at Drugo Castleman, More. Anne Mc Cartney, Helen by James Hutchinson McCartney, Mircea Cirtog, Janine Goldsworthy, Paul Higham, James Hutchinson, Mark Klink, Christian Lavigne, Simon Martin, Graham Mitchinson, Martin Murphy, Mary Neubauer, Iain Nicholls, James Railston, Colin Rennie, 19

SUNDERLAND

MANCHESTER

RIJEKA

BY DISTANCE

a residency by distance between Manchester and Rotterdam Janine Goldsworthy (UK) and Elise Zoetmulder (NL) come from different artistic backgrounds and countries, regardless of this they initially got together through their love of blue. Their latest project, By Distance, explores the physical and artistic distance of art objects and their makers. It all started at the Manchester School of Art, where Goldsworthy studied a Masters in Fine Art and Zoetmulder studied a Masters in Design Lab. In their work, they both use the colour blue symbolically. Blue is unreachable, unattainable, but at the same time it’s all around us – we all live under the same blue sky. The use of the colour blue also has a rich history to it. For example, it can be traced back to ancient Chinese porcelain and to Dutch blue porcelain – the latter of which Zoetmulder specializes in. The many metaphors and meanings makes the two artists both inspired by the colour blue.

At the same time, the multiple symbolic meanings of blue can also be applied to the collaboration and the ongoing friendship of Goldsworthy and Zoetmulder. After graduating in 2015, the two got separated physically by water, the sea, when Zoetmulder moved back to Delft, Holland. However, they kept in close contact -. For the exhibition By Distance (6 November 2015), Goldsworthy and Zoetmulder asked artists from Manchester and Rotterdam to create objects, which were then exchanged and exhibited in the galleries across the ocean. The collaborating artists however did not travel along with their works. This meant that digital applications such as Skype, Google Hangout and Whatsapp were

essential for the groups to discuss, communicate and send digital instructions of how to unpack and exhibit the works of the other. The main theme of By Distance also explores the effects of physical distance between Goldsworthy and Zoetmulder. They inspire and influence each other almost daily by exchanging experiences of their work and personal life. For example: apart from designing interiors and furniture, Zoetmulder likes to go out into nature and collect stones. Or she works on new techniques of pouring porcelain. This is her way to get away from designing digitally, behind the computer. Goldsworthy, with her background in Fine Arts,

is on the other hand - fascinated by the question of how technology and the digital shape human contact and interaction. Now, Goldsworthy utilises found materials such as stones in her work both physically or symbolically . And for the By Distance exhibition, the two made work using -porcelain paper – Zoetmulder’s first ‘nonfunctional’ work. Goldsworthy and Zoetmulder’s fragile blue objects reflect on the fragility of human life. Fragility is in this sense not a negative quality: it creates a consciousness of the fact that materials, life and human relations are all temporary. It is this temporariness that gives them their beauty and value. At the same time, it is also essentially human to strive for something

that endures, like a stone or rock. This is why the two artists will continue their collaboration internationally in a global context, next by preparing a physical residency together abroad. Even though the world has become more connected than ever through digital media, physical contact remains important. This has been proven through By Distance: Skype and Google Hangout form mere extensions or substitutions of working or being together, but are at the same grounded by a sense of place. by Tonya Sudiono 25

BY DISTANCE/ OP AFSTAND

residency by distance at Manchester

residency by distance in Rotterdam

BY DISTANCE// NEARER

residency held by distance gathered in Manchester

BY DISTANCE/// NEAREST

residency held by distance gathered in Rotterdam

NINA CHUA

JANINE GOLDSWORTHY

DARREN NIXON

MICHAEL BRANTHWAITE

KARIN SUTERS

JOZETH VAN DE SNEPSCHEUT

ROSA PETERS

ELISE ZOETMULDER

COLOPHON text by Tonya Sudiono Tom Emery Laura Diez Garcia James Hutchinson pictures by Michael Branthwaite Elise Zoetmulder Koendert Wierda organisation by Janine Goldsworthy Michael Branthwaite booklet design by Elise Zoetmulder special thanks to Arts Council England Ny Space East Street Arts Poca Gallery Nachtsmid Bavaria Beer Het Industriegebouw All participating artists