Bloc hosted an installation of three pieces by Nina Canell in the exhibition space, and two poster works by Kate Davis and Jimmy Robert on the billboards outside of the gallery. One of Ruth Ewan’s six collectable postcards was also available to collect from this venue.
Click here to see images of the work in situ (link to Flickr.com)
Click here to watch the video podcast for Bloc, which features Art Sheffield’s co-curator Frederique Bergholtz talking about the work.
Nina Canell
The installations of Nina Canell present themselves as a series of sculptural interludes that question the reliability and fixity of physical forms. Hinged upon a fabric of electromagnetics, communities of objects quietly interact with each other through small arrangements of ramshackle radiation, balancing careful ambitions to sustain certain frequencies, movements and altitudes.
An improvisational methodology and a flexibility of form highlight Canell’s quest for sculpture, which exists somewhere between an event and an object, addressing our empirical understanding and willingness to engage with multiple and complex readings.
Born 1979 in Växjö, Sweden
Lives in Berlin, Germany
Kate Davis / Jimmy Robert
A conversation between A and B, 2010
Kate Davis and Jimmy Robert have both previously produced works that use art historical moments as points of departure, often re-presenting existing material combined with representations of their own bodies.
Informed by successive waves of feminist art and theory, Davis has rethought representations of the female body in response to art historical fragments through photography, printmaking, sculpture, drawing and film. Working across a range of media that includes photography, film, sculpture, print and collage, as well as performance, Robert has a similar interest in exposing the fragility of representation by exploring the relation between image and object, drawing attention to the dynamics of different surfaces and making subtle transitions from an image to its concept and from a text to an idea.
A conversation between A and B, is a new collaborative work developed specifically for the context ofArt Sheffield 2010 – Life: A User’s Manual. Presented as poster works on the outside of Bloc, it is at once a public and private dialogue, prowling the parameters of the life room to unpick a linear reading of that floorspace and beyond.
Kate Davis – born in 1977, Wellington, New Zealand, lives in Glasgow, UK.
Jimmy Robert – born in 1975, Guadeloupe, France, lives in Brussels, Belgium.
Supported by The Elephant Trust
Image credit: A Conversation between A & B, Kate Davis/Jimmy Robert, 2010
At Site & Collectable postcards available free at each venue:
Ruth Ewan
Moderately Wrathful, 2010
Through manipulated or redirected situations Ruth Ewan’s projects bring lesser-known histories back into circulation. Working with print, performance and installation she examines the ways in which individuals and groups have utilised creative forms in an attempt to redefine their world.
Developed for Art Sheffield 2010 – Life: A User’s Manual, drawing on Sheffield’s radical history, Moderately Wrathful consists of a series of images distributed via all Art Sheffield venues. In a pamphlet published by Sheffield’s Holberry Society, a man called Sam Holmes describes how, at the age of 14, upon becoming a builder’s apprentice, he was presented with a copy of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1914) by Robert Tressell (1870-1911). Holmes refers to the giving of this particular novel as a common gesture towards new apprentices, not only as a welcoming gift but also a handbook of sorts. Referencing the work of Robert Tressell, Moderately Wrathfulcombines images and text, cross referencing polemic extracts from Tressell’s novel, with several lesser-known drawings by the author of early aircrafts and hot air balloons.
Born in1980, Aberdeen, Scotland.
Lives in London, UK
Supported by the Yorkshire Artspace Residency Programme
Image credit: Fire Balloon, Robert Tressell, 1902, Courtesy The Robert Tressell Family Papers
