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ANGELA WRIGHT
- ARTIST
info : angelawright@artinst.entadsl.com
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3 CURRENT ART INSTALLATIONS
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"POWER HOUSE" - INSTALLATION ON STREET FACADES OF R. K. BURT ARTISTS' PAPER WAREHOUSE, 54-58 UNION STREET, LONDON, SE1
begun as a public-site installation for the London Festival
of Architecture
2008 (LFA
Power House)
site plus cable-hung 'blinds' of PVC-polyester with "Grafisoft"
adhesive-vinal drawings
viewable from 28
June 2008
[Thanks to: R.K. Burt & Co
Ltd., Wholesale Paper Merchants, 57 Union Street, London SE1 1SG - for loan of
building facades.
Siddons Van & Car Hire, 191D Perry Vale, SE23 - for logistical assistance.
Patrick Sweeney - technical consultant ]
In late 2007 I discovered this Union Street 1930’s ex electricity sub station, now R. K. Burt artists' paper warehouse. The blinded rendered windows of this sombre building reminded me of canvases waiting to be painted. The windows had probably been blocked at the beginning of the war, the spaces they once occupied are clearly defined.
I chose to install blinds for these blind windows. These blinds relate to several aspects of the building, most importantly they have an energy which will transform it. The 5 panels are a rhythmical sequence: 4 tall ones on the main façade - the first wider, the next 3 a repeated beat; then around the corner facing east, the 5th - squarer, placed high up, ‘floating’ - provides a full stop. The blinds connect with the building’s past through colours associated with electricity, live wires and cables - the sub station previously humming inside is evoked on the outside. They also express an affinity with the ghosts of its window mullions. Finally, in their role as drawings they refer to the building’s present use by artists’ paper merchants.
The building is situated close to several derelict houses encased in scaffolding, despite this there is a feeling of a village at this end of Union Street - the road splits in two as it approaches Southwark Bridge Road and the remaining island has a large spreading plane tree, café, outdoor seating, while overhead the trains trundle past. I wanted to add something dynamic to this end of the street, something that speaks of summertime!
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Preparation and making the work in Amsterdam and London can be seen here. Installing began on 19th of June and difficulties with the suspension delayed its completion until Saturday 28th - apologies to anyone who visited the site before that.
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PHOTO:
GARY BLACK |
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"RAG-RUG" - ACCOUNTANT'S OFFICE, LONDON, N17
made June 2006 -
plate-shards and glue
viewable by appointment: john@zipress.com
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I was suprised at Angela's wall-work's unexpected 'extra' effects. It has a weird likeness to a rug-like object hung on the wall, an impression contradicted by the fact that its myrid little pieces are undeniably stuck to the wall ... emphasised of course by a cascade of glue-threads, which however simultaneously reinforce the impression of frayed rug! Its ambiguity is also emphasised by its slight tendency to lean (this accumulated as it was made and was unresisted) as if carelessly nailed up at a slight angle.
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"50 DEGREES NORTH" - KEYWORTH CENTRE ATRIUM, LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY, KEYWORTH STREET, LONDON, SE1
made
April 2005 - woven stainless-steel wire
viewable 2007 - Mon to Sat from 9.00 to 18.00 hrs
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pr ANGELA WRIGHT - "50 DEGREES NORTH" Installation in The Keyworth Centre, London South Bank University |
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The Keyworth Centre, Keyworth Street, London SE1 Elephant & Castle tube - north exit open to public : Mon to Sat until 10-00pm - 2006 |
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"On
my first encounter with the Keyworth Centre atrium I was immediately
attracted to the huge 8-story bank of gridded windows which form the
façade of the building, and to the height and vastness of the atrium.
In response to this interior I have chosen to work with a suspended
cube made from delicate stainless steel wire. The lightness of this
woven construction will provide an opposite to its site, something
that takes on the assertive visual challenge of the building, but
which stays separate and ephemeral.
During
the day the installation '50 Degrees North' will relate and interact
with the changing light through the glass facade, and at night will
reflect the various patterns of the atrium lights. The effects of
light on my work have always been important. I like the changes and
surprises - the idea of the installation being suddenly lit by a blast
of sunlight.
The
3000 metres of stainless steel wire for '50 Degrees North', bought
coiled on a drum, will be cut into 3m lengths and woven into at least
20 nets in my studio in SE London. Almost all my major works are made
of multiple parts that develop through studio sketches and
prefabrication; only during the installation of the piece in its
location does it reach its final form. In this case the wire nets will
be transported to the atrium and assembled on site, then raised high
above the building's entrance. When suspended together they will form
a dense, complex and mysterious object. To
form these installations I must destroy a material and then reassemble
it; the process of breaking down and renewal is an essential part of
their content. For instance, one that will soon hang in a London City
church is made from 200 metres of wedding tulle torn and rejoined with
at least 14000 knots. My
work is sited in my emotional life: it refers to past events that
affected me deeply. I have a sense of a journey, and the repetitive
physical procedures enhance this: they carry me through all the highs
and lows of the experience of making." This
work by Angela Wright is part of a new arts initiative launched by
London South Bank University as its contribution to the development of
contemporary cultural activity in the South Bank area - it will be the
first major art work displayed in the Keyworth Centre, and will
inaugurate a programme of art exhibitions and events across the
university. Angela Wright attended the London College of Fashion in the early ‘80s and subsequently ran her own couture business in central London. In 1995 she graduated in Fine Art and Ceramics at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, and has since exhibited widely. Recent works include "Cooperation-Installation" (a gallery encircling 'painting' whose 'brush-marks' were the paintings of an autistic artist); "Silk" (40m of raw Indian silk, torn and re-assembled in Spitalfields 18C silk-weavers' houses); "Economist-Carpet" (chance fragments of woven porcelain clay carpeted the Economist Building foyer); several 'Church-Works': in St Thomas More Brighton; St George Ivychurch Romney Marsh, and, later this year, installations in St Giles' Cripplegate Barbican and Dorchester Abbey Oxfordshire.
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3 RECENT ART INSTALLATIONS
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INSTALLATION AT "1DEA5PAC7", 157 BELLENDEN ROAD,
LONDON, SE15
1DEA5PAC7@aol.com
/ 07958543698
made March 2007 - torn and knotted wedding-tulle, in
context
viewable until April 28 2007 on Saturdays from 10.00 to 16.00 hrs
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This is a reuse of the material remains of 'Church-Work 3' [see below]; brought into an environment where it is made to relate to practical inventions - a context described by its curators as 'an interface between retail and the aesthetics of conceptual art and design'.
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"OVERLOOKED" - GREEN DRAGON COURT, BOROUGH MARKET, LONDON, SE1
17 to 25 June 2006 -
A
public-site installation for the London Architecture Biennale 2006
site plus fragments of unfired woven-porcelain
viewable 17 to 25 June 2006
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Borough Market is a complicated, seemingly chaotic, sequence of joined irregular spaces, lanes and small roads, among the pillars and under the iron trusses and decking supporting a confluence of rail-lines issuing from London Bridge and Cannon Street stations.
A very busy and vital market thrives here - intensely bustling and full. On empty days with the stalls shuttered and produce boxed behind wire grills one is aware of old dirt, refuse in corners and the damp cold of decorated but industrial iron - then people only pass through what has become simply a vague container of routes that connect to elsewhere.
In the most forgotten unnoticed fenced-off and dirt-accumulating corner of all - yet in full and public view of any primed to see those parts of a scene which for most are edited-out by habits of practical use - I decided to install a work which contradicts its site's character and 'fulfills' its primacy of location.
This filthy rat-ridden corner holds a psychological fascination for me and seemed to fit the Biennale’s theme of 'Change'. The space is strangely overlooked by a single domestic window which gives it a feeling of a courtyard which hardly sees the daylight. Gigantic steel railway beams on cliffs of Victorian yellow brick encase its dirt floor. The space is filthy from years of uselessness and neglect, yet spatially contiguous with the bright, colourful, vital and thronged Green Market, and incongruously facing across it the tree-edged close of Southwark Cathedral, an enclave of relaxation, calm and reassuring kitsch.
I made a fragile and ephemeral floor of unfired porcelain pieces, propped against each other, moving out from the rear of the space like a luminous flood or a fleece thrown down in the gloom. Bearing down above massive rivet-studded girders skirt a small triangle of bright sky that mirrors my triangular floor. My addition to this site must be viewed with its context - some of its relations with the site were forseen, others (even obvious ones) have emerged - the subconscious, initially perceived as fascination with the 'atmosphere' of the place, has apparantly also been influencing decisions while I made the work.
It is the extremes that I am interested in. I hope that you see that I have changed the site's dynamics, cleaned and purified it, possibly given it the feel of a side-chapel with an inclosed peace. It looks towards the cathedral with its blossoming trees, honeysuckle, and passion flowers growing on the walls. Perhaps the rats, grime and the smell of urine recedes for a moment.
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'CHURCH-WORK 3' - ST GILES' CRIPPLEGATE, BARBICAN, FORE STREET, LONDON, EC2
May 2005 to Dec 2006
- torn and knotted wedding-tulle
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FORTHCOMING ART INSTALLATIONS
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A PAPER WORK IN A JOINT
EXHIBITION - INNOVATION GALLERY CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS, SOUTHAMPTON
ROW, LONDON, WC1
http://www.csm.arts.ac.uk/innovation.htm
9 to 18 Dec 2008 - paper
A paper work that will relate to the gallery windows. Tests began in September 2008
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WOOL
INSTALLATION - "WALLSPACE", ALL HALLOWS CHURCH, 83 LONDON WALL, EC2
http://www.wallspace.org.uk/about.html
Opening 17 March 2009 - 150 miles of wool yarn, in context
A vast bundle of wool, hauled up and suspended over the nave by
its centre, would hang as two huge cascading hanks parted like a doorway and
spilling out across the floor. The installation would bring a sense of drama to
the space, people would stand close and look up at its mass, pass around and
through it. The wool with its wavy strands and knots would be soft to the touch
and give a sense of warmth and comfort like an unravelled blanket.
On a recent visit to All Hallows I was struck by the soft creamy colour of the ceiling and its flower patterns. I went away with the thought of making a work that connected the ceiling to the floor. I think the proposed installation would do this.
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