organic _ robotix: Exhibitions in the Corridor

We have had several exhibitions within the Corridor this couple of months of which we showcased Estonian art by Marta Suuster, an installation involving work concerning the 20th anniversary of the M65 extension protests by Kerris Casey-St. Pierre, a solo exhibition of assemblage by Sonny J. Barker, an open landscape exhibition with paintings, collage and photography curated by Jonathan Hughes and a solo exhibition by Hughes himself.

Suuster's work involved portraiture and she used a lush twenties inspired palette and a very smooth brush style. The subjects in her paintings all looked natural until you start focusing and I think they resembled what body dysmorphia look like to someone. Her pencil work, which formed the second part of her exhibition was delicate in hand.

Casey-St. Pierre's installation had artefacts, photographs by Adrian Arbub and other reportage photographs from her personal collection, poems by Lee Tree and several newspaper cuttings as well as natural soundscapes recorded from the area. I do remember the protests that happened in 1995 due to the M65 extension and the cuttings down of ancient woodland. It was emotive seeing people who I used to socialise with, some of which have died. I enjoyed her installation.

My exhibition coincided with the three day Countryside Comes to Town festival that we had at the Bureau. I made over twenty assemblages from found wood, signage and older assemblages that I have shown but didn't really work. It took 3 months to collect and build the work with some using sounds and kinetic aspects.

The landscape exhibition entitled All Around Us was a mixed bag of paintings, photography and collage. There was eighteen artists who exhibited such as Hughes, Valerie Savchits, Julia Entwistle and Lewis Oldham. I really liked Oldham's body landscapes, for me they were the highlights as this is the work that I am mostly fond of. I thought the exhibition was a success in that it brought more established and out of town artists into the building.

Hughes's solo exhibition Doodlism is up at the moment. This work is portraiture in the style of the poster/paintings of Picasso and are very vivid in colour and guttural in technique. I think they counterbalance the pristine aspects of selfies that are on social media were multiple apps can be used to make a bad photo good. I think they make a great collection and the next step for his work is Croatia.