TEST SPACE OPEN 2014: Spike Island Studios

Test Space is a project space run and curated by Spike Island Studio Holders showing both finished work and works in progress. This year, to coincide with Spike Island Open, we're running the first Test Space Open and are inviting submissions of works from artists based in the UK. 

Spike Island Open is an annual 'behind the scenes' event taking place at Spike Island over the course of the first Bank Holiday weekend in May, attracting over 5,000 visitors.

We will be accepting 2D, 3D, time based (pieces with sound will require headphones) and web based pieces, as well as proposals for performance.

The maximum size for wall pieces is 150cm x 180cm,  for sculptural pieces the space is limited due to the need for foot traffic throughout the exhibition area, therefore the size of the pieces will be taken into account during selection, as a guide the maximum plinth size we can accept is150cm x 180cm.

A panel of three independent selectors, Marie-Anne McQuay (curator), Edwina Ashton (artist) and Ruth Claxton (artist) will be selecting work to be included in the show.

A maximum of 5 artworks can be submitted by each artist.

To enter, please send an email to testspaceopen@gmail.com including the following:

•   Your name

•   Contact details

•   Either images of the submitted works (no more than 2mb per file or 10mb in total) or a link to a video work

•   A brief description of the work (100 words), including dimensions (cm)


Closing date for submissions is Sunday 6th April.

Selected artists will be notified by Wednesday 16th April and are responsible for getting selected work to us before Friday April 25th and for the collection of works after Friday May 9th.

See https://www.facebook.com/pages/Test-Space/51748531950 for more information.

The Photography Show 2014

The Photography Show is a new annual event hosted at Birmingham’s NEC Arena running from Saturday 1^st March – Tuesday 4^th March. There will be a variety of events happening over four days such as talks from Rankin, Joe McNally and Steve McCurry to name a few, various workshops, conferences and the opportunity to browse the wide variety of retailers and exhibitors.

The Photography Show is pitching itself to be a great opportunity for amateur and professional photographers alike to shop, gain new insights in to the photographic industry and take part in workshops.

Tickets cost £13 for adults or £10 for concessions (students, 60+, children 11+) with workshops and talks costing extra. For more information visit http://www.photographyshow.com/Content/Welcome

Artist Profile Francesc Serra Villa

Francesc Serra Villa, along with Sean Olsen, is one of the artists whose work we will see at the next Forum event at Arcade Cardiff as we discuss the future of the pop-up exhibition and the possibility of its permanence.

Francesc Serra Villa is an architect from Barcelona. He combines his work for theatres(such as Gran Teatre del Liceu - Barcelona, La Monnaie/De Munt- Brussels and Cardiff Theatrical Services) with his own personal projects which often include set design, performance and the city in which he inhabits at the time.

Greenhouse is a research and interactive installation piece that explores connections between space, light and sound in a multi-sensorial environment.

Public are invited to follow the three parts of this week-event: 

SET UP: how the structure takes shape when balloons are inflated.

EXPERIENCE
DISMANTLING: a celebration gathering people around the structure to burst the balloons.

The installation: 1300 balloons are inflated under a net. People can get inside with a light sensor on them. Depending on their position inside the structure, the sound produced will change.
Greenhouse will be presented within ArcadeCardiff on the gloomiest day of the year. This date is perfect for Arcadecardiff to offer something cheery and thoughtful to the public.

This Month's Forum ' Arcadia'

6.30 pm, ArcadeCardiff, Queen's Arcade, 23rd January 2014

The first Forum of the year kicks off at ArcadeCardiff. We will be leading on from the last forum as well as opening up new discussions on the possibility of the pop-up exhibition becoming more permanent. We will see the multifaceted projects that have operated within ArcadeCardiff spaces including Francesc Serra Villa's project 'Greenhouse-Balloons for Everyone' and Sean Olsen's 'Electronic Gamelan'.

Everyone and anyone are welcome to attend and as always, it is free!

If you're interested in showing work, or have an idea of what you'd like to discuss at a future Forum event email Bob at intern@g39.org or Helen at helen@ffotogallery.org. Forum is a monthly, informal event run collaboratively between Ffotogallery and Warp, which offers recent graduates, students and early career artists an opportunity to present work and discuss issues surrounding contemporary practice.

Louise Hobson awarded Library Residency 2014

Former FORUM speaker, Louise Hobson will begin her residency in the WARP library space in January 2014 running through until March. We are all really happy for her and hope it all goes well!

For updates on her residency and to see what else is going on in warp and g39 see: http://www.g39.org/warp/ 

Hobson stated that she is "...interested in the idea of the trade route and how as a theoretical and visual concept, it can be used as a tool to explore the exchange of art, knowledge and ideas on a global scale. In the Warp library there is a book called 'Connect: Public Art in Transit Project. Belfast to Dublin Rail Link' by Frances Dowds and I would like to take this catalogue of a project that explores making points and forging links, as a starting point."


Image Credit: © Louise Hobson, Theatre 2012

Bartosz Nowicki's New Book: CITY - The Season

Bartosz Nowicki - CITY - The Season
Launched November 2013

This is not a story of the club but of the people who support it – Bartosz Nowicki

CITY – The Season follows Cardiff City FC fans during the 2012-13 campaign, when the Bluebirds wore red. Nowicki presents his own record of the season, weaved in with text from City fans to celebrate the club’s charge to the Premier League and explore issues of identity and belonging generated by the club’s controversial rebrand.   Nowicki gets to the heart of what it means to follow Cardiff City, home and away, the anguish and excitement of watching the game, journeys to away grounds by cramped coaches, the harrying presence of stewards and police, the drinking, the singing and the joke playing and always the colours, shirts and tattoos that were the contested symbols of belonging during a season in which, according to Nowicki 'the shadow of the rebrand followed us to every corner of Britain’.

The book includes text from renowned authors and columnists: Annis Abraham Jnr (the author of 6 books, which have sold in excess of 160000 copies); Carl Curtis (South Wales Echo and Wales Online); and James Leighton who wrote the acclaimed biography of Manchester United legend, Duncan Edwards, which became the no. 1 bestselling football book on Amazon.   The book contain never before published photographs of supporters, but it also includes behind the scenes insights, such as meetings between former owner Sam Hammam and current owner Vincent Tan as well as Hammams meeting with fans in the Holland House Hotel. Of course, as befits a book about a football club, you will also find photographs of players, including Craig Bellamy, David Marshall and Matt Connolly.