GS Artists are delighted to announce a solo exhibition by Alex Duncan.
The artist describes his intent for this phenomenal body of work “Growing up in South Wales the slipways and curved seawalls offering interstitial, intertidal spaces of rawness, and water has acted both as an influence and connector in my work. Abandon is looking to explore a reaction to a thin curved line that is drawn through a sensitive and shifting liminal space, a sort of pathetic anti-wave. These in-between edges often feel like they have limitless potential – like you could find or witness anything life throws at us – where slipper limpet groups (bungalows!) gather and curve like a slow motion wave until their numbers cause them to break from their anchor.
Building coastal walls feel so futile, how can we control such a force? This coastal hardening is symptomatic of an end around effect (a solution to a problem that avoids the problem), where we build both literal and metaphorical walls – the ones we build between ourselves and some walls created out of a desperation- Priti Patel’s recent, much lambasted brainstorming session to stop migrants reaching the uk involved wave machines/cages/ huge floating walls that are currently being implemented off the coast of Greece”
The show Includes large Photographic scans- UV treated blueback paper on aluminium which frame the gallery. Scattered on the floor are casts of food, the sort often found squished in my rucksack. They are holding down a “towel’ of fake grass (printed on fleece) like on a windy beach.
Close to 100 plaster cast slipper limpet ‘bungalows’ which are dyed with cyanotype photographic chemicals, and held precariously in place by magnets, altering their hue during the month of the show. Echoing through the show is the ‘The Wash’ which shows the casts being cleaned, it rumbles back and forth echoing a tidal lap.
BIOG
Born in Swansea in 1985, Alex trained at Swansea Art College where he was award a first-class honours degree in Fine Art and following a studio bursary award had his first solo exhibition, surge at the Mission Gallery. A solo show ‘raised beach’ at MOSTYN followed in 2013, where Alex
further explored a relationship to materials and coastal proximity.
Alex moved to London in 2011 and went on to study for an MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art; graduating in 2015, the same year he was selected for the London Open at the Whitechapel Gallery and was the recipient of the Wakelin Award by the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery. In 2017 Alex had his first international solo show Blow in, at Aldama Fabre Gallery, Bilbao.
He works between Swansea where he lectures in Fine Art and London where he has his studio and co-directs a ‘not for profit art’ space and studios ArtLacuna.
Ganed Alex yn Abertawe ym 1985, ac astudiodd yng Ngholeg Celf Abertawe lle enillodd radd anrhydedd dosbarth cyntaf mewn Celfyddyd Gain. Yn dilyn gwobr bwrsariaeth stiwdio, cafodd ei arddangosfa unigol gyntaf, Surge yn Oriel Mission. Dilynwyd hyn gan y sioe unigol Raised beach ym MOSTYN yn 2013, lle archwiliodd Alex ymhellach berthynas â deunyddiau ac agosrwydd arfordirol.
Symudodd Alex i Lundain yn 2011 ac aeth yn ei flaen i astudio ar gyfer MA mewn
Cerflunwaith yn y Coleg Celf Brenhinol, gan raddio yn 2015. Yn yr un flwyddyn, cafodd ei ddewis ar gyfer cystadleuaeth Llundain Agored yn Oriel Whitechapel ac ef oedd enillydd Gwobr Wakelin gan Oriel Gelf Glynn Vivian. Yn 2017, cafodd Alex ei sioe unigol ryngwladol gyntaf Blow in, yn Oriel Aldama Fabre, Bilbao.
Mae’n gweithio rhwng Abertawe, lle mae’n darlithio mewn Celfyddyd Gain, a Llundain, lle mae ei stiwdio, ac mae’n cyd-gyfarwyddo ArtLacuna – gofod a stiwdios celf nid er elw.
Cyanotype Curios with Alex Duncan
Alexander Duncan has devised this project for our 9to9 Creative Community, it will run parallel with his phenomenal solo exhibition, ABANDON at GS Artists Swansea.
This project embodies some of the processes within the exhibition – looking at our local coastline and the wider pressing issue of ecology. Building coastal walls feel so futile, as how can we control such a force? This coastal hardening is symptomatic of an end around effect (a solution to a problem that avoids the problem), where we build both literal and metaphorical walls – the ones we build between ourselves and some walls created out of a desperation. Priti Patel’s recent, much lambasted brainstorming session to stop migrants reaching the UK involved wave machines/cages/ huge floating walls that are currently being implemented off the coast of Greece.
Some images of the artworks are attached below and include small cast works. Using a cyanotype process, usually found in photographic experiments, these casts are being ‘exposed’ for the duration of the show, so their colour is determined by the work’s position to sunlight.
The project Alex has created for you takes its lead from this photographic printing process, which was popular in the Victorian era, when photographic experimentation was at its peak. Architectural blueprints are so-called because of this process.
The photographic plate is created by mixing two chemicals, ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide and applying them to a sheet of paper in the dark. An image is produced by placing objects over the coated paper and through exposure to ultraviolet light such as sunlight, there is a resulting cyan blue image, rather like an X-ray. The image is ‘fixed’ permanently by washing the paper in water and leaving it to dry.
We hope this project will get you, our creative community interacting with nature, gathering source material for this artwork you can create at home or at the gallery in our one off event on Saturday 19th of June. The objects you use can speak of your personal experience of nature, or your surroundings at home.
As we are returning to some form of normality, we have two ticket options for you this time:
ZOOM TICKET – On the day, you will join us via Zoom as usual, where a zoom link will be sent out on the day of the workshop.
We will also send you a pack in the post, created by Alex, of pre-treated photographic paper and descriptions of how to make images with the paper provided using sun-light. There is also a very special ‘souvenir fridge magnet‘ from his exhibition, to inspire you.
(Don’t forget to include your address in the booking form so we can send everything out!)
GALLERY TICKET – We also have two very special tickets available for those of you who would like to join us in person at the gallery!!
With each gallery ticket, you get 1 table, for a maximum of 2 people from the same household/bubble and your package will be waiting for you at the gallery.
Please make sure that you book the correct ticket!
If in doubt just get in touch via our email [email protected]
Limit of one ticket per person.
Useful Information:
• Materials will be sent out in the post for ZOOM TICKET holders, so when you sign up please fill in the section with your address. If you forget to do this just drop us an email with your address at [email protected]
• If you have any questions or queries, again, please get in touch via email. We try to answer everyone within 24 hours, or sooner on the day of the event.
• A zoom link will be sent out 2 hours prior to the talk.
• Make sure you join early so we can address any technical issues you may be having.
• If you are joining us in person, please bring a mask unless exempt and arrive early so we can get you settled in.
Here is some further inspiration from Anna Atkins, who in the 1800’s used flora and fauna, including seaweeds, for her prints and made what is known as the worlds first photographic book.
You can find more about here HERE – https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/anna-atkins-cyanotypes-the-first-book-of-photographs.html