Further documentation from Sat 22nd Oct Open day Event..

Gerald Curtis

‘Studio Chess’ Performance, 2-3pm


Gerald presents a new performance investigating the idea of reclusive studio artists, using a vocabulary of actions and phrases of work commonly found among the studio environment. Gerald is an artist working in performance, exploring the uses of language and their impact on our perceptions of our everyday environment. He has previously performed on Resonance FM, at the RCA and has most recently shown part of his new targets' series as part of East Pop Red. William Kherbeck is a writer and critic, semi-recovered musician (post-punk/proto-silence) and occasional performer.

Studio Chess


Two participants are required to sit at a table in order to play. Sessions last one hour, timed. One participant is charged with making actions and another is given the task of interfering with the person who tries to complete the actions. The actions and interferences can be defined like so:


Actions Interferences

 making tea - unplug kettle

 drinking tea - knocking plastic cups over

 placing plastic cup on table - out out water container

 eating food - spill water

 drawing - crush cups

 writing - hide food

 walking - throw food

 sitting - erase drawing

 speaking * - break pencils

 erasing work - pulling away chair

 body gestures*1 - impede movement

- stand on chair

- sit in chair

- move chair

- break./throw

- hit

- talk louder

- interrupt

- take objects/items

- redraw

- block with hand/object



* The person committing actions has a scripted number of requests that s/he must adhere to. This list is:

shall I put the kettle on?

want a beer?

how does that look?

do you know where the steps are?

I don't think this is resolved

do you think this is resolved?

Can I borrow some [list item(s)]?

have you seen my [list item(s)]?



*1 studio body gestures include: scratching of limbs and facial features, foot tapping, finger tapping, yawning.


Items for play

table, two chairs, drawing materials, paper, kettle, radio, plastic cups, snacks, water, tea bags, plastic spoons.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Frog Morris
‘Deptford Poetry’ Performance, 2011, 4pm

Frog Morris will perform a collection of poems he has written inspired by Deptford. Let him guide you through a world of pie shops, pubs, giant african snails, cafe-galleries, secondhand videos and any-scoop-a-pound vegetables.

Frog Morris is an artist, poet and performer. His work celebrates those moments of British culture that leave us unsure whether to laugh or cry.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Matthew Bamber
Live Streaming



‘Box 3’ consists of a sealed cardboard structure (1220mm x 1020mm x 890mm), an internal camera and a monitor. Only the monitor is displayed within Hatch Space. The cardboard structure and its camera are located in Bamber's studio in Manchester. The monitor displays the interior physical environment of “Box 3” as recorded by its camera and streamed live via the internet to Hatch Space.

‘Box 3’ explores perceptions of interior space (real or imagined), enclosure and physical distance. In both its locations, the interior of “Box 3” is sealed physically from the “actual” world. Screened off from “real” space, the interior is accessible but only as a “virtual” space.

About Matthew Bamber –

“The function of the studio is the making of a work of art for an ideal place, a work which may be endlessly manipulated.” Daniel Buren.

Matthew's practice involves the collection of data from experimental projects and spaces.

He is interested in recording time spent in the studio, what it means to make art in a studio space, and in making the everyday strange.

An unexpected other occupant we found in the floor..

FILMS, PERFORMANCE, LIVE STREAMING


For the Open Day Event on Saturday 22nd October 2011, Hill and Steele invited other artists to co-occupy the gallery space. Their work explores themes of multiple occupancy from different perspectives with, and outwith the local area.

With special thanks to Katie Bryer for her expert editing help.




Nicola Smith
‘Cut Intervention’ Liverpool, 2009, Video: 5 minutes, 7 seconds.


Nicola Smith created interventions based on the use and history of the site. An ongoing debate as to whether Liverpool One shopping centre is a public or privatised space sparked my interest in testing the boundaries of acceptable activity in the area.

Nicola Smith is a Manchester based visual artist who makes work in response to the context of my surroundings and use different mediums such as live art intervention, performance lectures, sound and video. Smith punctuates situations in public and private spaces by playing out a series of actions, which takes on many forms, in order to disrupt the expectations of the audience.



John Deller
‘Spinning Pillbox’ 2011, Animation: 1 minute, 39 seconds.


This short animation is a part of my long-term fascination with WWII pillboxes – in particular the small hexagonal Type 22. From being hastily built in response to the looming threat of Nazi invasion they have withstood 70 years of functional and cultural change. Derelict forgotten structures being reclaimed by time and nature, reflecting the rapidly fading memories of the volunteers that once kept watch. The pillboxes remain as markers echoing the changing use of the landscape encouraged by industrial and social upheavals within the previous seven decades. The loss of many of our railway lines abandoning some of the pillboxes in uncertain and clumsy locations. Areas of “non-space” that would seem to have little or no strategic relevance to the contemporary landscape. Human-scale camera obscuras they look inwards at a readymade history whilst looking outwards towards an uncertain future yet silently holding a constant vigil upon our beaches and within our towns and countryside.


Helena Doyle
‘Follow Me Home’ 2011, HD Video, 6 minutes, 54 seconds


A continuous shot community film shot in the artist's hometown in Ireland. The town Castledermot in it's heyday used to be a busy market town abundant with culture, now it is a drive through recession town. The piece focuses on moments as they are created through a life time spent in a building central to the town's social life.

Helena Doyle is a filmmaker and installation artist from Ireland. Recently she completed a Masters in Art & Media Practice at Universityof Westminster. She is a member of the Utrophia collective based in Deptford.



Inigo Rousham
‘A place for us’ 2011, Digital video: 4 mins 38 seconds

‘A place for us’, is a patchwork of encounters and observations gathered from the newly developed Windrush Square in the centre of Brixton. In keeping with London`s status as a ‘World City’ the development of the square is part of a larger project, initiated by Ken Livingstone, to build 100 new public spaces in London. Since its opening in 2009 Rousham has made frequent visits to the square documenting the movements and voices of its inhabitants and visitors. Sometimes working collaboratively and, at other times alone, Rousham has found that fugitive patterns and stories emerge only to fall away again.

Inigo Rousham has a background in Fine Art and has recently completed an MA with the Institute of Education and Goldsmiths College exploring models of learning, in relation to fine art practice. Rousham has lived in Brixton for around 17 years, working as a teacher and an artist.



Ahmed and Carpenter
‘Orbit’ 2011, Moving image work: 2 minutes, 59 seconds

Ahmed and Carpenter’s practice is a continual investigation in their collective interest in the author, language and self-reflexive art. They often explore their creative relationship with film, photography and performance.

Orbit, is a moving image work that was originally filmed at Rogue Project Space. In this piece Ahmed and Carpenter circulate the gallery walls, testing not only their own bodily limitations but also the physical constraints of the space. Orbit references, the tradition of artists in their working environment , and how they interpret space.


Lucia Sceranková
‘Always 4:22’ 2008, video: 11 minutes, 14 seconds


The work is dealing with large housing estate Petržalka, where I used to live before.

Project was mapping of my present landscape. I collected various microstories, that had happened there. They have character of diary notes - in the form of text, photos and short videos. My ambition was to evoke the atmosphere of housing estate through behaviour of people. I created images of community-noncommunity. I have tried to research and reflect my present landscape and doing that I have discovered many final landscapes.

Lucia Scerankova graduated this year at Academy of Fine Art in Prague in studio of Vladimir Skrepl. She also studied at Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava (2004-2008). In 2007 she went for exchange at University of Newcastle upon Tyne, School of Arts and Cultures. She has been exhibiting since 2006. In 2011 besides other exhibitions she presented her work at Bienniall of Young Art Scooter in Slovakia, at group exhibition Mountain Lake in gallery Meetfactory in Prague and at solo exhibition Fire, water, wind knows in gallery A.M. 180 (Prague). In terms of non-exhibiting projects she designed cover of album Reading lyrics aloud means singing for Prague-based musician Ondrej Holý aka dné (2011). In 2009 she got the award Best videoart for video Always 4:22 at festival Early melons in Bratislava, Slovakia. These days she represents Academy of Fine Arts in Prague at international exhibition of best final works Start Point prize 2011 that takes place in Wanieck gallery in Brno, Czech republic.


Penny Skerrett
‘Gaze’ 2011: 8 minutes, 1 second

This film was inspired by a period of time I spent sitting in hospital waiting rooms. I was interested in the interplay between the intensely private experience of sitting with oneself and one’s thoughts and the fleeting moments of connection with another person that occur in shared spaces.

In constructing the film it became apparent that the camera, as a surrogate of the eye’s gaze, established a complex relationship with the participants. I became aware of the fluctuations of vulnerability and power between the participant and the viewer and of how the act of being observed affected their behaviour.

Penny is an artist whose practice has moved between the disciplines of performance art, furniture maker, lecturer, activist and curator. Her artwork, mainly films and drawing, is motivated by an interest in attention and onto what and where this is focused. The exchange between external environments and that of internal landscapes and an exploration of ‘belonging’ is something that is repeatedly explored through her work. Whilst studying on the Arts & Ecology MA at Dartington College of Arts she co-founded The Mobile Institute an interdisciplinary artists collective.

MULTIPLE OCCUPANCY, 19th-29th October 2011, Hatch Space

‘Occupants Will Vary’ by Jenny Steele
2011 Pencil, pen and letter transfer on paper 120 x 260 cm

‘Schematic: Hatch Space 2011’ by Harriet Hill
2011 Felt, wire, expanding foam, paint 240 x 125 cm


MULTIPLE OCCUPANCY is a 2 person exhibition by Harriet Hill and Jenny Steele that explores the in-habitation and use of space within the built environment of the Faircharm Trading Estate and the Hatch Space studios themselves. MULTIPLE OCCUPANCY aims to record, reflect and celebrate the current activity in these mixed-use spaces within this heterogeneous community.

Jenny Steele exhibits a map, ‘Occupants Will Vary’, 2011, that charts movement and spacial use within the micro community of the Faircharm Trading Estate. For the past month, she has spent time questioning and observing the organisations and individuals that occupy this multi-functional block of units. The map ‘Occupants Will Vary’, communicates data regarding use of physical and digital space compiled through an online questionnaire, presenting a sample of potential usage at any one time. The work is informed by social anthropologist Timothy Ingold's research that highlights the static nature of maps, that are unrepresentative of physical in-habitation and movement.

Steele's practice considers our constant in-habitation of digital space by playing on metaphors of physical space, cartography, architecture and town planning. Through her multi disciplinary practice, she continually seeks ways in which to come to terms with the intangibility of the digital, and its clash with our embedded cognitive behaviour and cartesian perspectives. Steele is currently based at Rogue Studios, Manchester, and is the Artist in Residence at Manchester Metropolitan University for 2011-12. Steele is a graduate of Goldsmiths MFA (2007).

Harriet Hill has created ‘Schematic: Hatch Space 2011’ as a response to the microcosm of Hatch Space Studios. The idea of the central space which acts as both a self contained gallery for public communication and an expanded corridor; an interstice with doors leading off into the autonomous artists’ studios beyond. The fixed nature of exhibits in a gallery contrasts with the life and activity in an artist’s studio and the shifting nature of the creative process. Both are spaces for thought and provocation. Hill takes this idea and the physical structure of the space and works viscerally, using materials specific to her practice. Out of this a piece evolves which is then drawn out into the space. This sets up a dynamic that seeks to question the fundamental relationship between the viewer, the object and the space that contains and defines them.

Through her practice, Hill explores ideas around the conflict between autonomy and belonging and the fact that we are drawn to that which is more powerful than ourselves – physical, social, political, theistic. This manifests in her work, through the notion that a physical entity – object, material, structure, space – can simultaneously incite both desire and repulsion. Hill is based in London, and is also a graduate of Goldsmiths MFA (2007).

MULTIPLE OCCUPANCY: 19th- 29th October 2011, Open Wed- Sun12-6pmOpen Day Event – Saturday 22nd October 2011, 12pm -6pm
South London Art Map Last Fridays – Friday 28th October 2011, 6-9pm

Rogue Open Studios, 9th October at Rogue, Manchester



Rogue Open Studios - 7th- 9th October 2011, Manchester



'Attempts to enter the Forbidden City (Model)', Cardboard, balsa wood, paint and pencil

'Occupants Will Vary', Pen and pencil drawing on paper. 120cm x 250cm.

Left to right: Interface (Home), 2011, Xiaonei Map, 2011 and Navigation Map, 2011, all drawings on paper.

Shots of my studio in the Rogue Open Studios earlier this month.  A great turnout, thanks to all at Rogue for co-ordinating the event.

Dear Friends,


or-bits.com is pleased to present TRUTH,

its new and fifth online programme.

Featuring works by:

ANGUS BRAITHWAITE / DAVID RAYMOND CONROY / ADELITA HUSNI-BEY

/ IOCOSE / M+M (Marc Weis and Martin De Mattia) / RICHARD SIDES

Plus forthcoming guest curated pages by:

GAIA TEDONE / CHRISTINE TAKENGNY & UTE PANNEDE

TRUTH programme will be accompanied by an ongoing series of blog contributions by:

Jennifer Steele (artist, researcher and lecturer) / Nathan Witt (artist) / and other bloggers joining along the way.

To find out more go to

http://www.or-bits.com

and our Blog.

- - -

or-bits.com is an online curatorial project, a platform for the production, display and distribution of commissioned artworks and critical writing. Its mission is to support the production of new works and instigate an exploration of the creative and critical possibilities of the web as language, medium and subject.

Multiple Occupancy at Hatch Space, runs from 19th -29th October 2011

Harriet Hill and Jenny Steele

19th- 29th October 2011, Open Wed- Sun12-6pm

Open Day Event – Saturday 22nd October 2011, 12pm -6pm

South London Art Map Last Fridays – Friday 28th October 2011, 6-9pm


'MULTIPLE OCCUPANCY' is a 2 person exhibition by Harriet Hill and Jenny Steele that explores the in-habitation and use of space within the built environment of the Faircharm Trading Estate and the Hatch Space studios themselves. MULTIPLE OCCUPANCY aims to record, reflect and celebrate the current activity in these mixed-use spaces within this heterogeneous community.

For MULTIPLE OCCUPANCY, Harriet Hill presents a sculptural work made as a response to the microcosm of Hatch Space studios. She works viscerally, with the particular, physical structure of the space and the idea of it as both a self contained gallery and an expanded corridor: a mutable interstice with doors leading off into the autonomous spaces of the artists studios.

Jenny Steele exhibits a map that charts movement and spacial use within the micro community of the Faircharm Trading Estate. For the past month, she has spent time questioning and observing the businesses, organisations and individuals that occupy this multi-functional block of units. The work is informed by social anthropologist Timothy Ingold's research that highlights the static nature of maps, that are unrepresentative of physical in-habitation.

For an Open Day event on Saturday 22nd October 2011, Hill and Steele have invited other artists to co-occupy the gallery space. Artists: Ahmed & Carpenter, Hannah Doyle, John Deller, Inigo Rousham, Lucia Serenkova, Penny Skerrett and Nicola Smith will show film and video works that explore themes of multiple occupancy from different perspectives. Frog Morris will perform poetry about the local community of Deptford, and Manchester based Matthew Bamber will bring a live streaming of his own studio to Hatch Space for the day.

Harriet Hill’s work investigates ideas around the conflict between autonomy and belonging and the fact that we are drawn to that which is more powerful than ourselves – physical, social, political. This manifests in her work, through the notion that a physical entity – material, object, structure, space – can simultaneously inspire both inclination and repulsion. Harriet Hill is based in London, and is a MFA graduate of Goldsmiths.

Jenny Steele's practice considers our constant in-habitation of digital space by playing on metaphors of physical space, cartography, architecture and town planning. Through her multi disciplinary practice, she continually seeks ways in which to come to terms with the intangibility of the digital, and its clash with our embedded cognitive behaviour and cartesian perspectives. Jenny Steele is currently based at Rogue Studios, Manchester, and is also a graduate of Goldsmiths MFA.