Ex-changing spaces
A new phenomenon has appeared on our high streets in recent years, one that I think is particularly promising: the use of unusual spaces to display art. I have written previously about the trails of statues painted for charity that now regularly appear in our cities, my favourite being the Eggs that were dotted all over London in Easter 2012. These seem to be a fun way to use our high streets and to be enthusiastically followed by visitors. I certainly tweeted happily as I came across the Gorillas that graced Norwich earlier this year.
Another, more versatile, opportunity is the use of empty retail space as pop-up galleries. This too has featured in Norwich (Alan Partridge may not offer an accurate representation of that city!), but I have been particularly struck by an initiative in Cambridge. Changing Spaces has been going for about two years now and has become a central part of Cambridge culture. Earlier this year they staged a thought-provoking show in a space on King Street, Excavating the Present by Syrian artist Issam Kourbaj. This combined X-rays of human and animal bodies with aerial photographs of Britain, to make a point about outer and inner landscapes.
On Saturday I went along to one of Changing Spaces’ newest pop-ups on Norfolk Street, to the Private View of Slipping Space Sphere by Chloe Leaper and Aesthesis: Work In Progress by Anji Main. I found Leaper’s installation particularly successful in the way she has built a vulnerable structure of invisible lines and small pieces of wood out from the corner of the room. This means that shadows from the ‘shop’ window intermingle with the abstract pattern/structure that covers the wall behind the installation. This made a brilliant use of the space.
Much like my response to last year’s eggs, that their simple form allowed a more versatile and sensitive reaction to London spaces and to the painted surface, I liked the way that Leaper’s work seemed to respond to its location in a pop-up gallery. Long may this exchange of spaces continue.