Black Sun

In 2006 I was invited to participate in Frenzy; L’Art Decoratif D’Aujourd Hui at The Metropole Galleries in Folkestone; an historic public space funded by the Arts Council, England. The Metropole is a roccoco ballroom which has operated as a public gallery since 1950, hosting exhibitions by Henry Moore, Bridget Riley, Tacita Dean, Michael Landy. Artists were invited to make a direct response to the space exploring the relation between contemporary practice and decoration. I installed a 30ft in situ work The Black Sun in the Weed Garden interacting with the plasterwork of the venue and posing questions about the processes and field relations of painting. Alongside Frenzy I co-organised a screening The Devil is in the Detail which included my animation The Eye of a Dream: a key in the development of the installed work, both a tool of production and a reformulation of the elements of the site specific piece. The animation was subsequently shown in Transiti, Spaca Cultura, Hotel Aemilia, Bologna, Italy and reproduced in a press review, then at London Assembly L’Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts , Brussels, 2007. The Black Sun was reproduced in the review in the Guardian Guide and also used as the poster for London Assembly. Five Years is an artist led collective operating from London since 1999 and now based in Hackney alongside MOT and Transition Galleries. I have worked closely with 5 Years since its inception and was invited in 2007 to become a member of the committee. Five Years has provided a space for my research into painting as collaborative, site-specific and event-based practice. My exhibitions there have included :Drop-Out, 2001,The Difference Between You 2001 and Us, ,Or Not 2002, Sound and Visions 2002, The Invention of Painting 2002. Goo Goo Muck 2007. and a solo show Huis Clos 2007