A New World In The Morning

Art is reliant upon the emergent; by which I mean the creation of one thing out of another, the development of new ideas, new practice, new meaning, new relations, the production of new artworks, and not merely the peculiar hierarchical designation of emergent given to artists before they achieve any kind of visibility. 

For a brief moment this exhibition was going to be called Epigeal; this is the method of germination in which a plant brings the seed leaf above ground to power its growth in sunlight. Having previously produced a publication called Hypogeal which took the opposite method as a metaphor for powering growth underground, as we regularly do here at BasementArtsProject, I liked the use of this analogy for an exhibition that will take place in the sunlight and open air.

Eventually, having decided that this new moniker of ‘BasementOverground’ described the above ground process enough, the decision was made to look more at the nature of the work being produced and what has driven the production of these new and very specific works. In light of the lockdowns of the last year and the narrative that was ‘emerging’ in conversation about these works, the title ‘Emergence’ was very quickly settled upon.

This particular grouping of artists came about due to a number of existing connections, friendships and networks that have evolved over time. Often there has been an overlap in interests and artistic practice, this has led to the formulation of alliances to produce new work, some of which have been quite formal and others more ad hoc. Emergence is an exhibition based around one pre-existing alliance; that of Keith Ackerman and Adam Glatherine, Lens&Chisel, who have previously exhibited as a duo at BasementArtsProject, John Barber, currently working as a technician on the Jacob’s Ladder project with Keith in South Leeds, Pippa Eason, another previous exhibitor at BasementArtsProject and Paul Miller. 

BasementArtsProject is, to continue using nature as a metaphor, part of art’s mycelium; that substructure of interconnecting bodies underground that form a life supporting system. Exhibitions are the spores of this continual process of learning, creating and engaging below the surface on the occasions that they make it above ground, to be taken, consumed and, in the end, fed back into the system as sustenance for life and understanding further down the line.

As we emerge into a post-pandemic world, rubbing our eyes and blinking in the sunlight, the importance of the root system becomes apparent. The things that we thought may not survive did in fact just die back for an exceptionally long winter. One of art’s greatest advantages, and also its biggest millstone, is its cockroach like ability to survive the best and worst of times. Art has been with us since the dawn of human existence and it will be there at the end of it. 

Bruce Davies | May 2021