BasementArtsProject

Phill Hopkins | A House Within A Home

Jadene Imbusch | Pitched

Phill Hopkins & Jadene Imbusch | Collaborations On The Corner

'On the Corner' is a project initiated by BasementArtsProject that will be realised during the Yorkshire Sculpture International: 22.06.19 - 29.09.19 as part of the Index Festival 'OnThe Corner' will be a series of four events that will respond to the YSI 2019 statement proposed by the artist Phyllida Barlow: 'Sculpture is the most anthropological of the art forms' and will respond to the idea that 'there is a basic human impulse to make and connect with objects.'

‘On The Corner’ is a project that is truly intergenerational and is aimed at promoting ideas of art as an important and integral part of the fabric of our society. We ignore art at our peril. Art hones skill, provides employment, provokes thoughts about what it is that makes us who we are and helps to establish our relationship to the world around us. We may want to live longer and healthier lives but without art what would that future look like?

Art is painting and sculpture, art is also photography, sound, music, film, perfumery, furniture design, advertising, graphic design, product design and most other things developed by the human mind and crafted by its associated hand.

Keith Ackerman w/ John Barber (pictured) at the quarry working on Jacobs Ladder (2019) Photo: Keith Ackerman

“Everyone is creative” says Phyllida Barlow, somewhat contentiously, in one of her provocations for the Yorkshire Sculpture International 2019.

Pablo Picasso suggested that “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up”

Phill Hopkins work begins on A House Within A Home (June 2019) Photo: Bruce Davies

Here is the dilemma, it is not that we are uncreative beings but that in the pursuit of ‘a living’ or ‘a career’ we are educated out of creativity as though it is unimportant in the grand scheme of things. This leaves us at a disadvantage, as when in life problems arise, as they generally do, we are unequipped to deal with them in the necessary manner, creatively! The situation of our country at the moment is testimony to what happens when we are forced to put our faith in educated but uncreative people to sort out problems that we no longer comprehend.

Jadene Imbusch working on prototypes for Pitched (June 2019) Photo: Jadene Imbusch

Art can be a career, it can be a living but it can also be a means to its own end. Over the years at BasementArtsProject we have dealt with exhibitions of art that exists for no reason other than to be art, a statement in and of itself. We have also dealt with work that takes local, national and international situations that affect our lives in various ways as its subject matter. Sometimes this is done in a very practical way that involves the participation of the viewer, in other cases an exhibition or event can simply provide a space for contemplation.

2019 is the year of the first Yorkshire Sculpture International and its related independent, grassroots arm that is Index Festival. Having had a programme at BasementArtsProject that has included many national and international events alongside our permanent programme here in South Leeds, we have decided to take an unusual angle for ‘On The Corner’.

On The Corner of Dewsbury & Tunstall Road (2019) Photo: Bruce Davies

For our contribution we have decided to focus on two aspects of art in, but most definitely not restricted to, Leeds. One is the educational, mentoring, apprenticeship and skill based employment aspect of art, and the other is the international nature of those who have made the decision to remain within communities outside of the accepted and acknowledged centres of artistic production.

Dominic Hopkinson ‘Nature of Balance’ (2019) Photo: Dominic Hopkinson

‘On The Corner’ features contributions from educators and students side by side. Dominic Hopkinson, who has donated his 2005 sculpture ‘Nature of Balance’ to the project, spent time in the 1990’s as a technician for artist Peter Randall-Page. More recently his work was included in the Venice Architecture Biennial 2018. Keith Ackerman, also involved in ‘On The Corner’ is currently spending a lot of time in a local quarry carving a piece entitled ‘Jacobs Ladder’ commissioned by BasementArtsProject specifically for this project. Ackerman was, in recent years a student of Hopkinson; both have realised projects with BasementArtsProject between 2015 and now.

Phill Hopkins at the final stages of production on A House Within A Home (August 2019) Photo: Bruce Davies

Phill Hopkins is an artist educated at Goldsmiths in the early eighties, his work now resides in many collections around the world including the Imperial War Museum, Hungarian Museum of Photography, Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art and the Leeds Collection. Born in Beeston, South Leeds, Jadene Imbusch is a student of Fine Art at Loughborough University set to graduate in 2020. For ‘On The Corner’ Hopkins and Imbusch have worked on their own projects ‘A House Within A Home’ (Phill Hopkins) and ‘Pitched’ (Jadene Imbusch). In addition to this they have worked together on a project entitled ‘Collaborations On The Corner’ in which they mailed artworks to each other to work on. This back and forth communication between two artists who had met previously only the once, lasted for seven months and produced eight small scale collaborative works.

Installing part of Jadene Imbusch’s itinerant community amongst the collection at BasementArtsProject (August 2019) Photo: Bruce Davies

In the process of realising their three projects Hopkins has not only worked collaboratively with Imbusch, established artist alongside undergraduate, but also has provided paid work experience for a 16 yr old school leaver on aspects of production such as painting and sound recording. The importance of art in relation to society, economy and personal development cannot be stated loudly enough. The age range of the artists involved with ‘On The Corner’ spans 40 years the youngest being 21 and the oldest 61, a curious and inspirational admix of youth and age, experience and enthusiasm, insight and experiment.

Work experience / Artist’s Assistant Photo: Bruce Davies

Saturday 10th August sees the launch of the first three of the five projects associated with ‘On The Corner’ to be completed. A month and a half since the launch of Index Festival and the Yorkshire Sculpture International, Hopkins and Imbusch’s residencies are finished and it is time to turn the work over for public consumption.

We hope you will join us for this event 12-5pm in the afternoon and celebrate with us in the completion in this significant stage of what is a project with grand ambitions for South Leeds, the artists and students with whom we are working.

We hope to see you there.

After the Preview the exhibition will be open: