I discovered the remnants of a woman’s life in amongst a bonfire ashes and brought them home to assemble two sculptures. They became the starting point of a larger body of work that has evolved to scrutinise wider aspects of the UK sex industry.

One day I touched a piece of sculpture, I felt its form, I ran my hands around it and it had presence, in that moment I understood why I wanted to create. That was 10 years ago, the moment I finally made the commitment to exploring creative expression. The next morning I borrowed the kids colour pencils and drew an apple, it was the best apple I have ever drawn. I have been doing it everyday since. 

My memories of being five and sat in a room full of furniture ten times bigger than they actually should be are vivid, and further embedded when I recall the sound of the Polyphon. A coin, 2p, is put in the slot, it wends its way down through the mechanism clinking and clanking as it goes. Eventually it rattles as it drops into a pit of other two pence pieces. The machine grinds into life and music drifts out into the quiet, rarefied atmosphere of the galleries.

Alchemy is a philosophical and proto-scientific practice that goes back as far as the ancient Egyptians in which the aim is to purify, change and perfect certain objects. The most common perception of this practice is in the desire to change base metals into precious ones.

Emilia Telese | Scents of Self

Scents of Self is a new immersive, site specific installation by Emilia Telese exploring pattern, body style and the sense of smell. 

Perfumery has a rich and varied history, and has been utilised in all manner of endeavour – including ritual and ceremony, medicine, burial preparation, political statement, a declaration of religious or monarchical status and, of course, for daily wear. Over time, the process of creating perfume has become more refined and more commercially viable, paving the way for the fragrance industry as we know it, and for the plethora of fragrances available to consumers today.

I want to talk about my thoughts on three things: Blackpool rock, Britney Spears and the National Express. If you think one of these things doesn’t look like the other, just bear with me. 

And so, as we pass the halfway mark of the year we can look forward to the last three exhibitions of the year and reflect on that which has gone before.

Breaking the Sound Barrier 8 is the eighth iteration of a long running audio / remix project by artists Alan Dunn and Martyn Rainford. What began as a collaborative track on one of Dunn’s numerous compilation CD’s, A History of Background, evolved into a 5:1 surround sound installation presented at BasementArtsProject in August 2012. Beyond this the track has been remixed  and re-presented in various formats in different cities around the UK as well as elsewhere in the world. 

Monday morning saw the beginning of two installations and one de-install that would end later in the week with two new exhibition previews, one in Manchester on Thursday night and the other in Leeds on Friday night, followed by a weekend of keeping them open to the public.

Together BasementArtsProject and Depot Art Studios prepare to open a collaborative exhibition this Thursday evening (12th April). The project, originally scheduled to happen during Sluice Art Fair in October last year, has an extra period of gestation but is now ready to go ahead later this week. 

The smallest dungeon cell featured in this series of work is from Chester city walls, and, as with all of the dungeons featured, is hidden deep underground. There is an interesting contemporary account of the size of this cell by someone who visited it as a gruesome tourist attraction, long after it was last used. They described it as a small space, carved out of the rock to fit the dimensions of a man. It had room for the head, and became wider to fit the shoulders and chest. When the door was closed on the person inside they had no room to sit or lie down.

Being forced to consider how certain events have made us feel allows us a way to deal with and potentially make peace with our past. For Khan the process of setting up a performance necessarily means setting up an air of disquiet in which to work, for him this is the past colliding with the present.

“A Study of Aperiodic Tiling With Special Reference to the 3rd Dimension” underscored how the curation of the space is capable of moving quickly, following up on previous work and exhibitions and providing a valuable mechanism for artists to explore themes over time.

 I love having the mind of the artist around, and the work ethic; contrary to what lie you may have been fed, there is a lot of hard slog behind what may be described as ‘ I could do that’.  I especially love that a space in my house can be transformed and I can venture down with glass of wine in hand and feel that transformation for the first time, along with both friends and strangers.