Both Katherine Hymers and Sarah Evans took the risk of presenting and then talking about their work in a semi - public setting - one artist had created a piece in a short space of time and in a completely new space - Wysing’s window room project space - the other artist had edited and reedited a piece but felt unsure about presenting it as a finalized work to a public or semi-public audience.  To undertake that scrutiny and potential critique of an audience is extremely brave and i hope it felt as rewarding as it did for that said audience.  The evening was among friends but it still felt a rigorous enough process for the artists to feel justified and proud of themselves for taking those steps.

 I enjoyed every minute of the films that were presented and really enjoyed the fact that people new to Wysing felt they too could contribute to a discussion and say just how they felt in reaction to a piece or a presentation.   As a space too i felt the window room had enough informality to be friendly and unintimidating but enough challenge as both a space for art and as a serious place to present and host a discussion on their practice. 

I will keep the vision of the falling snow and the gently swinging figure - in a secret forest somewhere - with me despite the current summer sun.

The Wysing evenings whether organised informally or formally are going from strength to strength and a real testament to the developing community of artists who are not only prepared to share their work but also to step out of their comfort zone and both organise things for themselves but also to host and present themselves to a wider audience - something not all artists are prepared to do.  The more the merrier.

Thank you.

As a way of introducing Sarah’s new work, ‘Northern Light’, which is now showing in the window room, I would like to share some thoughts that arose during some of the conversations we’ve had over the past few months….

Firstly, I suppose I was interested in how Sarah might use the space to make as well as show work. I was aware that Sarah had spent a number of days in the Margaret Harvey Gallery in Hertfordshire, creating an installation, for her solo show, making the work in situ…..Sitting in her studio I recall talking about the difficulties that come with this approach…making private work in a public space. The differences between losing oneself in the process of making that occurs in the studio, following an idea and an aesthetic for the pleasure of doing so, but also the danger of becoming too precious about the work before it is even seen. Also, the difficulty in carving out a chunk of time in the week to give oneself the time and space to focus, to make, to spend time with the work.

Maybe working outside the studio enables one to step outside of a comfort zone, to commit to a timeframe, to respond immediately to a space in a given timescale?….But also giving consideration to how the window room operates. Primarily it’s a social space, a shared space. I think it is fair to say that Sarah expressed an interest in using the space not only to make and show work, but also as an opportunity to consider the importance of contextualising the work.  The conversations and discussions that have come about through the use of the window room have never had a formal structure, yet these openings allow a chance to begin to articulate something of the work, for both artist and viewer, to find affinities and differences across practices.

So, having asked Sarah to ‘use’ the window room, I didn’t want to curate her work as such, but rather try to facilitate in a way that would be helpful to her being able to use the space…to be around if she needed a pair of hands, or in setting up a more formal way of us as a group of artists discussing her work in the window room, and her approach to the space. Therefore, ‘Northern Light’ is now showing in the window room, and we will have an informal get together, to which everyone is welcome, on Thursday 24 July at about 16:30pm. 

Here are a couple of pictures taken at Sarah’s private view last night at Margaret Harvey Gallery, St. Albans.

Sarah’s P.V1

Sarah’s P.V2

Congratulations to Sarah on a beautifully and sensitively presented Solo show.