Sunday, February 15, 2015

PRESS RELEASE 1



LEEDS ARTISTS COMBINE TO REFLECT EASTER JOURNEY


Artists from Leeds’ thriving art scene are joining with St Edmunds Church, Roundhay in April 2015 for a unique exhibition of reflections on the Easter journey.

The Stations of the Cross will feature work from fourteen Leeds-based artists, each focusing on a different stage of Jesus’ path to the cross. The show will include sculpture, painting, video, installation and drawing, and hopes to open up some fresh insights on a familiar narrative.

The featured artists come from a range of Christian traditions, as well as those from other faiths or with no religious faith. Sculptor Jon Vogler, one of the featured artists, is a long time member of the St Edmund’s congregation. He explains the significance of the Stations of the Cross:

‘Art seeks to visualise the unimaginable. Since the Middle Ages, the Stations of the Cross have helped believers imagine how one man confronted agony, despair and the finality of death to redeem broken humanity. I am thrilled and fearful to follow great artists who have tackled this awesome subject.’

Exhibition curator Si Smith stressed that the exhibition is open to all:

‘Art provokes thought. Our aim is to stimulate some thinking and discussion about the significance of the Easter story today, rather than seeking to provide pat answers. The recent fuss surrounding Stephen Fry’s comments about God remind us that Christian tradition has never hidden from the issue of suffering. The Stations of the Cross exhibition will help people to reflect on how we make sense of that.’

The Exhibition will run from 26th April to 20th May 2015 at St Edmunds Church, Lidgett Park Road, Roundhay LS8 1JN

 It is curated by Si Smith, a Leeds-based artist and illustrator. He has previously exhibited work in St. Edmund’s church and curated shows and events at the Left Bank venue in Burley and the Greenbelt festival.




Issued by Stations of the Cross

For more information, contact Si Smith
si@simonsmithillustrator.co.uk






Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Introducing... Jay Gadhia

In this second 'Introducing...' post, Curator Si Smith talks with Jay Gadhia about the theraputic value of creating, looking up, and whirling, dervish-like. 

Si: Hi Jay, can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Jay: I am a practicing artist and run my own studio.  I don’t consider myself to have a particular style and transiently flow between disciplines as the mood strikes.  I paint, draw, create installation and sculpt.  For me, the process is often as important as the work produced at the end.  A testament to the process.  Being process led is a safe space akin to a meditative process and often find myself creating work that incorporates repetitive patterns or forms or actions almost making the act of creating art a mantra or prayer. I often find myself lost in the work and consider the practice of making a pure form of divine magic and a type of therapy. 


Si: You've produced work for a couple of other shows that I've curated, and I loved those pieces, so when you agreed to make something for this exhibition I was really pleased :-)
Those other shows were both on an advent theme, and for the first one, back in 2009, you created this beautiful, fragile, sculptural piece on the theme of the magi...

Jay: The Magi piece stemmed from the Persian origin of the kings.  The line of scripture ‘We have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him’ was brush painted repeatedly in what looked like Arabic script but was actually in English on strips of paper.  I also incorporated henna footprints leading towards the light to represent their journey.  I wanted to create an ethereal magi-cal feel to  the piece that forced the viewer to look up in awe.  In the end, isn’t that what we all want and need. Something to look up to and believe in…



Si: Job done with that piece, then - I think it had the desired effect :-)
One of my favourite memories of that show was from a morning when a school group came to visit. At one point, one lad had somehow got himself inside the 'tent' of paper strips and was spinning round in there with his arms outstretched...
there was this mad scramble of teaching staff to remove him before he did any damage, but i loved the way that he just wanted to interact with it...


Jay: I love the fact this brave child dared to cross the socially accepted boundaries reacted to the work in such a physical way.  I like the idea that he flung his arms up spun like a whirling dervish in a trance.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be that free…

Si: Then for the 2012 'ADVENTurous' show, your piece was about the virgin Mary...


Jay: This was quite an emotionally fraught piece.  I really thought about what it must have felt like for Mary to have been given the news that she was to give birth to the saviour of the world.  I created an installation using repeated red prayer strings and beads. The prayer strings lead to a 3 holder candle stick representing the trinity.  In the central candle space I placed a pregnancy test kit and had the red prayer string trapped inside to show ‘Pregnant’ but by the power of the holy spirit.  Again, the repeated form making the prayer strings and attaching the tumble stone beads became a meditative process in order to represent the power of prayer…



Si: And now, looking forward to the Stations of the Cross exhibition - you're tackling the point in the narrative where Christ meets his mother... I think that there are potentially some strong connections back to those previous two works in that. So I was wondering whether you feel that link might carry through into the piece that you're planning to make now...?


Jay: I agree.  There is a recurring theme of a very human reaction to Biblical or divine figures throughout my work.  In the video installation I am using a line of scripture to explore parental relationships to try and understand what Mary must have felt at Station 4 witnessing her given son be condemned.  The piece is called ‘…And a sword will pierce your own soul too…. ’ (Luke 2v35).  I will be using footage of open heart surgery overlaid with submitted written statements from parents discussing their parental bond and what advice they would give their children to pass onto their children long after they have passed.  It is a subject that I am sure many parents think about but rarely discuss with anyone outside their own families.  I hope this piece allows a forum to explore and create a dialogue about a very powerful and sensitive area, but nonetheless key aspect of all our lives – as parents – and as children.



Si: So if people wanted to get involved, how could they do that?


Jay: I am looking for written contributions from across all family and parental groups, and from those who do not have children, for whatever reason. The questions that I would like the volunteers to answer are:


·         Give one piece of advice you would you give to your children to pass on their children?
·         Parenthood means…?
·         What’s the biggest sacrifice you have given for your child? 
·         What legacy would you want to leave to your children? 

You can chose to answer one, all or give a response of your own.  I will then edit down the responses to use in the installation and all submissions will be anonymised.

Please send the responses to: jayartstudio@sky.com

(photos © barnaby aldrick)