Paper, Table, Wall and After and RE:fold
30 November – 6 December 2015
International Exhibition Hall, National Taiwan University of Arts, Taiwan
On 30th November 2015, two exhibitions opened alongside one another at National Taiwan University of Arts (NTUA), Taipei.
Paper, Table, Wall and After, curated by Siân Bowen and Chris Dorsett, was of work by 38 invited artists who, over the preceding four year period, had contributed to the research and teaching at Paper Studio Northumbria – PSN. These included staff from Fine Art, Paper Conservation and Critical Theory; PhD candidates; Graduate and Associate Fellows; artists in residence; alumni; academic visitors; AA2A artists; and colleagues from DIT, Dublin, and Lancaster, Newcastle and Ulster Universities.
The second exhibition, RE-fold, curated by Joanna Hutton, Associate Fellow in PSN, profiled works by 15 students selected from across Northumbria’s Fine Art programmes – BA, MFA, and MA in Fine Art and Education.
As with Paper, Table, Wall and After which was staged at Gallery North, Northumbria University during 2014-15, these two partner exhibitions explored ‘not only how contemporary artists utilise the special properties of paper but also how the passage of paper-based artworks across studio tables and gallery walls can lead to an unknown ‘after’, a contingent world only tentatively related to the immediate concerns of viewing an exhibition’. How they differed from the initial exhibition in the UK was that all participants were invited to make a work on paper that could be folded to the size of an Ordnance Survey map. The remit was not to make a map as such but rather to create a work which could be folded and unfolded and through which visual information might be hidden or revealed. The folding of a large sheet of paper also makes it more transportable as an object – an object that moves easily between two- and three-dimensionality. All participants demonstrated great commitment to the project, each making pieces specifically for the show.
The works were mainly installed across the floor of the gallery – this encouraged an intimate audience engagement. Many visitors spent time crouching, kneeling or sitting on in order to explore the pieces. Conversations developed on the way in which the installation of the works flat on the floor blurred the boundaries between making and viewing – and also connected with the manner in which large works of calligraphy and ink painting are often created flat and whilst kneeling.
These exhibitions also signalled a new relationship in terms of international cooperation concerned with visual arts practice, research and teaching and learning between NTUA and Northumbria University. They were made possible by input from Chun Chao Chiu, alumni of NTUA and Senior Technician in Paper and Print, PSN, and cooperation with the College of Fine Arts and Yo-Chang Art Museum, NTUA. The opening messages were delivered by Principal of NTUA, Dr Chih Cheng Chen, followed by Director of Yo-Chang Art Museum, Dr Chun Lan Liu and also Reader in Fine Art and Director of PSN, Siân Bowen.
Invited artists participating in Paper, Table, Wall and After:
Caroline Ali, Siân Bowen, Alfons Bytautas, Sarah Casey, Chun-Chao Chiu, Jane Colbourne, Gerry Davies, Judith Davies, Chris Dorsett, Hassan Ebeid, Brian Fay, Sophie Foster, Ross Frew, Yvette Hawkins, Angela Hughes, Joanna Hutton, Mark Jackson, Christopher Jones, Agnieszka Kozlowska, Nicola Lee, Lloyd & Wilson, Rachael Macarthur, Louise Mackenzie, Keith McIntyre, Siobhan McQuade, Clare Money, Michael Mulvihill, Daksha Patel, Graham Patterson, Lionel Playford, Joanne Proctor, Ginny Reed, Doris Rohr, Richard Talbot, Carl Von Weiler, Jill Wann, Gina Yang, Kun Zhao.
Selected students participating in RE-fold:
Kenneth Barlow, Julie Bemment, Elizabeth Black, Marina Collinson, Colette Davies, Grace Denton, Helen Fox, David Fudge, Richard Hall, Sally Jeffrey, Hannah Knox, Phil Larry, Motsonian, Theo Scott, Marta Costa Silva.
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