Contributing Artists
Linda Duffy / Mo Lewis / Stuart Mayes / Joao Ornelas / Dolores Sanchez Calvo / m p villaseñor / Mandy Williams
Introduction
FORENSIC is an exhibition of responses, by seven artists, to the space at 55 Leroy Street.
55 Leroy Street has undergone a series of transformations; having started life as a Wheelwrights’ workshop, it has housed a succession of wholesalers, manufacturing and light industrial businesses and most recently, creative businesses. It is now awaiting a new lease of life – its transformation to residential apartments is imminent.
The work presented explores and responds to the history and stories of the space – to the industries and people that have passed through the building, the associated activities and events that have occurred, and to the physical structure of the building.
Fragments, objects, traces and documented records provide a glimpse into this past. The physical decay of the building evidences the effect of the passage of time. The light passing through the space on its daily cycle is a constant, yet its form is ever evolving with the weather and the seasons.
The artists’ responses invite us to ponder what has been before, what is and what will be. We are invited to question the relationship between the real and what the imagination imposes or evokes.
The individual responses to the space have evolved into a cohesive body of work that feels like it belongs to the building. The work has become part of the building and its history.
55 Leroy Street has undergone a series of transformations; having started life as a Wheelwrights’ workshop, it has housed a succession of wholesalers, manufacturing and light industrial businesses and most recently, creative businesses. It is now awaiting a new lease of life – its transformation to residential apartments is imminent.
The work presented explores and responds to the history and stories of the space – to the industries and people that have passed through the building, the associated activities and events that have occurred, and to the physical structure of the building.
Fragments, objects, traces and documented records provide a glimpse into this past. The physical decay of the building evidences the effect of the passage of time. The light passing through the space on its daily cycle is a constant, yet its form is ever evolving with the weather and the seasons.
The artists’ responses invite us to ponder what has been before, what is and what will be. We are invited to question the relationship between the real and what the imagination imposes or evokes.
The individual responses to the space have evolved into a cohesive body of work that feels like it belongs to the building. The work has become part of the building and its history.
Linda Duffy - Traces & Evidence
Photo courtesy of Kirstie Crail
Linda Duffy has collected and catalogued fragments and objects found on-site. These materials evidence the succession of people that have passed through, and the activities that have taken place in, the space.
Drawings that trace incidental marks and stains evidencing the effects of time on the physical structure of the building are installed with a selection of the collected objects and a time continuum map.
The map explores the succession of people, companies and industries that have inhabited and used the space over time. The mapping reveals the process of change that has occurred in the building - this building becomes a case study of the process of change that has occurred in the area immediately surrounding the building, and in the wider world, as we have passed from the industrial to the information age.
lm_duffy@yahoo.com
www.linda-duffy.com
Drawings that trace incidental marks and stains evidencing the effects of time on the physical structure of the building are installed with a selection of the collected objects and a time continuum map.
The map explores the succession of people, companies and industries that have inhabited and used the space over time. The mapping reveals the process of change that has occurred in the building - this building becomes a case study of the process of change that has occurred in the area immediately surrounding the building, and in the wider world, as we have passed from the industrial to the information age.
lm_duffy@yahoo.com
www.linda-duffy.com
Mo Lewis - White Light
Mo Lewis creates work that explores the natural light in the space. The light entering the building changes - from minute to minute and day to day, yet considered over a period of years it remains a kind of constant.
White Light
White morning light, low in the November sky
flooding through the grilled windows,
casting diagonal shadows onto the wall,
giving new life to this corner of this derelict building.
55 Leroy Street, noon November 2007
Small diamond shapes of light appearing,
gently moving across the wall.
growing larger, spreading, becoming a triangle.
55 Leroy Street, noon February 2008
Small circle of light appearing on the wall,
It's position is low now, it moves slowly along the wall,
dancing, then more light appears in the corner
I use my charcoal to catch the movement.
55 Leroy Street, noon March 2008
Mo Lewis, 6 March 2008
molewis20@yahoo.co.uk
White Light
White morning light, low in the November sky
flooding through the grilled windows,
casting diagonal shadows onto the wall,
giving new life to this corner of this derelict building.
55 Leroy Street, noon November 2007
Small diamond shapes of light appearing,
gently moving across the wall.
growing larger, spreading, becoming a triangle.
55 Leroy Street, noon February 2008
Small circle of light appearing on the wall,
It's position is low now, it moves slowly along the wall,
dancing, then more light appears in the corner
I use my charcoal to catch the movement.
55 Leroy Street, noon March 2008
Mo Lewis, 6 March 2008
molewis20@yahoo.co.uk
Stuart Mayes - Janus
Janus invites visitors to climb up and crawl under an old decorator’s ladder. These two actions enable you to look into rooms above and below the first floor.
The spy-hole devices that Mayes has installed are in line with each other and effectively pierce the building from top to bottom. These holes create a vertical axis through the rooms. They also expose a specific time line linking the second floor office with the unused ground floor. The office is used by the architects who are redeveloping the building. The ground floor is home to assorted remnants left by previous tenants. Janus can be seen as connecting the past (ground floor) with the future (first floor).
info@stuartmayes.com
The spy-hole devices that Mayes has installed are in line with each other and effectively pierce the building from top to bottom. These holes create a vertical axis through the rooms. They also expose a specific time line linking the second floor office with the unused ground floor. The office is used by the architects who are redeveloping the building. The ground floor is home to assorted remnants left by previous tenants. Janus can be seen as connecting the past (ground floor) with the future (first floor).
info@stuartmayes.com
Joao Ornelas - Untitled
Joao Ornelas removes and relocates a segment of the interior fabric. This segment evidences the outcome of human interaction with the building. It is framed to present a snapshot of an event that has occurred.
Dolores Sanchez Calvo - The Closing Door
A door and frame is reinstalled in the corner of a room where there is no opening.
"The Closing Door" addresses the old history of the building as well as the imminent conversion into flats, with new spaces and doors. The door symbolises the change from one world to another. Doors and thresholds refer to life and future physical and psychological boundaries between 2 spaces. It raises questions of how a human being is defined by the space it occupies and is a metaphor for a trapped building with no future until a new one is created.
doloresfoto@yahoo.co.uk
"The Closing Door" addresses the old history of the building as well as the imminent conversion into flats, with new spaces and doors. The door symbolises the change from one world to another. Doors and thresholds refer to life and future physical and psychological boundaries between 2 spaces. It raises questions of how a human being is defined by the space it occupies and is a metaphor for a trapped building with no future until a new one is created.
doloresfoto@yahoo.co.uk
m pi villaseñor - tea room
Each space has invisible ties across the past, present and the future. 55 Leroy Street housed a succession of small and diverse industries, from a coat-hanger manufacturer and an advertising company to an underwear factory and the London Tea Store. It contained objects both varied and suggestive. Exploring the past, and motivated by the evidence of these objects, I would like to reclaim and extol them in the space where they belong. An invisible line links the visualisation of some of the activities hosted by the space itself.
mpvillasenor@yahoo.es
mpvillasenor@yahoo.es
Mandy Williams - Slice
Slice is a single black and white photographic print that hangs from the ceiling to the floor like a rolled out wallpaper strip. Hanging beside the peeling walls with their exposed layers of wallpaper and ply-board, the photo takes this idea of archaeological layering and applies it to the trades that have occupied this building, the procession of manufacturers that passed through in the 20th century. Sub strata of textures – plaster, metal and cloth - acknowledge the work that was produced here and those that spent their time here. As the building imminently transforms into modern apartments it’s past becomes merely a design element, a backdrop. By producing the work in this format, I hope to convey that translation of history and fortune.
mandylwilliams@yahoo.co.uk
mandylwilliams@yahoo.co.uk
