Where next?

Found Space is researching and developing a couple of new ideas: one is fairly long-term and won't happen until next year, but the other is more immediate.

We need a small number of artists to produce one-off pieces for a small public space. It has good passing traffic, and is dry and secure. We're looking for bold, attention-grabbing work, possibly with some moving image or kinetic element.

More details to follow, but feel free to register your interest by sending us a brief email, ideally including a link to a website where we can view some of your current work.

Stowage installed at Barnaby

Whereas previously the pieces were spread across 17 shops, they are now grouped together in a single venue. We have lost some of the site-specific links, but new connections and resonances have appeared.

The show is only viewable from the street, but we've included some interior shots here too. The work is in the main window area and on shelving behind, with The Grimm North's nasty surprise lurking in a shadowy corner just visible inside the door.

The Magnificient Morse Mints are wired up and ready to start talking to each other across the shop at night. The space is also illuminated by lights from work by Felicity Shillingford and Laurel Coxon. Megan Calver's little 'Aladdin's lamp', made of hi-vis material, glows day and night from the shop's dark interior.

The identification labels are from a children's spelling game and refer viewers to an information sheet posted in the window.

http://foundspace.co.uk/macclesfield.pdf

Installing Stowage in Macclesfield

All 21 pieces came to Macclesfield, some with slight adjustments to make them suitable for the new venue.

For insurance and safety reasons, we haven't been able to leave the shop open so haven't been able to make full use of the sweet-jar-sized shelves at the back. (Most work is simply too detailed to be viewed at that distance, so has been placed in the window area.) However, almost all of the shop interior is visible from the street, so we have spread work across the whole space.

In keeping with the spirit of Stowage in Exeter, we're fitting in with the shop as we find it and, as far as possible, improvising with what's to hand.

Stowage at Barnaby Festival, Macclesfield

Most of the work will be touring to the Barnaby Festival in Macclesfield and will be on show from Friday 18th to Sunday 20th June for the festival and then for two weeks more. You can find it in the window of Shackleton & Sons (a disused shop), 2-4 Church St, Macclesfield, SK11 6LB

Stowage in Art Cornwall

Account of the exhibition in Art Cornwall, an online journal for UK art, artists and galleries.
http://www.artcornwall.org/exhibitions/Stowage_Exeter.htm

Fiona Hamilton & Jane Lawrence in Stowage

Fiona Hamilton & Jane Lawrence worked with the staff and customers of Heavenly Yarns to develop their piece the kniTted about the memories and motivations associated with the activity of knitting.

Locations of other works can be found in the Stowage map and guide.

Felicity Shillingford in Stowage

Flocked can be found in Shaker Maker, but is best viewed after dark. It consists of birds trapped in a jar and a tangle of fibre-optic cable.

Locations of other works can be found in the Stowage map and guide.

Maddy Pethick and David Chatton Barker in Stowage

Two separate works: Cat Fold by Maddy Pethick (left) and Fore Street Allsorts by David Chatton Barker (right) in the Read and Return bookshop.

Locations of other works can be found in the Stowage map and guide.

Stowage in the news and reviews

http://www.peoplesrepublicofsouthdevon.co.uk/2010/04/30/exeters-west-quarter-bottled-for-art/

http://www.a-n.co.uk/interface/reviews/single/627491

Ben Langworthy & Scott Daniels in Stowage

Magnificient Morse Mints is installed in Otto Retro and Exeter Peace Shop and is best viewed after dark, when the two sweet jars start signalling to each other across the the road.

Locations of other works can be found in the Stowage map and guide.

Buff Lancaster-Thomas in Stowage

Gimblejube (consisting of pins, a bee and a lead cast of a jelly baby) refers to the dangers of childhood obesity. It can be found in Rochelle's Curtains.

Locations of other works can be found in the Stowage map and guide.

Jill Randall in Stowage

Jill Randall's Sheds of Rossendale - Log Cabin (a scale model of a shed in the Rossendale Valley, Lancashire) has been placed in Devon Diecast Models.

Locations of other works can be found in the Stowage map and guide.

Kwong Lee in Stowage

Kwong Lee's Emergency has been placed in Fantasy World, a fancy-dress hire and novelties shop.

Locations of other works can be found in the Stowage map and guide.

More images from Fore Street and New Bridge Street coming soon.

Gabrielle Hoad in Stowage

Gabrielle Hoad's Is and Was can currently be found in Holly Hemmings Herbalist. This business is relocating before the exhibition closes, so this work may be moving to another site.

Locations of other works can be found in the Stowage map and guide.

Ben Cook in Stowage

Ben Cook’s interest in surf culture and the Cornish landscape finds a new outlet in Granite Jar, which is made of paint and surf wax. It's located in Moorland Rambler.

Locations of other works can be found in the Stowage map and guide.

Steven Paige in Stowage

Steven Paige's piece Burnt Sugar can be found in Off the Hook, a clothing store. The jar has been engraved and filled with molasses. The engraved text describes the different stages of sugar as it is cooked.

Locations of other works can be found in the Stowage map and guide.

John Maxwell Goodwin in Stowage

The first of a number of photos of work in situ in Fore Street and New Bridge Street.

This is You can take the ‘X’ out of Exeter, but you can’t take the Exeter out of the ‘X’ by John Maxwell Goodwin, a bisected, mirrored jar that has been placed in tma2, a hairdressing salon.

Anyone searching for the second piece in tma2, apologies, it's not yet arrived.

Locations of all the works can be found in the Stowage map and guide.

Launch of Stowage - 17th April 2010

There was a great turn-out for the launch event at Tuckers Hall, Fore Street - a 15th century guild hall associated with Exeter's once-prosperous wool trade. Artists from Devon, Cornwall and Manchester attended, along with staff from shops in Fore Street and New Bridge Street and other local businesses. We also had visitors from the Royal Albert Memorial Musuem, Spacex, Plymouth Arts Centre, OrganicArts and CCANW.

Food for thought

Big thanks to the following local producers for kindly donating food and drink to our opening event.

Traditional straw-pressed cider from Brimblecombe's Cider, Farrants Farm, Dunsford EX6 7BA
Master crafted beers from O'Hanlon's Brewery
Hand-fried potato chips from Burts Chips
Fine cheddar from Quickes Traditional Ltd
Wild garlic baguettes from Bread of Devon
Cheese biscuits from Ginny Lyons Catering

Thanks too, to Tuckers Hall for allowing us to host the launch event in style, making it a true celebration of local trade and creativity.

Putting everything in place

We started installing Stowage on 12 April, with some of the artists coming along to help with their own work. It's been a busy time so we don't have many photos, but the top picture shows Izzy Bright-Roberts of The Grimm North making final adjustments to her piece in Otto Retro, while the lower photo shows Megan Calver (right) discussing the position of her jar in Langans with Felicity Shillingford.

Getting the word out

We have had a write up and a tweet from Arts+Culture
Word is also spreading via our Facebook events page.

Where's it's at

At last, lower Fore Street and New Bridge Street make it on to Google Street View. Welcome to our gallery!

Match-making

Proposals from the artists are due in by Friday 19th - some have already arrived and we're seeing a really exciting range of ideas and approaches. We'll be sitting down soon to match artworks with suitable locations. We'll then visit traders with information on the works they'll be asked to host and to iron out any special installation requirements.

Next stop Macclesfield

Plans are afoot to take Stowage on to the Barnaby Festival in Macclesfield in June. Watch this space. http://www.barnabyfestival.org.uk/

Latest from the West Quarter

Fiona Hamilton and Jane Lawrence have joined the Knit and Natter group at Heavenly Yarns. Scott Daniels and Ben Langworthy are working on a morse code communication to link Exeter Peace Shop and Otto Retro. They are among the 24 artists showing work in shop windows in Exeter's West Quarter this April as part of Stowage.

24 artists confirmed for Stowage

A total of 24 artists from the North East, North West and South West of England have confirmed they will be producing work for Stowage. The show will take place in the shop windows of Exeter's Fore Street and New Bridge Street this April.

Artist update

The following links are are for anyone wanting to find out more about the artists taking part in Stowage in April 2010. Let us know if you'd like to add a link.

Andrea Zapp (Manchester)
Ben Cook (Cornwall)
Bill Longshaw (Manchester)
Buff Lancaster-Thomas (Devon)
Chris Knight (Manchester)
Chrissie Morgan (Durham)
David Chatton Barker (Devon)
Felicity Shillingford (Devon)
Fiona Hamilton and Jane Lawrence (Somerset)
Gabrielle Hoad (Devon)
Hilary Jack (Manchester)
Isgard Bright-Roberts and Jeremy Haughty (Devon)
Janet Griffiths (Manchester)
Jill Randall (Yorkshire)
John Goodwin (Devon)
Kwong Lee (Manchester)
Laurel Coxon (Devon)
Maddy Pethick (Devon)
Megan Calver (Devon)
Scott Daniels and Ben Langworthy Devon)
Steven Paige (Cornwall)