Intention – Suzie Pindar

Week one or part one or whatever we decided it was in the end/ What was it? We’re playing it by ear, we’re letting it evolve, part one just happened, part two opens this coming Thursday evening. Part one first, let’s deal with part one, part one, the first show of the Cultivate Columbia Road takeover.  The exhibition opened last Thursday evening, it ran through until Sunday, art was hung, the door was opened, the cat held court, people came, Marnie Scarlet dressed as a fish and invited people to partake in her phishing for fortune.

Intention – Emma Harvey

Part One then, we’re off with Intention,:Cultivate at Columbia Road, the opening group show at the first show of the six week Cultivate residency at Shipton Street Gallery, Columbia Road, East London, a gallery just off the Hackney Road and right by the flower market and everything that that means on a Sunday and such .The first of a series of shows at the gallery from us over the six weeks of the takeover.

The intention was to kick off the six weeks with a short sharp group show, a statement of intent, of intention. A mixed media show featuring more of the circular paintings of Emma Harvey, a show featuring the intrigue of James Bell (James will be with us for the six weeks, we look forward to seeing how his plinth evolves). A mixed media show featuring the performance and this time the artwork of Marnie Scarlet, featuring the sculpture, the assemblage and the (dark?) heart and soul of Mia-Jane Harris, featuring a leaf or two from me (Sean Worrall), the very painterly photography of artist Sofia Martins (do love the way Sofia uses her camera like a painter would), a show featuring the slightly punky attitude of mixed-media artist Suzie Pindar.

The intention was to fill the small room with artistic energy and some healthy cross-pollination, the intention was for some (reasonably) busy walls in the intimate space as we got to know the room and feel of the place, the intention was for an artist-led art show and a collection of artists we rather wanted to bring together and exhibit with.

And so the show opened, the art was hung, the people came, the opening night was great fun, art should be fun, not always fun, but going to a gallery should be fun however serious the art is (and there was some very serious very personal art). We like doing it this way, not for us a set of shows formally planned and nailed down months and months in advance – we have Jessica Scott taking part in show number two, we only just came across her last week at the Art Car Boot Fair when she came over and started taking about Bikini Kill and Dream Nails and such. Hopefully by week six we’ll have work from an artist or two we haven’t heard of yet up on the gallery walls.  We like it to be spontaneous, to let things happen, to react, to take a risk to two.  We might not always get it right, I like to think we get it right more times than we get it wrong though.

Intention – James Bell

So Intention happened, people came, the cat was a star, so was the fish, art was enjoyed, people took selfies, people asked questions, art was views, enjoyed, discussed, art was sold, art was photographed, people were photographed, people from the flower market came in, market traders came in, a painting was traded for a tree, part two kicks in on Thursday , stay tuned now, I thikn part one went alight, we’re starting to get a feel for the space… (SW)

please click on an images to  enlarge  an image or to run the fractured slide show