Sam Dargan – More Work For The Undertaker
12th November – 6th December, 2009
Thursday – Sunday, 1-6pm

Image: 20's 30's Powderkeg Europe!

Private View: Tuesday 10th November, 6-8pm

Tether are delighted to present Sam Dargan’s first solo exhibition in Nottingham, ‘More Work For The Undertaker’ at The Wasp Room.

Often responding to cinematic imagery and 20th Century literature as well as popular culture (referencing the music of the Fall and Half Man Half Biscuit amongst others) and more recently the melancholy and underlying savagery of photographic reportage, Dargan’s paintings are infused with contemporary commentary. Reminiscent of imagery seen in daily newspapers and depicting scenes and props from unrealised revolutions, these fragmented narratives are packed with hostility; commenting in part on the imbalance of power systems and the inherent paranoia that imbues conspiracy theories.

Disillusioned and listless revolutionaries linger in numb resignation, whilst abused figures in the aftermath of physical harm fathom their lot. Often bound, gagged, bruised or scarred, they exist in a world in which meaning has been lost and ideals have failed. Though their plight is tragic, it is not without a sense of humour. Like Mel Brooks once said “Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall down an open manhole cover and die”.

For the exhibition, Dargan will be presenting a mixture of new and old works and a specially produced limited edition publication, which will be available from the gallery during the private view, or upon request.

Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

ArtCrawl

The ArtCrawl is a multi-venue, all night event to be held in Nottingham city centre. It will begin at Tether Studios at 8pm, alongside the launch of Murder in the Kremlin at The Wasp Room. Art Crawl guides Andrew Knight and Annette Foster will then take visitors around a number of venues in the city where artworks will be exhibited and experienced.

Artists from across the UK have been selected to show work with an emphasis on interaction and participation.

Featured artists include:
Alexandra Lockett & Ian England
Ben Dawson
Drunken Chorus
Elena Cassidy-Smith
Emily Hayes
Exit Here
Hamish Walker
Harriet Startin
Jemma Egan
Katie Doubleday & Andrew Brown
Laurence Payot
Miyuki Kasahara
Nathania Hartley
Stuart McAdam

Films by:
Dave Richards
David Blandy
Gemma Marie-Longbottom
Ivar Waldemarson
Mark Bell
Mark Jones
Molly Palmer
Nicky Cary & Antonio DiBenedetto
Pic Pic Andre
Rebecca Bibby
Robert Bidder

Music by:
The Kull
We Show Up On Radar
Tom Thomas Club

The tour will conclude at Tether Studios with music, film and a shared breakfast at sunrise (approximately 5am).

Places are limited, so booking is essential. Visit http://www.tether.org.uk or email artcrawlnottingham@gmail.com for details and booking.

The ArtCrawl is curated by Timothy Dixon, Katherine Webborn and Matthew Cooper in association with Tether and with support from the Arts Council through the National Lottery.

Murder in The Kremlin

May 30th – June 14th
Private View : May 29th, 6-8pm followed by The Art Crawl

For the third and final show in the Wasp Room gallery’s inaugural season of exhibitions, Tether present ‘Murder in the Kremlin’; a tale of espionage, paranoia and death.

In this age of 24‐hour CCTV, where our daily lives are increasingly recorded, newspapers manufacture stories to sell copies and satellite news channels do
anything to keep us watching, who can we trust anymore? Amidst the paranoia and propaganda how can we hope for a simple answer?

With a story slowly unraveling before us, we piece together all we can to make sense of what we see. All that we know for sure is that we are in troubled times.

Collaborating on this large multi‐faceted group installation, Tether will use a variety of methods and media to create frozen moments, or episodes, in an untold narrative, with shades of the Hollywood thriller.

Supported by The National Lottery through Arts Council England and Nottingham Brewery

The Wasp Room is pleased to present ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’, the first UK exhibition by Parisian artist Anthony Peskine.

Adopting and adapting the visual languages of advertising campaigns and with a keen sense of the absurd, Peskine’s work is concerned with the predicament of the loser, and how promises are rarely fulfilled.

Peskine seeks to satirise the way in which aspiration and hope are exploited as a manipulative device. He uses his own disappointment and disillusionment to drive a varied artistic practice that ranges from painting and photography, to text pieces, video works and installations.

Offering humorous alternatives to insincere pledges and conceited slogans, mocking intangible fears and superficial aspirations fed by media sensationalism, Peskine’s previous work has included large painted recreations of vouchers printed on ticket stubs which had offered “mega savings of 50p”, and a series of street-based interventions in which he adapted billboard slogans, including a political campaign by Nicolas Sarkozy, adding his own message “ou pas” (or not); rendering their ‘guarantees’ contentious and putting their artificial optimism in jeopardy.

Peskine’s sharp, sarcastic critiques, though cynical and perhaps even childish at times, offer a strategy to fight disappointment; advocating humour as an effective escape philosophy.

For ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’, Peskine will be exhibiting a selection of recent works and new pieces, including the deadpan installation ‘My Weight in Potato Crisps’ and a series of manipulated photo works with bizarre and prophetic narratives.

Who Do You Think You Are? has been kindly sponsored by Crips crisps & Nottingham Brewery. The Wasp Room is supported by The National Lottery through Arts Council England.

http://www.tether.org.uk

Tom Down - A Far Sunset

The Wasp Room is pleased to announce ‘A Far Sunset’: the first solo exhibition by Tom Down. The exhibition is open from March 26th – April 11th, Thursday – Sunday, with a private view on March 24th, 6-8pm. There will be a talk by the artist on April 1st, from 7pm.

Uniting previous threads of his artistic practice, Tom Down has chosen to transform the gallery into a quasi-archival space. Utilising and displaying a collection of diverse images, objects and text, where distinctions between the found and the constructed are continually blurred. These individual elements span a broad range of references from heraldry and history painting to sci-fi illustration. Through the use of these established genres, his work pertains to romantic notions of conquest and exploration, presenting an ultimately futile attempt to regain a certain lost spirit that those embody.

The work revels in these fantastic ideals, whilst naggingly reminding us these are yet to be realised, so obviously showing us what we want that it points more to the absent than the represented. Even the title of the show, appropriated from an Edmund Cooper novel, continually alludes to something that can be seen but never reached.

Constantly aware of the futility of the attempt, these elements are unified by a characteristic use of materials, an obsessive, hobbyist-like enthusiasm that permeates through the work. This approach tests the artist to his limits, in an effort to convince himself that the ideals he explores are still worthwhile, still valid.

For more information, visit tether.org.uk or download the press release.

Tether have been awarded funding by The National Lottery through Arts Council England for eighteen months of development, which will cover a number of projects, including The Wasp Room gallery and Tethervision.

We’d like to thank Michelle and Mira for their support in our application.

Tether will be curating this month’s Digital Broadway programme of original videos and animations.

Featuring work by artists James Brown, Anthony Peskine and Joseph Mann, the films possess a shared concern for fantasy, absurdity and playful innocence. Using cinematic techniques reminiscent of early and amateur cinema –cut-outs, stop-frame animation, home-made ‘green screen’ effects- Tether’s commissions are beautifully awkward and imaginative.

Such ideas relate closely to Tether’s wider activity, in which they curate exhibitions and produce work as a group; projects produced in collaboration with an emphasis on invention and inter-disciplinarity.

More information can be found at broadway.org.uk or our minisite

Tether and Digital Broadway are supported by The National Lottery through Arts Council England