Exhibition News: Process at Arena Gallery, Liverpool

The exhibition Actions at The Bluecoat in January of this year introduced London-based artist Beverley Bennett to Liverpool. Her work incorporates principles of erasure,memorability and gesture in delicate pieces constructed from torn paper and pins, and equally in gestural yet diagrammatic drawings that have been said to recall Constructivism.


In fact, these drawings are simply born of a desire to fully explore what drawing is and what it can be, which is why although she is by no means a performance artist, Bennett describes her work as more than just an end result on paper. She sees her creative process as a series of “acts of play that evolve into ritualistic, performative, labour intensive actions, generating a greater understanding of the processes of making, allowing the 'visual' to become secondary.”

In response to this, Process presents Bennett’s creative ritual as more than mere preparation. It introduces the process as a truly engaging element of her body of work and re-establishes its place at the forefront of her practice. To do this, another creative process is used. A newly commissioned film by documentary filmmaker Timothy Knights shows a labour-intensive artistic representation of Bennett’s studio ritual, the film gives as much insight into Knights’ creative process as Bennett’s. As the viewer engages with the film, the awkward angle at which they are forced to watch leaves a physical memento of the exhibition; a strain that empathises with the exertion of Bennett’s process as they engage with her new and existing work.

Exhibition curated by Davinia Gregory

Gaylene Gould - WriteTalkListen Showroom with Beverley Bennett 02/10

Showroom is a new section that showcases interesting up-coming artists. First up is a Beverley Bennett, a recent graduate that makes intricate marks on paper with ink and brush. The effect is similar to that of deciphering doodles, witnessing a mind wend its journey. At the same time, there is such space and air around the marks that there is also time to let your own mind wander. The work is also sculptural in feel. Some pieces are made 3d by way of securing delicate slithers of paper to the wall with pins. The work feels at once precious and yet transient, like one breath could take it away. Lovely. Beverley’s piece Interruptions illustrates this month’s article ‘Soul Speak in 8 Parts’.

Where did you study?

Middlesex University

Current exhibition

Action! at Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool curated by Sonia Boyce

How would you describe your creative process?

Labour intensive and sense of discovery. I say discovery as I don’t really have a clear sense of what may be produced although the process I adopt is repetitive yet ritualistic

What are the personal traits you most draw on when you work?

The ability to allow happy accidents and ritualistic tendencies to occur through play while staying focused.

How would you like your work to make others feel?

To feel drawn to it yet slightly disturbed on closer inspection.

Which artists/individuals do you most admire?

Agnes Martin, Kara Walker, Chris Ofili, Annette Messager, Franicis Alys, Sophie Calle, John Hillard, Duane Michels, Sonia Boyce – There are quite a few! Individual? It would have to be my mom. Scar is a piece of work inspired by her (first image)

To read the full article visit http://www.writetalklisten.com/showroom/showroom-beverly-bennett/

Gaylene is a writer, broadcaster, coach and project consultant. She has worked in the international cultural sector for twenty years and has programmed and produced across every artform and media. She has worked with a range of international organisations including the Toronto International Film Festival, British Film Institute, FILMCLUB, the Museum Service, Hot Docs Film Festival, and the Arts Council England. She has also directed documentaries for television and is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4’s flagship art show Front Row. She offers coaching sessions and workshops including, most recently, for the Step Change programme at the National Theatre and Royal Opera House. She is an experienced project director and established the Underground Railroad network to support and profile black British artists and creative entrepreneurs. She is a published writer, has lectured extensively and is currently working on her first novel, The Sacrifice. She is Faculty Member of The School of Life and a 2009/10 Clore Fellow.

Action, the Bluecoat Liverpool, 29/01/10 - 30/03/10

Scratch Black

Scar series

No. 1 in Scar series

No. 1 detail

Tomorrow is Uncertain

Tomorrow is Uncertain detail

Interruptions (Black Bile)

Interruptions (Black Bile) detail

Sonia Boyce, pioneer in the Black British cultural renaissance of the 1980s returns to the Bluecoat 25 years  after first exhibiting here with new work Like Love Parts One & Two including a collaboration with Blue Room and Action her selection of emerging artists Beverley Bennett, Appau Boakye-Yiadom, Robin Deacon and Grace Ndiritu.

Boyce has also been invited to curate the Bluecoat’s other gallery spaces in recognition and celebration of her first exhibition at the Bluecoat in 1985 and her inclusion in Tate Liverpool’s Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic exhibition, which opens the same time as Like Love. Her selection, entitled Action, will showcase emerging artists whose themes, issues and approaches contrasts with the platform of ideas presented by a generation 25 years ago. The artists Boyce has chosen are Beverley Bennett, Appau Boakye-Yiadom, Robin Deacon and Grace Ndiritu. 

Sonia said: “I am no longer the central attention in the work I make. Increasingly over the past decade, I have involved the participation of other people. I usually ask them to perform for me and use their responses as the basis for the artworks. Like Love is about my engagement with two communities: a school for young parents in Bristol, and an art group that meets weekly at the Bluecoat consisting of adults with learning difficulties and their carers. In both instances I have used their words and their actions.

“The Action exhibition I am curating allows me to explore my own concerns about the depictions of performative actions in art. And with the four artists I have chosen, the object of their attention is not on depicting themselves.“For example, Beverley Bennett’s subtle artworks become evidence of her interaction with the medium of drawing and then the audience becomes witness.”

An extract of the review by Ed Sexton at Culture 24 entitled 'Sonia Boyce transforms Liverpool's Bluecoat with Like Love - Parts One and Two and Action'

The performative element is carried on through the rest of the Bluecoat's gallery space in the work of three young artists selected by Boyce. 
"It's such an important reflection of the work we do here at the Bluecoat," reflects Parsons.
"We thought it would be interesting to look at young black artists who are just emerging, in a similar position to the one Sonia would have been in 25 years ago, and see what the difference is now."

Beverley Bennett's beautiful, scary pieces in Action. Courtesy Bluecoat

The artists chosen are Beverley Bennett, Appau Boayke-Yiadom, Robin Deacon and Grace Ndiritu, whose themes, issues and approaches contrast with the platform of ideas presented by Sonia's generation of artists.

Bennett's pieces are mounted at eye level for extra impact. Courtesy Bluecoat

Bennett's MA degree, completed six months ago, forms the basis for her pieces, interacting with the medium of drawing using a mix of paper, pins and sharp scoring actions which she says embodies "a sort of Hansel and Gretel approach" in one piece.
"From a distance it looks very alluring, with delicate pieces of paper floating above the background," she observes.
"But when you get close to it it's really quite scary and violent – it's also mounted at eye height, so you come face to face with the pins."
"Action allows me to explore my own concerns about the depictions of performative actions in art," says Boyce.
"With the four artists I have chosen, the object of their attention is not on depicting themselves.
"For example, Beverley Bennett’s subtle artworks become evidence of her interaction with the medium of drawing, and then the audience becomes witness."


For the full review visit - http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art76268


Photography by Alex Wolkowicz