A collection of artists from around the UK

One night only: Wednesday 24th February 2010 6-8pm with music till late

The Vaults, Newhall Hill, Birmingham, B1 3JH

TROVE is the first gallery invited by ARC to present a one night only exhibition at The VAULTS in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, UK.

Each month ARC invites regional guest curators to present an exhibition of works to be exhibited at The VAULTS, with TROVE kicking off their 2010 programme.

The Vaults Bazaar brings together a selection of regional and national artists that TROVE invited to take part in this exhibition. Each offering a different proposal of work, each vault will be different from classic painting through film to performance, a truly bizarre mix.

Artists include:

Jane Ball, Graham Chorlton, Coco Deville, Caitlin Griffiths, Daniel Lehan, Brigid McLeer, Milk,Two Sugars, Paul Newman, Elizabeth Short and Steve Varndell

PREVIEW Friday 15^th January 2010 6-9pm

Open by appointment until Sunday 31^st January 2010

Please contact Charlie at charlie@trove.org.uk for further details/to make an appointment

For the forthcoming exhibition at TROVE this January 2010, curator Charlie Levine and artist Hayley Lock have invited friends and acquaintances from the social network facebook to partake in a Christmas card/collage exchange. All works posted through the physical and therefore traditional routes are to be traditionally displayed together in plan chests at TROVE. The exhibition will be an amalgamation of works responding to the idea of ‘Post’.

Artists include:

Darren Banks, Liz Bradshaw, Martyn Cross, Vicky Cull, Annabel Dover, Tracy Eastham, Rebecca Foster, Anna Francis, Anneka French, Jo Gane, Helen Grundy, Lulu Horsfield, David Kefford, Hayley Lock, Renauld Loda, MAMA, David Miller, Malcolm Moseley, Justine Moss, Alex Pearl, John Rixon, Sarah Sparkes, Emily Speed, Ana Benlloch and Stuart Tait, Cathy Wade, Edward Wakefield, Lucy Wilson, Jennifer Zoellner

Friday 18th December 2009 4-8pm
Saturday 19th December 2009 4-8pm

The Old Science Museum
144 Newhall Street
Birmingham
B3 1R2

TROVE presents The Sickly Trickle, a solo exhibition of works from Bristol based artist Zoe Williams. The Sickly Trickle presents a sculptural environment, acting as punctuation to The Rootstein Hopkins Award, which culminates in a solo show at Spike Island Art Space, Bristol, in May 2010.

Building an internalised and often fragmented dialogue between objects and materials, Williams fetishizes her dismembered installations, paintings and sculptures, whilst toying with and engineering a delicate balance between the sacred and the profane. Using a wide range of references from George Bataille’s transgressive texts to Art Deco furniture and Fairy Tale imagery; Williams juxtaposes a mixture of materials and techniques traditionally associated with the ‘High Arts and Crafts’, including porcelain, gold leaf and Inlay with modern materials, such as silicone rubber and Styrofoam.

Williams is interested in what happens when objects and materials are abstracted from their original contexts and reconfigured to form a myriad of associations and ambiguities. Drawing parallels with the rich material tapestries of isolated objects, which are presented to us in Fairy Tales and Myths. In these tales items are listed and recited like spells; precious jewels, toadstools, golden girders and lumps of coal are offered to us like glinting talisman. These items in turn begin to take on new transmutable modes of being, as if they exist in a state of dislocation where all is transient. It is this instability, which Williams seeks to harness and evoke through her practice.
The Sickly Trickle sees Williams’ fanciful style alter the dusty Old Science museum in Birmingham into to a subtly irreverent landscape. Visitors are invited to explore a space where black waxen forms solidify between the floor tiles and traces of gold leaf fleck the walls.

The Old Science Museum
144 Newhall Street
Birmingham
B3 1R2

Critically commenting on the traditional British landscape and our continuing search for an authentic and historical representation of it, Coventry based photographer Jo Gane questions the mythologies and values placed upon specific historical sites across Britain. Adopting the traditional wet plate collodion process for her work, the artist goes in search of relics and objects found within the customary British landscape, specifically sighting out those that hold some evidence of historic authenticity.

All at once archaeological and ironic, Finds presents what Gane uncovers on her ‘digs’ such as instructions on how to make a ‘genuine’ ancient manuscript at Stonehenge. These findings disrupt the approved historic dialogue at the sites, questioning the system of relations and shifting the hierarchy of the objects found and then photographed in this classic process of image capturing.

Don’t miss the opportunity to watch Gane create new plates in The Old Science Museum on Thursday 12th November, 2-6pm. With TROVE currently residing in a heritage site, Gane is effectively adding to her collection through the utilisation of materials she finds within the space. This archival process will ensure that both Finds and the history of The Old Science Museum are forever recorded for posterity.

The official Preview will be held on Friday 13th, 6-8pm with the exhibition continuing on Saturday 14th, 2-6pm.

Sunday 4th October 2009 2-6pm

The Old Science Museum
144 Newhall Street
Birmingham
B3 1R2

In his first UK show, Sydney based artist Sam Smith is exhibiting his latest work Into The Void for its northern hemisphere premier. Having exhibited extensively throughout Australia as well as Japan, China, Thailand, Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, Spain and New Zealand, Smith’s work utilises the mechanics of cinematic production and special effects technologies to create parallel universes in which the ‘rational behaviour of matter is displaced by a realm of digital possibility.’

This exhibition is a culmination of great second cities. Smith, from Australia’s second city, has chosen Birmingham, England’s, to exhibit his new work, Into The Void (2009), a work that combines montage, multiple exposure and digital compositing to build a tangent narrative. Smith searches New York, America’s second city, for works of international Klein blue and a location that mirrors the site for Yves Klein’s Le Saut dans le Vide (The Leap into the Void, 1960). The artist’s journey culminates in a time- based recreation of Klein’s famous jump.

Be the first to view Smith’s work in this exclusive 4 hour premier event which is not to be missed.

www.samsmith.net.au

Image courtesy the artist and GRANTPIRRIE, Sydney.
Into The Void was commissioned by Next Wave for Next Wave Time Lapse at Federation Square, Melbourne.

September 13, 2009, 12pm – 4pm

The Rea Garden
Floodgate Street
Birmingham
B5 5ST

Have you ever felt that there’s something missing in your life?
The Universal Family of Cosmic Xenogenesis presented an exciting array of stalls and activities where you could learn more about their revolutionary way of life. You were invited to clean out your mind and fish for new thoughts; decorate cakes, T-shirts, balloons and your face with positive symbols; get in touch with your power animal in the Robot Petting Zoo; and of course sample the copious free Kool-Aid.

There were also games like Psychology Mr. Wolf and The Fear Train where you could open up your consciousness, compete for special access to the behind-the-scenes activities of the group, and join them for a shining future in The Other Place.

This event was presented in association with a.a.s. art group and reflected their ongoing interest in transformation and influence. Because the language and techniques of persuasion are all around us it can be difficult to notice them, but if you keep both eyes open and your wits about you, you can choose whether you want to go along with The Family’s ideas or find your own path to freedom.

Open to all ages, but some elements are PG rated.

family.404corporate.net

August 2, 2009, 4pm – 8pm

346 Moseley Road
Birmingham
B12 9AZ

Jerwood Sculpture Prize nominee and member of the RBS, London-based artist Will Clifford’s first solo exhibition in Birmingham was Handle With Care. Alongside some of Clifford’s previous work he created a new site-specific interactive sculpture which was born out of a period of archival research and study into the temporary space, its history and context. Clifford therefore sought to address the ways in which we map and classify the space around us.

Alluding to the space’s history as a factory producing flat-pack furniture, this artwork was be made up of uniform inter-locking elements taken from the site which could be arranged in a variety of different ways to create a unique outcome each time. This allowed the artwork to be continually altered by the artist and audience members over the four-hour period. The constraints of space no longer exist and the impact of the shape within the space created an unusual visual language, the house of cards responding to the architecture as well as the ‘play’ of the audience, ideas that are fundamental within Clifford’s practice.

The work will address not only the history of the gallery but also the legacy of Birmingham’s past as an industrial city. Will Clifford

Handle With Care was organised by Charlie Levine and David Miller (TROVE) with Naomi Gall and Harminder Singh Judge.