Happy Days

Blackwater Polytechnic, Feering, Essex
6 – 7 and 12 – 14 July 2013

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Works left to right: Typoretum (Justin Knopp), Emery Whitworth
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Works left to right: Freddie Robins, Paula Kane, Ben Coode-Adams
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Works left to right: Rosalind Davis, Freddie Robins
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Works left to right: Ben Coode-Adams, Freddie Robins
Works on white cabinet: Leigh Cameron, Freddie Robins
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Blackwater Polytechnic presents an exhibition of exceptional construction in wood, textiles, ink, paint, metal & concrete made by men and women with their hands.

Happy Days presents the self-sufficiency and mental toughness of a group of artists whose work ploughs its own furrow. These artists are above all true to them- selves. And through commitment to a unique vision make amazing work. They are wildly different but together add up to more than the some of their parts.

All the artists in this exhibition share a sense of quality and joy of materials, some embracing the broken, damaged and fixed, some creating the perfect surface. In defiance of the quick fix they use craftiness and skill to create resonant structures and surfaces.

The artists offer the ‘consolation of the considered detail’ whether on an architectural wall slab or on a jewel encrusted finger of flint. Their work embraces the local, the emotional and handicraft. Building is our art.

Phrase taken from John Pawson, A Visual Inventory, Thames and Hudson, 2012

(Statement by Ben Coode-Adams, taken from www.blackwaterpolytechnic.com)

Exhibiting alongside: Leigh Cameron, Ben Coode-Adams, Rosalind Davis, David Gates – The Rural College of Art, Sara Impey, David Howe, Paula Kane, David Kefford, The Paintbox (Emery Whitworth), Annabel Tilley, Typoretum (Justin Knopp) and Sonia York.

Photography: Douglas Atfield

07 August 2013

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