For Laboratory, curator Sarah Williams asked three emerging artists the question: if we were to hand over one of three of the galleries at Jerwood Space for one month, what would you do with it? The three selected artists, Steven Eastwood, Jock Mooney and Mia Taylor, each proposed to use the galleries as a site for experimentation.
The exhibition charts this period of production and experimentation on site at the gallery exploring processes and discourse surrounding art and exhibition production. The gallery becomes a testing ground for new works and presents an opportunity to work on larger-scale pieces as the artists temporarily relocate their studios.
Visitors are invited to observe the development of each artist’s work throughout and during the opening and closing party. An exhibition catalogue, produced in conjunction with The Partners design studio, is printed on site, with new pages added each day.
Steven Eastwood shows some of his films whilst working on a new one, experimenting with formats for a planned feature length film/video intended for dual projection in the gallery. Jock Mooney makes a drawing installation and expands his series of hand-painted, glossy sculptures. Mia Taylor opens up her practice to the ‘fabric’ of the project, using the art, texts, and materials found in and around the site. She responds to the interactions between the artists, contributors, visitors and other users of Jerwood Space, using a series of screens which will act as a mobile studio space. And, given that this is a Laboratory, all of the above may change.
Jerwood Encounters are one-off curated exhibitions which provide artists and curators with new exhibition opportunities and the chance to explore issues and territories in the borderlands between the main disciplinary fields of the Jerwood Visual Arts programme. They were first established in 2009.