The selected artists will produce and present new artwork as it develops through three exhibition moments, taking the form of a group exhibition at Jerwood Visual Arts (8 November – 10 December 2017) and WORKPLACE (28 April – 9 June 2018) along with a solo show for each artist at Eastside Projects (Autumn 2018). The exhibition offers a supported opportunity and critical platform for the artists to engage with 3 individual organisations over an extended period of 18 months to experiment and make ambitious and compelling ideas a reality.
The selected artists, each at pivotal moments in their career, have demonstrated a commitment to challenging and pushing the boundaries of traditional modes of exhibition making. Inherent to their respective proposals is a strong research-base and pertinent social narratives, which surface through sculpture, performance and technology.
Larry Achiampong will present Relic Traveller – a new multi-disciplinary project manifesting in performance, audio, moving image and prose. Taking place across various landscapes and locations, the piece builds upon a postcolonial perspective informed by technology, agency and the body, and narratives of migration.
Mark Essen will present a new body of work exploring values of our archaic economy and offering suggestions of an alternative structure – specifically degrowth – a political, economic and social movement based on ecological economics. By incorporating hydroponics into the work, the artist communicates how urban agriculture may be used as a form of resilience, redressing the balance with nature.
Nicola Singh will continue to find ways of writing via performance and through experiments in pedagogy. She is interested in the organisation of language around the body and in relation to the voice. Her work will take the form of a multifaceted performance, including live readings, experimental music and dialogue with other artists. She will also produce an installation and series of performative objects for her performance, feeling through ideas around exhibiting performance in the context of the gallery.
The selection was made by an independent panel comprising: Kelly Best, Artist and 2015 3-Phase exhibitor; Paul Moss, Co-Director, WORKPLACE; Gavin Wade, Director, Eastside Projects and Sarah Williams, Head of Programme, Jerwood Visual Arts. Artists were selected based on the quality and potential of their work and the developmental impact the opportunity is likely to have upon their practice.
3-Phase was first launched in 2015 through the Jerwood Encounters series, working with artists Kelly Best and Georgie Grace. It is an innovative model, which aims to identify artistic potential from across the Midlands, the North, and the rest of the UK, allowing for a UK wide peer group to form. This unique collaboration highlights the benefits of artists and organisations working together as part of a national dialogue; constructing a space of encounter between the thinking of selected artists and supporting arts organisations around the developing bodies of work.
