ExLab 2012

download the full programme of installations, exhibitions and events here:  Field Guide

We have works by five commissioned artists across seven locations across Dorset. The programme below lists the main sites and you can find out about the associated events and gallery exhibitions here.

View the calendar showing dates and events below by clicking on image

ExLab presents a series of site responsive works inspired by the geology of the Jurassic Coast – the outcome of an arts and earth science collaboration investigating our understanding of this unique landscape.

The outcomes of the five commissions can be seen at seven locations across Dorset this summer. Additional exhibitions, events and tours give further opportunities to join in the investigation.

Simon Callery is a painter based in London whose work has been shown widely in the UK and internationally, including Tate Britain, the British Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Over a number of years he has focused on developing new forms for painting that embody the multi-sensory experience of landscape. For ExLab, Simon has created a new series of paintings, accompanied by drawings and photographs. They are an outcome of engaging in research walks between Sherborne and the coast, often accompanied by geologist Sam Scriven. The physical characteristics of the new works derive from two specific and diverse geologies encountered on these inland-sealand walks – the chalk downland area to the south of the Blackmore Vale and the inferior oolite, common to Sherborne.

Co-commissioned by Sherborne House Arts (SHA).

28 July – 9 Sept
Wed – Sun 11am-6pm

For ExLab they have been collaborating with Cultural Geographers from Exeter University, whilst beach-combing at Burton Bradstock and Hive Beach – not for objects, but for stories. They have harvested myths, tales and memories of the coast and the sea during a series of events and interventions with geologists, geographers, fossil hunters, sea swimmers, fishermen, dog walkers, local people and visitors, and compared them to scientific data mapping the sea-bed, to reveal how the human and geological stories of the area influence each other.

Proboscis will be presenting new works at Hive Beach, in the National Trust information hut and in Hive Beach Café.

Co-commissioned by PVA MediaLab and Bridport Arts Centre, in partnership with the National Trust, supported by Hive Beach Café.

28 July – 9 Sept
Daily 10am-5pm

Originally trained as a zoologist before turning to art, Simon’s work adopts ideas and methodologies drawn from science, art and natural history, often using methods from one discipline to transform another.

Gaining access to contemporary scanning processes used by geologists and archaeologists has enabled Simon to reveal the unseen – he explores nuances of scale by contrasting what can be seen and understood with the naked eye with things that cannot. Focusing on the concept of the pseudomorph or ’false body’ Simon has extended his personal understanding of how that might be used metaphorically to explore other Portland features, such as The Race.

The Coastwatch Training Centre provides a wonderful location to encounter objects, films and images that reflect Simon’s research.

Co-commissioned by b-side, supported by National Coastwatch Institution, Portland Bill

28 July – 9 Sept

Wed – Sun 11am-6pm

Local Facilities: Café, pub and toilets nearby at Portland Bill

Zachary Eastwood-Bloom: Digital Earth
Wimborne and Durlston

Zachary Eastwood-Bloom is a multi-media artist who gained an MA in Ceramics and Glass from the Royal College of Art in 2010. ‘Digital Earth’, his craft-based commission links with the Jurassic Coast and the landscape of Durlston Country Park – a fabulous 280 acre countryside paradise, consisting of sea-cliffs, coastal limestone downland, haymeadows, hedgerows and woodland.

Zachary has used new visualisation and model-making techniques and technologies to interpret the coastline. Access to landscape scanning processes used in geology have opened up new ways of working for Zachary and has resulted in both 2D and 3D renderings and models, accompanied by an audio work which transgress the boundary of the digital and physical.

Zachary has an installation at Durlston Castle throughout the summer, parallel to an exhibition at Walford Mill Crafts. The work in the exhibition will also be shown at The Fine Foundation Gallery, Durlston Castle from 13 Sept – 30 Sept.

Co-commissioned by Artsreach, Walford Mill Crafts and Fine Family Foundation.

Exhibition at Walford Mill Crafts
28 July – 9 Sept
Mon – Sat 10am-5pm
Sun 11am-4pm

Installation at Durlston Castle
28 July – 30 Sept
Daily 10.30am-4.30pm

Installation AND exhibition
13 Sept – 30 Sept

Mat Chivers is a sculptor and visual artist who has his studio on Dartmoor in Devon. His work as an artist combines traditional approaches to making with contemporary digital and science based technologies.

‘Overlay’ is the outcome of a commission that sought to focus attention on the geological character of the Portland beds, exposed on the Purbeck coastline. Mat is presenting a series of drawings and a film installation. These works mirror the physical characteristics of the Purbeck Coast, which was formed millions of years ago when the African and Asian tectonic plates collided, creating distinctive faults in the beds

The film can be viewed in Spyway Barn, built from locally quarried stone, and in a comparatively cultured environment – a Victorian building housing an amazing collection of specimens owned by the Bournemouth Natural Science Society.

Co-commissioned by The National Trust.

SPYWAY BARN, LANGTON MATRAVERS

28 July – 9 Sept
Wed – Sun 11am-6pm

BNSS Bournemouth

31 July – 4 September
Tuesdays ONLY, 12-6pm