Georgia shares details of this upcoming exhibition. Ed
‘Future reCollections’ is an exhibition of six tableaux by artist Joanna Kori, that form a response to previous and current uses of the Quay Arts building.
Kori has used gum‐strip paper to construct a series of composed scenes containing many different kinds of everyday objects and fragments of posed figures. Their suspension and placement create frozen moments in time. She describes the dynamics of making her installations as a “pendulum movement between casting and drawing with the gum‐strip tape ‐ an archaeology of touch.”
Reflect on what might be preserved by future generations
The six tableaux installed within the West Gallery are called: ‘Saving the building’; ‘Raining tools’; ‘Friends of the sea’; ‘Remains of the feast’; ‘Ale, spirits and song’; and ‘Prime vessels’.
These fascinating installations encourage the viewer to reflect on what might be preserved by future generations, as well as consider what could be lost along the way. Each tableau is accompanied by 2D artwork and digital interactions which refer to associated ideas, drawings and processes. These include the cultural and working traditions associated with the Quay Arts’ building, the port activity and the warehouses in the immediate surrounding area ‐ from their initial site development to the present day.
The physical heritage
Quay Arts is a Grade II listed building. It is an historic landmark on Newport Quay in the area known as Little London and has successfully provided an artistic centre for the Isle of Wight community for the last forty years.
The main Quay Arts building was originally named the Porter Store, and the Rope Store with its unusual twisted roof were both built in the early 1880s and owned by Mew Langton’s Brewery (the metal tracks for rolling the beer barrels can still be seen on the edge of the terrace).
The brewery and warehouse eventually fell into decline but the warehouse was subsequently rescued by a formidable group of committed artists and supporters in the mid‐70s. In 1976, with the support from the IW Council, Quay Arts was established and in 1996 it was refurbished with the aid of the National Lottery Fund.
Blending physical and digital experiences
Joanna Kori creates installations that blend physical and digital experiences. Her suspensions and reconstructed forms are empathetic studies of contemporary working and domestic scenes and objects that open a lived space between self and the world.
The spatial qualities of the objects and their relations to fragments of furniture intensify localities and invite narrative reflections. They form part of a process of remembrance and recollection, an extracting of the significant from the transitory and the ephemeral.
An important part of Kori’s art practice is drawing as a time‐based activity. She uses a variety of media and methods including interactive digital elements such as QR codes and mobile apps to give people the choice of how they would like to experience her installations ‐ in silence or with soundscapes. She also provides online access to videos and animations about her working processes and ideas.
About Joanna Kori
Joanna Kori has a BA in Fine Art from the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University, and an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art, London, UK.
She was a finalist in the Jerwood Sussex Arts prize in 2010, and winner of the Quay Arts Biennial Open Exhibition in 2015.
She lives in Ventnor, Isle of Wight and is currently the Special Interest Freelance Artists & Artist Educators Representative (England) for engage (The National Association for Gallery Education).
Response by young artists
Alongside Future reCollections there will be a four‐week exhibition in the adjacent Clayden Gallery by Quay Arts’ youth group, Young Quay.
Using Kori’s themes as a catalyst, Young Quay will work together over ten weeks to create their own artwork and collaborative pieces to investigate relationships between arts and local heritage.
WAVES Youth Offer
As well as the exhibition, Joanna Kori will be offering sixty places to young people aged 11 – 19 years (and up to 25 years with additional needs) as part of our WAVES Youth Offer to learn new making processes and explore the exhibition topics.
Some of their pigeon sculptures are included in the Future reCollections exhibition. The results of further workshops will be shown as interactive displays within a Making WAVES celebratory exhibition in the Clayden Gallery from the end of February to the end of March 2017.
The exhibition takes place in the West Gallery, Quay Arts between 21 Jan – 1 Apr 2017.
All are welcome to the opening event on Saturday 21 Jan, 1‐3pm.
