We’ve held so many exhibitions and worked with so many great artists that, given the nature of how intense the workload can be, you often forget to take a moment to consider what’s gone before. When you review the website or look through some of the artworks we still have around the gallery, you realise what amazing work there is, and some of it was never seen in the first place because it didn’t make the curation or it came from the artist after the exhibition. Now felt like an appropriate time to reflect for a moment, not just within the team, but within the community, and to look again at the journey of the last eight years.
Taking Stock features some 25 artists and a number of scholarship students, and explores not only the work they delivered at the time, but how their careers have progressed since. In most instances, we’re featuring some standout works from exhibitions that we’ve hosted in the past, as well as new works from the same artists that demonstrate how their work has evolved. Taking Stock isn’t just about looking backwards or looking at what’s on the shelf, however. It’s very much an exploration of the journey for us and the artists, where they were then and where they are now, and also looking at a handful of artists we would like to work with in future. It’s a platform to build a relationship and dialogue with them.
It was a real pleasure to go back, revisiting artworks and contacting artists I hadn’t spoken to in a while – in some cases getting in the van and going to visit them. It’s always wonderful to reconnect and spend some time with artists, but there was a lot of administration involved in dealing with 25 artists. Given the volume of artists, and therefore the volume of work, finding a coherent thread through 120 artworks and 25 artists was a challenge, but one I really enjoyed.
Jock Pettitt, Curation Director said: We felt that the time was right to stop and take a moment to reflect on what has been achieved since Art for Guernsey’s inception, with more than eight years behind us and over a year in the new gallery. We have achieved so much that we felt it was important to pause and take stock, giving time to the fantastic artworks and the community and education projects that we have curated. We are also keen to embrace some new faces that will be part of our future activities, before moving on to the next challenge. In preparing the works for this exhibition, we have been struck by the quality and diversity of the artworks we have on show and how they work so well together. We are extremely excited to share this exhibition, with its diverse blend of artists and artworks old and new, and we can’t wait to share these milestones on our journey with our supporters and the wider community.
I’m delighted with the exhibition. There have been obvious synergies as well as pleasant surprises, and I think some of the dialogue between artworks and artists has really added to the show. We’re inviting a number of the locally based artists to deliver artist’s talk events; I’ve asked them not just to talk about their own work, but also to find three pieces that stand out for them in the show, perhaps because an artwork aligns to their work, it challenges them, or they simply love it, I am very much looking forward to these.
We’ve had some great feedback so far. Many of the artists from afar have been in touch to say they love what they’ve seen on social media, locally based artists are enjoying how we’ve presented their work in the show, and obviously everyone’s happy to be curated alongside Renoir!
I’m not sure that we’d make a show like Taking Stock an annual fixture, because the eight years since Art for Guernsey’s inception have brought such a breadth of work and artists to the table. But David and I have already been having conversations around what a great platform it is, and maybe we’ll do something like this in different ways, but certainly the process of stopping and taking a moment has been something we’ve really enjoyed, and is something we’ll revisit. We hope the public enjoys the exhibition as much as we have done curating it.
