|
|
|
 (Above: Installation view of 'Tree Hugger', Platform gallery, Vaasa, Finland.) |
 (View of 'Tree Hugger' from outside Platform gallery) |
 |
 |
| (Installation views of various works in 'Tree Hugger') |
Press Release:  Private view 8/3/2008 6pm Platform gallery is pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibition of works by the London based artist Barry Sykes, our current artist in residence. All the works have been conceived and completed in the five weeks since Barry arrived in Finland and includes his first ever collaboration with his father and a joint research project with i-cabin gallery, London. Barry works with a wide variety of methods; primarily sculpture and drawing but also singing, stealing, fitness, forgery and lies. Recent projects have led him to impersonate a part-time police officer, make a series of sculptures blindfolded and redesign British currency. His work asks questions about usefulness, experience and appropriate behaviour. The title of the exhibition, ‘Tree Hugger' , is used deliberately out of context. Usually a derogatory term for ecologists and extreme nature lovers it is used here to raise questions about the approach, intentions and possible benefits of the works. It also describes a desire to interact with your immediate surroundings and the absurdity of some of the activities this has involved. For this exhibition Barry has devised a number of strategies to create new work in reaction to the expectations of a residency model. His only pre-planned tactic was to involve two collaborators working from London , each in very different ways. For the project ‘The Dad Directives' Barry has sent his father – a keen amateur photographer- 6 short instructions each weekend to take one photograph and send it out to him in Vaasa. These have included ‘Go out after dark and photograph any house with a window that you can see someone through.' and ‘Take a photograph of a photograph you wish you had taken'. For his research project with Sebastian Craig of i-cabin gallery Barry has undertaken a long email conversation about importance, usefulness and philanthropy. This epic text will be available to read in the gallery alongside a large hand drawn plan of Vaasa envisioned by i-cabin based on Barry's description of the town along with exactly €100 worth of wooden handicrafts purchased from the Vaasa prison inmates shop and adapted in response to this conversation. Other works in the show will include an accurate re-make of another artist's work, a design for a new font and a series of sculptures of imaginary wall brackets. Barry Sykes was born in Essex, England in 1976. He gained his masters from Chelsea College of Art, London in 2000 and lives and works in south east London. His recent exhibitions include Evolution de l'Art , Bratislava (2007); Itchy Park 1,2,4&5, Limehouse Town Hall, London (2004-2008); Putting spark back into your relationships, Gallop design studio, London (2006); Romantic Detachment, PS1 New York and Chapter Arts Cardiff (2004) and Déjà Vu, ProArtibus, Ekenas, Finland (2006). In 2006 he was nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Visual Arts for his collaborative work with the artist Sean Parfitt. Tree Hugger is his first solo show in Finland . Platform Hovioikeudenpuistikko 3, 65100 Vasa Finland |