Hull Art Lab
As the Hull School of Art ceased to admit Fine Art students and Hull Time Based Arts suspended its activities, the future for contemporary art in the City seemed uncertain. A dependence on art students and the art community for audiences was set to change as the artistic population was in decline. Following much public discussion about the future of art & art education in Hull, Espen Jenson, Bob Levene and Rob Gawthrop set-up Hull Art Lab. Collaboration and cooperation were seen as important and we set ambitious objectives. Our curatorial policy was based on a shared concern with the contemporary, exploratory and, diverse; work that blurred or challenged boundaries, particularly between music, sound and art. Over two years we presented forty artists’ works from ten countries with an accumulated audience of thousands and all within budget.
Ultrlyd (Wellington Club); Shu Yang & Wang Chu Yu; Team Doyobi; Metamkine; Stange Attractor VS Disinformation,Philip Jeck, Pete McPartlan, Kisspál Szabolcs (with HTBA/GAGE); Tim Brennan; Miles Thurlow; Megan Bedell, Maggie Nichols, Slyvia Ziranek, John Wynne, Aeol Atsw,Nothing ever happens here (Utterance – for Humber Mouth, Hull Literature Festival); Santas Buggerboys (New Adelphi); Anthony McCall/Long Film for Four projectors (Hull International Short Film Festival/Hull Film, Alistair McCylmont; Badlands; Minton and Turner; Noxagt (New Adelphi); Melt Banana (New Adelphi); Karen Finley (with Drama Dept University of Hull/Ferens Art Gallery); Konk Pack; Adalet R Garmiany; The Crypto Audiological Society; John Wynne; Lightning Bolt (New Adelphi); Bookville (Humber Mouth, Hull Literature Festival); Anne Bean, Autobitury (with ArtsAdmin/Matts Gallery); Karen Logan, Ginny Reed, Harald Smykla, Aura Satz Hermelinde Hergenhahn (Lightnight site-specific / Incandescent), Before the Eyes (Hull Screen / Incandescen) Symposium (with Philosophy Dept University of Hull / / Incandescen - University of Lincoln Hull Campus Lecture Theatre), Matthew Tickle (HAL commision / Incandescent).
However, this was not perceived as sustainable, so we made the decision to close.
We had expected that by 2010 contemporary art would be thriving once again in Hull, but….we had only project funding, no saleable commodities and no “board” and the City’s cultural strategy was limited to café-bars & shopping. …..and then the Olympics.
... Hull City of Culture 2017 !