Artist Peter Spriggs in online correspondence with Samantha Carswell; Oriel Q’s first guest curator, responsible for the presentation of our Barry Cooper: ‘Events’ exhibition 17th June -24th July 2011
[photos: Glenn Ibbitson]
Q. Congratulations Sam. You have just completed your first degree in Sociology at the University of Durham and have been accepted on to a Masters Degree in Creative and Cultural Industry Management at the University of Northumbria. I guess Barry Cooper's "Events" exhibition at Oriel Q Narberth may be your first experience in curation and wonder was it perhaps a baptism of fire where it may have been difficult to get even one cat to face the right way?
Yes in a way I suppose it was, when preparing there were the obvious challenges of organising the exhibition over Zoom etc. But upon arrival to the gallery, although quite a daunting experience in the beginning, seeing the space and artwork in person was a experience of great clarity.
Also, since we have all been in the gallery, and as this is my first real experience working this closely with an exhibition, it really has been a real benefit to be surrounded by such experienced and accomplished artists such as Barry Cooper and Peter Spriggs. Who have supported me throughout this whole process. This really has been a collaboration between us all.
Q. You have established a good working relationship with Barry and a clear understanding of his work - would you like to explain how these were developed?
As all of the preliminary work to this exhibition was on Zoom, there was obviously going to be the issue that I was not physically going to see the work until the putting up of the exhibition.
However, Barry was incredibly helpful in explaining and showing his work throughout our meetings. Also, I think one main benefit of things all being over Zoom is that I got to see Barry in his studio space, which is such an important part of understanding the work and how has been produced.
Q. Barry is a mature and prolific artist with a huge body of work spanning back over 40+ years, please explain how you established the title for the exhibition and how you selected the work.
There is a huge body of work that we were working with, and I think with many of the pieces of work being series of work, such as the September 12th works or the Xenophobia acrylic on canvas works, it was clear that there were sections and phases of Barry’s work which could be made clear in this exhibition.
And with choosing the title Events, I think this title sums Barry’s work at multiple levels. There is that each of the sections of work is a response to an event itself, such as the Brexit, the Twin Towers or more recently the coronavirus pandemic. However also there is that Barry’s work emphasises the uniqueness of a singular brush stroke as an event itself. Which is evident in the Musical works.
So you can see how the title Events sums Barry’s work in more than one way.
Q. Is being new to curating exhibitions an advantage - perhaps there was an opportunity to come up with alternative and fresh ways of exhibiting work?
I think that this being my first experience curating an exhibition has been an advantage due to me having no expectations of what the exhibition should look like, so really considering all the possibilities in the space. And I think that also being new to this specific space in oriel Q has the same advantage, in that I am a completely outside and new perspective on the space. That being said, I do think that having Barry and Peter here with me have guided me to explore as many options as possible and supported me when I needed it.
Q. Please talk about ways you have devised to engage the public with this exhibition (e.g. Barry was going to complete a live painting in Oriel Q during the exhibition but Covid regulations meant this could not go ahead. How did you come up with a different way?
In our meetings, we had discussed many possibilities such as a Live painting in the gallery, an iWalk through Narberth with Barry and having a workshop where members of the public can respond to newspaper images like Barry does.
In light of the pandemic, we really have had to rethink many aspects of these workshops. But new technologies have really enabled what we went out to achieve, for example having Barry complete a live painting and having it filmed which still enables the viewer to witness Barry and the event of his painting as part of the exhibition
Q. You quickly grasped the way Oriel Q functions. It's run by volunteers and aims to showcase excellence in fine art. In today's financial climate the gallery does not necessarily have the clout of high powered funding, is this something that ever concerned you when curating Barry's exhibition?
I do not think that that has ever been a real concern or limitation in this exhibition, I think we, and I think I can speak on behalf of Barry and Peter on this, have absolutely achieved what we had set out to. And this is not necessarily something enabled by high powered funding, but rather the passion and time put in by those working in the gallery.
Q. You organised a number of curatorial meetings on Zoom. I understand there were humorous and amusing moments in these. Was it difficult, at times, to keep a professional face
Haha yes possibly at times, I think in the past year and a half everyone has seen their fair share of funny zoom moments. I suppose that is one of the things which has made this project so fun!