 Harley Kuyck-Cohen, installation view of Allotment, AirSpace Gallery, 2019 The gallery, somewhat like a city, is a transitory arena: both, too, have the potential to become agents for unwieldily dreaming in the hands of the architect, artist or urban developers. Stripped back to its bare components, the gallery is divided into two 'pre-fab' domains – or rather, allotments – in graduate resident Harley Kuyck-Cohen's inaugural solo exhibition. But what comes to mind with the title Allotment – bustling stacks of squash in a makeshift Eden – is exchanged for two domestic scenes, paved with chipboard and newspaper pages. These allotments are platforms for the rustic assemblages which Kuyck-Cohen has nurtured throughout his residency at AirSpace Gallery.
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 Ignazio Mortellaro is an artist, curator and co-founder of Radiceterna - a collective which visually, audibly and literarily explores notions of botany. Ignazio, a Palermitan practitioner, exhibits work predominantly in his home country, Italy. His practice is an intriguing one; his studio is a cavernous, basement space, hidden from prying eyes behind wooden doors. Inside, it's an orderly box of curiosities, something that he describes as a laboratory. Tools are placed in quantifying symphonies: patterns emerge from height-ordered utensils; visual rhythms arise in the tones and textures that echo back-and-forth between natural and metal surfaces. Iron is a recurrent material - nature, then iron. "But what is iron?" Ignazio asks rhetorically, "it's the stuff of nature." Ignazio is generous with his time: he's someone who reads a lot, thinks a lot, collects a lot and, as per his architectural and engineer-training, measures - both mathematically and visually - a lot. His studio, deep in the depths of an age-old palazzo, is spotless but rustic. Ignazio admits that he has been away from his studio, installing work in Turin, and so the space is abnormally tidy - but normal for him to a certain extent. He speaks quietly but enthusiastically about elemental matter: we return to iron, one of his favourite materials, which, he describes, contains within it a plethora of Earth-based connotations. Iron, he says, is found at the Earth's core: its production of magnetic fields is what keeps us physically grounded.  Marcin Dudek, Sing When You're Winning at KARST, 2016. Courtesy of KARST. KARST is the largest independent contemporary art venue in Plymouth: it is both a public gallery space and an artist studio complex. Founded in 2012, it has made extraordinary tracks in a mere-six years – from humble beginnings, it is currently a National Portfolio Organisation for the period 2018-2022 and a recently registered as a charity. In travelling to its home – a one-storey, ex-warehouse in the Millbay area of the city – I was able to comprehend the true scale of its achievements and contributions to the expansion of Plymouth's creative community. Following a busy few days of Plymouth Art Weekender (28-30 September, a three-day visual arts festival in Plymouth), KARST's Business Director, Donna Howard, is energetic as ever – it's clear that her passion and enthusiasm for people and 'getting things done,' is one of the organisation's major drivers. Full report: http://bit.ly/2RQp3Wu |
