An Artists led space

Hinterland is a show by a group of eight artists who use their work to explore the hidden and unexpected aspects of their minds that you can only discover by making work, by starting and seeing where the process takes you.

The perspective of experience

As part of introducing myself to the role of host of an artists run space I asked Dan Currie if he knew anyone that could give me the perspective of experience and he put me in touch with Charlie Hawksfield who has been doing ‘guardianships’ in empty buildings; living in empty spaces that the owners cannot yet afford to re-develop and using them as both a short-life dwelling and a place to show art. As we were were talking he used the word Hinterland to refer to the limbo experienced by most artists after leaving art school before they have worked out the structures they need for a ‘career’ in this sector.

How to frame the show

I had been thinking about how to frame the inaugural show at what is now Ovoid (studio / project space / gallery) I thought this was a much richer expression than anything I had come up with so far. 

Noun

Hinterland

  1. The land immediately next to, and inland from, a coast.
  2. The rural territory surrounding an urban area, especially a port.
  3. A remote or undeveloped area, a backwater.
  4. That which is unknown or unexplored about someone.
  5. Anything vague or ill-defined, especially something that is ill understood.

From Wiktionary

The periphery

As I have just moved from West London to the village of Ovingdean I have a feeling that I have moved to the periphery, that I am physically further from the centre. In short I have an underlying anxiety that I have moved to: “A remote or undeveloped area, a backwater” it’s hard to tell if there is any truth in this, Ovingdean is a pretty little village on the eastern edge of the metropolis of Brighton, it borders the Southdowns National park which is right over the road from my house. It’s very tastefully developed, peaceful, semi-rural , semi-suburban and the people here like where they live, on the whole they are not trying or aspiring to escape elsewhere.

The productive place

At  the moment I am thinking that the Hinterland is a bit of an illusion. It is more “That which is unknown or unexplored about someone” than it is a physical reality. In some way I have always been in the artistic hinterland, always hoping for an invitation to the ‘urban area’ of the Art world and that is largely something I allowed to be contrived in my own mind. If you think about it, the Hinterland is generally where all the Animals, Vegetables and Minerals are produced, it’s the productive place that everything is taken from to be used in the centre. Actually the centre needs the Hinterland, as much as vice-versa – it’s a relationship of co-dependence, The centre is the entity that generates status, money and power but it does so with the resources from the Hinterland, the centre only exists to trade in those resources.

Putting on a show

I hope to use this show to highlight that paradox.

The Hinterland is putting on a show right here in the sticks.

Hinterland logo variant 9 for Ovoid studio / project space / gallery in Ovingdean near Brighton. An egg shape angled at about 30 degrees with the word 'Ovoid' horizontally across the middle but very feint with the word 'Hinterland' written over it in white.