PRESS RELEASE 2015
INTUITIVE VISIONS: SHIFTING THE MARGINS
Outside In exhibition at Phoenix Brighton in partnership with HOUSE 2015
3 – 31 May 2015
Featuring works by Aradne, Blair McCormick, John Ackhurst, Jonathan Kenneth William Pettitt, Luc Raesmith,
Martin Phillimore, Michelle Roberts, Paul Bellingham and Sally Ward and curated by Katy Norris, Curator at Pallant
House Gallery.
throughout the duration of the show.
From 3 – 31 May this year, Outside In will be holding an
exhibition in partnership with HOUSE 2015 and Phoenix
Brighton. ‘Intuitive Visions: Shifting the Margins’ will
showcase work by nine Outside In artists based in East
Sussex, including Brighton and Hove.
Providing a platform for artists who
define themselves as facing barriers to
the art world due to health, disability,
social circumstance or isolation,
Outside In and HOUSE have been building
stronger links, developing the presence
of Outside In and the artists they
represent year by year. This year will
be the first as a partner project with
HOUSE and Phoenix Brighton, bringing a
new audience to the Festival.
In January and February 2015 there was a
call out for Outside In artists based in
East Sussex, including Brighton and
Hove, to submit work for possible
inclusion in the exhibition as part of
HOUSE 2015.
Five Brighton-based selectors chose the
final works to be included in the
exhibition, bearing in mind the overall
theme of HOUSE 2015: Edge and Shift. The
selectors included: Judy Stevens, the
co-Director of HOUSE Festival; David
Jones, a Brighton-based Outside In Award
Winning artist; Simon Powell, Co-Founder
of Creative Future, a Brighton-based
organisation nurturing marginalised
artists and writers in their creative
development; Karin Mori, Artistic
Programme Manager at Phoenix Brighton;
and Jim Sanders, a Brighton-based
contemporary artist.
Martin Phillimore, Untitled
LISTINGS INFORMATION
Dates: 3 – 31 May 2015
Opening times: 11am – 5pm, Wednesday –
Sunday (late opening on Thursday 14 May
for Museums at Night event – 7-9pm)
Venue: Phoenix Brighton, 10 – 14 Waterloo
Place, Brighton, BN2 9NB
Admission cost: Free
Website: www.phoenixbrighton.org
‘Intuitive Visions: Shifting the Margins’ will run from 3 – 31 May
2015 (Wednesday-Sunday 11am – 5pm) at Phoenix Brighton.
There will be a series of related events and workshops taking place
INTERVIEWS/ IMAGES: Kate Davey, Outside In Communications Officer,
k.davey@pallant.org.uk, (01243) 770841
Continued over the page…
PRESS RELEASE 2015
Notes to Editors
About Outside In
Founded in 2006 by Pallant House
Gallery, Chichester, Outside In provides
a platform for those who define
themselves as facing barriers to the art
world due to health, disability, social
circumstance or isolation. The goal of
the project is to create a fairer art
world which rejects traditional values
and institutional judgements about whose
work can and should be displayed.
www.outsidein.org.uk
About HOUSE
Conceived in 2008 by Directors Judy
Stevens and Chris Lord, HOUSE is a
curated, contemporary and dynamic visual
arts strand running at the same time as
Brighton Festival, and in part a
response to the limited space in the
city for presenting contemporary art. It
commissions an internationally regarded
Invited Artist and selects from Open
Submission, the work of critically
engaged artists based in South East
England. Inherent to HOUSE is an
interest in the threshold between
private and public space, where there is
potential to experience new ideas and
different ways of thinking.
www.housefestival.org
About Phoenix Brighton
Established in 1995, Phoenix Brighton is
the largest artist-led visual arts
organisation in the South East of
England. It is a place where people come
to have a direct experience of art and
of the artists’ creative working
process. Based in the heart of the city,
Phoenix hosts a unique programme of
contemporary art exhibitions, courses
and events, and provides studios for
over one hundred artists.
www.phoenixbrighton.org
About the exhibiting artists
Aradne
I find the only way to arrive at
something new is to actually start the
process of making as I don’t like to
plan what I do. I always seem to end up
using the drawing with a sewing machine
technique on fabric as it enables me to
produce the figures that are in my head.
Making for me is like a meditation in
which you can lose yourself for minutes,
hours or days.
Blair McCormick
The medium I use most is batik because
the process is so experimental. I never
know what I’m going to end up with and I
really enjoy the actual process of doing
it. I start from doodles, always
experimenting with batik, paint, dye,
bleach; whatever I can get my hands on.
My influences are everything I see, feel
and experience, as well as other art
forms including graffiti, music, dance
and sculpture.
John Ackhurst
I work in pencil and enjoy making 3D
models of my images in papier mache. I
find inspiration from copying images, so
when I saw the image of the predator
dinosaurs in a book, I drew all of them.
My art work is a personal process for me
and sometimes I make work based on
stories that I am writing. Drawing makes
me happy and I would like to do more of
it.
Jonathan Kenneth William Pettitt
I usually begin with an image in my
mind, then as I work, I find different
things coming in. I see things as I go;
angels, fairies, gnomes. I’m inspired by
INTERVIEWS/ IMAGES: Kate Davey, Outside In Communications Officer,
k.davey@pallant.org.uk, (01243) 770841
PRESS RELEASE 2015
spiritual things, as well as other
artists including Paul Klee, Picasso, El
Greco, Bosch and Dali, and the stories
of Rudyard Kipling, C.S. Lewis and
J.R.R. Tolkien. I use acrylic on canvas,
and encourage the viewer to see joy and
hope, and sometimes a lesson.
Luc RS
I have been creating visual art ever
since I was young, with more productive
periods interspersed with fallow times.
I am a colour obsessive, as well as a
‘magpie’ for images, textiles and
metals, plus beach and street plastic
flotsam. I rarely pre-plan a piece, but
work very quickly and intuitively with
the available recycled and found
materials, very often to create a piece
that will decorate - or be functional in
- a particular area of my living space.
Artist list continued over the page…
It is almost as if I live my life to
create beautiful art; inspiration seems
to come from everywhere. I do not wish
to control the progression of my work
but rather to allow the flow of
spontaneity to lead the way, as if I am
on a journey of discovery. With the
blind drawings I start with a blank
piece of paper, close my eyes and draw a
head. I then open my eyes and add
colour.
Sally Ward
I doodle on pieces of paper, inspired by
everyday life; sitting on the bus,
looking out of windows. These drawings
are the basis for my textile pieces. I
like sewing as it is tactile and homely.
You can say quite serious things and
disguise them in a homely way. I often
pick up materials from charity shops;
fabrics that already have a history of
their own. I then stamp, spray and sew
to give them a new life.
Martin Phillimore
After becoming involved with illicit
substances in my early twenties, I found
myself expressing what was going on in
my mind by making art; one piece after
another. I found the intensity of what I
was producing was a reflection of my
subconscious and what I was feeling. I
usually find that once I start on a
piece, I might leave it half way through
and begin another. It all depends on how
I feel.
Michelle Roberts
Michelle creates her work in the Project
Art Works studio, and in recent years
has refined a dense and highly
personalised approach to making images.
Working methodically across each canvas,
section by section, she creates
colourful and complex words; each with a
distinct logic and meaning that connect
to her own life. Michelle starts by
building layers of patterns, working
from left to right and top to bottom,
before selectively filling the shapes
with colour.
Paul Bellingham
INTERVIEWS/ IMAGES: Kate Davey, Outside In Communications Officer,
k.davey@pallant.org.uk, (01243) 770841