The easiest common denominator to be pointed out in the work of interior designer Ben Kelly and artist DJ Simpson is the use of DIY materials, bold colours and strong lines. That's where the obvious ends and an interesting conversations starts. Ben and DJ have been talking about the different influences and ideas behind their practice for a while, and this Friday Session will see a continuation of their conversations in public.

They will be showing examples of their own work and various cultural and material references which had formal and conceptual influence on their work, from Oskar Schlemmer's Lacquer Cabinet to Andy Warhol's Silver Factory, from Italian colour samples to new industrial sheet material, from Roxy Music to Stereolab.

Ben Kelly founded Ben Kelly Design (BKD) in the mid 70ies and the studio is best known for its innovative space planning using hardwearing materials. Designs include the Haçienda and Dry 201 Bar in Manchester and more recently the Discovery Gallery for Walsall Museum and Gymbox in Covent Garden and www.benkellydesign.com

DJ Simpson has been producing abstract drawings on laminated wooden panels, using various DIY power tools to carve into the various colours and finishes available for laminate. Recent commissions and exhibitions include a two coloured mirror piece for Draw, the opening exhibition of Middlesbrough Museum of Art (mima) and solo exhibitions with Sies and Höke Gallery in Düsseldorf and Helga de Alvear Gallery in Madrid.
www.sieshoeke.com/artists/dj-simpson

Artwords Bookshop will be presenting DJ Simpson's recent monograph DJ Simpson works 2000 to 2005 which was published as part of his exhibition at the Mead Gallery in Coventry in 2006. The involvement with Friday Session 14 is one of many Artwords Bookshop events to promote and publish contemporary visual arts and culture.
www.artwords.co.uk

Posted March 8, 2007 09:45 by Kathrin Böhm

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FRIDAY SESSION 13 ON TUESDAY 6 MARCH AT 19.00 AT PUBLIC WORKS

Artist/architect Can Altay has invited spatial practitioners Celine Condorelli, Marcus Miessen and Gil Doron to continue a discussion that started during the "Architecture as Initative" Symposium at the Architectural Association earlier this month, where the active role of architecture within dynamic and political urban setting, and issues of participation were high on the agenda.

"The topic is 'setting a setting'. I'm currently thinking about the question of a more open-ended practice; whether its possible to position oneself as a generator of some sort of setting, but not exercising complete control over and acknowledging/promoting unforeseen possibilities. Certain practices in the field of contemporary art have been explicitly dwelling on issues of the social realm, inter-human relations, and the socio-political for some decades now. The "relational" aspects of artistic practices have come to be ever more evident in becoming moments or acts that not only question but "make happen", taking sociality and spatiality to their core and acting as catalysts of relations; between the work and people, between people and people, and between people and space. What I have in mind for my research in terms of settings is somewhat restricted, but it can as well be any setting, any space, any spatial practice."

Posted March 4, 2007 10:28 by Kathrin Böhm