Exhibition Future reCollections Quay Arts
 21 Jan to 01 April 2017

Kori used gum-strip paper to construct a series of composed scenes containing many different kinds of everyday objects and fragments of posed figures. Their suspension and placement created frozen moments in time. She described the dynamics of making her installations as a “pendulum movement between casting and drawing with the gum-strip tape - an archaeology of touch.”

The six tableaux installed within the West Gallery were called: ‘Saving the building’; ‘Raining tools’; ‘Friends of the sea’; ‘Remains of the feast’; ‘Ale, spirits and song’; and ‘Prime vessels’. These fascinating installations encouraged the viewer to reflect on what might be preserved by future generations, as well as consider what could be lost along the way.

Each tableau was accompanied by 2D artwork and digital interactions which refer to associated ideas, drawings and processes. These included the cultural and working traditions associated with the Quay Arts’ building, the port activity and the warehouses in the immediate surrounding area - from their initial site development to the present day.

The physical heritage - Quay Arts is a Grade II listed building. It is an historic landmark on Newport Quay in the area known as Little London and has successfully provided an artistic centre for the Isle of Wight community for the last forty years. The main Quay Arts building was originally named the Porter Store, and the Rope Store with its unusual twisted roof were both built in the early 1880s and owned by Mew Langton’s Brewery (the metal tracks for rolling the beer barrels can still be seen on the edge of the terrace). The brewery and warehouse eventually fell into decline but the warehouse was subsequently rescued by a formidable group of committed artists and supporters in the mid-70s. In 1976, with the support from the IW Council, Quay Arts was established and in 1996 it was refurbished with the aid of the National Lottery Fund.

Alongside Future reCollections there was a four-week exhibition in the adjacent Clayden Gallery by Quay Arts’ youth group, Young Quay. Using Kori’s themes as a catalyst, Young Quay worked together over ten weeks to create their own artwork and collaborative pieces to investigate relationships between arts and local heritage.

As well as the exhibition, Joanna Kori offered sixty places to young people aged 11 – 19 years (and up to 25 years with additional needs) as part of Quay Arts' WAVES Youth Offer to learn new making processes and explore the exhibition topics. Some of their pigeon sculptures were included in the Future reCollections exhibition. The results of further workshops were shown as interactive displays within a Making WAVES celebratory exhibition in the Clayden Gallery from the end of February to the end of March 2017.

VISITORS’ BOOK COMMENTS:

The following are a selection of comments made in the visitors book at the Future reCollections exhibition at Quay Arts from 21st January 2017.

• Delicious. Enjoyed it immensely.
• Fascinating exhibition, marrying of research to visual wonderment! Thanks.
• Really cool structures, I like the rawness of the gum strip against the white walls. Hope to attend your classes.
• Nice to see them displayed as I have seen them in the making.
• The tableaux have such presence and stillness. Beautiful.
• So beautiful. Desperately wanted to touch objects. Visiting children were so good.
• Brilliant exhibition. Love the pigeons best. Would have been great having one piece for the kids to touch as they were fascinated by what it would feel like. This would be good in art in general.
• Absolutely amazing. Pigeons – wonderful. Thank you.
• Beautiful presentation. I like the effects caused by light shining through the materials used.
• What a marvellous original interpretation of the theme. A visual delight. Stunning.
• Very clever.
• A very clever and interesting art exhibition. Imaginative art from virtually nothing. Great that you have involved school children. Minimal cost in being very creative!
• Amazing! Thank you! Really made me smile – very moving.
• (Artist’s talk, 15 attendees)
• You have created a very inspiring space. Thanks.
• Absolutely fabulous! Wanted to stroke the pigeons. Wonderfully displayed. Loved it, want to return many times.
• My feeling is that some of the inspiration and quotes are out of place, but overall some intriguing work, well done.
• Thank you for sharing your truly amazing work and for your lovely friendly talk – we will be back again.
• Thought-provoking, innovative, inspiring! Thank you.
• Fabulous exploration of the Quay Arts heritage and future. It really makes you think and take notice.
• Many thought-provoking moments and visual pleasure. Teased by the tactile prohibition!
• Love the sculpture. Struggling with the texture and feel of the material. Tried very hard to like that more, still inspired.
• Loved it all! (But especially the pigeons.)
• Wonderful exhibition. Good links with the Quay Arts building. Well done.
• Wonderful stuff. Captures the essence and ghost, of very alive human activities with infinite humour. Eternal and ephemeral.
• I love it! This is my third visit and keep finding something new.
• I love it! Archaeology meets memory, meets history – beauty and sadness. Thank you.
• So delicate yet built from utilitarian materials. The hands and the birds are wonderful. Fascinating.
• Fascinating – love how it layers and weaves the history and stories. Hope the talk went well. Curated beautifully.
• Witty and clever exhibition. Beautifully done – layers of meaning as well as layers of material.
• So fascinatingly different – clever, interesting and beautifully presented. Thank you.
• What dedication and talent! Fascinating. Love the curtain of tools and idea behind it. Thank you so much. A work of art indeed!
• What a great exhibition. So much hard work and talent. Loved it.
• Delightfully imaginative and pointed.
• Wow. Lovely exhibition, so much work. Never seen gum paper work before, so much you can do with it. Loved the meaning of them all.
• Good, not family friendly though. Child was offended*
• *Not everything can be child friendly
• Love it. So different, so inspirational and so much hard work. I’m intrigued to know how you moulded the pigeons!
• Original, beautiful and fun. Loved it.
• Very clever. Good fun. Enjoyed it.
• Interesting and thought provoking – but also fun.