Rona Smith and Steven Allbutt
7 – 11 August 2007
84 by Steven Allbutt
Photograph taken by Yvonne Carmichael
Press Release
42 New Briggate Gallery presents newly developed works by Steven Allbutt and Rona Smith; handcrafted baseball bats, alongside delicate layers of chilli powder trapped between sheets of glass.
Steven Allbutt
84
“84 is a partly reconstructed memory from 1984. The memory was never that clear to start with. I was eight it was the middle of the miners strike and I had been sent to Holland for the summer holidays to be looked after by the squatters movement based in Amsterdam.
One night we were led through the back streets until we came to what seemed to be a disused building, which stood silent and apart. At the top of some steps there was a huge solid wood door framed by an ornate entrance. One of our guardians banged hard on the door and a hatch opened. Some Dutch pleasantries were exchanged and we were let in. As we stepped out of the near-perfect darkness of the street we were lead into the bar via a long corridor. Down one entire side of that corridor were baseball bats racked neatly one after another, each accompanied by a gas mask.
My thoughts often return to this brief period in my life. The country seemed to be at war, my community and family were divided and we had nothing except each other. I have never been happier.”
Rona Smith
White Heat
A layer of chilli powder trapped between sheets of glass was left in a room in the artist's home to absorb entering sunlight. Here in the gallery the light continues to strip the substance of its colour. The work will keep on fading, collecting light from each environment in which it is placed until it has one day bleached a uniform white.
White Heat by Rona Smith. Photograph courtesy of the artist.
White Heat by Rona Smith. Photograph taken by Yvonne Carmichael