NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

The Guy Hilton Gallery presents the summer exhibition at Nettie Horn

curated by JJ Charlesworth, Andrew Hunt, and Robin Klassnik

24 - 27 AUGUST 2007

Including work selected by: Alma Enterprises, Artists Anonymous, Cullinan+Richards Savage School Window Gallery, DegreeArt.com, Fred, IBID Projects, Kate MacGarry, Nettie Horn, One in the Other, David Risley Gallery, Stuart Shave/Modern Art, VINEspace, Wilkinson Gallery

Preview Thursday 23 August 2007 6pm to 9pm

Open Friday to Bank Holiday Monday 12pm to 6pm

The curators discuss the exhibition with invited guests Saturday 25 August 2007 2pm to 6pm

Refreshments will be served in the gallery

Street Party in Vyner Street Saturday 25 August All day

So, here we are, mid-Summer. We don't want to sound too hard done by, but we're pretty busy people, and it would have been nice, for a change, to have a few days off in August. Unfortunately we were asked by Mark McGowan if we'd consider curating The Guy Hilton Gallery's summer show at Nettie Horn. Nettie Horn is a new commercial gallery, which used to be in Brick Lane under the name of The Brick Lane Gallery. It was run by Danielle and Tony and they’ve just moved into Vilma Gold’s old space in Vyner Street under the new name. When Mark asked us if we'd like to curate a show, we agreed because he said we wouldn’t have to make much of an effort. Guy didn’t really do very much else either, apart from smile a lot and put his gallery’s name at the top of the invite, and now his gallery sign is nailed over the top of Nettie Horn’s. It says ‘The Guy Hilton Gallery. The Best Gallery in the World!’
So we thought we’d curate a show, but what to do? How to organise an exhibition that is both exceptional in curatorial terms, and incredibly easy to produce, so that we don’t have to do too much work? Getting high on curator-strength coffee, we decide to invoke our imaginary curator friend Hahn Meta Wrïst, who is good at these things. Hahn Meta appears genie-like above the coffee table, in a cloud of unforwarded emails, and suggests, in his bizarre but compelling international accent:
‘Why don’t you get all those galleries in Vyner Street to contribute one piece of work, and put all of the pieces of work in a group show in the Nettie Horn Gallery, yes? So instead of a show of artists’ works put together by curators for a gallery, or a gallery putting together a show of artists, you have a group of curators curating a group of galleries to curate a group show in another gallery, yes?
“It is like a closed circle, but very open at the same time. It’s about responsibility, but it is also about irresponsibility. It is about democracy in art, but it is also about not having democracy in art. It is about the curator enabling forms of non-hierarchical self-organisation, but it is also about everyone doing exactly what the curator says. It is about the possibility of community through art, but it is also about the destruction of community through the neo-liberal privatisation of the public sphere represented by the art market. It is like a Russian doll, but in the shape of a Fabergé egg. It is about being good neighbours and at the same time completely ignoring each other, yes?’
We agree with Hahn Meta, and, after a few phone calls, emails and some nice conversations, we get it all sorted.

Galleries / Artists / Works included in the show:

Alma Enterprises Gallery; Video Reel
Brian Catling, ANTIC, (2003), 17.34
 allsopp&weir, Machine #1, (2007), 4.54
 Hayley Newman , Choco Gothic, (2002), 3.02
 Michael Curran , *Footnote, (1998), 3.40
 Thomas Altheimer, The world is a book (Little people wrestling the world), (2007), 9.59
 Kim Noble , Kim Noble will invest in you (2007), 2.31

FRED; Nayland Blake, I’m Set Free 2006, Wooden base, steel rod and fabric, 2000 x 305 x 390 mm

Stuart Shave/Modern Art; Clare E. Rojas, Three Angels 2006, gouache and latex on paper (framed), 28.5x24.5 cm

David Risley Gallery; Henry Krokatsis, Single Pair Palmate 2005, wood and cast aluminium, 50 x 50 x 60 cm

DegreeArt.com; Laurie Freeman, It's All About The Accessories 2007,Mannequin, pvc, resin, enamel

IBID Projects; Ross Chisholm, Untitled 2007, 80 slides, 35mm, on slide carousel

Kate MacGarry; Peter McDonald, The Green 2007, Acrylic on canvas, 21 x 26cm

Artists Anonymous; Meevil, oil on canvas, diptych, 160 cm x 150 cm / Evilme, afterimage, c-print, 160 cm x 150 cm
       
NETTIE HORN; Annie Attridge, Splash and the Spectacle 2007, Ceramic, enamel, gloss, paint, polyurethane, 36x18x36cm

One in the Other; Satoru Aoyama, Chain 2007, Embroidery (cotton, polyester thread) on polyester, 53.8x53.8 cm

VINEspace; Sean Branagan, Papers prove victory exists 2005, film, paint, steel and plastic

Cullinan + Richards Savage School; Charlotte Cullinan and Jeanine Richards, Saville Row, London 2007

Wilkinson Gallery; Martina Steckholzer, 2 pm 2006, Acrylic on canvas, 170 x 130 cm

© NETTIE HORN