Vitrine, circa 1900, has three glass shelves and the frame is oak. It stands in a corner of the living room in my new 1920s home and replaces a small makeshift 'museum' that used to house artefacts given to me by students and artist friends.
Vitrine is offered to any artists in my UK and global network to use as an experimental and temporary installation space with the intention that the artist can invite a selected audience to engage with the work.
Each installation will be documented photographically, to be compiled into an occasional, limited-edition publication.
Following the inaugural installation of Vitrine by Megan Calver and Gabrielle Hoad in December 2023, I am pleased to announce that artist Steve Thorpe is presenting 'Dust Works' in February - March 2024 (see below).
Vitrine (2023)
Vitrine II
Dust Works
17th February
- 21st March 2024
Vitrine, Exeter
(viewing by appointment only)
Painters work with finely ground dust, mixed with a binder to make paint. For Vitrine I am exploring the possibilities of working with the dust itself. Instead of permanence, it means working with the moment... with a material that will shift with the lightest touch. While sacrificing stability, there is a gain in dynamism; it feels like reacting with the energies of nature.
The dust I work with is ground from stones that I find in the landscape. There are 38 samples of rock dust in this installation, that have come from all over the country. I consider my practice as composing with geography.
I have made 4 pieces of work for Vitrine, titled: Place, Journey, North-South, and Beginning and End.
Delicate Instruments (Vibrating Stillness)
25th November
- 21st December 2023
Vitrine, Exeter (viewing by appointment only)
Shifting between scientific and psychical thinking,Delicate Instruments suggests new ways to tune into hidden signals from the more-than-human.
Obscured by a veil, the vitrine initially withholds its contents. A closer look reveals them as objects held in unstable equilibrium and sensitive to the slightest stimuli: from trembling paper cases balanced on the points of nails, to indigo carbon paper primed to register subtle touch.
Some of these instruments are drawn from the realm of psychical experimentation, where they might have been placed in a sealed cabinet to isolate them from air currents and other physical influences.
Delicate Instruments was originally presented at the Devon & Exeter Institution as a part of a CAMP Research Residency. This latest iteration has been created specially for Vitrine.
