(solo show)

TAG Presents

Barking Barnet Bexley Brent Bromley Camden City
Croydon Ealing Enfield Greenwich Hackney Hammersmith & Fulham Haringey
Harrow Havering Hillingdon Hounslow Islington Kensington & Chelsea Kingston Lambeth
Lewisham Merton Newham Redbridge Richmond Southwark Sutton
The Island Tower Hamlets Waltham Forrest
Wandsworth Westminster

The map is geographically accurate and highlights many of London’s main roads, ground level railway lines, built up areas and its green spaces. It lists most of the important Art Galleries and Museums, as well as the smaller commercial and project space galleries showcasing contemporary work.Noting the Victorian legacy left behind for us, the classic London Town house can be found in the central areas mostly within the central areas, and the post-war vernacular with its semi and detached housing around the outskirts.

The Island is a selective listing of history, trivia, local knowledge and stereotypes. It focuses on place name histories highlighting etymologies from pre-Christian names to contemporary jargon. It sources writers such as Peter Ackroyd and his biography of London and the discoveries of writers such as Ian Sinclair.

The local histories and trivia have also come from extensive research using Wikipedia. Discoveries such as the 1st Earl of Salisbury having honeymooned in 1589, in what is now a dodgy part of Edmonton has caused much amusement, whilst also being of incredible interest in the finding out of how places have changed. Some facts from Wikipedia are blatantly untrue. However, the inclusion of some serve as reminder that reputations and hype can often precede facts and figures that in themselves are selective in their very nature. They can often hold more meaning in the everyday than official knowledge and statistics.

The trivia on famous people and celebrities, again mostly gathered from Wikipedia has been done on purely capricious/impulsive grounds. They are ones that are either deemed very important in history, simply very well known or ones that I have found amusing. The listings mirror an attitude familiar to my own character, which on one hand is both serious and meaningful whilst on the other able to switch to crass instincts and to laugh at others and myself. An intense exercise merged with the realisation of its own ridiculousness.

As well as the odd personal fact, the map notes such things as: the birth places of famous people like Alfred Hitchcock, Samuel Palmer and Noel Edmonds – also Phyllis Pearsall the originator of the London A-Z, where Winston Churchhill went to school and that Screaming Lord Sutch and Lord Byron were both Harrow boys. The Gymnasium where Arnold Schwarzenegger trained, where the speed of sound was first recorded, the place where Oliver Twist was taught to thieve and where Hendrix died. It notes the sights of old Palaces, Newgate and Pimlico prisons. The former from where the convicted were marched to be hung at the Tyburn Tree now speakers corner and the later where prisoners were shipped off to Australia. Old Druid sites are noted alongside Magna Carta Island at Runneymead and the main encampments of the peasants Revolts.

These aspects have culminated in the production of this Spoof of an historical map where the original drawing requires the use of a magnifying glass in order to read it.

The forward of the catalogue written by Alli Beddoes can be viewed here.

Alles Nahe Werde Fern - Lokaal01

Stephen Walter
Elout de Kok
Frank Havermans
Diederik Klomberg

Curated by Frederik Vergaert and Lokaal01 - Breda, Holland. February 2007

This exhibition consisted of works by four artists exploring the idea of a ‘mathematical Landscapes’, geometry, structure and scale. I chose to display my framed drawings alongside the installations of Diederik Klomberg and Frank Havermans both on separate floors. Diederik Klomberg created an installation in the downstairs gallery. Using the careful arrangement of see-through mirrors, a range of materials, furniture and different shades of paint, the gallery appeared to be split into four sections. Elements that were half missing within these sections would appear complete through the mirrors.The arrangement of my drawings on the surrounding wall space would accentuate the illusion. Upstairs, Frank Havermans’ installation consisted of a number scupltures informed by old Breda city maps. The weapon-like sculptures appeared like space ships suspended in air.

Downstairs with Klomberg installation 1

Downstairs with Klomberg installation 2

Downstairs with Klomberg installation 3

In situation with Klomberg installation

Kloomberg installation

Upstairs with Havermans

Stephen Walter
Caroline List
Simon Keenleyside
Peter Lamb
Gordon Cheung
Hiraki Sawa
Gabriela Schutz
Robin Mason
Daniel Gustav Cramer
Miranda Lopatkin

I decided to create an exhibition of fellow artists whose work explored contemporary notions of Romanticism in the genre of Landscape. It was held at Standpoint Gallery, London in 2006. The poster included a special text written by curator Alli Beddoes.

In a time where our relationship with the Natural Land is ever decreasing, references to Romanticism must change in accordance with present codes, practices and influences found in heavily urbanised environments.

This exhibition shows work by ten artists that to varying extents deal with ideas of contemporary Romanticism through presenting visions of the future and reflecting upon a nostalgic and natural past. The difficulty with representing classically beautiful landscapes, memory and the yearning for ‘Homelands’ at present clash with the disenfranchisement of a lost wilderness into domesticated, sub-urban, plastic and supermarket-ridden environments. The limitations of a physical Romanticism must find new routes in the face of a landscape ever increasingly shaped by convenience.

Stephen Walter creates landscapes where the trees are slowly taken over by their symbolic representations leaving us with forests of geographical map symbols and places where every inch is mapped and quantified for human purpose. The ‘awe’, so revered by Walter is presented by the sheer volume of symbols, paired down and separated from their real state. He tackles the outlook of a deeply troubling long-term future using mundane elements of contemporary municipal culture that hark back to a sublime space.