CURIO: a rare, unusual, or intriguing object.
CURIA: a curia, plural curiae, is an assembly, council, or court, in which public, official, or religious issues are discussed and decided.
Marie Jones (Kochi Kochi) and Stina Puotinen will use this Launch Pad as an opportunity to collaborate on a durational, evolving, and experiential sculptural installation, using Castlefield Gallery as their place of meeting and making from 1-10 September 2017.
CURIO CURIA will focus on where the artists’ individual practices connect through object and image making, allowing this collaborative process to be public as the work evolves. The pair will combine their collective experience manipulating found objects including sometimes foodstuffs, to create sculptural elements that play with distortion of scale, material, veracity and humour. Elements of the work will be added to, elaborated upon, moved and removed over the course of the exhibition. The installation will be, by turns, a gathering point for conversation, play, experimentation, work, and spontaneous collaboration amongst themselves and others.
The public are invited to contribute their own photographs to the exhibition via Instagram #curiocuria
Jones and Puotinen have also invited four guest artists to make their own contributions to the exhibition. From bringing work to the gallery, hosting events and staging performances, the nature of the space will change on a daily basis.
The project will open at 1pm on Friday 1 September with an experiential collaboration with guest artist Aliyah Hussain for a “Soft L(a)unch”, including nibbles and casual conversation with the artists. The table will be laid to welcome guests, who will help initiate the overall project with their presence and participation.
On Saturday 2 September (2-4pm) Jones and Puotinen will host BUFFET. The artists describe BUFFET as a collaborative skill share, soapbox, platform, and a space to test out… or a visual ‘pot-luck dinner’. From a piece of writing, a piece of work, a zine, a workshop; anyone can bring something to the experience.
CURIO CURIA will also feature the work of guest artist John Powell-Jones, who will have created a new performance and video within the installation to be premiered in the space on Wednesday 6 September and be on view for the remainder of the exhibition.
Guest artists Patti Crozier and Adam Griffiths will be responding and contributing to the project in an on-going way over the course of the exhibition.
The project will lead to an exhibition of photography, sculpture, ceramics, furniture design, and moving image work, with the celebratory event ‘This is Not a Preview’ on Thursday 7 September (6-8pm) and remain on view at Castlefield Gallery to Sunday 10 September.
Curio Curia #1, 2017. Stina Puotinen
Curio Curia #2, 2017. Stina Puotinen
Curio Curia #4, 2017. Stina Puotinen
Curio Curia #5, 2017. Stina Puotinen
Curio Curia #6 2017. Stina Puotinen
Curio Curia #7, 2017. Stina Puotinen