I love getting to know an exhibition space. If you look closely, it may reveal a secret. The trick is to capture the moment and run with it…

When I first stepped into studio 41, I didn’t know exactly what my first solo exhibition would look like. I had a clear idea in my head, but some things you can’t prepare for. Nerve-wracking as that is, it’s also the exciting part of setting up a show.

When the walls were painted black and most of the works were in place, I was still trying to decide which of my video works to display. I had been installing every night after work till 2am. Tired, I went home and left the decision for the following day. In the afternoon, I headed down there again – for the first time in bright daylight.

I unlocked the shutters and the front door and closed them behind me. The window shutter was still down, mainly because it’s a bit of a nightmare to work with. Mysteriously, this stubbornness came with a peace offering. Before I had a chance to turn on the light, I saw something mesmerising. The crack at the bottom of the shutter filtered the sunlight so that an inverted image of the street outside was projected onto the walls of the exhibition space. Studio 41 is a self-contained camera obscura!

My excitement escalated when I saw that the sheet of A4 paper, which I had stuck over a hole in the shutter to prevent curious passersby from peeking in, also had an inverted image on it. Blurred, and most importantly in motion, it was like a tiny upside down cinema. I grabbed my camera and began filming. It was like being inside a cocoon and looking out through fine silk at the flicker of life outside. Cars, buses, lorries swept by in an arrythmic hum, while occasional pedestrians became fleeting black shadows. I suddenly saw what studio 41 sees when no one is looking.

In my work, I collect moments and materials that have the potential to be transformed into something else. For “Suspended Animations”, I reworked found moth cocoons by dissolving the tear-proof silk, carding them into fleece with hair brushes, and reanimating them into fragile textile pieces.

I scanned the handwriting of deceased relatives and used the letters of the alphabet they left behind to create new fonts. If the dead could speak, what would we want them to say? What happens when we don’t have enough letters to spell out the things we want to hear?

I spun audio books on cassette tape and films on VHS tape into yarn, rewinding them into balls to tell new stories. Likewise, spun music tapes became new strings on an old guitar.

The memory sticks suspended from the ceiling had been lying in a library since 2008 and no one had come to reclaim them. We use so many different recording devices to remember things for us, but like our own memory, they are expendable and can easily be lost or forgotten.

The futility of holding on to anything and the need to let go is the core of my practice. The more digital we become, the less likely we are to print out our photos and save them as physical keepsakes. When we do get around to it, we stick them on a fridge door with magnets or stick them in a cheap frame so we can exchange them if something better comes along.

I am intrigued by how necessary similes and metaphors are to express what we mean. Describing things as they are is seldom enough. My titles are like short spells that attempt to unravel the work.  But you don’t have to listen. You can spin your own stories as you go along.

Theresa Moerman Ib lives and works in Glasgow. “Suspended Animations” at Studio 41 is her first solo exhibition. The gallery is open Wednesday-Saturday from 1-6pm till 23 February at 41 West Graham Street, Glasgow G4 9LJ.

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What:
CIRCUIT is an online platform for New Zealand artists and experimental filmmakers to stream their videos. It also includes critical writing and discussion. You might read reviews of current exhibitions, interviews with artists, curators, etc.

Why we like it:
CIRCUIT provides a library of 70 New Zealand artists with several hundred time-based media works available for research, study and your enjoyment.

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For more creative delights we’ve Spotted on the web take a look here.

Cardiff is a comparatively small city but it has an astoundingly large creative scene for its size. Having moved here around five years ago from London, I’ve found it to be ideally placed. To the east, we are only two hours from London making us the closest European capital city to London. Of course, London has a great reputation for the arts and being so close means that it is easy to stay in touch and keep up. Then to the west, we are only two hours away from the Pembrokeshire coast. This is a coastline that was named as the greatest region on Earth in 2012 by traveller’s bible Lonely Planet. It is a place to which I regularly escape to find solitude and inspiration in the tradition of the Romantic artists of yesteryear.

Being so perfectly placed between two such different but wildly inspiring places and with cultural Welsh heritage that dates back hundreds of years, it’s no wonder our small but perfectly formed city has given birth to such a great wealth of creative talent. I haven’t got time to touch upon every aspect of the city’s creative industries but I can give you a whistle-stop tour of my creative scene:

For the last couple of years I have had the pleasure of being involved with the Cardiff Design Festival, producing and curating exhibitions in both 2011 and 2012. Cardiff is home to some incredible designers and creative thinkers as is showcased each year at the festival which takes place annually since 2005. It has grown year on year since its beginning and last October’s programme was packed full of inspiring and engaging events, exhibitions and talks. This included events such as A Designer and Philosopher Walk into a Bar hosted by Chapter Arts Centre; Living Streets Mobile Cinema Screenings; and Content: A Magazine in Day facilitated by Plastik Magazine. Local Illustrator Matt Joyce also came up with the Doodle Noodle concept which was a rip-roaring success and saw members of the public, young and old, enjoying themselves as they coloured in some giant canvases in the city centre. The highlight of the festival’s programme is of course the presentation of the Best of Welsh Design Awards which this year saw awards, and teapots, going to BFLS Architects, Ctrl Alt Design and Orangebox amongst others.

Peculiar Pleasures at Milkwood Gallery with Arianne Foks

Of course, the city’s design related output is not limited to the Cardiff Design Festival’s two week party in the autumn. ThinkARK, for example, are a group of creative thinkers and social designers who come together regularly to produce a wonderfully diverse range of projects that has included PaperGirl Cardiff, Trade School Cardiff and the PlayARK games festival. I contributed some unicorn porn to PaperGirl Cardiff last year and also had a fantastic time at the games festival playing Renga in the cinema at Chapter. What can be more fun than spending a drizzly Saturday afternoon shooting frickin’ laser beams at cinema screens?

As well as a strong design community, Cardiff also plays host to an extensive network of fine artists and makers. The big draw in the fine art community is the Artes Mundi prize which is hosted by the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff every two years and with a prize of £40,000 is the biggest cash arts prize in the UK. This year’s exhibition took place in the newly refurbished Contemporary Art Galleries at the museum from 6 October 2012 until 13 January 2013 and featured works by seven short-listed artists from around the world. The winner of Artes Mundi 5 was Teresa Margolles who was chosen by a panel of international curators and directors. Adrian Paci’s 16mm film from Artes Mundi 4 still sticks in my mind as one of my personal highlights from the exhibitions I have seen over the years.

In addition to the biannual Artes Mundi exhibition, there are some wonderful gallery spaces in the city which present ongoing programmes of exhibitions. These include Chapter Arts Centre which hosts exhibitions by established artists in its main gallery as well as shows of work by emerging artists as a part of their “Art in the Bar” programme. G39 have recently relocated to some fancy new premises in Roath and shows work by national and international contemporary visual artists, as well as supporting emerging local artists through their WARP programme.

Peculiar Pleasures at Milkwood Gallery with Arianne Foks

Milkwood Gallery are a little smaller and embedded in the heart of the community in Roath. As well as hosting a rolling programme of exhibitions, they are also home to the Basement Residency Programme and are the focal point for the Made in Roath arts festival. I’ve worked with Milkwood Gallery on a number of occasions myself to curate various exhibitions, one of the most memorable was perhaps Peculiar Pleasures which saw Parisian performance artist Arianne Foks waddling through the gallery on a chair to a soundtrack by The Stooges.

Like the design community, there are lots of artists getting together to make things happen for themselves. The BIT Collective, for example, have just set up their studios having not long graduated. Cardiff Art Collective launched last year with an exhibition as a part of the Contemporary Cardiff programme and my own Pack of Wolves made their mark recently with our inaugural exhibition at The Sho Gallery last autumn.

These are just some of the key venues and events that I regularly engage with in Cardiff but this barely scratches the surface. The city’s printmaking fraternity is well represented by Print Market Project and The Printhaus amongst others and there are fantastic photographic galleries in the form of Ffotogallery and Third Floor Gallery. Not to mention the Cardiff Photomarathon; it’s great fun if you’re a glutton for creative punishment. I’ve taken part three times now and it’s definitely a highlight of the year.

With an increase in empty shop units, there are more and more artists taking advantage with pop up exhibitions appearing all around the city centre. I can’t possibly list every event, activity and venue here but if you’re visiting the city be sure to have a nosey at the Art Cardiff website which features plenty of exhibition and events listings as well as profiles of some of our artists and makers. Alternatively, you might like Jennifer for a walkabout and discussion about current exhibitions as a part of Art Club Cardiff.

I’ve tried to avoid mentioning individuals because there are far too many to mention who are doing interesting creative things in Cardiff. However, you can find out about some of the individuals who contribute to the creative life and soul of the city via the Project Cardiff website.

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My Creative Scene is an insight into different creative & cultural happenings in cities where our members and readers live. Browse through more insider guides here or contact us to write about the arts scene where you are.

Hot from a successful run at this year’s Fringe, Musical is her latest show. There seems to be an irony in the title, since Sadler’s dance emerges from a very different tradition than musical theatre, with its jazz hands and hit songs.

“ I am deliberately provoking multiple interpretations of the word Musical,” she begins.  “The show deals with a certain critique of entertainment taking references from comic burlesque and music-hall tradition.”

While neo-burlesque has been all the rage over the past decade, Sadler has mined further back in time. “My initial inspiration came from the Britannia music-hall theatre on Argyle street,” a wonderful old music hall currently being rescued by a dedicated team of volunteers, recalling an age where popular performance was something both subversive and vibrant. Further influences include “tap dance and the films of Jaques Tati and Monty Python.”

Despite the austerity and seriousness usually associated with contemporary dance, Sadler is looking for something more. “It is unusual that dance and performance are really funny, but being funny was one of the aims of this show,” she continues. “ I myself enjoy a good laugh and we had a lot of fun making Musical.”

One of the key aspects of Musical is that Sadler has worked closely with a musician to develop the piece. “I worked with Austrian composer and musician Noid on this piece and our interest was to find a place where musical composition and dance could become one and the same,” she explains. “In actual fact, the whole choreography can be read from the point of a musical score.”

Sadler’s approach is always distinctive.  With her experience working across Europe, Sadler has pulled in influences from across the world, but returns to a core strategy. “All of my works are strictly choreographed, as I am not at all interested in improvisation as performance.” This does not, however, preclude a more active role for her dancers. “The performers are, however, closely involved in researching and proposing movement material. For that reason, I credit them also with the choreography.”

This is a common tactic in contemporary dance, making Sadler choreographer, artistic director and conceptualist. “My role is to propose the concept or theme of the piece,” she elaborates. “I am always responsible for orchestrating and composing the movements in time and space. We have developed over the last pieces different sets of compositional rules that allow the performer some freedom of choice and interpretation within the movement material.” In many ways, she combines the old with the modern. “I am what you might call a New Traditional Choreographer,” she affirms.

This way of working offers freedom and discipline to the company. Stammer productions are known for their intellectually rigorous take on dance, yet Sadler does not agree that this makes her work inaccessible.

“I think dance and performance is for everyone. That doesn’t mean everyone is interested in it or that dance should try to compete with mainstream entertainment.” Her knowledge of academic theory does lead Sadler to an abstract and dry intellectualism. “Actually I think the whole notion that audiences need everything spelled out an insult to their intelligence and will lead to an eventual death of the art form.”

Her own experience of working with young people suggested that contemporary need not be obscure. “Last year and this year I initiated a children’s project in Glasgow schools bringing excerpts of my work to those who normally would have no chance to access or know about it. We had an overwhelming response which proves to me that maybe we just have to work harder so that  dance and performance can be appreciated as part of cultural knowledge. There is very little in general written about dance unlike music or visual art so its a continual process to raise the profile and understanding of what dance is and how one might appreciate it.”

For Musical the humour “is part of the process of democratising access to the work.” She admits to some frustration at the continued marginalisation of dance. “I  am totally bored of people talking about how dance is inaccessible and begin to ask myself if those who people who keep talking about it in that way do not understand it or even like it.”

Indeed, responses from audience members suggest that Stammer have been reaching out to new fans. “After our last show in Tramway I received an e-mail from an audience member who never goes to see dance talking about his impressions of the work. In Vienna, a woman told me after our show how she came all the way from Paris for the festival and was really happy she made the journey.” This communication beyond the dance world informs Sadler’s attitude. “As the famous American choreographer Martha Graham once said you always talk to at least one audience member and I believe her.”