Working with a camera it can be all to easy to subsume yourself in process, the logistics, the mechanics, the chemistry, the alchemy even. By virtue of its documentary function it can provide itself with an excuse for its own making, after all, in a world where things are there to be photographed, the camera mimics our voracious appetite for consuming, recording and ultimately classifying things. Photography seems to epitomise process, a linear progression of selection, capture, processing and presenting. Self contained, hermetic and composed. A photograph is self-explanatory, it’s reason for being most obvious. The object is to record, the object is recorded.

The photograph can bear witness to the fact that everything is interesting, or can be made to look interesting, the camera is perhaps the ultimate tool for looking at the world, a surrogate observer, it can fool us into thinking we know or understand the world better through the consumption of photographs. As an image, the photograph echoes a painting in that it portents to show something through the eyes of the photographer / artist, a world seen from a certain perspective. There is an accompanying illusion of truth, a reassurance; the camera never lies, even if its operator does.

Untitled, 2013 – Stephen Iles

However, to see the camera only as a tool is to place it in subservience, to bend it entirely to the artists will. There is a danger in seeing the camera not as a thing in its’ own right – we can mistakenly see it as an extension of ourselves, we can anthropomorphise it. The camera’s ability to find everything interesting is both democratic and problematic. Its abilities and capacities seem almost unbounded, its’ productivity astounding.

I see the camera as more than a tool, it is a machine. Though it may not have free will, it has a will. You may think it is doing what you tell it but it is doing it’s own thing as well.

The documentary aspect of photography can be both a support and a distraction. Whilst it may be enough to accept that an image documents a place and time and that be reason enough for its making, I have to ask the question ‘Is it more important what the picture is of or that it is a picture?’ Is the impulse to make work an impulse to capture or describe something I see, or simply an impulse or desire to make an image, a picture or an artwork?

If we just accept the documentary aspect as a fact, rather than a factor in the making of the work then we become trapped in a rhetorical loop. The image was made because there was an impulse to make an image, we can allow this impulse to take precedence over the particulars of subject and circumstance.

The images I’ve made in art galleries / spaces during periods of downtime or re-development are an attempt to engage with what art is in a rhetorical sense, To look for the way in which spaces for art do more than merely support art by being the venues for showing art, their existence / presence can itself be seen as evidence of art. I try to work with the camera as a mirror rather than a window, not trying to bring something from outside into the gallery, rather seeing the gallery itself as potential, as a catalyst.

I see each image as a proposition as much as a record of something, I’m trying to work with the camera to make some kind of rhetorical experiment where perimeters are set in order to try and see if art can begin to make itself. I’d like to explore the way in which we engage with art and what we expect from it, to ask the question ‘when we come to a gallery, do we come to see art or do we come to see ourselves?

For more on Stephen, see our featured event here. Between Space shows at The Tetley until 17 August.

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As part of The Tetley’s opening programme, A New Reality: Part 3, documentary photographer Stephen Iles will show a series of new works which chronicle The Tetley’s conversion. The exhibition, entitled Between Space, will be on display until 17 August. From office block to contemporary art space, Iles’ work explores the spaces where art is shown or made, examining the interim time between exhibitions and shifting moments that occur during re-development. Objects that initially appear unconnected are paired with the places they inhabit:

“Concentrating upon their transitional states of flux, Iles uses photography as a mirror to point back at the art-world like an endless reflection. Using each site as his laboratory or studio, Iles builds a surface tension questioning how we see and understand art and its’ spaces. Steeped in conversations surrounding the history of art and most notably the Arte Povera movement, Iles’ allows the specific location to become irrelevant, instead seeking to reactivate the space by searching for the moments in-between.”

See Between Space at The Tetley until 17 August. For details of the exhibition, see the Tetley’s website.

For more from Stephen Iles, be sure to check out his My Process feature here. Want to know more about The Tetley conversion? Check our our featured venue piece here.

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The Reversing Machine is an exhibition by London based artists, Sam Belinfante and Simon Lewandowski. It was originally commissioned in 2012 by Art Laboratory Berlin as part of their ‘Time and Technology’ series.

For their contribution to A New Reality at the Tetley, Belinfante and Lewandowski reconstruct their collective work, incorporating fresh elements in response to the singular space of the new venue. They have also developed individual works of their own which reflect on their collaboration and on the concerns that generated The Reversing Machine.

The Reversing Machine itself is a self-reversing mechanical power source. As the machine is powered, any objects attached turn at a steady rate for a set time then stop and quickly start to turn in the opposite direction for the same amount of time – a mechanical palindrome. This sequence is controlled by the mechanics of the device and is transparent to the viewer; showing its own workings.

A repertoire of devices driven by The Reversing Machine act out ways in which we are able to perceive the flow and passage of time through the action of things and forces in the world. Devices choreographed by the machine include adapted record players, household light fittings, slide projectors and a variety of sculptural automata.

Central to the installation is a pair of turntables driven by the Machine with a shelf of vinyl records from which visitors can select a disc to play on the turntables. This is the ‘Palindrone Jukebox’. The records are compositions selected from an open submission.

The exhibition runs until 28 February 2014 at The Tetley, Leeds.

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© Stephen Isles

The building will contain exhibition spaces, with dedicated learning and resource spaces. An active programme of events, including talks, screenings and workshops will enable people of all ages to engage with and participate in contemporary art. By creating opportunities for artists based in Leeds and across the north, and showing cutting-edge contemporary art created elsewhere, The Tetley will help raise the city’s profile and to further cultural exchange between Leeds and other cities and places internationally.

Visitor facilities will include a café/bar offering a wide range of World Beers that will be distinctive in the Leeds area, and a range of spaces which are available to hire for private or corporate events, including the beautiful boardroom complete with portraits of former Tetley company chairmen. Visitors will also be able to buy editioned works created specially by artists, and unique items relating to the history of the Tetley company and the building itself.

© Stephen Isles

The Tetley houses a collection of artworks, documents and objects relating to the history of the much-loved Tetley Brewery, founded by Joshua Tetley in 1822. The collection will be available for public viewing and contemporary artists will be invited to create new work in response to it and the post-industrial heritage of the historically significant area. Project Space Leeds will also look after the Tetley archive and the redevelopment will preserve heritage features such as the original boardroom and war memorials in the building.

Associated events such as talks, seminars and education workshops sit alongside the exhibitions programme, engaging diverse audiences and aiming to grow awareness of the contemporary visual arts in Leeds. By working with organisations from outside Leeds, Project Space Leeds aims not only to bring established artists to the city and to provide opportunities for native talent, but also to position Leeds on the national and international radar.

Set to open in Autumn 2013, ‘The Tetley’ will create opportunities for artists based in the city and region to develop and show work that will appeal to a wide range of audiences, and artists will be commissioned to create new work as part of the capital refurbishment.

© Stephen Isles

Founded in 2006, and now a registered charity, Project Space Leeds, led by two of its founding directors, artist-curators Pippa Hale and Kerry Harker, will be at the heart of a creative renaissance along Leeds’ ‘South Bank’. ‘The Tetley’ will also enable the charity to generate income from commercial activity, which will support and broaden the scope of its artistic and education programmes and ensure a strong and sustainable future for the organisation.

“For years in Leeds there has been a gap in provision for contemporary visual art and it is fantastic that, at long last, the city will have its own interpretation of brilliantly inspiring, thriving places such as Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts and Bristol’s Arnolfini.” Kerry Harker, Director, Project Space Leeds

Developing a family friendly ethos is a key part of the plans for The Tetley. A new green space will be created outside the main entrance with imaginative ‘play facilities’ commissioned from artists and an annual programme of outdoor events.

Details of the exhibitions programme, commissions and events will be announced on the website shortly.

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