by Adam Sutherland and Alistair Hudson, Grizedale Arts
Bryan and Laura Davies' work revisits the once mainstream belief
that it is the healthy fun loving people that can transform the world
around them for the better. This seemingly weird statement is in fact
the challenge in their work, the challenge to contemporary society's
stereotype of the outsider as innovator, that the romantic hero needs
darkness for creditability, a cynical vision and a critical eye. That
endorsing the status quo is to be a 'Stepford wife'; that anyone who
talks about morality and social benefit is a cynical power monger with
an evil agenda for personal benefit. The Davies' conjure up the art
equivalent of 'Friends' - probably the single most transformative
element in the re-visioning of New York City, from the bad ass world of
dirty cops and dirtier communities - taking us from darkness to the
light. Theirs is a meticulously conceived interpretation of the world
around us that has a positive belief in the future and a definite
joyfulness in being alive.
This is not to say this work is not
highly intelligent, funny and complex, like 'Friends'; cleverly
written, insightful and witty. It takes the position that the world is
a complex and rich place and is a positive force, that the complex
collisions around us make a wonderful and creative context. Is this
much closer to reality than we imagine, where does the suffering that
the arts tend to foreground fit with this vision?
The interest
in utopian visions (or naive fancies) are fixed points in the Davies'
psycho-map, corner stones to be rediscovered, reinvented and remodelled
and most importantly brought into complex and relevant play with our
now world - to generate excitement and dynamism. A clear reference
point would seem to be Charles and Ray Eames' world of production,
riding a post war wave of consumer growth. Or the UK's version, Robin
and Lucienne Day or John and Sylvia Reid, more suburban bungalow than
super pimp's pad.
The Davies' approach is well suited to the
relativism of now, more critical complicity than removed critique. And
is perhaps the best tool to deal with their hometown context. Leeds
sucks things in from where it can, the epitome of provincial British
aspiration. The redeveloped warehouses, canal-side lofts, minimal chic
art galleries, Harvey Nichols, the quasi-Victorian might of its
financial industry. Eames and Day furniture figures large in the
interior boutiques of Headingley and the loft-style apartments
of footballers and Emmerdale starlets.
These are the metro-lite
provincial cities of the 21st century where brands, from Modernism to
Muji, are cut free from their 20th century roots. In this climate it
seems archaic, or at least obscure, to take a principled stance. To
make things work in Leeds, you need to be involved, compromise and
engage with developers, councils, and aspirational communities.
With
'Hello friends' at Bridgewater Place in Leeds the Davies' have
installed a massive sculpture, a bleeping and joking, turning and
winking at the spectator kind of a sculpture. The piece is neither
public nor private, inside a building or outside it, an original or a
rip off - it's like a mythological riddle, with a sense that from the
nonsense there can be crafted an answer and that answer is likely to
be, mankind/you. The very idea that making some colossal sculpture
could be relevant, could still be allowable is a radical statement, a
statement that there is a future and it's a bright remodelled one
filled with a complex understanding of the past as a learning process,
enjoying the complexity of our multi, multi, multi, multi world. An
almost public art work that is at once grandiose and playful - filled
with contradiction. A communist totem in a capitalist temple, the
pinnacle of 20th century elegance combined with cave man aesthetics, a
sci-fi vision of the ruins of brave new world in a proto ruin of a
brave new world - Woody Allen's Sleeper or Charlton Heston in the
planet of the Apes. The NBC script writing team couldn't have crafted a
wittier plot. This isn't criticism, it's witticism, it's satire and
endorsement, naivete and scepticism. Over-ridingly, it's not a one
message simplification of the world but an art work of today. And
somehow I know that you the reader of this are thinking 'but this is
lightweight nonsense, he's taking the piss, this isn't what art should
be made of and about' - but boy would you be wrong. Let's all start
wearing bobby bands and broad smiles, let's be healthy, happy and add
to this re-visioned, remodelled, complexified future world.
2008
Happy Stacking, China with Grizedale Arts and Vitamin Creative Space
2008
The Wonderful North, roadtrip and online expo, with Numiko for the Northern Way & Arts Council England
2007
Hello Friends, siting of public sculpture at Bridgewater Place, Leeds
Hello Friends catalogue launch with essay by Dr Jon Wood
2006
Architel book launch, Artist House, Leeds
Thinking Space for the North, event for Supersocial at Static, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool
Photography from Thinking Space for the North, Artist House, Leeds
Unidee/Cittadellarte, curated a Yorkshire artist to attend the 4-month residency at the Pistoletto Foundation, Italy
2005
Thinking Space for the North, (ongoing) with Dan Robinson, Grizedale Arts, Cumbria
Negotiating Us, Here and Now, curated Michelangelo Pistoletto and 6 international artists in a residency and exhibition, Leeds City Art Gallery & Artist House, Leeds
2004
Cultural Trade, Artist House, Leeds (with Arts & Business New Partners investment)
Sex and the City, Artist House, Leeds
Symposium Entrepreneur-ner, organised a 3-day symposium with Charles Esche, Neven Petrovich, Dirk Fleishmann, Francesco Bernabei for postgraduates from the University of Leeds School of Fine Art.
2003
Set up Artist House, Leeds in a space achieved through corporate sponsorship
2002
Laura Quarmby, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford
Laura Quarmby, New Work Scotland Programme, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh
2000
Bryan Davies, New Work Scotland Programme, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh
2008
Far West, Arnolfini, Bristol
AA2A (Artists Access to Art Schools), Leeds College of Art and Design, Leeds
2007
To the Left of the Rising Sun, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
Holbeck Pavilion, Artist House, Leeds
The Return of the Seven Samurai, Lucy Mackintosh Gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland
2006
Virtual Grizedale, A-Foundation Space, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool
Print room, Bureau Gallery, Manchester
Secrets and Light, The Culture Company, Leeds
2005
A ten point plan for a better Cornerhouse, Cornerhouse, Manchester
Psychometrics, SC Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia
The Third Paradise, Pistoletto Foundation, Venice Biennial, Italy
Situation Leeds, festival steering group members, Leeds
2004
Privacy, curated by Olaf Nicolai & David Thorp, Henry Moore Contemporary Projects, Edinburgh
We're not here to give you pleasure, Galerie Art & Essai, Rennes, France
Open Invite, Garanti Foundation, Istanbul, Turkey
Geographies of Change, Pistoletto Foundation, Biella, Italy
2002
Paradigm Island, Pistoletto Foundation, Biella, Italy
Going Continental, HeiligenKreuzerhof Gallery, Vienna, Austria
BIG Torino, Turin Biennial, Italy
Pause, Gwangju Biennial, Korea
2001
Alternative Strategies, Cork Municipal Art Gallery, Ireland
Greetings from Liverpool, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
Jack Vettriano's Electronic Notebook, Protoacademy, Edinburgh
2000
Mostyn Open, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Wales
Happy Stacking, with Grizedale Arts and Vitamin Creative Space, Nanling, China
2005
Bryan Davies, Grizedale Arts, Cumbria
2002
Bryan Davies, Unidee, Pistoletto Foundation, Biella, Italy
2007
Landmark Development Projects & St James Securities for Bridgewater Place, Leeds
Landmark Development Projects for King Charles Street, Leeds
2006
Asda St James for The Electric Press, Leeds
2005
DLG Architects, The Skinners Hall, London
2004
CTP St James for Round Foundry, Leeds
2004
SMC Gower Architects, Water Lane, Leeds
2008
Art & Architecture Journal 66/67, cover design, Spring 2008
2006
20:Twenty, A timeline of Cornerhouse exhibitions 1985 - 2005, Cornerhouse, Manchester
Olaf Nicolai:Privacy, (catalogue) published by Artist House, Leeds
Architel, published by Artist House, Leeds
2003 - 2004
Us & Them, contribution by Bryan Davies to Static Pamphlet, Liverpool
2003
Michelangelo Pistoletto & Cittadellarte &, catalogue, MuHKA, Antwerp, Belgium
2002
BIG Torino, catalogue for Turin Biennial
Pause, catalogue for Gwangju Biennial
2008
Bryan and Laura Davies: The Wonderful North, Alistair Hudson, Art & Architecture Journal 66/67
The Wonderful North, Guardian Guide, Feb 9-15 2008
2007
Apropos Sculpture, Jon Wood, Hello Friends catalogue
The Return of the Narrative, Sue Ball, Axis website
Bryan and Laura Davies - Healthy Successful People, Adam Sutherland and Alistair Hudson, Grizedale Arts
1999 - 2003
Protoacademy, Edinburgh College of Art Research, Edinburgh
1996 - 2000
Laura Quarmby, BA Hons Sculpture, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh
1995 - 1999
Bryan Davies, BA Hons Sculpture, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh