PASSAGE AT THE BYRE

I have visited many art exhibitions over the year, mostly devoted to glass and never have bothered to think about the respective venues at all. However, my perception that art galleries are just spaces where art is displayed to the best effect (for the benefit of the gallery owner or the artist?) was shattered recently when I saw this exhibition titled “Passage.”

Organised by the glass company Bullseye this is I think the third exhibition in the venue which isn’t really a gallery at all and it reminds me of a cow shed probably because that was what it was many many years ago. It’s more like a five-star resting place now for glass artists. I had for some reason imagined the building to be in the middle of nowhere and lacking a roof and electricity, but I was very impressed with both the layout of access to the barns which shock horror I thought far better than the refurbished Aberdeen Art Gallery. I will probably get shot for saying that but hey it’s my blog and I can say whatever I like, can’t I? The byre is next to Latheronwheel house so not really remote although I accept not everyone thinks Latheron is the centre of the universe!

I never really understood the expression “site specific art” but now I do and am excited by it. The prospect for my studio becoming home to my site-specific glass rt influenced by what I have seen here gets my creative juices flowing.

Five artists have displayed their latest creations and I was lucky enough to be present on the opening day where the exhibition curator Michael Endo took visitors on a splendid tour of glassy ideology to explain how each artists had reacted to the local surroundings and their experiences of suffering through the Covid crisis.

My favourite sculpture or should that be installation is by Matt Durran with his glass house. Of course, this being all about art things are never what they look like and Matt titles his work “Cathedral for One.” Its main element of construction is glass tubes. As a lampworker I was naturally attracted to this and found out when talking to Matt that he had 7 tons of the tubing which was actually lead glass. I know Matt from my visits to the International Glass Festival where he curates the British Glass Biennale and is doing so again next year. More importantly he knows me and hence gave me a present of a bundle of lead glass tubing to play around with. As I expected it’s very soft and becomes flexible just by looking at a flame!

There was only one exhibit situated outside where I would have expected more but perhaps the artists were scared of the fierce Caithness weather. Glass can be weather resistant though so why didn’t more artists follow Petr Stanicky who went solo to show off his large work titled “Sign: What is from Where.” Made from rolled glass, mirror, and stainless steel it wasn’t obvious to me that it was glass but then I am an old foggie with outdated views on glass art! I did think it fitted in to the surroundings very well and presume it also fitted to the wall adjacent to it for protection from the high winds!

If I correctly remember one artist, AEsa Bjork originated from Iceland and she was showing various works all with the same title, “Embers” but differing by using the addition of a number such as “Embers 1”, “Embers 2” and so on. However just to confuse me the first one I saw in the Cow Barn, (yes it really was called the cow barn, obviously because years ago cows were exhibited here!) was titled “Embers (Arminni).” This piece made great use of video projecting onto and though the glass. All the glass had been kiln formed with most using laser etching and silver mirror to tell the story. It was whilst listening to Michael describe the work with their various meanings that I thought a guidebook would have been useful. In honesty it’s been a few weeks now since I visited and have almost forgotten what I heard. Thankfully, the images (helped by the photos) remind what a great glass is on show here.

In the area next to the cow barn is a room called the storeroom. Such a boring if accurate title of a room. Thankfully, there is nothing boring about the work of Stine Bidstrup which in my view the most colourful and geographical relevant of all the art displayed. Stine’s kiln cast glass sculptures represent found and imagined architectures around Latheronwheel which is the area where this exhibition takes place. Three works on show had very understandable and unpretentious titles. They were called “Gable,” then there was “Bridge” and finally “Corner”

Concluding the exhibition, well it is if you take the route I did, sees visitors enter the Hay Barn where Jeffrey Sarmiento’s work is hanging in a meaningful way. That way is a route from Sunderland to Latheron and highlights the theme of the show, it being called “Passage” of course. The three pieces of art glass by Jeffrey in kiln formed glass appear as snake like creatures but of course represent the route map taken when one moves along a road or equivalent from one place to another. Titled, “Cappio,” “Sunderland Pelton Loop” and “Sunderland to Latheronwheel.” This concept is not new as I have seen glass tubing and rod being shaped to follow borders of countries and counties. Why even little old me has made the NC500 route from glass rod. The big difference here in the Hay Barn is size and colour which does allow the visitors to do a bit of “ducking and diving” through and around the glass or is that just me. I did get a sense of playfulness here but hey (or should that be Hay?) that’s me again being silly.

Great exhibition and one that deserves to be seen by many but at the same time its location will limit crowds which in this is case is good as the atmosphere will be spoilt by us ‘orrible humans. Something deep about setting up an exhibition aligned perfectly to its surroundings where visitors would only spoil the effect. Its given me food for thought and for my next exhibition I will make sure the doors are firmly shut and locked!!!!