Title: Almost Nine
Date: 2008
Edition: Unique (no longer in existence)
Materials: White cartridge paper
Size: Of watercolour paper: 30 x 30 cm.
Notes: Produced specifically for the Drawing Wall, part of the Drawing Out exhibition in 2008 at the Bonington Gallery, Nottingham.
This became the precursor for two limited edition laser-cut works on paper: Cut Column and Nine Drawn Spaces
2008
Bonington Gallery, School of Art and Design, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.
The Drawing Wall was an element within the Drawing Out exhibition held at the Bonington Gallery, Nottingham.
All staff in the school of Art and Design, from the Dean to technicians, receptionists, professors, lectures and visiting artists, were invited to submit a 'drawing' to this inclusive 'survey'.
170 works made up the Drawing Wall which was part of a curated exhibition at the Bonington and 1851 galleries. Drawing Out includes selected works using painting, computer animation, sculpture, kinetic construction, ceramics, video projection and text - all exploring the variety of interpretations of, and uses for, drawing.
Almost Nine. Pencil on paper with section cut away. 30 x 30 cm.
Almost Nine was produced specifically for the Drawing Wall by Andrew Pepper and was located in the upper right of the collection.
"When I was a child I used to draw all the time. People told me I was 'good' and should be an artist. The things I drew looked like the things I saw - they were accurate reproductions. A record of an observation. The more accurate they were the more 'impressive' people found them and the less interesting they were for me.
Today drawing is much more about working through an idea, navigating a thought, planning something, placement - a precursor to making. Something beyond a subconscious doodle and not quite accurate enough to 'be anything'.
Almost Nine is a collection of bounded surfaces - edges separating one visual space from another. Just like the much larger Drawing Wall itself, multiple elements are placed next to each other. The only specification for submitting a drawing for the wall was that it should occupy a 30 x 30 cm piece of paper. All the same but all very different once they had been drawn on.
The 9 rectangles anticipated the grid-like installation of the Drawing Wall with the content of the last drawn boundary removed - cut away to reveal the space beneath. That space fascinates me."
Andrew Pepper. April 2008
Exhibition detail. Nine of the 170 submitted drawings on the Drawing Wall
Exhibition dates: 21st April - 9th May 2008
2011
Nottingham Trent University, School of Art and Design, Bonington Building, Nottingham
A group exhibition curated by Bobby Sayer.
Five artists were invited to submit a piece of work together with its transport packaging.
Each piece was shown, with its packing materials, in a vitrine located outside the Bonington Gallery.
Artists included:
Kim Bull
Craig Fisher
Rebecca Ounstead
Andrew Pepper
Oliver Tirre
Point Addition
Is one of a series of three pieces produced in the early 1980's in association with the Light Fantastic Gallery, London.
Point, Line and Plane, Addition explored the placement of lines and surfaces within a holographic volume and were sold to collections and exhibitions internationally, as an unlimited edition.
Once Light Fantastic closed no more pieces were produced and, by default, the series became limited.
Examples of the series can be found in the ZKM collection, Germany, and the Ross collection, UK. They are also held in a number of private collections.
Originally designed to be displayed like traditional graphics, framed on the wall, here, in Transit, the single plate of 25 points of light, rests on the original box it was stored in, and the one used to transport it to exhibitions. The red plastic 'runners' are protective strips normally located along the edges of the holographic plate when they are deliverd from the photographic supplier. Here they become part of the installation, arranged by the curator.
What is perhaps most interesting, apart from the relationship the work has with the other items in the vitrine, is that it is illuminated by the architectual lighting already installed in the display area. No special lighting was installed which was one of the stipulations of the piece being included in the exhibiton. The piece needed to be visible (and in this case illuminated by multiple lamps in the ceiling), using only the available light - on a par with all the other items in the exhibition. No special treatment, no excuses.
The result is a multiple referenced holographic image, displaying overlapping views of the original carefully arranged and engineered dots of light.
A piece modulated by the sensitivities of the curator, the physical proximity to other works in the exhibiton and to the existing achitectural lighting.
All photos © Bobby Sayers
Exhibition dates:1st -13th December 2011
Bonington Gallery, Nottingham Trent University, School of Art and Design, Nottingham, UK.
A group exhibition on the theme of 'Archipelago'.
Staff from Nottingham Trent University's School of Art and Design, were invited to submit proposals featuring experimental practice from a range of art and design disiplines.
Artists were asked to consider themselves and their practice as islands. An island may be the work of one practitioner, that of an established collaboration, or a group brought together by common concerns.
Tizio Water
This small rectangle of 'ground' inverts the normal impression of an archipelago - here the holographic shadow of liquid is the defining terrain, edged by the junction between the glass holographic plate and the surrounding solid architecture (the gallery floor).
Approached from a distance, the black crane-like structure of a Tizio table lamp (a recognisable and practical design classic), offers a graphic and defined 'point to view from'. It is, in a way, instructional - guiding the viewer to an observation point. Its light precisely directed down onto a holographic rectangle which appears black and flat from a distance.
One aim of the installation is to interrogate the symbiosis between the historic 'found' object (recognised, celebrated and archived in major international art and design museums) and the 'historic' holographic recording (unknown, displaced and functionless). The latter is made visible by the presence of the former.
Exhibition dates: 16th January - 12th February
2014
Bonington Gallery, School of Art and Design, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.
Celebrating its 170th anniversary, Nottingham Trent University's School of Art & Design brought together artworks by more than 100 former students to illustrate the impact of the school on the visual arts and creative industries nationally and internationally.
The exhibition took place across the University’s City site and featured a wide range of work from Turner Prize winner Simon Starling, artist duo Tim Noble & Sue Webster, David Bachelor, Hetain Patel, Nigel Cook, Jon Burgerman and many more…
Film, video, holography, performance, installation, painting, sculpture, photography, illustration, design.
Andrew Pepper, a graduate of Nottingham Trent Fine Art, showed two reflection holograms; Corner Level and Centre Level.
A podcast, the first to be produced by the Bonington Gallery, is hosted by Professor Terry Shave and acts as a guide through the exhibition. Andrew Pepper's works are mentioned towards the end of the tour.
The video below, produced by the Bonington Gallery, highlights the exhibition opening. It can also be found in the Video Gallery.
Exhibition dates: 8th January - 7th February, 2014.