Neville Gabie: Sparked exhibition
Great Lengths 2012 at View Tube
Neville Gabie, the official Artist in Residence for the Olympic Park presents new film and photographic works inspired by his time spent ‘the other side of the fence’ as part of the Sparked exhibition at View Tube next to the Olympic Park.
Unique to Neville’s residency is the open access he has been given to the site and venues on the Olympic Park during construction. Supported by the Olympic Delivery Authority and funded by Arts Council England, Neville was given access to observe and respond to the changes on the Olympic Park on a daily or weekly basis throughout 2011.
As well as the fabric of the new venues, Neville has been responding to the many people working on the park and the huge range of jobs they hold. Using the concept of measurement, volume, time and distance, he has developed a series of projects that celebrate individual stories of people and the park.
Freeze Frame: based on French artist Georges P Seurat’s famous work Bathers at Asnières, Neville has created a photograph evoking the sprit of the painting, replacing the characters with workers from the Olympic Site.
Every Seat in the Stadium: a film following Neville’s attempt to sit in all 69,000 seats of the Olympic Stadium.
Twelve Seventy: film and photographs of Olympic Park bus driver, Sam, as she swims the length of her route in the Aquatics centre.
You can read more about these pieces on the Great Lengths 2012 website.
A series of family day workshops were also organised as part of the exhibition in collaboration with the Princes Drawing School. Participants were asked to create portraits of the Olympic Park, but were given just 3mins 26secs to complete the task, the world record time for the 1500 metres. Over 200 drawings were created, then pieced together to make this unique animation
There was also a time challenge as part of the Köbberling and Kaltwasser sculpture GOAL!, where participants were asked to run the length to the finish line and add their time on a golden peg to the ever evolving structure.
Sparked is a series of exhibitions as part of View Tube Art, inspired by Art in the Park, the Olympic Delivery Authority programme of public art commissions in the London 2012 Olympic Park. It is supported by Bow Arts and funded by The Legacy List. As well as create all the films, I also managed the exhibition series alongside curator Rosie Murdoch. Other artists in the series are poet Lemn Sissay and artistic duo Tomas Klassnik and Riitta Ikonen.