I’m kicking myself for not taking a photograph of the broken bed base as it was when I cane upon it on the street in Hackney, the wooden bed had been smashed up and dumped on the street, I couldn’t resist the wooden struts that were left lying there unbroken on the pavement (other bits of wood from the smashed up bed have become artdrop pieces). Really am kicking myself for not taking a photo of the wreckage on Mare Street, it was one of those days when I head out from the studio in search of something to paint on, my rule is that I can’t come back home until I’ve found something, should have taken a photo of the pieces of wooden bed on the street, I have taken lots of photos of the painting process. The eleven pieces were cleaned up, sanded down and all eleven were painted together, there weren’t painted to fit together, they were all painted at the same time, painted together, all started and finished together, several layers grown on each one over a period of around three weeks…

The thinking was that they would appear in several different situations, all eleven as one piece, Eleven, it is very much one piece of work. Eleven made a debut two weeks ago at Wild, at outdoor installation/sculpture show in the woods at the back of the Quaker Meeting House out in Leytonstone, as part of the 2018 Leytonstone Arts Trail (always a pleasure to be invited to take part in the Arts Trail, this was my fourth year out there in E11). There’s some documentation of Wild and the twenty or so artists who took part this year over on the Organ website. Eleven was left under some trees deep in the woods, left for the foxes to run over,and the Blackbirds to checkout, it sounded brilliant in there for the two weekends that the show was open for.

Eleven’s next appearance will be over in Deptford, south over the river over there in London SE8 and a and a show at no format gallery (they like is to all be lower-case, don’t get all proofreader on me now). From the floor of a wood and the light through the trees in East London to a white walled formal gallery in South London. It happened like this, the gallery had a last minute week with nothing going on so an invite came our way. I must confess I didn’t know of print-maker Hamish Macaulay until last week when the people at no format extended the invited and suggested we might like to collaborate

HAMISH MACAULAY and SEAN WORRALL – Unframed? – no format Gallery, Deptford. London, SE8 5JN –  26th – 29th July –   Unframed? will open on Thursday July 26th (6pm until 9pm), and will then run from Friday 27th until Sunday 29th (midday until 6pm)

Unframed? One painter, one print-maker, two artists coming together to share a white-walled gallery space for one week. Hamish Macaulay and Sean Worrall, two artists, invited to takeover Deptford’s no format gallery for one week. The unframed plan is for the two of them to experiment in the space, to spread their work out, to play with installation and hang their work in the space at the start of the week, and then to see how things develop. Who knows what will happen?

The two artists (who didn’t know of each other until last week) will begin the week with the blank walls. Their plan is not to work together but to share the space and to see what develops. They plan to use the space for the first three days of the week, see what happens, and then open the doors to the public on Thursday evening for a formal yet experimental art exhibition.

On Thursday evening Unframed? will open with a “private” very public view (everyone is welcome, just come along). The no format gallery will then be open during the day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The show might stay as it was for the opening on the Thursday night, then again, it might continue to evolve? This is an unframed experiment, who knows?

Unframed? Will also feature work from a small handful selected guest artists, artists invited to show in the space by Sean and Hamish. (guests t.b.c).

Click on an image to enlarge or to run the fractured slideshow and shots of Eleven in the woods over at Wild…