OFF GRID

  • Image: Helios by Leo Thorgood
  • Image: Amy Wheeler
  • Image: Berri Livermore
  • Image: Ce Chen
  • Image: Sam Randall
  • Image: Claud Tonietto
  • Image: Alana Devlin

03 Jun — 26 Jun 2022

Off Site

Off Grid is a series of site-specific artworks created by eight, young local artists, connecting The Exchange in Penzance and Newlyn Art Gallery.
Pick up a map from either gallery and explore unexpected routes to discover artworks between the two venues

ARTISTS
Ce Chan / Alana Devlin / Berri Livermore / Sam Randall / Honey Swanepoel / Leo Thorgood / Claud Tonietto / Amy Wheeler

See Read More below for Artists’ Statements, locations of their works, and associated events.

Off Grid is part of Penzance Festival of Art 2022

This project is funded by the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund. Cornwall Council has been chosen by Government as a Lead Authority for the fund and is responsible for monitoring the progress of projects funded through the UK Community Renewal Fund in Cornwall.

CE CHEN
LOCATION: STREAM BY PENZANCE BOATING POOL
Mountains Have No Eyes, installation, 2022

Work Description
This work reflects Ce Chen’s interest in the romanticisation in the making of the landscape. He used a formulaic composition to mimic an unauthentic Japanese garden which plays with the landscape identity – through bamboos, he re-visualised the process of romanticisation. The artist addresses, however, dark realities associated with the landscape that responds to bamboo mountain landscapes in China.

Ce Chen is a PhD research student who investigates Cornish landscape and identity through an ethnographic perspective. He questions the authenticity in the making of cultures, challenges the materiality of identity, and interrogates what is termed “the true essence of Cornish landscape” as an outsider.

Instagram @cechenpaints
Website www.ruischen.com

 

ALANA DEVLIN
LOCATION: ALLEYWAY OFF CAUSEWAYHEAD

Work Description
In a way this project started months ago. I noticed objects being placed in Lucy’s Way, and I started to document them. I decided I would like to add pieces of my own and observe how that affected what was happening in the space. It is important to me that my art remains accessible and unpretentious, creating work and leaving it in an alleyway to be consumed by anyone feels like the ultimate way of achieving that.

I have made tokens with a range of positive meanings, that people could take home with them. Inspired by the pentagrams that are routinely spray painted in the space, I researched pagan symbols and landed on the sun, moon, and star.

Since studying Fine Art at Falmouth University, I have sought to surround myself with creative people and creative spaces. I currently work two jobs at the Tate St Ives and as an exhibition host at Newlyn and The Exchange gallery. This allows me to remain engaged in the art world both nationally and locally.

Instagram @egress_window

 

BERRI LIVERMORE
LOCATION: ROSEVALE ALLEY WAY

I’m a 21 year old digital artist and painter based in Penzance. I create a mixture of cartoon-like caricatures and semi-realism paintings. My focus with my art for a long time has been people, but recently I have been dabbling in landscapes, which was responsible for my inspiration behind my work for Off Grid, along with my love for fantasy and the media surrounding the genre.

Instagram @art_by_bez

 

SAM RANDELL
LOCATION: BOARDS OPPOSITE SKATE PARK

I offer a different way of looking at Penzance prom, not only in my photography but more so, and the reason behind it, as a skater, in the way I interact with these few metres wide coastal strip that stands between the urban structure of Penzance and the unstructured wilderness of the Atlantic Ocean. I’m a third-generation skater of the prom, by our very nature, skaters are creative, we view the structures and architecture in a way far removed from their original intent finding ways to use and utilise them in ways that the original town planners would never have conceived of. Now is the time that my peer group inhabit the prom, to find new ways to use it, and in my photography I try to find ways to reflects this appropriation. Rather than straight documentation I try to find angles, abstracts, viewpoints, and techniques that capture a different side, I like to find the unseen

Instagram @head_mullet

 

HONEY SWANEPOEL
OFF GRID MAP (ONLINE)

Creating the map for the Off Grid project for Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange was my first ever commission, and creating it was so fun and free. I created my map digitally on my iPad, and let my imagination lead the way. And I can’t wait to see it in the galleries as this is my biggest achievement so far within my creative journey. I really enjoyed partnering with Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange as they gave me so much room for my own ideas on my map , and getting to meet everyone part of Off Grid was such an amazing experience. I got to walk the route on which my map would be based on with everyone while they all picked out their spaces, getting to talk to everyone was also really interesting as I got to see into their ideas for this project.

Instagram: @honey_swan_art

 

LEO THORGOOD
LOCATION: GREENMARKET
(OVER THE JUBILEE BH WEEKEND / NOW ONLY ONLINE)
Helios

Work Description
I have used acrylic paint, oil sticks and spray paint

I am a 16-year-old artist living in the Penzance area. In my art I like to create bold shapes and use vivid colours that create a dynamic image. I get a lot of inspiration from mythology and street art, and I like combining the two. I am also influenced by my childhood and things that I have in my subconscious mind. Usually, I work in acrylics and spray paint, and enjoy creating a raw expressive feeling in the painting.

Instagram @leothorgoodart

 

CLAUD TONIETTO
LOCATION: LOVE LANE
Some like it queer

Performance and Installation
A sanctuary of queer love. Queer love may not be illegal in the UK anymore, but it still doesn’t get much visibility; and when it does, it is watered-down to be made ‘acceptable’ to see with a very minimal, subtle, innocent, and often sexless representation in the media, and a general ‘taboo’ attitude towards talking about it. This installation wants to create a space of recognition and celebration, because there is so much more to queer love than coming out, hugging, and holding hands!

Claud is an artist working in the field of dance, movement and live performance as a maker, performer, and facilitator. Their artistic interest draws from queer theories and philosophical enquiries, and emerges out of questions around identity and our existence as humans, exploring our place in the world.

website: https://claud-tonietto.com
Instagram: @claud_tonietto/

PERFORMANCE: 20 JUN, 18.30
Love Lane

Taking place within the installation, this duet performance is a window into a world of possibilities of what queer love can be. Inspired by the use of codes and signalling in the queer community, historically as well as from personal experiences, these vignettes seek to make the invisible visible.

Devised and performed by Claud Tonietto & Emily Faulkner

Advisory: this piece deals with themes of a sexual nature

 

AMY WHEELER
LOCATION: PARADE STREET, NEXT TO THE HONEY POT
Wasson: Figures in Morrab

I am a Cornish artist based in Falmouth. My practice centres around the representation of femininity, which works through the lens of the non-patriarchal gaze. Inspired by female and non-male surrealist artists of the 20th century, to create a chaotic yet organised surroundings in which we can depict figures that move away from toxic standards of beauty.

Instagram @aamywheeler

OFF GRID MAP CREATED BY HONEY SWANEPOEL

This project is funded by the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund. Cornwall Council has been chosen by Government as a Lead Authority for the fund and is responsible for monitoring the progress of projects funded through the UK Community Renewal Fund in Cornwall.

Read More