There is a space in the art world that remains pure, untainted and undocumented, though it is perhaps one of the most valuable spaces there is for the new artist that craves to be seen.  The artist led space is essentially the most influential and exciting of all the spaces that make up the art world.  Unlike established and well publicised galleries and museums the artist run gallery is an attainable exhibition space for new artists and an essential level in the art worlds infrastructure.  

 

In this essay I intend to look at two artist led spaces, both of which form part of the United Kingdom’s chapter on this subject.  The first is City Racing, a London based space that ran exceedingly productively from 1988 to 1998. It was the first gallery to exhibit solo shows for artists such as Sarah Lucas in 1992 and Gillian Wearing in 1993, both of whom went on to become two of the most significant female artists in the ‘Young British Artists’ (yBa) art movement, that not only defined a generation but a country.  The second artist led space I will look at is Spectacle in Birmingham, a gallery and studio space that allows many assorted artist the opportunity to exhibit, repeating the tradition of the artist led space as original and electrifying.  

 

What these two galleries have in common is a multitude of uncertainties.  I plan to look at Spectacle specifically and use City Racing as a tool to recognise similar difficulties encountered by the artist led space, many of which, I found, surprisingly comparable.  The obstacles and dilemmas that Spectacle have meet themselves and still do, all happened similarly to City Racing.  The prejudices and hardships, such as funding and acknowledgment from larger establishments, seem to be a familiar theme that must run its course through every artist led space.  The drive and desire to show work and have it seen is the artist run space’s key aim, especially for the work to be seen by the influential few.  The artist led space has its rank in the artist infrastructure and it seems that it can never be changed, if in fact in needs to.  The artist run gallery and studio spaces that have appeared through out history must all run their course, from initial struggles to a recognised and influential gallery.

 

City Racing has recently been documented, its history recorded for other artist led spaces to read and learn from, even though Spectacle is still new in comparison to the ten year life of City Racing, many of the points it raises are as invaluable to an established artist led space, semi-established or to young graduates thinking about their next step.  I propose to use this case study essay as an opportunity to document Spectacle and its history, future and significance as an artist led space in Birmingham.

 

Artist run spaces appear to have an ability to inspire young artists more than the established institutions which are still regarded as middle class and out of reach.  There are so many artists in the UK today that it is truly the lucky and talented few that will ever be seen in such establishments as the Tate or, as in Birmingham’s case, Ikon.

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The artist run space is not a new phenomena.  For work to get seen, written about and recognised young artists have always been on their own to manipulate the resources available to them, and this is why there have always been and always will be artist led spaces.  When you look back through art history it is always the avant-garde that gains the majority of respect.  Major galleries, museums and buyers ‘discover’ this ‘new’ art and it then, as a result of its recognition, rapidly becomes “the next generation’s mainstream orthodoxy.”  Though it is not a new phenomenon, I believe the success of artist led spaces relies on chance.

 

As in the case of City Racing “A six person show fell together.  All the costs and labour were equally shared.  The show was called New Works…The show opened on 10 December 1989.”  “This was not the beginning of the gallery.  This was Keith [Coventry] plus five people making an exhibition in his studio…The model for this exhibition was the open studio, where private space is made public.  It was the time when your artist friends were forced to see your work!”  This idea as having a space for you to entertain your friends creative urges is the route of the artist led space; exhibitions made by artists for artists.  These can often be the most unique exhibitions, due to the work on display not having to be spoon fed to its public.  The artists are allowed a freedom of expression that only comes from being around other artists and people in the industry.  One does not have to make excuses or pamper to people’s ideals of what ‘art’ should be about, rather they, the artists exhibiting in the artist led space, are allowed to make intelligent work for one another.

 

As with many great things, they happen by accident.  In 2003 there were eight artists in their third years at university.  They were Greg Cox, Joe Hallam, Matthew Robinson, James Sewell, Matt North, Paul Johnson, Rob Turner and Rolly Carline. They began to realise that the end of their fine art course was in sight and they were, as with most graduates, none the wiser in regards to the next step.  They wished to carry on making work and having it exhibited, they were no longer restrained by criteria and its boundaries and were finally able to be practising artists.  This posed the massive question of where? Where can they produce work? And where can they exhibit?  

 

The understanding of what was expected of them post graduation and how they would be able to continue producing work was ripe in their minds.  They decided to search for studios.  There are very few artist studio spaces in Birmingham that are either accessible, available or there at all, and the eight artists had decided to stay in the area they had studied together as a support to one another.  They became aware, however, that they may be in the dire state of not being able to continue their practice as there were no spaces in their price ranges that suited their needs.  

 

It was at this point, in April 2003 that they approached two other artists that had previously graduated from Margaret Street, Karen Kihlberg and Reuben Henry, for advice.  Karen and Reuben offered an insight into the possibilities of renting a factory, as they had done themselves since January that year in Ladywood, Birmingham.  There they set up an artist led project “that emphasises on production of work, process of thinking and doing, live events and experimentation, for an output of new critical discourse.” Karen and Reuben called their artist led space Springhill Institute and introduced eight soon-to-be graduates to their landlord, this corresponded neatly with their idea of wanting a “building not a box!”  A warehouse would fill every requirement that they each had, an affordable place where they could set up and build separate and open plan studio spaces.  As soon as they had signed the lease and got the keys they began work not only on the old spectacle factory but also their final degree show pieces.  

 

During the next few months each of the eight graduates set upon the task of making their warehouse inhabitable and suitable for their needs.  Walls were erected, tonnes of rubbish disposed of and both floors began to resemble something close to artists studios.  Although their original intention was to use the old factory as studio space only, it became ever apparent that the ground floor would be perfect to make into a gallery; Cockpit was born.  Several fund raising parties were thrown and enough capital was raised to buy paint for the walls and floors.

 

Cockpit’s main inspiration at this time, Springhill Institute, was rapidly becoming established and respected in the Birmingham art scene, “The potential seriousness of the program is complemented by a rich residential atmosphere, coffee, home cooking and comfy sofas.  This dismantling of hierarchical structures usually associated with art and academia is continually attempted in order to foster open and progressive discussion between all.”  Through the success of Springhill Institute, Cockpit were in good company and became quite quickly their little brother.  A point very much bought to light in the Summer of 2004 when an exhibition was to be held at Springhill.  The morning of the private view a van drove into the side of Karen and Reuben’s building, making it unsafe for the audience and the art work.  They called Cockpit and the show was moved.  This was perhaps the first time others, outside of the usual friend fan base, became aware of the space; it was also my first visit to Cockpit.

 

Previous to this accidental exhibition, Cockpit had shown three exhibitions.  The first being in March 2004 called Life-force.  It was an exhibition of all eight members headed very much by Rolly, and his ‘super best friends.’  Life-force was naive and a little rough around the edges but was the turning point of the warehouse.  It became aware of its possibilities of becoming an artist led gallery space further showing a Margaret Street second year exhibition called WOW and an MA show.  Then a solo show by Rolly entitled Everybody with me, always and TBA by a.a.s., they charged each group £60 a week for the space.

 

Cockpit seemed once again to be mimicking the traditional learning curve of artist run spaces.  In the beginning City Racing, “did not care about good or bad, we [City Racing] cared about doing.”, However as Cockpit quickly became aware of their lack of control, made very clear after a disappointing reaction and own personal dislike of WOW, they decided to become far more involved in the space and who showed.    They moved very quickly from a hireable space to being self funded, allowing themselves the control of gallery directors and curators rather than some boys that happened to have a gallery downstairs.  When speaking at  Self Service in 2005 Rhonda Wilson, from Rhubarb Rhubarb,  aggressively suggested that Greg and Joe would never make a living or success out of their space if they did not charge both artists and gallery visitors when entering into their white cube.  This was not the direction they wanted to go, as with City Racing “The whole thing about staying up late with artists and slaving away preparing spaces to show formalistic art in was seen as part of an Anglo-Saxon tradition of petit-bourgeois neo-liberalism and a by-product of protestant work ethic heritage and nothing to do with the easy transfer of ideas…We liked to have a direct working relationship with the artists.  We were not interested in the commodity of art at all.  This is why we happily supported every show we did.”  This is why all who lived and worked within Spectacle were willing to lend support to any and every artist that came its way.  It is about the artist community supporting each other and not about self gain particularly, “The lessons we learnt were simple but easy to miss: life is much more boring without community.”

 

However their community slowly began to mould and change.  Original Cockpit members James, Paul and Rob left and new members joined the space.  Cockpit was in crisis.  It had gained the attention of Nick Slater at the Arts Council in Birmingham but was at an important turning point.  With the decision to become more involved in every aspect of the shows at Cockpit changes would have to be made.  In November 2004 Greg and Joe decided to become the sole two runners of the gallery.  It was at this point that Greg took brush and black paint to the front door.  He painted over the Cockpit sign and  Cockpit became Spectacle and this is perhaps where the story of the little warehouse in Ladywood really starts.

 

Greg and Joe were advised by Springhill Institute and Nick Slater on their next move.  It was decided that they should go on a research trip to talk to other artist run spaces in the UK.  Greg and Joe applied to the Arts Council for funding and began to organise their trip.  After many emails sent to any and every artist run space, and after finally deciding not to exclude London, eleven spaces were willing and pleased to help Greg and Joe in learning more about the artist led space.  They toured around these spaces with a questionnaire, that after the first few galleries they chose to leave it behind.  They were not so much interested in marketing strategies or funding options, especially as each gallery they visited began to repeat information, information Greg and Joe already knew.  They found getting contacts and information about artist and the build up of communities far more valuable to their mission.  The awareness of links between cities, as is quite obvious now especially between Birmingham, Nottingham and Leicester, for example, priceless.  This important lesson reminiscent once more of City Gallery when they visited Transmission in Scotland, “We began to see the potential that an artists’ organised space can have to bring people together who lived miles part, geographically or ideologically.”

 

This exchange of artists and spaces was seen in an exhibition at Spectacle in 2005 called Function V.  It was the work of Nottingham based group Reactor, who had each member of Spectacle working within its team on the single exhibition night, whether dressed up as security guards or handing out secret instructions, Reactor and Spectacle all worked together.  Just like City Racing before them they found the following to be true: “We were partly aware of the different aesthetics, attitudes and practices between us and Transmission.  Ross Sinclair said ‘Transmission was incredibly worthy and right on, operating what was basically a liberal Marxist regime where the non-democratic decision process ruled … City Racing was conversely, über-idiosyncratic - kept going by the same individuals who had crazy ideas and made them happen.’  We did not care about the differences.  We were confident that good could come out of the exchange.”  Function V was therefore the proof that such an exchange is not only worthy but beneficial as it was, for me, one of the best shows I have seen at Spectacle.

 

Spectacle Gallery is not a collective art group; the artists that exhibit and rent studio space at the warehouse are all different characters who all just happen to be working within the same building.  It is its own environment with many ‘in jokes’ and oddities but all the work produced under its roof is all very different, one of the reasons, I believe, that Spectacle is so alluring and successful.   City Racing summed it up as “The gallery wasn’t the be all and end all of the City Racers’ lives, but instead one part of their wider practice as artists, and as such subject to the same doubts, questioning, sheer bloody-mindedness and inspiration seldom found in … galleries that have been around for a bit and are taken largely for granted.”  At the end of 2006 the old spectacle warehouse will be knocked down for redevelopment.  Spectacle gallery will therefore have another big decision to make.  Do they continue in another location?  Like Ikon Gallery in Birmingham before them, will they grow and adapt to each new location they are presented with whilst attempting to retain its roots as an artist run space?  Or do they disband and leave Spectacle behind them? Whether Spectacle and its ‘super best friends’  stay or go they can say that they have left their mark on the legend of the artist run space and will remain respected in the Birmingham art scene.  May they pass their experience on, like Springhill Institute, to the next Margaret Street fine art graduates as  Birmingham, indeed the UK, needs, and forever will need, the artist run space.