A busy May at Spike Island

Pictured above: Spike Island Open Studios

The first weekend of May is always a big one at Spike Island. And this year, with the much-loved Open Studios taking place alongside the launch of no less than three exhibitions, that’s truer than ever.

For the Open Studios (May 4-7: launch Fri 4, 6pm-late), Spike Island’s many resident artists once again throw open their studio doors for the weekend, inviting members of the public in to see them in their working environment.

Spike Island Open Studios

Visitors are invited to explore the creative engine rooms of hundreds of artists, designers and creative businesses. The weekend also includes family-friendly activities, tours, events and pop-ups by some of Bristol’s best street food traders.

That weekend also sees the launch of a trio of new exhibitions at Spike. Zoë Paul’s La Perma-Perla Kraal Emporium evolves around the eponymous piece, a collaborative work that invites visitors to sit around a long table and make clay beads, thereby becoming the work at the same time as creating it. In this experiential and immersive environment, ceramic teapots and cups made by Paul are used to serve tea to participants.

Teapot Heads by Zoë Paul

Zoë Paul works primarily with sculpture, textile and drawing to explore the character of domestic spaces, both in architectural and social terms – and, in particular, the point where the threshold between the interior and the exterior seems to disappear. Her work aims to examine our relationship with tradition, and explores shifts in perception around the value of an object according to time and context. Paul often works with simple timeless materials and techniques such as clay, weaving and drawing that have been used throughout centuries and can be sourced and crafted applying very little technology.

Elsewhere, in At the Gates of the Music Palace Alex Cecchetti turns the gallery into a three-dimensional concert in which visitors are invited to contribute to the musical score as they make their way through an unexpected sensory pathway.

Alex Cecchetti, At the Gates of the Music Palace

Cecchetti has developed a unique practice which he characterises as ‘the art of avoidance’, where representation and concealment go hand in hand with the tactical and the poetic, the visual and the material. His works often begin with a poem which is transformed into an object, a performance or a situation, focusing on how the construction of a narrative can be experienced both physically and emotionally.

And in Snapshot of a Collection, Bristol artist and Spike Island studio holder Andrew Mania explores identity, sexuality and nostalgia through portraiture drawing. Mania’s works have been described using the Portuguese term saudade, meaning a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone beloved.

Andrew Mania, Snapshots of a Collection

Mania develops these drawings within assemblages set on decorative backgrounds such as hanging printed fabrics. A voracious collector, he here creates a dialogue between a series of early vintage photographs selected for their aesthetic or mystery, and his own drawings that capture a state of mischief and yearning.

“The exciting thing about our spring exhibitions is that they are so vibrant, interactive and equally spectacular,” says Vanessa Boni, Curator at Spike Island. “Visitors are invited to experience the artworks in physical, relational ways. Alex Cecchetti’s show features an artwork which uses sonar technology to track their movements in space, producing notes so they can compose music with their bodies. We have also commissioned Alex to make a magnificent chandelier made of out individually blown multi-coloured glass bird beaks which vibrate to create a sparkling jingle.

“In Zoë Paul’s exhibition, meanwhile, visitors can wear a specially designed robe, have a cup of herbal tea, engage in unexpected conversations and roll clay beads which will form a future artwork. The exhibitions are also great for all ages – so bring your families along and get involved.”

For more on the Open Studios (May 4-7) and Zoë Paul, Alex Cecchetti and Andrew Mania exhibitions (May 5-July 8), visit www.spikeisland.org.uk and see our Art Listings