All Things Must Pass

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All Things Must Pass

olfactory experiences at Oswaldo Macia's Library of Cynicism

The end of Oswaldo Maciá’s Library of Cynicism at CHELSEA space was the beginning of a series of changes for us at Millbank.

Peter Blake: Four Decades at Chelsea Futurespace

Following Oswaldo Maciá came the closing of the superb Peter Blake: Four Decades at Chelsea Futurespace. We are very grateful to Sir Peter and to Brad Faine for their careful selection of the works and planning of the installation with us, and to CCA Galleries and Paul Stolper Gallery for all their support in making this show possible.

Sir Peter Blake makes time to talk with Crimson O'Shea at the opening of his show at Chelsea Futurespace

The private view audience were stunned by the quality of the work but were also pleasantly surprised that Sir Peter so generously made time to individually greet everyone and sign their Chelsea Futurespace exhibition publications and other memorabilia. Sir Peter joked that this was the first event in a while where he hadn’t been asked to sign a copy of the Beatles Sgt Pepper’s album! Although both shows have now ended it is still possible to purchase the exhibition publications. For the link to Oswaldo Macia: Library of Cynicism click here and for Peter Blake: Four Decades click here

View of the Grosvenor Waterside development from Chelsea Futurespace including the water sculpture by Ekkehard Altenberger and building by MAKE architects with embedded artwork by Clare Woods

Sadly, the close of the Peter Blake show is also the finale of Chelsea Futurespace as our contract with St James and the Berkeley Group has come to an end after seven years. CHELSEA space Director Donald Smith was first approached by property developer St James and the cultural placemaking consultancy Futurecity in 2005 to put forward a proposal for the use of a large public space within a new residential development at Chelsea Bridge. Donald proposed an exhibiting space to showcase the staff and alumni of Chelsea College of Art and Design and invited honoured guest artists from outside of the college. The initial contract was for five years but we successfully renegotiated for a further two years.

Stephen Farthing 'Thames & Hudson' 2005-6 from his Chelsea Futurespace exhibition 'Painting The Atlantic'

Chelsea Futurespace opened in April 2006 with an exhibition by Stephen Farthing which featured a 10 metre long painting of the Atlantic Ocean, we finally closed on 28th July 2013 with Peter Blake: Four Decades. In seven years we made 30 exhibitions at Chelsea Futurespace to add to the 50 exhibitions that we have made at CHELSEA space between 2005 and 2013. We are very grateful to everyone involved in the project, particularly the exhibiting artists. We would also like to extend our gratitude to all of the staff and residents at Grosvenor Waterside and especially thank Futurecity’s Mark Davy and St James’ Paul Pritchard who worked with us all of the way through this major project.

curator Kate Ross with CHELSEA space Director Donald Smith

Curator Kate Ross’s Research Fellowship with CHELSEA space is also now complete. Kate worked with us on the CHELSEA space shows DOME: Ralph Tubbs and the Festival of Britain; Red White and Blue: Pop | Punk | Politics | Place ; second reflection/symmetrical contents: Sturtevant and SECONDEDITIONS ; Dobells Jazz Folk Blues and Oswaldo Maciá’s The Library of Cynicism: the archeology of sound and smell. Kate also co-curated Surface with Daisy McMullan at Chelsea Futurespace and helped co-ordinate Peter Blake: Four Decades. Kate and Daisy also worked together curating and co-ordinating our offsite installation project Gate Curate with the Gate Theatre Notting Hill. Kate has a busy online presence with her blog Curatorial Curiosities and she is also currently Curator at the Notting Hill Arts Club. CHELSEA space would like to thank Kate for all of her hard work, we look forward to her next projects and wish her well for the future.

curator Daisy McMullan with Sir Peter Blake

We are very pleased to announce that the 2013-14 CHELSEA space Research Fellow will be Daisy McMullan. Daisy, who studied curating at Chelsea College of Art and Design, will be known to many of our regular visitors as our CHELSEA space/Ashley Family Foundation Fellow. Thanks to a generous anonymous award via Chelsea Arts Club Trust Daisy is now able to continue her research and play a vital curatorial role within our small team. Daisy has many freelance projects and one of her important recent activities has been as co-curator of The Geometrics a series of exhibitions, publications and symposia dedicated to geometric pattern in textiles and associated media.

Karen Di Franco

And finally we are delighted to announce the appointment of artist and archivist Karen Di Franco as the new CHELSEA public programme Co-ordinator. Karen has worked with collections of materials and ephemera relating to artistic practice and book production and her recent projects include the development of Bookworks online archive and the touring exhibition and publication, Again, A Time Machine (2010-2012). She has been an independent researcher in the UK Web Archive at the British Library and currently works with the Contemporary Art Society as well as Chelsea Space. Karen’s forthcoming projects include a talk about her work with archives to be held at Eastside Projects Birmingham on Saturday 21 September. The event is organised by Elinor Morgan and coincides with Eastside’s launch of Dear Lynda which was instigated by Matthew Higgs at White Columns New York and had its inaugural UK show at CHELSEA space in July/August 2012.