Place, Space, Action

About the exhibition

The inaugural research exhibition at the Market Gallery, Queensgate Market, brought together artists and designers from the Department of Art and Communication in the School of Art, Design and Architecture. Place, Space, Action explored the themes ‘place’ ‘space’ and ‘action’. 

The work covered a broad range of media including: painting, illustration, photography, digital design, sculpture and video work. The show included the work of: Simon Weldon, Liam Devlin, Richard Mulhearn, John Kelly, Allie Carr, David Lake, Christian Peterson, Gill Sampson, Donal Fitzpatrick, Ryan Durrant, Jamie Collier, Stephen Calcutt, Brass Art, Jill Townsley, Joe Hancock, Dale Holmes, Simon Woolham, Stephen Hibbert, Jon Orlek, Jay Payne, Stella Baraklianou and Katy Suggitt. Many of whom went on to mount solo exhibitions in Market Gallery.

Each piece on display presented stories, experiences and imaginary interactions with the three broad and sometimes loaded terms. Responses engaged directly with the architectural structure of the market itself and the internal space of histories and memories. It presented a dialogue with different stimuli ranging from open landscapes and urban sprawls, to architectural interiors and the intimacies of thinking in studio environments. Place, Space, Action was an example of curatorial action research prompting audiences to reflect on  cultural production in the context of the market.

Place, Space, Action aimed to be prompt for our times and for the creative opportunities we have in front of us. The activity in this space was a collective effort to be shared by everyone.

ACTION: To initiate, to be swift and prompt, to spur, to swing, to plan, to effect change, to transform.

About the researcher

Dr Rowan Bailey joined the University of Huddersfield in 2009 after completing her PhD at the University of Leeds. She is currently the Director of Graduate Education in the School of Art Design and Architecture and is responsible for coordinating research-led/PGR research training within the School. Bailey's research background stems from sculpture studies and philosophy. She is currently investigating sculptural materialisms in artistic, scientific and curatorial cultures. Her publications include: 'Concrete Thinking for Sculpture'; an essay on the variegated plays of concrete as a material and as a concept (parallax, 21.3, 2015, pp.241-258), 'Thinking Sculpturally'; a catalogue essay for the 2017 exhibition Tony Cragg: A Rare Category of Objects at Yorkshire Sculpture Park and more recently in 2018, 'Where is the Brainbody in the Stories of Curation'; a paper on the curatorial mechanisms and strategies of displaying brainbody phenomena. 

In 2015-2016, she curated an exhibition for the Arts Council funded programme ROTOR at Huddersfield Art Gallery. Entitled Thought Positions in Sculpture the exhibition brought contemporary artists together to explore various sculpture archives and existing collections. She is now artistic director of the Market Gallery and programmes the exhibition space for research-exhibitions at Queensgate Market featuring staff and postgraduate student research projects. In July 2019 she will host, in collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University and the Henry Moore Institute, a conference entitled Sculpture as Fieldwork which will inform the curation of a group show at the Market Gallery in February 2020.