Black Camp
INCUBE8 Part VII
Julian Claxton
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Pre-preview critique
led by Julie McCalden:
Thursday 15th November, 6pm
Preview:
Thursday 15th November 7pm-late
Exhibition Continues:
Friday 16th – Sunday 18th November, 12-6pm daily
"Crunching over the broken glass at the end of the lay by. There, at the side, the faintest indication of a gap, and, moving further in, ignoring the now dried and faded fag packets, the dinosaur bones of plastic from unimportant places in cars, the discarded wheel hubs and drinks bottles, pushing past the snagging brambles and stinging nettles, past the rim of used and stained tissues, and deeper, beyond the next tide line of beer cans and vodka bottles, and the darker limits of unidentifiable items of clothing: socks, knickers, a dog turd covered trainer, on into the reach of condoms and needles. But not stopping there, in further, darker and deeper, traces of cut wood, straps attached to saplings, strained and bent back, a roughly fashioned bench made from a plank on breeze blocks, a tyre perched on a milk crate, a broken chair, more rope, gun cartridges, plastic bags, sticks, logs, traces of fire – burnings and meltings, and you’re there, safe in the heart of darkness, the black camp, home to outsiders, drifters, anarchists, hunters, doggers, bait diggers, badger baiters, Nazis, nare do wells, bad boys, advancing new age armies, Raoul Moate, the Zwickau Three, hoboes, hippies, travellers, gyppos, weirdoes…"
Julian Claxton lives and works in Bristol. He graduated from UWE in 2002 and has since co-founded and co-directed Plan 9, established the Creed Art Club and initiated Spike Island's Test Space. He was a member of the Spike Island Interpretation Group, including the design of Curating Degree Zero. Claxton has exhibited widely under a number of personas in the UK and, recently, in the United States. Key recent unattributed/virtual projects include: Psychic Research, Kunte Howell-Ojidade (outsider artist), Creed Wall (collector/dealer), Gerard De Verre (recently dead artist), Mannequin Defense Caucus (a dumb insurrection), CITES (Convention on IllegalTrade in Extraterrestrial Species).
Julie McCalden is co-director of Motorcade/FlashParade art space. She is a practising artist with an interest in curating, operating in an arena of exchange where everything is in a perpetual state of becoming. She actively seeks new ways of working and imposes no artificial restrictions on her practice. There is always a political undercurrent to the work. She is a member of Girl Gang, Spike Associates and DIY Educate. She received a Turning Point South West curatorial bursary for her project Bread & Roses, also supported by The Collect's Spoon Fed micro funding scheme. She has exhibited nationally and internationally.
