Hanging Out to Dry is a new commission by Paul Schneider that inhabits the space comprising several large hanging works and a wall-size vinyl backdrop. The printed lino hanging works are enlarged graphic representations of clothing items – including jeans, a t-shirt and a vest – which have been ‘draped’ over the rafters that cut across the space. The vinyl pattern backdrop is titled Wet Blue Rectangles. As the viewer walks through the space, these individual graphic components layer up to comprise an overall image of a domestic washing line caught in the rain.
The use of clothing imagery continues the artist’s interest into how a staple object can be simplified to its most minimal representation through a graphic image. Schneider questions whether such a motif can still convey the associated cultural and contextual significance of the original object. The white t-shirt icon is exemplary of this. This simple line drawing is universally recognised as denoting clothing and is inextricable from its associations with the US Navy standard issue, James Dean’s Rebel Without A Cause, the Classic. This is particularly pertinent now with the growing popularity of ‘emoji’ communication, where stock imagery becomes increasingly commonplace as a substitute for written text.
The breakdown of a single scene into layers references the traditional cell animation process of drawing cartoons. It is the act of rendering this layering process visible that interests the artist. His playful intervention enables the viewer to move between the different layers and to view them as individual fragments. Schneider described this process as being like ‘walking through a cartoon’.
Project Space provides exhibition and development opportunities to emerging artists offering a small grant to develop new experimental work for exhibition in the unique environment of Café 171 at Jerwood Space, adjacent to the galleries. Since 2004 it has presented new work from artists including Luke McCreadie, Alice May Williams, Rhys Coren, Anna Bunting-Branch, Emma Charles, Alec Kronacker, Meg Mosley, Sara Nunes Fernandes, Johann Arens, Matthew Johnstone, Katie Schwab and Jamie George, Ben Senior, Ralph Dorey, Mindy Lee, Patrick Coyle, Gemma Anderson, Annabel Tilley, Alice Browne, and Holly Antrum.
