Social Sculpture

Acting as the headquarters space for Whitstable Biennale 2012, Social Sculpture explores the very nature of functionality, use value and social architecture, addressing notions of audience participation and relational art practice. Concerned with the placement of sculpture in the landscape and how this can inform and question functionality and audience participation. Recently he has developed a series of artworks, designed to function as spaces for initiating dialogue and communication with their audience, which become usable structures during temporary public events, exhibitions and performances. Social Sculpture is about the conceptual space between form and functionality. As Wittgenstein wrote, 'The meaning is the use'. The work needs both to act in real terms as usable architecture and simultaneously function aesthetically as sculpture. It only really becomes an artwork when its use value is that of a public space/location, used by others and engaged with by the general public and audience. It then becomes real - a simulacra of itself. This duality ensures it will never become a static work, always being part of a negotiation - both functional and purely aesthetic. Social Sculpture will also be shown at UCL, Downstairs Gallery and National Trust, Mottisfont. Social Sculpture is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Liminal

Commissioned for Tate, Liminal invites the viewer into a physical, material and social experience of sculpture through touch, interaction and collaboration. An artwork of changeable social sculpture, liminal is an intervention that shifts the emphasis of meaning and experience. 'Liminality' refers to a space or moment that occurs in-between expected situations and conditions - a point at which one possibly feels disorientated but also one that holds the potential to explore a new perspective of thought and experience. The artwork, liminal is only 'activated' through a relationship with its audience. Appearing in different spaces around Tate, liminal explores the physical and discursive dimensions of sculpture and holds the potential to become a site for exchange, exploration and the initiation of discussion. The ritual encounter with an artwork - be it in a museum, gallery, private or public space - has evolved dramatically over the last century: from the contemplation of an object, to immersive installation, performance or participation.

Artwork: Untitled (after R.M Schindler)2011 Exhibition title: In All Ways and Places - Ollerplex Un-plex Curated by Melanie Counsell

The title of the exhibition, IN ALL WAYS OR PLACES / OLLERPLEX UN-PLEX, playfully acknowledges the remote location of Oriel Sycharth Gallery at Glyndŵr University in Wrexham, North Wales. Its geographic position gets taken as a plus point by Melanie Counsell who brings together a diverse and varied group of artists based in Wales, Scotland, England and France, offering them a unique opportunity to throw caution to the wind and try out untested, unresolved or as yet unseen art work. The exhibition includes photographs, sculpture, music, audio works, and performance from artists working in a variety of ways and at different stages of their careers, each offering a sample of their present practice.

Father

Whitstable Biennale

Aesthetically influenced by 1950’s post war British architecture and its considerations towards low cost design, functionality and durability of construction, a Pavilion structure will become the Whitstable Biennale Headquarters for the duration of the 2010 festival. Placed on the shingle beach, next to the Royal Native Oyster Stores, and referencing seaside architecture and tourist functionality, a small single module will form the information point for the Biennale, housing artists’ books and information. The concept is a response to the idea of human and micro architectural spaces made to be occupied by only one or two persons and makes reference to Reed's interest and understanding of negotiating a town or city and its architecture. He is intrigued by the human relationship with spaces, habitat and the concepts of utopian architecture and modern social housing schemes. Initial designs reference 50’s development of school and utilitarian buildings in Europe. The Pavilion investigates the use of space, form and functionality and the similarities between architecture and sculpture.

40 Second Time Machine

Responding to the theme of the folkestone triennial - ‘Travels through time and space,’ a collaboration between artists Kieren Reed and Abigail Hunt turned the leas lift into a 40 second time machine. working with the social excitement of the theme park ride and the Dr Who generation, the artwork playfully teased the audience into suggesting that it was their very being on the lift that was taking them into the future, and not the simple fact that they were just seeing the passing of 40 seconds of time.

KADN Kiosk

The Kiosk, placed within public spaces, is traditionally built and Victorian in appearance. The intention is that the audience first recognise it at its face value, similar to that of an information point found at many train stations, high street corners etc, and therefore interact with it in a similar way. However, the KADN kiosk is ambiguous and suggestive of notions of exchange and simulation and in fact functions as a space for the transfer of information and the initiation of discussion, placing Kieren Reed and Abigail Hunt, as artists at the fulcrum point within a discourse and providing the audience with the opportunity to offer or take information. An important notion of a kiosk is that the internal space is inherently small, yet a vast selection of merchandise is available. Also along with the idea of an information point, as in tourism, the person behind the window is the holder of a vast knowledge of information about very defined facts. In addition to this knowledge, a kiosk often holds resource information in the form of books, guides and leaflets and the means to direct someone towards other sources of information. The KADN kiosk contains, amongst other things, a collection of books, leaflets and guides, a small photocopier/computer, and the means for visitors to research, commission and view placards, banners, badges, rosettes and wristbands and other associated items related to expressing public opinion, demonstration and celebration.

Art Futures

ARTfutures is a Contemporary Art Society project. A unique and un-missable event in the contemporary art calendar, each year, the Contemporary Art Society handpicks work by approximately 100 artists to form an exhibition of work for sale. Selected through a combination of exhaustive research including studio visits, ARTfutures offers a truly unrivalled opportunity to buy contemporary art, selected by the UK’s leading non-profit agency for independent advice on contemporary collecting.

Why can’t you leave me alone and let me be?

Kieren Reed’s sculpture explores the dialogue between function and display, between the mass-produced and the artist’s inimitable skill of making. Using traditional craft techniques, Reed painstakingly replicates large-scale commonplace functional structures (such as a tourist information kiosk, or an Irish seafaring boat) and then re-positions them out in the world as sites for engagement and discourse. With the installation, ‘why can’t you go back home forever and let me be’, (2007) Reed has hand-fabricated a perfect pastiche of a 1960s recording booth. Although identical in design and structure, the original purpose is denied as the interior of the stall remains empty except for a mirror reflecting back at the viewer. Set within the frame of the gallery space and dislocated from its intended function, the booth exists somewhere between formalism and representation: on the one hand it stands as a beautifully crafted Minimalist sculpture whose material character can be admired for its own intrinsic value, while at the same time it operates as a nostalgic replica of a by-gone age endowed with a complex matrix of human resonance. To further accentuate this dichotomy, Reed surrounds the booth with drawings that detail the process of making as well as related artifacts and documentary ephemera displayed in immaculate vitrines. This includes original blank vinyl discs and recordings made in similar booths over the last 50 years as well as documentation drawn from Graham Greene’s novel, Brighton Rock and Jean-Luc Goddard’s film Masculine Feminine that both feature recording booths within their narratives. By mimicking methods of museum display,

Political/Poetical 14th Tallinn Triennial

14th Tallinn Triennial will take place in Tallinn. The topic of this triennial is "Political/Poetical" and works are displayed at four locations. Tallinn Print Triennial is the best-known international art event in Estonia. Its history dates back to 1968. The author of the general concept of this triennial is Anders Härm. The core exhibition of the triennial, displaying works by 102 artists from 36 countries and selected by the international panel can be seen on the 5th floor of Kumu Art Museum.

Stick*Stamp*Fly

Stick*Stamp*Fly looks into posters as a means to communicate an event, an opinion or a rumour, as well as objects of design in their own right.

KADN Kiosk

The Kiosk, placed within public spaces, is traditionally built and Victorian in appearance. The intention is that the audience first recognise it at its face value, similar to that of an information point found at many train stations, high street corners etc, and therefore interact with it in a similar way. However, the KADN kiosk is ambiguous and suggestive of notions of exchange and simulation and in fact functions as a space for the transfer of information and the initiation of discussion, placing Kieren Reed and Abigail Hunt, as artists at the fulcrum point within a discourse and providing the audience with the opportunity to offer or take information. An important notion of a kiosk is that the internal space is inherently small, yet a vast selection of merchandise is available. Also along with the idea of an information point, as in tourism, the person behind the window is the holder of a vast knowledge of information about very defined facts. In addition to this knowledge, a kiosk often holds resource information in the form of books, guides and leaflets and the means to direct someone towards other sources of information. The KADN kiosk contains, amongst other things, a collection of books, leaflets and guides, a small photocopier/computer, and the means for visitors to research, commission and view placards, banners, badges, rosettes and wristbands and other associated items related to expressing public opinion, demonstration and celebration.