Exhibitions / Group

10x10x10

Bloc Projects, Sheffield
2003

Curated by the Sheffield-based arts collective utk, 10x10x10 invited ten artists to create new work in response to one of ten randomly allocated subjects, using one of ten randomly allocated media.

The resulting exhibition brought together ten distinct approaches, each shaped by chance but developed through the individual interests and working methods of the participating artists.

Exhibition Concept

Each artist was randomly assigned both a medium and a subject. The allocations all began with the letters associated with the exhibition title, producing combinations that ranged from text and tenebrous to sound and tenor.

Richard Bartle was allocated the medium assemblage and the subject tentacle.

Participating Artists

James Brown — Text / Tenebrous
Liz Hall — Casting / Tent
Jo Hodgson — Drawing / Tendency
Jason Jones — Photography / Tension
Tony Kemplen — Paint / Tench
Christine Kennedy — Textiles / Tenet
Dominic Mason — Video / Tender
Jane Mellor — Sound / Tenor
Sean Williams — Print / Tenant
Richard Bartle — Assemblage / Tentacle

About utk

utk is a four-member collaborative contemporary arts collective based in Sheffield. The group was formed by Tony Kemplen, Jane Mellor, Liz Hall and Judith Stewart (Bev Stout), each of whom also maintained an independent artistic practice.

Working across disciplines, utk develops experimental and site-responsive projects that challenged conventional ideas of public art. Their activities take place in unexpected urban settings, including empty historic buildings, projection windows and local public transport routes.

Richard Bartle’s Contribution

For 10x10x10, Richard Bartle created Traumatic Amputation (awaiting reimplantation). The work continued his investigation of repetition, with the tentacle conceived as one of a group of eight related forms.

The life-size assemblage resembles an industrial mechanical arm that has been abruptly severed from a larger system. At the cut end, the arm is densely packed with tubes, pipes and cables, suggesting nerves, tendons and arteries. At its functional end, however, the elaborate mechanism terminates in a simple, oversized serving spoon.

The sculpture is deliberately ridiculous. Why should the straightforward act of lifting a spoon require so many nerves, tendons and arteries?

The spoon is highly polished and also functions as a distorted reflective surface, similar to a house-of-mirrors image. Picking up breakfast cereal may be a simple task requiring only a few tendrils to function, but self-reflection is a far more complex operation.

Artist’s Text

“Literally cut off, the severed tentacle is removed from its origin. Yet severance implies a former connection, and connection implies an initial function within the context of that original, unbroken system.

Tubes, cables and guide wires all point to a well-defined set of activities relevant to the original, connected state. In this manner severance can be seen as loss, but it is also evidence of origin, author and source — and in this there is hope.”

Image Credits

Images courtesy of Tony Kemplen.