The MerzBarn
Jill Randall at The Merzbarn. June 18th – July 4th 2014.
Solo Exhibition.
Jill was invited to exhibit her well-known ‘Sheds’ architectural sculpture series installation at the artist Kurt Schwitter’s iconic last studio in the Lake District.
“Jill Randall at The Merzbarn” is an opportunity to see Randall’s renowned ‘Sheds’ series in the context of one of the world’s most famous and iconic sheds -The Merzbarn, and celebrates the importance of these insignificant spaces in the act of creativity.”
Jill Randall’s work reveals the sublime and beautiful, the poetic and resonant in bleak and unpromising places, and involves making work with and from post-industrial, ‘toxic’, or ‘spoiled’ environments. She responds to odd and extreme places – the ‘abused’ landscapes of Robert Smithson’s Land Art, the peculiar and darkly beautiful volcanic landscapes of the Canary Islands, the “terrible beauty” of the toxic abandoned copper mine at Parys Mountain in Anglesey, industrial estates, power stations, chemical works, old farms, backstreets in working towns.
This installation is a large and ongoing series of architectural structures, incorporating the ‘Sheds of Rossendale’, and ‘Sheds of Rochdale’ series. These works explore the overlooked and secretive, celebrating the “ad hoc” and improvised; allotment sheds, barns, and industrial buildings.
..’It always surprises me but where art comes from is spiritually much closer to the dump and discard of the culture…..Provincialism or coarseness or unculture is greater for creating art than finesse or polish .’
“Perfection”, David Smith by David Smith, Sculpture and Writings, Edited by Cleve Gray, Thames & Hudson.1988.
Photography: Jill Randall & Dave Bennett.
