The Bay Window Project: Russell Chater

THE BAY WINDOW PROJECT, 2011

Artists in a Frame

curated by sybin

RUSSELL CHATER > SPECTATRE

From: Monday 19 September 2011

SybinQ Art Projects

The Window on Cleveland Street, London, W1T 6DP. MAP HERE.

t. 07913717999

e. curatingcontemporary@gmail.com

The Bay Window Project: Patrick Mimran once said that art is where you least expect to find it. A window that becomes a container for contemporary art pushes the boundaries of public and private, transforming an ordinary space into a place for public art. Unaware passers-by will stumble upon it, becoming unintentional witnesses of the evolution of site-specific art in a non-institutional environment.

The third artist invited to exhibit in The Bay Window is RUSSELL CHATER

A recurring interest in contained and transitional spaces pervades much of Chater’s practice. Works question the boundaries between inside and outside and the familiar and the unfamiliar - seeking to explore spaces and states that are ‘between’ or ‘beyond’. Familiar scenes are often denied their context or purpose, resulting in the viewers’ focus shifting from the immediate to the subliminal.

For The Bay Window Project, Russell presents the work SPECTATRE (Various elements, dimensions variable. Courtesy: The Artist and SybinQ Art Projects)

Inspired by the conditions presented by the private/public space of a common bay window, SPECTATRE (a word suspended between spectator and spectre) draws on the language of a shop window display. The site-specific installation is both kitsch and eerie as a spot-lit mannequin is revealed to passers-by from its theatrical stage. The piece is also surreal – presenting as it does a commercial shop-window arrangement in a domestic apartment window.  Indeed, the work draws on its surroundings, with a nod to the artistic displays of the gallery directly below as well as the numerous shop windows of central London. Ultimately, however, the work can be read as a (self) portrait – raising questions about what we hide and what we reveal, the private and the public. Fundamental relationships of figure/space, light/dark, surface/depth are framed, and wider readings around reflection and in particular the gaze are evoked. The work also acts as a kind of companion piece to a large-scale painting that the artist will be showing at London’s City Hall later in the year.

The display runs daily: 19 September - 6 October 2011

FINISSAGE PARTY on Wednesday 5 October 2011

Please join the artist and us at the Jet Lag Bar, 125 Cleveland Street, London W1. From 6:30 pm.

Russell Chater is a graduate of the MA Fine Art course at Central Saint Martins and has exhibited extensively in both the UK and abroad. Galleries include: Galerie Zurcher (Paris/New York); Grey Area Gallery (Brighton); Unit 2 Gallery/Whitechapel Art Gallery (London); Galeria Espacio (Valencia); Museum of Science and Industry (Manchester). Russell has also co-curated a number of exhibitions and was previously a Co-Director of Dalston Underground Studios. The artist lives and works in London. Upcoming exhibitions include shows at London’s City Hall and Schwartz Gallery, London.  

For further information please see: http://www.re-title.com/artists/russell-chater.asp