The Assembly Room – A petite gallery for passers-by.
“If we cannot go to the gallery, let’s bring the gallery to the street” we thought.
Our inaugural exhibition ‘Thorns to Roses’ presents four works by artist and designer Adrian Baynes.
The series started by collecting Dog Rose thorns found on Hemploe Hill.
The thorn is the rose’s defence from predators. It is also a powerful symbol, used in folklore and fairytales as a source of danger and curse.
For The Vicious Vase, those thorns have been cast in metal and applied to industrial conduit. Like a half successful magic trick, the vase transforms any flower into a rose.
For Fast Foot, real thorns have been applied to a wooden shoe last rescued from Long Buckby’s last shoe factory. By applying the thorns to the wooden shape, the artist’s intention was to return the last to its natural state, that of a tree. But in the process the thorns became ‘running spikes’.
For ‘Rose’, the thorn covered cables provide the power to two LCD screens showing a stop-motion video of a rose’s life condensed in a two minute looping sequence. Akin to Frankenstein, the artist uses electricity and the digital tools of his time to revive the flowers. They can never wilt.
Neon Roses are made of handblown glass tube crafted into shape whilst heated and then charged with Neon gas. A high voltage ‘excites’ the gas giving this extraordinary brightness unique to Neon. Here the artist, enamoured with the dying art of Neon, wanted to turn Roses into lights.
Each work will be displayed for two weeks. This Exhibition will run until the 10th April 2021.
For further information, please contact: chris.dugrenier@mac.com