14–15 September 2013
Autumn Open Weekend at Hospitalfield part of Angus Heritage Week. Including works by: William Cobbing, Anne-Marie Copestake, Siniša Labrović and Smith/Stewart
14–15 September 2013
Autumn Open Weekend at Hospitalfield part of Angus Heritage Week. Including works by: William Cobbing, Anne-Marie Copestake, Siniša Labrović and Smith/Stewart
EXCHANGE is the title of the third Open Weekend event of 2013 and will be an opportunity to explore the house and grounds and to encounter a small group of carefully selected and installed contemporary artworks. For those who know the house well this is an opportunity to see it once again, perhaps through a new interpretation made possible through the works that have been selected for EXCHANGE.
Hospitalfield Arts is pleased to present a weekend programme of work from invited artists.
Hospitalfield has been a focus for contemporary art since the 1850s when Patrick Allan-Fraser commissioned works for his collection, his interest at this time was on self-portraiture. Leaving the house as he did, to be used by artists for the development of their work, the bequest has allowed the trust to support hundreds of artists through the last century. This legacy continues with the 12 international artists who are currently participating in the Autumn Residency Programme this September.
EXCHANGE draws on the history of the house and reflects on the relationships which have shaped it. The ethos of exchange is central to the story of Hospitalfield. The elaborate buildings we see today were created because of Patrick and Elizabeth Allan-Fraser’s love and shared commitment to the project. The traces of exchange are clearly evident in the extraordinary bespoke commissioning which emerged from Allan-Frasers’ conversations and negotiations with the crafts people and artists with whom he developed long working relationships. Some of these exchanges are evidenced through the incoming correspondence we have in the archive including letters from Patrick Allan-Fraser’s Royal Academy peers asking for support, discussion and more time to complete the challenging open briefs that had been offered to them. Gazing up at the botanical detail of the 159 carvings on the Drawing Room ceiling (completed circa 1884), made from fruit wood, we can only reflect on how a ten-year project such as this, would come out of the exchange and discussion between the maker David Mavor and the commissioner Patrick Allan-Fraser.
Taking exchange as a physical and conceptual point of departure, the contemporary works presented tackle ideas of offering, mirroring and control within the exchange.