14 September - 2 November

This exhibition is in our grade II listed farmhouse. Access to the exhibition is via steps to the ground floor and a small narrow stair case to the first floor rooms.

The Influence of Furniture on Love with An Endless Supply, Ruth Beale, Juliette Blightman, Ben Brierley, Céline Condorelli, Jessie Flood-Paddock, Luca Frei, Gil Leung, Seb Patane, Florian Roithmayr, Phil Root, Laure Prouvost, Cally Spooner, The Grantchester Pottery, Philomene Pirecki , Elizabeth Price, Mark Aerial Waller, Neal White and Lisa Wilkens.

The Influence of Furniture on Love is an exhibition in Wysing Arts Centre’s 17th century farmhouse. The title of the exhibition is taken from an unpublished essay by economist John Maynard Keynes entitled “Can we consume our surplus or the influence of furniture on love”, a handwritten copy of which is held in the archives of King’s College at the University of Cambridge. In the essay, Keynes discusses whether it is possible for the rooms within which we live to “suggest to us thoughts and feelings and occupations?”

Wysing’s Grade II Listed farmhouse, which was built in the early 17th century reputedly from timbers of ships salvaged from the sinking of the Spanish Armada in 1588, has hosted many hundreds of artists since the organisation was founded twenty five years ago.The farmhouse is where artists live, sleep and eat, and where together they discuss the works that they are developing during residencies and retreats.

Wysing has invited artist Giles Round, working with Wysing Curator Lotte Juul Petersen, to transform the farmhouse into a public space, installing works by a selection of artists who have stayed there over the years and in response to its rooms. A number of the works will remain in the house as a lasting contribution to the site, for future artists to enjoy. All the artists in the exhibition have been in-residence at Wysing over the centre’s 25 year history.

To bring the intimacy of the farmhouse into the public realm, a series of dinners, hosted by artists in the exhibition, will make public some of the ideas and discussion that usually takes place in the privacy of the farmhouse. Taking place in Wysing’s gallery, the dinners will be devised by the artists and will include events, performances and screenings. Further information in Events, here.

Giles Round has had a close association with Wysing since he was first in-residence at the centre in early 2011. That same year, Round established the decorative arts company The Grantchester Pottery at Wysing, with fellow residency artist Phil Root, and subsequently both The Grantchester Pottery and Round have contributed to a large number of exhibitions and events at Wysing.

Click on the image above to see a slide show of installation views.

“Can we consume our surplus or the influence of furniture on love” (1909), by John Maynard Keynes is copyright of The Provot and Scholars of King’s College, Cambridge.

An Endless Supply, Harry Blackett and Robin Kirkham, were in residence in 2011 during which time they carried out research on the typeface Curwen Sans. They have worked on numerous publications at Wysing, including The Starry Rubric Set and /pe(Ə)r/) by Patrick Coyle written as a result of his year as writer-in-residence at Wysing in 2012.

Ruth Beale was in residence in 2011 and used her time to produce a series of new works, including Journeys in Taste, which was performed by other artists-in-residence on Giles Round's Festival Matrix stage, made for Wysing’;s music festival in 2012. In 2013 she co-curated Words to be Spoken Aloud, a weekend festival at Turner Contemporary, Margate, supported by Wysing.

Juliette Blightman was in residence in 2007 when Wysing re-located to central Cambridge for six months and invited five international artists' collectives to be in-residence in a programme that celebrated the marginal. Working with artist Sebastian Craig as i-cabin, they organised  in-conversation with Richard Birkett, at that time Curator at Whitechapel Project Space.
 

Ben Brierley, a tutor at Loughborough University School of Arts has for many years been involved with Wysing’s Anagama (wood burning) Kiln, which was built Japanese ceramist Izumihara Masanobu in 1997. In 2000 Ben Brierley and Paul McAllister rebuilt the kiln and have since maintained it and organise firing events.

Céline Condorelli was in residence in 2009 and used her time to research ideas around the subject of Commons. Condorelli created a ‘common room’ and heated Wysing’s gallery with a fully functioning wood-burning stove. Part of this work was later included in Curtain Show, curated by Celine Condorelli and Gavin Wade, at Eastside Projects, Birmingham in 2010.

Jessie Flood-Paddock was in residence in 2012 and used her time to create a body of new work that was later shown in the exhibition, The World Is Almost Six Thousand Years Old, curated by Tom Morton. She was subsequently included in Wysing’s exhibitions Relatively Absolute, 2013 and Hey, I’m Mr Poetic, 2014.

Luca Frei was in residence in 2009 and made a new work for the exhibition Generosity is the New Political. Developing a series of ceramic sculptures with supervising support from previous Wysing studio artist and ceramicist Bob Race, Frei made his first ceramic works in Wysing’s ceramics studio. 

Gil Leung has been associated to Wysing since 2011 through her curatorial role at LUX Artist Moving Image. She programmed two events at Wysing in 2011 and 2012, the second in collaboration with artist Ed Atkins and Wysing Curator Gareth Bell-Jones. As an artist, her works have been shown at Rowing, London among others.

Seb Patane was in residence in 2013, and collaborated with Gustav Metzger on a new sound piece, in which Patane invited Metzger to recite a passage from The Political Theatre (1929) by experimental German theatre director Erwin Piscator. Since his residency, Patane has further developed this work further for a solo show in Gallery Fonti, Naples, 2014.

Florian Roithmayr was in residence in 2013 and used his time making a series of new sculptural works. He also worked with a locally based car wrapping company to transform Wysing's mundane Renault Kangoo into a mobile artwork. The process was filmed and edited into a video which was later shown at the Treignac Project, France, 2013.

Laure Prouvost was in residence in 2011 and used her time to develop the new work The Lot in collaboration with Francesco Pedraglio. Since her residency Laure Prouvost was awarded The Max Mara Prize for Women in 2011 and the Turner Prize, 2013.

Philomene Pirecki was in residence in 2012 when she created a new body of photographic work that later shown in her solo exhibition Image Persistence at Supplement, London in 2013. Since her residency she was also shortlisted for the Max Mara Prize for Women 2013-2015.

The Grantchester Pottery was formed at Wysing in 2011 by artists Giles Round and Phil Root and is a conceptual pottery and design team inspired by early modernist decorative artist’s studios like Roger Fry’s Omega Group. The Grantchester Pottery has transformed the ceramics studio at Wysing into an art work in its own right. They had a solo exhibition at the ICA, London in 2013.

Elizabeth Price was in residence in 2012 when she worked on her film The Woolworth’s Choir of 1979 ahead of her Turner Prize exhibition. She also began the major new film SUNLIGHT which premiered in a solo exhibition at Focal Point gallery’s new space in Southend-On-Sea in 2013. Alongside the Turner Prize 2012 she received a Paul Hamlyn Award in 2012.

Phil Root occupied Wysing’s live/work studio in 2010-11, using his time to develop a series of new paintings and ceramic works. At Wysing he co-founded The Grantchester Pottery and also developed the two person show Phil Filby and Rob Root with artist Rob Filby for Wysing’s gallery space. During the Escalator Retreat Homework he formed further the music collaboration 666 6, with E Park.

Cally Spooner was in residence in 2011 when she developed the work Piece For a Pending Performance. Since her residency she has created major new performance works at  LOOP Moving Image Festival, Barcelona, KW, Berlin and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. She returned to Wysing in 2013 to develop the ambitious performance And You Were Wonderful On Stage which was performed it at Performa 13, New York and at Tate Britain, London, 2014.

Mark Aerial Waller was in residence in 2009 and developed the work The Cassiopeia Plan and programmed events with artists’ collectives France Fiction and Brown Mountain College. Since his residency his works have been presented at Tate Britain, 2014, the 11th Baltic Triennial of International Art, CAC Vilnius, Lithuania, 2012, and recently had a solo exhibition, SO-LA, at Cell Projects, London, 2012.

Neal White was in residence in 1999 as part of a residency with the Human Genome Mapping Project, in the MRC Resource Centre at Sanger Centre, Cambridgeshire. In 2010 he returned to Wysing, invited as a speaker during the retreat Ways and Means. Recently he has exhibited his works at Portikus, Frankfurt in the two person exhibition GOD IS GREAT (10-19) JOHN LATHAM | NEAL WHITE, 2014.

Lisa Wilkens has worked from a studio at Wysing since 2012. In 2011, her work was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries with exhibitions at Site Gallery Sheffield and the ICA, London. Her work is represented in numerous private collections and has recently been acquired by Saatchi Gallery.