Reflections on the opening of Empty Shop HQ
Apologies this has been so long coming. Words can’t really describe the speed with which the last month or has passed. I’d originally intended this piece to be about the opening, a kind of review but I realise now that a little background info might add a touch of colour to proceedings…

We originally viewed the property that is now Empty Shop HQ for the first time in May 2009. After months of purgatory; locked in discussion, negotiation and administration over taking on our new venue, we finally received the keys just over a month ago on January 27th.

This was too late for the grand opening we’d originally planned to mark Empty Shop’s first birthday and slightly later still than planned for the rescheduled February 19th opening but still we hoped a deliverable time frame for what we had planned.
We worked for a period of 3 weeks, mostly on bringing the building up to scratch but also making sure the plans we’d made and artists we wanted to work with were all able to deliver in such a short period. The Empty Shop way is to make things happen regardless of the circumstances and we were overjoyed to find that the bulk of people we wanted to work with took a similar approach.

The plan was, for one night only, to turn over the entire building to art. To demonstrate the ways in which we were going to be using the HQ and also to showcase some of the things that Empty Shop stands for. With that in mind we ended up with a massive 6 (six!) exhibitions programmed, all scheduled to open simultaneously. As those of you who were there know we delivered five of those six AND the entire refurbishment all in that three week period.

Various Artists: The Empty Shop Open
Starting with the largest show in the largest space we had The 2^nd Annual, Empty Shop Open. The Empty Shop Open is an exhibition of vastly differing work by vastly differing artists brought together by one thing, geographical location. The show is an open submission process, publicised through the usual avenues we put a call out asking for artists based in the North East to submit a maximum of three pieces for consideration. Carlo and myself then sift through them and hand pick a collection that we feel reflects the Empty Shop ethos.

When we started at the end of 2008 we were adamant that our venues would be characterised by an open door and accessible ethic. We’d be able to produce an interesting and welcoming environment where all art would be able to find a home. Accordingly we opened our very first venue with an open submission show and the process was so rewarding in terms of making contact with and viewing art by literally hundreds of local artists that we decided to turn the idea into a tradition. This year there was a massive step up in terms of variety and sheer volume of submissions and our final selections were made very carefully.

The range of work on show demonstrated the variety of work we want to support and provide a place for from striking but minimal sculpture to abstract painting and contemporary photography. The Empty Shop Open provides an environment where traditional seascapes can sit comfortably opposite an intricately drawn conceptual piece spread over 49 individual A4 sheets.

We also look at the Open as an opportunity to demonstrate that art doesn’t have to earn its place on our wall by being commercially valuable. Our policy is that work does not have to be available for sale and we will not interfere or make demands on the price an artist chooses to give their piece.

The work we selected reflected all of these principles but also our individual preferences and what we look for in art, from humour to pure impact aesthetics to clever innovation.

The 2^nd Annual Empty Shop Open formed the centre piece of the opening night festivities and was a real success in terms of showing our visitors what Empty Shop is all about. Roll on 2011 for Open number 3.

Toby Lloyd – Re: Roll
Fitting in with the idea of turning the entire building over to art we wanted the Empty Shop office to host an exhibition. The room is kind of cuboid in shape so we had originally intended that the office / the pink room to become a “white cube” style space with a guest curated show and a really slick finish. However whilst sifting through submissions for the Empty Shop Open we came across a series of photographs documenting the various Greggs bakeries of Edinburgh. Being housed in a former Gregg’s ourselves and coming at a time when the most celebrated purveyors of pastry had just been granted the freedom of the city in Newcastle, the work held some allure for us. We decided that it might be interesting to talk to the photographer who produced them about the work.

The bulk of the work Toby Lloyd had offered made up a small show he’d had at Total Kunst in Edinburgh. Lloyd’s work explored the proliferation of chain brands in British High Streets. In his work “Go To Greggs” (performed across different locations), Lloyd visits every Gregg’s in a given city centre and consumes a sausage roll from each. He documents this process with photographs, video and maps. The work we looked at was produced specifically for Total Kunst in Edinburgh. As I watched Lloyd vomit into his own mouth on screen after swallowing down his 8^th Sausage Roll I begin to consider that if 9 sausage rolls is enough to make one man sick, what are the implications for a society where one city centre can comfortably accommodate 9 branches of this high street bakery?

Given that the work had already been shown before and related to a different city we asked Toby how he might expand on the work and eagerly awaited his response. Around the same time we began to recognise that the character of the Pink Room is too strong to just convert the space into a white cube. You can’t compete with the lovely old windows on one side and using the remaining three sides we realised that it would be an appropriate space to present work that has a sense of narrative running through it.

Given the change of approach we toyed with the idea of still using a curator but decided  that as we trusted Toby’s vision we’d continue to work with him in the usual Empty Shop way, developing ideas through dialogue until we’re both happy with them whilst also encouraging the artists to explore their own boundaries. We were seriously chuffed with the resulting new work, original 35mm photographs of sausage roll sculptures shot in various locations around Durham in homage to Richard Long.

Anyway, I’ll stop yapping on. As you can guess I really liked Toby’s exhibition. That’s probably enough words for you to read in one session so I’ll post the other half of this review / look back / writing thing in a day or two.

Cheers
Nick