Artist's recreation (From Stroud News and Journal)

Artist's recreation

AS Artspace prepares to close down and move to Griffin Mill in Thrupp for a year whilst refurbishment is done on the John Street premesis, artist Colin Glen has put together a celebratory and nostalgic exhibit in the studio's project room.

Springing out of his Suspender installation at the Artspace two years ago, his latest work, Recreation, is a paean to the past that acknowledges progress with wry good humour.

"Recreation is an installation-in-progress," said Colin; "an intervention into the Artspace before it's closed down. I'm hoping it'll disintigrate organically as the refurbishment progresses through the building."

It features photographs of the Artspace building as it was, which have been transferred onto the walls of the project room in emulsion paint, along with metres of string marking off, in mid-air and roughly to scale, the boundaries of the building.

It's also littered with the detritus of his working practices; there are rough cardboard boxes lying around and a display cabinet into which any passers-by or visitors will be encouraged to place the junk from their pockets.

"Recreation's also meant to be a humorous take on the grand statements of artists," added Colin. "I developed quite a relationship with this room whilst doing the Suspender exhibition over an entire weekend.

"My aim is to raise enough interest and funding to reclaim the existing materials from the project room when phase two of the Artspace redevelopment goes ahead in the next few years."

Anyone wishing to see more of Colin's work should visit Nine, the new bar on John Street, when it opens in the next couple of weeks.