10 weeks of Making Space

The first of the four Making Space art shows to be shown at Apt’s studio in 2024 is about to conclude. Curated by Jonathan Watkins, it has been an installation of eleven differing works by a giant of the British art world, Richard Deacon. The show opened on the 21st March 2024, and it's been a great pleasure to have had this series of works available to the Apt team to enjoy over this period.  

I’ve personally been a huge admirer of Richard's work for over 30 years, first seeing the installation of Let's Not Be Stupid in my hometown of Coventry at the University of Warwick. When studying architecture in Plymouth, I was fortunate to be living alongside Richard's 80-foot steel sculpture ‘Moor’. Created for the 1990 TSWA Four Cities art programme, this extraordinary public scaled work sits atop three abandoned railway arches in the disused Stonehouse Pool Railway, located in the city’s Victoria Park.  

When Richard's Making Space show was being discussed and installed, we all believed it was important that particular care was given to how the show was lit, with carefully placed spotlighting highlighting the works in a dramatic fashion.  

It looked great in the photos, but my first reaction was a worry that our space was not complimentary to the work and that the use of an active architectural studio, whilst an interesting conceptual idea, had overreached. I was however delighted to be proved wrong, and seeing the show in full, it is a masterful and lovely thing.  

I was immediately drawn to the ceramic pieces, placed across their simple, individual tables. Each displays a wonderful colour interweaving in its vibrant glazes the ebbs and indentations of their making. They are extremely tactile works. It has been interesting to have had a show available to see every day, especially in differing light. Following this year’s unusual spring weather pattern, the studio and sculptures alike have been bathed in brilliant sunlight, cutting dramatic shadows, and then contrasted by the moody brooding skies of heavy rain. Richard’s work responds differently and beautifully to each of these weather changes.  

The pieces that I've returned to most have been the newspaper pieces. These 'sketch' templates have caught my imagination, and I can associate with Richards statement that he really enjoys the neutrality of newspaper and its simplicity as a backdrop. It's not just the shapes and the juxtaposition of texts from the newspapers that I am drawn to, it is also the found lines of Richard's pen strokes, fluid, expressive and incidental of works imagined to follow. I find myself asking, is there a better mark maker than Richard in contemporary drawing?  

So it's goodbye shortly to ‘Glaze Stencil for Flat 59’, ‘Flat 27’ and the gloriously tactile looking ‘Model for Screen Version’, but we will soon be equally delighted by Ben and Nikki's installation that opens on June 20th.  

Finally, I must conclude, on behalf of all at Apt that it is our collective great pleasure to thank you Richard. Your generosity in letting us enjoy these beautiful works is enormously appreciated and will live long in our thinking.   

Please watch out for a future sharing of Making Space: Langlands and Bell.