Studio Project 08: March 2007

Sam Kennedy: Through Open Air We Cross
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‘Through Open Air We Cross’ is an exhibition of new work created by Glasgow based artist Sam Kennedy during a four week residency at market. For the first Studio Project of 2007, Sam has been given market’s two galleries to use as a studio, allowing him the time and space to develop a new body of work in a supportive environment.

Kennedy’s work explores and attempts to understand the physical space that surrounds us. He is interested in the ability for objects placed within our immediate environment to shape or alter our responses to that environment; in particular objects that have a persuasive quality to them, encouraging some responses, while denying others.

Through the residency project Kennedy has been able to make work that directly responds to the architectural space of the two galleries at market. Taking the frame of the gallery as a starting point, the dimensions, dynamics and form of the work are all informed by the space that houses it.

The work exhibited attempts to function both on a bodily scale and an architectural scale, relating both to us and to our surroundings. The two distinct spaces at market have enabled a dialogue to happen within the work, that blends elements of symmetry, opposition and cohesion. Ultimately the aim of these objects is to deflect attention from themselves and onto the space that they occupy and the viewer who shares that space.