Juneau Projects: Makers of the Multiverse, 13 May – 10 June 2017

Spacex is pleased to present Makers of the Multiverse, a sculptural pavilion by Juneau Projects (Philip Duckworth and Ben Sadler), located for four weeks at Exeter Quay.

The pavilion will function as a shop and event venue, stocked with multiples by artists and makers and hosting live events.

Makers of the Multiverse has been developed with Spacex as a project that aims to expand the way artists and makers can show and sell affordable multiples. It proposes alternatives to more traditional art world structures and hierarchies by considering artists’ engagement with the role of distribution, pricing and accessibility of artwork.

“We are really interested in looking at affordable and sustainable ways that makers can promote and sell the things they produce and do. We have always had a D.I.Y. spirit and approach in our work and, increasingly, it feels like this is a useful quality to have in terms of maintaining an artistic practice. Online methods of marketing have opened wide the possibilities for people to promote and sell their work. We’re really excited to look at how this spirit can work offline too.” – Juneau Projects

The artists will source artworks for the exhibition through an open call, inviting participants from a wide range of backgrounds and levels of experience to contribute multiples. The project has been developed from the artists’ long-standing interest in the creative impulse that makes people want to make things. Whether this is labeled arts practice, a hobby or even a survival practice, Juneau Projects see a creative practice as an area of contention, with new systems, structures and value systems required to meet contemporary and future conditions.

In previous projects such as ‘Gleaners of the Infocalypse’, ‘Welcome to Happy Redoubt’ and ‘Animal Spirits’, Juneau Projects have attempted to consider why the urge to create and make things is a fundamental part of the human spirit, how it is inextricably tied to the evolution of society, culture and technology, and how this urge might develop and shift in response to environmental changes and the rapid acceleration of technology.

For this project they offer a pragmatic and generous invitation to artists and makers. As well as inviting makers to produce affordable editions in the form of physical objects for the exhibition, Juneau Projects will be asking contributors to consider how they could extend their creative practice to include live events and experiences, reaching audiences and customers via new platforms. In this way Makers of the Multiverse acts as a developmental resource for artists and makers as well as a public artwork.

During the months leading up to the opening of the pavilion, Juneau Projects are working with local community groups, schools, colleges, and artists to create the pavilion, fill it with artworks, and programme a four week series of public events.

Makers of the Multiverse is funded by Arts Council England, Exeter City Council, Outset South West, Exeter Canal and Quay Trust and The Farringdon House Trust. It is supported by Exeter College and The University of Exeter.

For press images, and interview requests please contact martyn@spacex.org.uk

Notes to Editors
Makers of the Multiverse
Dates: 13 May – 10 June 2017
Pavilion Opening Hours: Monday-Friday 11.30am – 2pm, Saturday & Sunday: 11am-4pm
Location: Piazza Terracina, Haven Road, EX2 4AR
Free admission (some ticketed events)

Opening Reception: Saturday 13 May 3-5pm, all welcome

Juneau Projects
Juneau Projects are Philip Duckworth, born in Iserlohn, Germany, 1976 and Ben Sadler, born in Birmingham, UK, 1977. Both live and work in Birmingham, UK. Solo exhibitions include Trappenkamp, Tate Britain, 2008; I Went to Woods, New Art Gallery Walsall, 2008; Aggressive Localism, MIMA, Middlesbrough, 2007 and Black Moss, 2006, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire, The Model, Sligo, FACT, Liverpool and Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, John Hansard Gallery 2013. Group exhibitions include The Witching Hour, Birmingham Art Gallery, 2010, Experimenta Folklore, Frankfurter Kunsterein, Frankfurt, Germany, 2008 and the British Art Show 6, Hayward Touring: Baltic, Gateshead, International 3, Manchester, Bonnington, Nottingham, BCMA, Bristol, 2005. Philip Duckworth and Ben Sadler formed Juneau Projects in 2001. The majority of their work includes participatory elements and involves projection, sound, music, animation and installation. They are particularly interested in the rapidly increasing speed of technological development, and its associated obsolescence. Recent work has examined the overlap between performance as musicians, sculpture and installation.

Spacex is a contemporary art commissioning organisation. It was set up by an artist collective in 1974 in a 19th Century warehouse, between the High Street and the quayside. The original purpose was to offer affordable studio space to artists and a venue in which they could exhibit their work. In the early 1990s Spacex became a registered charity and a publicly funded contemporary gallery. Our pioneering programme has received ongoing critical acclaim. In 2016 Spacex moved from 45 Preston Street to a new project base at the Exeter Phoenix in central Exeter. www.spacex.org.uk

Multiples and Editions
Source: Wikipedia
In printmaking, an edition is a number of prints struck from one plate. This may be a limited edition, with a fixed number of impressions produced on the understanding that no further impressions (copies) will be produced later, or an open edition limited only by the number that can be sold or produced before the plate wears. An Artist’s multiple is similar to an edition – a series of identical art objects produced by an artist. These could be multiples of a 2D print, 3D sculpture, or installation piece. The multiple offers artists a way of selling work without compromising their artistic integrity and makes their work accessible to a wider market.