Quay Arts plinth, Artist 6: Matt Redman

To receive an upside down tin of paint spilling onto a canvas in an oily plastic and still soft to the touch state is a conceptual Arte Povera dream. Reading James’ blog with which he references Marcel Duchamp and talks of the original pieces without squares and the creation of an island (a new plinth in the form of the upturned tin) was enough fuel to get me going on a strange journey where I spent the balmy Easter Holiday’s creating what has turned out to be a heavy, uneasy sitting crown. Recapturing some essence of game-like power struggles, I’ve rested this relay baton; as a product depicting a self imposed loop of cultural pressure and ‘dear leader’ paranoia surrounded by almost equally blind yet unified citizens.

A SPACE plinth, Artist 5: Kate Aughey

The Relay project posed a very interesting challenge for me as my recent work has been largely digital illustration. Since taking up a studio space at The Arches Studios in Southampton, I have been looking to scale my work up and away from the computer and get back to the hands on practices that were my initial love. Relay has provided a unique opportunity that has forced me to think on my feet and problem solve quickly when things haven’t gone according to plan!

My initial reaction to Steve Rosenthal’s depiction of loss was to react against it in some way. The gesture seemed very final so I wanted to restore the threads of what had gone before it and return a memory of the previous Relay artworks to the plinth.

Quay Arts plinth, Artist 5: James Jarrett

“The Great Khan tried to concentrate on the game: but now it was the game’s purpose that eluded him. Each game ends in a gain or a loss: but of what? What were the true stakes? At checkmate, beneath the foot of the king, knocked aside by the winner’s hand, a black or a white square remains.”

Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, 1972

Quay Arts plinth, Artist 4: Marina Rees

As the residency was on the Isle of Wight I really wanted to respond directly to this cultural environment. However, my attempts to explore and respond to the island’s folklore through the piece were constricted by the time restraints. My research was faced by a crowd of ghost stories – probably the tourist industry’s selling point – I read a basic overview but there wasn’t time to go any further, or to even search other areas of the island’s folklore.

A SPACE plinth, Artist 4: Steve Rosenthal

When I viewed the virtual baton passing closer towards me, as Alexandra’s exchange was uploaded on-line, my initial response was, with one striking blow,  to swing an axe into the very heart of the plinth – as is befalling the fate of the Arts (not just on the island) but across much of the UK too. I began to research the lexicon of axes, their uses as weapon and tool; and how ‘axe’ ‘hatchet’ and ‘chop’ have invaded our daily vocabulary, and commenced a search for potential objects to use – all the while knowing that the risk factor involved in such an installation could prove to be a curatorial stumbling block.

A SPACE plinth, Artist 3: Alexandra Parry

This piece aims to highlight the recent cuts that have been made to services in Newport, Isle of Wight. I was aware that the previous artists in Relay had spoken about global issues that were topical and in the news. I decided to bring the focus from the global to the local and look at what was happening in the town I was in.

QUAY ARTS Plinth, Artist 3: Karen Grainger

When the original object was revealed as chess pieces, I spent a little time thinking about what they stood for. They were competing armies of kingdoms set against each other. Symbolic figures of separate hierarchical roles working to control power, religion, territory and wealth; King, Queen, Knight, Bishop, Castle, Pawn. As the game unfolds, each piece has a very specific set of rules dictating possible moves on the board; a bishop can only move diagonally etc. Each side is also clearly divided – set up as the polar opposites of black and white.