The Empty Gallery is a collaborative project between Claque and a local community or group to create a mobile 'interactive theatre-art exhibitions' that reflect the lives, thoughts and ideas of the community who create it. The creators could be the community within a city, town, village, street, an organisation or 'interest group'. Each exhibition will vary in content, size, scale and running time depending on the theme, community and location in which it appears; this could be anything from two weeks in an empty shop or village hall, a day in a school or gazebo to five minutes at a bus stop or railway station.
The Empty Gallery is so named because we don't know initially what items will go in there, they don’t exist yet; they have to be found, made and produced by the community. As with Claque's community plays, we start with a blank page. The artefacts of the Empty Gallery will emerge through research, soundings and workshops. Galleries could also have performance elements, either scripted, improvised, role plays or re-enactments. The content of the gallery can also be added to and changed by its visitors, who would be invited to express their responses in a variety of ways such as adding to unfinished pieces or giving unnamed works a title..
The Empty Gallery is so named because we don't know initially what items will go in there, they don’t exist yet; they have to be found, made and produced by the community. As with Claque's community plays, we start with a blank page. The artefacts of the Empty Gallery will emerge through research, soundings and workshops. Galleries could also have performance elements, either scripted, improvised, role plays or re-enactments. The content of the gallery can also be added to and changed by its visitors, who would be invited to express their responses in a variety of ways such as adding to unfinished pieces or giving unnamed works a title..
Previous Empty Gallery Exhibits
Our first exhibition was parallel project for the Camden Road community play The Vanishing Elephant. Camden Road Then and Now (2009) was street exhibition of enlarged Edwardian photographs mounted on walls and in shop windows close to the point of view of the original photographer; each image had a brief historical text attached. Camden Road Then and Now prompted the idea of the Empty Galleries we saw that it had potential and value in their own right. Plays were getting increasingly more expensive and w were looking for different models by which a community could collectively explore and express its past, present and future..The following year we presented Shadow of War and Peace (2010) an exhibition that reflected the themes and displayed much of the background historical research material of the play. Shadows of War and Peace included performances of scenes from the The B+vanishing Elephant and a First World War Choir. Improvisers also created still life problem picture sculptures, that could moved into new positions by the audience who 'imagined' short story sequences.
Since 2010 we have produced further Empty Galleries:
2014 Illusions Gallery and Finding Alice for Westerham
2015 Problem Pictures for Guildhall, City of London
2016-17 Aldgate Heritage Project - Exhibitions in a Suitcase, and Aldgate in Conversation - City of London
2018 Battles Over' Silhouettes
Since 2010 we have produced further Empty Galleries:
2014 Illusions Gallery and Finding Alice for Westerham
2015 Problem Pictures for Guildhall, City of London
2016-17 Aldgate Heritage Project - Exhibitions in a Suitcase, and Aldgate in Conversation - City of London
2018 Battles Over' Silhouettes
Building an Exhibit
The process is managed by the Curators, a volunteer community steering group. They involve the wider community to research, find subjects and themes. The curators in collaboration with Claque and professional designers think about how best to present them. Essentially the ideas come from the community and initially no idea is discarded. Ideas can be simple or complex, realistic or wild, possible and seemingly impossible. In time, the shape and content of the Empty Gallery will emerge. With a large number of people contributing not every idea will be able to be used, but may be saved for a later date, two ideas may amalgamate, one idea may inform or inspire others; they will all, however tell us what the group collectively want, hope and expect of the Gallery. Since .
The Brief for Exhibits
The final content of the gallery is decided by the Curators, but they are strongly influenced by the 'wisdom of the group' and the 'collective knowledge, experience, thoughts and idea of the community it's about. The gallery at it's best is an expressions from the broadest representation of the community.It's not about consensus but a plethora of sometimes conflicting ideas, attitudes, beliefs and tastes. Aspirations include:
- Exhibitions honestly represent all the voices in the community and does not seek consensus over diversity
- It puts strong value on an exhibit that allows the visitor to interact, which includes, the ability to comment on, alter, add to, play with, become a part of, be reflected in and so forth.
- As well as the above the exhibit should attempt to inform, reveal, inspire, provoke and educe new ideas, and challenge old, preconceived, stereotype habitual thinking.
- Encouraging empathy