Russell Hughes Art

If space is a product of the characteristics of society including its values, beliefs, practices and systems of power (as proposed by Lefebvre), then what does a specific space say about us, the way we live, the forces shaping our society, affecting every aspect of our lives? How far do we recognise what is really going on? Or are we too busy, unaware, uninterested, silently complicit as our world is continually reshaped around us.

Very happy to have my work selected for the excellent Left Bank Leeds Prize Exhibition. Lots of photos of the exhibition on Left Bank Leeds Facebook page ( Click here ). 

The 'fragments' screenprints have been scanned and are presented in a series of digital compositions which balance colours, numbers of layers and pattern. Fragments of Space II - 1 Fragments of Space II - 2

The large screenprints (see separate post) show the patterns of movement in and around the Square during public events. In each case the pattern varies according to the specific use of the Square and the areas that become inaccessible to the public. These prints are ‘map-like’ in nature and reflect the process of walking, gathering data and presenting a visual representation of how access to the space is changing.  The patterns of movement in the Square have also been deconstructed into over 100 individual abstract fragments of space and movement, captured individually in small screenprints. Fragments of Space, A5 screenprints These prints have been produced intuitively, exploring variations in colours, patterns, and complexity of layering. They are a further development of the process-based work, rather than a documentation of the process itself, but still emphasising the complexity of each point in space and of the forces shaping that space. 

Large (A1) screenprints. Either 3 or 4 layers. Base layer is taken from maps of the Square, basically the shape of the Square as defined by the surrounding architecture or roads. The second layer is taken from the GPS pattern of my walk in the square in March 2018, when no events were taking place, so possible to do a very structured walk in a grid pattern through the square. The third and fourth layers are based on GPS data from attempting the same walk whilst an event was taking place in the Square. The overall combination of layers represents a picture of how the availability of the space is changed by these events, or how the space has been appropriated, as evidenced by my own physical engagement with the space through walking.  The Fluidity of Public Space - Vaisakhi Festival April 2018

Much of the space in which we live is subject to constant change, which we are expected to accommodate and over which we have little direct control. Spatial change is frequently effected by an infrastructure of control of physical movement, most notably by steel ‘control’ barriers, near ubiquitous objects in our urban landscape. The body of work includes three repurposed steel crowd control barriers, integrating welded steel representations of patterns of movement before and during the public events. Barriers may carry multiple associations for us – they allude to restriction, control, appropriation and protest but also to safety and leisure. Repurposing the barriers and presenting then in an artistic context disrupts their original function and asks the viewer to consider them in more detail, the uses to which they are put and whether our (lack of) response to them is too complicit and accepting.  An insight into the development process.  Welding steel rods based on wa...

This work was a response to the Wharf Chambers (Leeds) building, a heritage industrial building in the centre of Leeds which has previously been a factory and is now a bar and event space. The work was intended to investigate mental and physical feelings of safety within an architectural, historical and cultural context. Safe Spaces - recreation of industrial floor