During their
residency Kate Mackeson and Ruby Pester developed an installation based on
the 1990's entertainment show Gladiators. The UK TV programme,
which aired in the 1990's, had members of the public battle against the show's
own semi-professional athletes. There’s No Laybys In The Sky
examined ideas of the spectacle, excess and audience consumption within the
world of sporting events. The artists investigated the significance of the
winning and losing that underpins this absurd, fantastical environment, probing
its mimicry within our day to day lives and experiences, and the impending
plasticity of reality. The artists pose questions at the simple manifestations
of duality that we consume on a daily basis and how we continually categorise
and appraise success and failure.
Kate Mackeson
works with mixed -media, print-making, installation and video. She is
interested in thresholds, transitional and in-between states and often uses
recurring processes, everyday materials and symbolism to develop a heightened
sense of expectation. Mackeson uses these ideas to question personal boundaries,
communication and the materiality of our exterior environments. In 2010 she co-founded Una Tittel - a network of multi-disciplinary artists and curators.
Ruby Pester
creates interactive performance based projects that focus on challenging
conventional perceptions. She uses sculpture, installation, video, sound,
costume and drawing and often responds to specific locations and communities
exploring social exchange and the relationship between media, artist and
society. She works with initiatives and individuals including Artconnect Berlin,
Glasgow based artist, Nadia Rossi and is part of the Glasgow based artist
group Now Now who create and host socially engaged art events acrossScotland.
The residency was built around two events: Love is a TrophyWorkshop (8th March) where the artists invited guests to compete to sculpt winning faces onto trophies; and the Finissage (10th March).
