Shelagh Cluett 'Caesura' with single shadow

One of the curatorial concepts for the exhibition Shelagh Cluett Sculpture 1977 - 1980 was that both the black and white photographs of the sculptures and the sculptures themselves might be read as ‘drawings in space’ - a series of lines or cuts across the walls of CHELSEA space. In order to highlight this idea and not visually confuse visitors trying to view such slight sculptures, it was important to light each sculpture with one spotlight each which would create … Continue Reading

Jo Garrad consults the archive photographs

Installing the work was aided by using the black and white photographs taken in Shelagh Cluett’s Wapping studio in 1979/80 as a reference for positioning, angles, etc. Whilst this worked well on the whole, it was important to remember that these were 2D photographs of 3D sculptures and as such they were not necessarily taken ‘straight on’ but were sometimes taken at oblique angles to the wall.

These sculptures are held in tension between a point on the wall and a point on the floor, … Continue Reading

Jo Garrad inspects the contents of the crate

Shelagh Cluett’s work arrived in one of the large crates made for storing her work in the studio. Whilst the crate is fairly light it is also fairly large and it was a close thing getting it through the doors. All of the sculptures were carefully packed within the same box, reference photographs were made of the packing and then Jo Garrad, archivist for the Shelagh Cluett Trust, inspected the condition of the work. It was a tense … Continue Reading

Martina Gonano and Mike Iveson redecorating CHELSEA space for the Shelagh Cluett exhibition

Work has now properly got underway for the late Shelagh Cluett’s show, the first job always is to repair and redecorate the space itself but this schedule of works also included getting new fluorescent tubes installed in the main space. The spot lights in CHELSEA space have never had a wide enough angle to ‘wash’ the walls with light from top to bottom and there were always large areas of shadows particularly at the top … Continue Reading

crates of sculptures in Shelagh Cluett's studio

In deciding to show work by the late Shelagh Cluett, the first decision - what to show - was relatively straight forward as her work of the 1970′s was not only of interest in its own terms materially and theoretically but also evokes questions of how it was for a young female sculptor in the UK at that time.

Within the trajectory of the CHELSEA space exhibition programme the dates 1977-1980 worked well, connecting this exhibition to others in the … Continue Reading