Press Release: The Dark Rooms
‘The Dark Rooms’, a two-day contemporary art project in the Passmore Edwards building, Helston, curated by Jesse Leroy Smith
Saturday 2nd February 1pm to 10pm
Sunday 3rd February 12pm to 6 pm
Passmore Edwards building, 3 Penrose Road, Helston, Cornwall TR138PB
Admission to ‘The Dark Rooms’ is free and all are welcome
Unaccompanied children cannot be admitted.
Some forty artists – photographers, sculptors, painters, performance artists, film-makers and art students – will gather in Helston, Cornwall on the weekend of 2nd and 3rd February to realise an ambitious exhibition, ‘The Dark Rooms’, initiated and curated by Jesse Leroy Smith and presented in the old Passmore Edwards School of Science and Art at 3 Penrose Road. As part of the project, students from Falmouth University will present a ‘show within the show’ entitled ‘Parameters of the Dark’.
The Passmore Edwards building in Helston
Built in 1897, the Passmore Edwards School of Science and Art was given to the town of Helston by the visionary philanthropist John Passmore Edwards, who was responsible for the creation of libraries, schools, galleries and other cultural and educational institutions throughout Cornwall. Extensions were built in 1905 and 1913 and the building became a secondary school, known locally as ‘the green school’ because of the uniforms worn by its pupils. With the introduction of comprehensive education, the school moved out and the building was used for a while by a map-making company. For nearly three decades it was used as a community centre, but was boarded up in 2010 and was finally sold by Helston Town Council in the summer of 2012. It has been acquired for a new charity, the Cornubian Arts and Science Trust (CAST), which will use the building to accommodate artists’ studios and to host talks, workshops, screenings and other cultural and educational activities.
Jesse Leroy Smith approached the Trustees of CAST with a proposal to use the building for an art event before artists start to occupy the studios. The Trustees welcome this initiative and hope that ‘The Dark Rooms’ will act as a catalyst for future activity. With its close links with the Helston Folk Museum and its central location in West Cornwall, Jess Leroy Smith sees the Passmore Edwards building as a hub for creativity and invention and hopes that ‘The Dark Rooms’ will lead to further collaborations and contemporary art events.
The Dark Rooms curated by Jesse Leroy Smith
Jesse Leroy Smith has invited artists to transform every room in the old school building into an individual work of art. The itinerary of ‘The Dark Rooms’ begins on the ground floor, where works of art in a wide range of media contribute to a brooding cacophony of sound and dissonant imagery, exploring the psychology, politics and complex identities of the human condition. On the upper floor of the building the mood of the exhibition changes, to embrace expansive and dream-like landscapes. This exploratory journey finally resolves in the last rooms of the exhibition, with meditative and observational films that reflect on the natural landscape. In Jesse Leroy Smith’s exhibition scenario Individual works of art become points in a narrative that draws on the history and ethos of the Passmore Edwards building.
One of the artists, James Hankey, is using the transitional state of the building to reflect the change from analogue to digital photographic practices. With help from the nearby Helston Folk Museum, he is making a temporary museum and darkroom installation that utilises past and present photographic technologies. Taking the title of the show quite literally, he will capture, expose and develop prints made during Saturday 2nd Feb, revealing the results the following day.
Ben Sanderson has taken some of the weathered plywood boards that until recently covered the upper windows of the building and has used them as supports for painted images of Helston’s history, including its lost branch-line railway, the viaduct across the river Cober, the tin mines and the story of Helston-born boxer Bob Fitzsimmons.
The following artists are contributing to ‘The Dark Rooms’:
Richard Ballinger, Sam Bassett, Matthew Benington, Faye Dobinson, Graham Gaunt, Marie Claire Hamon, James Hankey, Michelle Hannah, Jonathan Hayter, Mark Jenkin, Liam Jolly, Jesse Leroy Smith, Rachel MacLean (from Glasgow), Janet McEwan, Chris Priest, Ben Sanderson, Tim Shaw, Kate Southworth, Louise Thomas, Roger Thorp, Von Calhau (from Portugal), Rupert White, Lucy Willow, Emma Saffy Wilson, Paul Carter and Alexandra Zierle
Parameters of the Dark, curated by Cat Bagg and Rosie Thomson-Glover
As an addition to ‘The Dark Rooms’, Jesse Leroy Smith has invited two students from Falmouth University’s MA in Curatorial Practice to curate ‘a show within the show’, featuring work by current BA and MA students at Falmouth University. Curators Cat Bagg and Rosie Thomson-Glover have selected work by 12 emerging artists for an exhibition entitled ‘Parameters of the Dark’.
Tapping into the dual senses of nostalgia and anticipation inherent in the building at this transitional moment in its history, the curators have brought together ‘artists who share an interest in alchemical transformations of physical and emotional space and works that oscillate between imagined pasts and projected futures.’
The following artists are exhibiting in ‘Parameters of the Dark’:
Karl Arbuthnot, Tom James Bond, Beatrice Brown, Tim Chandler, Kate Holford, Sam Hyde, Mark Messenger, Rhys Morgan, Ashley Sheekey, Joshua Smith, Frances Walsh, Ben Wayman
Guided tour
Jesse Leroy Smith will give a guided tour of the exhibition at 4pm on Sunday 3 February.
On the morning of Monday 4 February there will be a guided visit for students from Helston Community College.
Notes for editors
Jesse Leroy Smith is an artist currently based in Newlyn. In 2007 he co-curated ‘Revolver’, an exhibition involving a wide range of artists living in Cornwall, with an associated catalogue published in 2008. In 2010 he co-curated ART75, a project celebrating the 75th anniversary of the iconic Jubilee Pool in Penzance, and in 2011 he co-curated PRINT at The Exchange in Penzance. Jesse Leroy Smith is also a member of the artists collective TAaP (with Richard Ballinger, Chris Priest and Sam Bassett), which has organised a number of curatorial projects and has recently undertaken a residency, ‘Three Points Contact’ at Glasgow School of Art and The Exchange in Penzance. Von Calhau from Portugal and Rachel MacLean from Glasgow are participating in ‘The Dark Rooms’ as a consequence of this residency.
The Cornubian Arts and Science Trust (CAST) is a new building, created in 2012. Its Trustees are Alastair Cameron, Teresa Gleadowe, Chris Hibbert, Karen Townshend, John Wilkin and Ross Williams. The Trustees of CAST are hosting ‘The Dark Rooms’ as an independent project initiated and curated by Jesse Leroy Smith and in the hope that it will be a catalyst for future art projects and activities in the Passmore Edwards building in Helston. With its link to the Folk Museum and its central position in Cornwall, the Passmore Edwards building in Helston is already attracting attention as a hub for creativity and invention in West Cornwall.
Directions and parking:
The Passmore Edwards building is at 3 Penrose Road, Helston TR13 8TP.
There is no parking in the immediate vicinity of the building, but there are large Cornwall Council car parks within easy walking distance.
From the Tyacke Road car park pedestrian access leads directly into Coinagehall Street. Walking up Coinagehall Street turn left at the Guildhall into Church Street, past the Helston Folk Museum, and first right onto Penrose Road. The Passmore Edwards building is the first building on the right.
From the Trengrouse Way car park pedestrian access leads into Meneage Street. Turn right down Meneage Street, cross Coinagehall Street at the traffic lights and carry on down Church Street past the Guildhall and Helston Folk Museum. From Church Street take the first right turn onto Penrose Road. The Passmore Edwards building is the first building on the right.
Parking is free from Monday – Saturday 4pm – 9am, and all-day Sunday
There is also a small independent car park on Wendron Street at the back of the Passmore Edwards building.
