Brilliant Cloud

28 October – 19 December 2010
at Sir James Matthews Building, 157-187 Above Bar Street, Southampton, Hampshire, SO14 7NN

"Brilliant Cloud is the name given to boredomresearch’s latest work, in which hundreds of bands of vibrant colour combine to create cloud-like formations. Inspired by patterns formed in agate (a form of volcanic quartz) they are neither cloud nor rock but play with the space between these two very opposite substances."

Collaborating as boredomresearch, Southampton-based Vicky Isley and Paul Smith make artworks inspired by the diversity that exists in nature. Their practice uses computer modelling techniques to explore the creative potential of diversity. Inspired by pattern formations such as the marks on butterfly wings, boredomresearch create new, intricate and diverse forms of intrigue and beauty. In many of their artworks they have employed artificial techniques to bring these forms to life, creating works that unfold in real time.

Also included in the exhibition are boredomresearch’s latest software objects, Lost Calls of Cloud Mountain Whirligigs – a world populated with mysterious flying life forms called Whirligigs, inspired by birds of paradise, flower petals and mechanical flying machines. As time passes, unique Whirligigs are created with new forms, colours and their own song. Each visitor gets to see just one slice from the immense diversity explored over time.

Millais Off-Site Projects, Part of Southampton Solent University, presents a contemporary visual arts programme which supports and promotes artists and innovative exhibitions around the city of Southampton and Southampton Solent University Campus.

Beyond the Looking Glass

28 October 2010 - 28 February 2011

at Sir James Matthews Building, 157-187 Above Bar Street, Southampton, Hampshire, SO14 7NN

In Beyond the Looking Glass Katayoun Dowlatshahi imagines the reflections in the windows as another reality; a reality in which the many reflections of cars, buses and passers-by are captured and simultaneously layered by the camera shutter. Using photography, Katayoun applies all the technical possibilities of the medium – the lens to catch the view of traffic flowing by, the layering of the reflections in the windows, double exposures – to build an image that is both realistic and illusory. This technology allows us to capture the smallest moments in time. The artist takes the pictures, builds up the scene and edits the result so that we can glimpse a new world.

Millais Off-Site Projects, part of Southampton Solent University, presents a contemporary visual arts programme which supports and promotes artists and innovative exhibitions around the city and Southampton Solent University Campus.

It has to be this way1.5

23 October 2010 – 2 January 2011
Preview: Saturday 23 October, 2 – 4pm
at aspex, The Vulcan Building, Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth, PO1 3BF

"In 1999 a young woman was involved in a moped accident. She suffered damage to both her short and long-term memory and was left unable to decipher her experiences. A year later she went missing in Rome and has subsequently not been found."

It has to be this way1.5 is a new commission by aspex and marks Lindsay Seers’ continued attempts to unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the young woman, her stepsister, Christine Parkes.

What constitutes the artistic practice of Lindsay Seers is not mere storytelling, but a matrix where there is no formal separation between the conceptual investigation of the act of photography, the camera as apparatus, the common desire for film and photography to act as evidence of events, and the complex historical and personal synchronicities of the events themselves. What we are witnessing in the work of Seers is not so much a detached systematic outline of these relationships, but the unfolding of the creative process, where the act of observation and understanding influences the outcome of events.

Mead Gallery, University of Warwick, will also be exhibiting the work of Lindsay Seers. The installation It has to be this way2 will be exhibited from 9 October until 11 December 2010.

Artist David Burrows will give a critical response to Lindsay Seers’ work on Thursday 11 November at 6pm.

Heft: Weight and Touch in Contemporary Sculpture

24 September - 14 November 2010
Now showing at The Gallery, Winchester Discovery Centre, Jewry Street, Winchester, SO23 8SB

"How much does a sculpture weigh? And if we cannot lift it, if we cannot even touch it, how important is its weight to the way it looks and the way we understand it?"

Heft is an exhibition of a dozen challenging sculptures by contemporary artists, selected by sculptor Tony Hayward. It examines the significance of weight, density, and tactile qualities, in what are primarily visual objects.

The project is a collaboration between Winchester Discovery Centre, Hampshire Sculpture Trust and Winchester School of Art.

Taking part are

Thomas Adank Jason de Caires Taylor Maurice Citron Sophia Olivia Clapham Katayoun Dowlatshahi

Noemie Goudal Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva Caroline Holt Julia Kubik Liane Lang

Philip Morris Myles Painter Nicholas Rena Gavin Turk Fabien Villon