What’s new at Baltic ahead of Saturday's Summer Sizzler?
Meet Baltic's latest exhibiting artists
Baltic’s new exhibitions are in for the summer, each a portal into the realm of the imagination – someone’s imagination - and an invitation to look and maybe interact.
Testing questions await members of the Baltic Crew as the public arrives in its myriad manifestations - locals, visitors to the region (many from overseas), art experts, art sceptics, parents with pushchairs and teenagers looking for a place to hang out.
All, whatever their experience or motivation, will be curious.
For many artists, exhibiting at Baltic, with its high profile and giant spaces, represents a big step up – quite literally in the case of Saelia Aparicio who was up in a cherry picker when I arrived to meet her before her exhibition opened.
Technicians were helping her to suspend her pendulous and intricate sculptures from the ceiling, getting the angles right.
At ground level, curator Niomi Fairweather explained the background to Saelia and her exhibition, A Joyful Parasite, which also includes sculptures with mirrors and mischievous looking creatures painted on the walls.
“I’ve been following Saelia’s work for about three years now. I saw a London show she had and was struck by the sculptural aspects of her work which is always mixed media.
“She’s interested in how lighting works in a space, how it makes it visually intriguing, and I thought it would be perfect for Level 2.”
When Niomi first made contact, Saelia was ‘in residence’ at a place Sir Antony Gormley has in the Norfolk countryside where artists get a studio and accommodation and work on the land.
Saelia was heavily pregnant at the time but doing her best.
Niomi visited her at her “tiny” London studio which is next door to that of her twin sister, also an artist (that’s another Baltic twin to go with Laura and Rachel Lancaster, currently exhibiting on Level 3).
Saelia, though based in London, is from Spain. Visiting Gateshead for the first time, she warmed to the lofty ceilings in Baltic’s Level 3.
Since others were also interested in exhibiting her work, Baltic co-commissioned her with galleries in London and Devon where the exhibition will go later.
By chance, Baltic’s Level 2 space is currently being supported by Sir Antony Gormley’s foundation which gives grants to enhance public understanding, enjoyment and appreciation of art.
For Baltic and Saelia, it seemed the stars had aligned – and Niomi was loving what she was seeing as the exhibition took shape.
“The hanging lights were among the first works she conceived and they look incredible. I knew we could use them creatively in this space and that they’d help to bring her cute and creepy characters to life.”
Back on the ground, Saelia retrieved her cold coffee and surveyed her handiwork appreciatively.
For one thing, her art is an exercise in recycling.
Niomi had told me her studio was “like an antique shop” and that Saelia was “always tinkering”, fascinated by how things work. “She would have done all the electrics in here if we’d let her.”
Laughing, Saelia said: “There’s so much stuff in the world so I always want to make something fantastic with things that are here already. Businesses close and stuff goes into landfill.
“Hundreds of crafts are disappearing as well. I think about the craft of making all these things and I work hard because I want the quality to be consistent.”
She expressed her determination to tread lightly on the planet, using repurposed materials and shunning those bad for the environment.
There’s no vinyl signage in Saelia’s exhibition. Information is painted directly onto walls – and she insisted those walls didn’t need repainting following the previous exhibition. They were fine.
She told me about her early influences, Japanese anime cartoons, Catholic iconography and Medieval architecture, gargoyles in particular.
“And when I was a teenager I used to do graffiti. I’m not very tall but I always like to work on a big scale. It’s lovely, the space here – and the team.”
Her exhibition’s title alludes to the fact that even parasites are motivated by the impulse to thrive and multiply.
It’s a plea to live and let live, though rather a mischievous one. Saelia said those ‘cute and creepy’ characters on the walls are “hybrids” of plants and people.
They represent Spanish bluebells, three cornered garlic and Japanese knotweed, all considered invasive species in this country but joyously thriving nonetheless.
Down on the ground floor, the yellow paint was still wet in Harold Offeh’s exhibition, The Mothership Collective 2.0.
It’s called that, he said, because it follows the original Mothership Collective exhibition which took place in 2006.
“It was a takeover of the South London Gallery and it was all about imagining alternative futures.
“The idea was that different groups would come along and collaborate with an artist to make something.
“It could be a comic or ceramics or a video about aliens. At the end we had a week-long exhibition of all the stuff.”
Harold Offeh is an artist and academic, teaching at the Royal College of Art and elsewhere. Born in Ghana, he grew up in London and lives in Cambridge. He has exhibited or performed previously in Sunderland and Middlesbrough but this is his first time on Tyneside.
Baltic’s ground floor gallery is generally a place where art meets play and The Mothership Collective 2.0 was set up with interaction in mind. You can contribute to a musical soundtrack, make a poem on a magnetic board or bounce transparent plastic bubble balls around.
There are films where animated spaceships from the original exhibition are shown whizzing above Baltic and the Tyne bridges – and these will be added to or replaced when film-making groups get to work in the space.
“Thematically, it’s part of a long-running project I’ve been doing influenced by an American musician called Sun Ra who was the godfather of Afrofuturism and into free jazz,” explained Harold.
“He created this mythical narrative around his identity. It was a sort of prototype black consciousness movement where he was trying to link the Black American experience to the African continent but also embracing sci-fi.
“More broadly, I’m interested in everyone reclaiming sci-fi and speculative fiction. This is an invitation to think about our future and what’s at stake for us.
“It’s not about it actually happening but it’s about envisaging an alternative future.”
Dive into the philosophy (and Sun Ra, a fascinating character, is worth checking out) or just have fun. That would seem to be the message.
Harold designed a special yellow corner where he reckoned people could pose, play or take photos. It’s a bit of an optical allusion – and the paint will be dry by now.
Both Saelia Aparicio’s and Harold Offeh’s exhibitions run until February 1 next year. Check the Baltic website for opening times and information about summer attractions and opportunities.
Meanwhile, tomorrow (July 12) is Baltic’s Summer Sizzler Saturday when it’ll all be happening both inside and out.
It features the third annual Art Car Boot Fair, with more than 50 stalls manned by artists and makers, and there will be attractions (workshops, pop-up performances, music and refreshments) on site throughout the day.