I'm having an exhibition!... /  by Mark Gubb

I’ve been invited to stage an exhibition in the Black Box project space at UCA Farnham. They run a great programme of small projects/exhibitions, so check out their instagram for more info.

My show opens on Feb 18th and runs to March 28th and I’m going to be showing a version of the outcomes from my 309 Punk Project residency last summer. (You can listen to the EP I recorded here…)

I’m going to be doing a talk at the college (4-5pm) on Monday 17th February, with an opening for the project then running 5-7pm. Everyone is very welcome.

From the press release:

“S MARK GUBB - O DYWYSOG I RESLWR CROESWISGO / FROM A PRINCE TO A CROSS-DRESSING WRESTLER

Black Box project space, UCA Farnham. Monday 17th Feb, artists talk 4-5pm (RG21) + Opening 5-7pm

Tuesday 18th Feb - Friday 28 March, Weekdays 10am-4pm

We are thrilled to announce a new series of shows opening in Black Box project space at UCA Farnham Campus throughout 2025. Our first show in 2025 will start with S Mark Gubb, an artist who lives and works in Cardiff, Cymru/Wales, working across a range of media incorporating sculpture, video, sound, installation and performance. The subjects for his work reflect an ongoing interest in the role that popular culture and oral histories play in the development of an individual’s world view. This often takes the form of a re-evaluation and re-interpretation of contemporary culture and history. Collaboration and public engagement are key to his work and, in 2021, he completed a PhD focusing on the interaction and agency between artist, artwork, site and audience.

In the summer of 2024, S Mark Gubb was artist-in-residence with The 309 Punk Project in Pensacola. Whilst there, he researched, wrote, and recorded an EP of punk rock songs with local musicians about connections he had uncovered between the city and Wales - from an ancient Prince to a cross-dressing wrestler. By bringing these points of reference together into an EP, he is breathing new life and visibility into these connections, and bringing them together in one coherent space, for the first time. The 309 Punk Project is an organisation based in the one of the longest-surviving punk houses in the southern American States, having been home to a revolving door of musicians, artists, activists, and gigs, for over 30 years. Through this project and exhibition at Black Box, Mark takes us on a musical and historical journey through Pensacola, Florida, and its connections with Wales. The exhibition consists of a vinyl copy of the EP that was recorded (one of a limited-edition of 10), a zine expanding on the project that can be taken away by visitors, and a series of A0 poster-prints containing photographs from his trip and research process. The EP is available to listen to across all major streaming platforms, released by THURST Records. Mark’s residency in Pensacola was made possible by an International Opportunities Grant from Wales Arts International.

We would like to thank University for the Creative Arts, Research Office for supporting Black Box Project Space series through Knowledge Exchange funding this year.”

Punk Across the Pond... /  by Mark Gubb

I’ve recently spent a month in Pensacola with The 309 Punk Project as artist in residence and will post a full account in time, when I really get my head around how incredible the experience was.

In the meantime, they’ve recently posted this interview I did with them back in Covid-times, and there’s a lot in here that prefaces what I’ve gone on to do with the organisation this summer, so I thought I’d share it.

2024, Punk, Spycops, Farmers, Bronchitis, onwards... /  by Mark Gubb

It’s been quite a start to 2024. In the second week of the month I was involved in an amazing week of R&D with Common Wealth in Cardiff (more to follow), then immediately got side-swiped by illness that mutated into bronchitis and laid me low for the rest of the month.

That said, it’s been a strangely productive month as my typing fingers were still working, even if my lungs weren’t, so I’ve managed to move a lot of things along, on paper, that have needed a bit of a shove for a while.

The month started with the announcement from the 309 Punk Project in Pensacola that I’ve been invited to be their July ‘24 artist in residence - the first international resident in their programme that’s been running for the past three years. I’m really excited by this, as they’re an inspiring bunch of people, who I had the pleasure to meet back in 2018 when we were presenting together at a conference in Los Angeles. The 309 is a thing of beauty - an old punk house in the city now transformed into a living archive and project space celebrating the city’s punk scene. To say it’s up my street is something of an understatement. Do check them out. (Needless to say, I’ll be even more excited if the funding application I’ve put in to go and do the residency is successful…)

As mentioned in the first paragraph, I was part of a week-long R&D in early January with an amazing group of people, brought together by Common Wealth, for a National Theatre Wales-funded R&D week, to test the potential for a performance based on under-cover policing, specifically from the point of view of activists and groups who were infiltrated.

It’s a fascinating subject. The two main advisors we had with us for the week were the two hosts of the Spycops.Info podcast (I’ll not name them - not because they’re in-hiding or anything, but out of respect for the fact that their lives were turned upside down by undercover surveillance and the abuse of power that came with that). Their stories are equal-parts fascinating, inspiring, scary, and enraging. And if you’re wondering whether the Police were just doing what needs to be done to keep society safe, the activists successfully sued them and the investigation is ongoing.

The week was spent in the Royal Oak pub in Cardiff (which is an amazing, proper, old, pub on Newport Rd), with them, and a group of musicians, performers, and writers, to begin imagining what this performance might look like. Photographer Jon Poutney dropped in a few times to document things and these are selection of the wonderful pictures he took (all copyright, his).

My role is as the designer of the whole thing, so I was primarily observing, taking pictures, playing with lights and smoke, and things like that. I’ve put a zine together to capture something of the essence of the week and to begin that process of visual translation. You can see it here:

As well as that, I’ve started work on a new project over in Weston-super-Mare with RCKa architects, which is a redevelopment of the old Tropicana Lido - the site for Banksy’s ‘Dismaland’ and, more recently, ‘SEE MONSTER’.

Over the next two years the site is being redeveloped to become a multi-use space, most significantly with the capacity to hold large, open air, gigs. My role on the project is to develop and deliver the artistic outreach programme and to design a major new sculptural element to be incorporated into the redevelopment. With a history of the site including sculptural elements like those in the pics below, there’s plenty to play with. So watch this space…

Last, but by no means least, I’ve been working on a project for a few years now, trying to bring a photographic archive - taken by Pop Artist, Derek Boshier, when he lived in Wales in the 70s - back to Wales. For any of you that saw the show of Derek’s work I curated at Mostyn back in 2019, you’ll have had a taste of the archive - an extraordinary glimpse of Welsh rural life in the 1970s through the lens of one the UKs original Pop Artists. Part of the issue is the geographical distance between us (me in Cardiff, Derek in L.A.) and the fact that these photographs were taken half a century ago, so locating them and any negatives amongst a studio-archive as big as Derek’s is a bit of needle-in-a-haystack situation.

Anyway, this morning I woke up to these photos from my friend, Jonathan Griffin, who has kindly taken up the task of helping to find this stuff…

(Bronchitis aside…) it looks like 2024 is shaping up pretty well.

The State We're In / The Gallery at Truman Brewery, London /  by Mark Gubb

Earlier this year I was part of an amazing project ‘The State We’re In’ by The Gallery/Artichoke (see last blog post). I’m very happy to say that alongside the launch of Season 3 of this project, in September, there’s goign to be an exhibition of the artworks from Season 1+2 at the Truman Brewery, in London.

From the press release…

“Join us at a special, free-to-visit retrospective exhibition at Truman Brewery, London, for 1-week only to mark the launch of The Gallery, Season 3. 

Featuring artworks from Seasons 1 – 3, the retrospective exhibition will showcase The Gallery’s collective power to comment on the some of the most important issues of our time. It’ll be a unique chance to see all of the powerful works exhibited together for the very first time! 

The upcoming Season of The Gallery, launching 4 September, presents 11 timely works in response to the question, No But Where Are You Really From?. This season, the artists share complex, confronting and creative interpretations of identity, origin, heritage, belonging, and what it means to be ‘from somewhere’.

The Gallery is a new kind of cultural institution, without walls – bringing thought-provoking art to everyone on thousands of sites normally reserved for advertising, from bus stops screens to billboards. 
Dates: 2 - 9 September 
Times: 10:00 - 18:00 
Location: Dray Walk, Truman Brewery, E1 6QL 
Price: FREE, no ticket required

Find out more: https://thegallery.org.uk/ “