Season’s Greetings

2016 has been a mountainous year for OSR Projects with incredible highs and sobering lows. The busiest since we opened our doors 5 years ago, we are just starting to get time to reflect on all that has taken place over the past twelve months.

The year started with Andy Webster & Darren Rays’s Droppers, filling the OSR Project Space with people and energy, and ended with Ropewalkers, a partnership project with Dawe’s Twineworks, that saw the production of fantastic new work by Andy Parker, Jo Ball and Simon Whetham. Sandwiched between these two West Coker based projects the Weather Station (Part II) took us all around the South West working with some of the most incredible and generous artists and arts organisations, ending up in Portland as part of the b-side festival… which we are still excited about.

We would like to thank all of the wonderful artists, project partners, participants and visitors that we have had the privilege to play with this year, and hope to see you all again in 2017.

Enjoy The Secret of the Unhewn Stone day and any other festive celebrations that may be taking place over the next couple of weeks

Best wishes
Simon

Our friend Sam

It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to our friend and colleague Sam Aldridge who passed away at the end of November. As part of the BRG collective Sam was the recipient of the inaugural Lobster Trap commission in 2013 and then went on to work as part of an OSR Projects collective that took over the Salisbury Art Centre in the 2014 Palaces & Cabins project.

Sam’s sensitive and playful approach to making art really connected with people and has had a lasting impact on the way we approach working with others. I am so glad that we got to spend some time together, and just wish it could have been a bit longer. We’ll miss you Sam.

Ropewalkers review

‘Being here alone only serves to make me more aware of the ghosts in this place….’ Read Richard Povall’s critical review of Ropewalkers published in a-n reviews

Ropewalkers Launch party

Please join us between 6-9 pm Friday 14 October for the launch of Ropewalkers at the OSR Project Space and Dawe’s Twineworks (starting at OSR Project Space and heading up to Dawe’s after 8pm) There will be food and drink at the OSR.

The exhibition includes an immersive sound work by Simon Whetham entitled Trace Evidence, performance and sculpture by Andy Parker that weaves together personal histories with that of William Dampier and the Twineworks, and Jo Ball’s project Patches of Blue Sky that re-visits the tradition of growing flax to make linen twine.

Exhibition dates:
15 October– 5 November 2016
Thursday – Saturday 11am – 5pm (or by appointment)

Venues: OSR Project Space, Church Street, West Coker, Somerset BA22 9BD
Dawe’s Twineworks, 94a High Street, West Coker, Somerset BA22 9AU
more info

Weather Station (part II) Review by Trevor H. Smith

credit: Brendan Buesnel

Isolated incidents creep up to lip of the crucible before everything rushes in at once…. read Trevor H.Smith’s review of Weather Station (part II) here

Weather Station in the National Press

credit: Paulbox

Great to be featured as one of the Telegraphs Pictures of the Day on Chesil Beach. OSR Projects are going to be here at the b-side festival 2016 until this Sunday 18 September (11am-6pm). If your thinking of coming to Portland do pop over to the Drill Hall and say hello.

Weather Station at b-side festival 2016

Opening this Saturday / 10 – 18 September / 11am – 6pm 

A giant inflatable ball becomes the Weather Station, a mobile pavilion for the collection of images, objects and ideas. An artist-led response to flooding,  extreme weather and the changing relationship we have with landscape and the natural world. Cumulative rather than collaborative, the structure passes from one artist to the next, gathering traces of its journey through the beautiful and broken landscapes of South West England.

The exhibition brings together new work by artists Laurie Lax, Laura Hopes, James Hankey, Nicola Kerslake, Phil Smith, Stair/Slide/Space, Jethro Brice, Simon Lee Dicker, Alexander Stevenson and Elaine Fisher (+ special guests Andy Webster & Darren Ray) alongside existing work by the participating artists.

Please pop in and say hello if you are thinking of coming to the festival this year… its going to be a corker.

Venue: Drill Hall / Easton Lane / Portland / DT5 1BW