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Neville Gabie |
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| Experiments in Black and White XXXI 2020 |
| Biography |
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Neville Gabie (born in Johannesburg, South Africa) has an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London 1986/88. His work is included in Tate Gallery, Arts Council Collections and The Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland. Working in a range of media from sculpture to film and photography Neville Gabie's practice is frequently inspired by a response to specific locations or situations. Often developed over a sustained period of involvement with site, local community groups and other creative and academic professionals, his projects value collaboration as key to their success. From highly urbanised to distantly remote locations, his work is a response to the vulnerability of place. His interest is in establishing a working relationship within a particular community as a means of considering its physical, cultural or emotional geography. Current projects include
Living Language Land - with Philippa Bayley and the British Council
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| Curriculum vitae |
| Exhibitions at the gallery: Nachum's Coat 2023, Experiments in Black and White 2018, Myself and Others 2015, The Greatest Distance 2013 |
| Press |
| Artist's Website |
| SELECTED WORKS |
| Factory Works at Factory International, Manchester |
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FACTORY WORKS is an audio artwork created by artist Neville
Gabie with musician and DJ Nabihah Iqbal in collaboration with
construction workers and manufacturers involved in the creation
of Aviva Studios, Manchester’s new landmark cultural venue. The
album is available to stream for free on the Factory
International website and can be purchased as a limited-edition
vinyl record. Known for creating work that responds to people and places in moments of change, Neville Gabie was commissioned by Factory International in 2019 to develop a project that would celebrate the construction workers, concrete pourers, steel workers and others involved in the creation of Aviva Studios. The artwork was made over a two-year period (spring 2020 - winter 2021) and focuses on the core materials that form the infrastructure of the building, such as steel, concrete, cloth, rubber, wood and glass. The audio includes industrial sounds and snippets of conversations with workers at five factories involved in the manufacture of these materials as well as those working on the construction site, all underpinned with original electronic music from Nabihah Iqbal. |
| Experiments in Black and White IXXX |
| 2019, video still |
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| The Edge of Things |
| 2019 A commission by Neville and Joan Gabie for the National Trust, Trust New Art Programme, Blickling Hall, Norfolk |
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| Neville and
Joan Gabie were commissioned by the National Trust to develop a
new work in response to Blickling Hall’s famous library. The
library comprises 12,500 books collected by Richard Ellis [1683
– 1742] covering a wide range of subjects predominantly from the
Age of Enlightenment. The artists chose to develop work based on
six books responding to four themes: Language, Natural History,
Astronomy and the early Microscopic work of Robert Hooke. The artists travelled to Mashpee, Massachusetts to create a film on the significance of language in rebuilding community, screened as an installation in Blickling Hall alongside works responding to their other chosen themes. |
| The Dinner |
| 2016 / 2019 Youngs Brewery, Wandsworth, London, Commissioned by Future City |
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| Neville Gabie
was invited to make a new work, which responded to the history of
the former Young’s Brewery and to the site's future prospects as
a residential and commercial development in the heart of London.
Based on an historic photograph found in the Young’s Archive of a staff Christmas Dinner held in Wandsworth Town Hall in 1948, the work proposed restaged that event, but with a diverse mix of people drawn from the local community. The Restaged Christmas Dinner, held on September 28th 2017 in the same location in Wandsworth Town Hall, was photographed and has been reproduced as a 3 metre light box to be displayed in the heritage centre, currently under construction at Ram Quarter. A limited edition [500 copies], publication and DVD containing interviews, historic and contemporary photographs and documentation of The Dinner was printed and distributed to all participants in 2019. |
| Cambridge Rules 1848 |
| 2016 / 2020, Sculpture commission by Neville Gabie and Alan Ward – Parkers Piece, Cambridge. Commissioned by Cambridge City Council |
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| Constructing Connections: Fiction, Art and Life |
| 2017 Croxteth Hall, Liverpool |
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| Curated by
Frances Downie with artists Neville Gabie, Patricia McKinnon-Day
and Paul Rooney, the project was developed in response to Robert
Tressell’s novel, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Published
after his death and burial in a paupers grave in Liverpool, the
book is still considered to be one of the founding works in the
Labour movement and Trade Unions. The project was funded by Liverpool City Council, John Moores University and Arts Council England. |
| Meanwhile Space |
| 2016, Wavertree, Liverpool |
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| Commissioned
by Metal, Liverpool, and in collaboration with artists Marcus
Coates and Cristina Lina. The artists were asked to respond to a vacant space of land in the city centre, which had neither name nor use. Working onsite over a number of weeks, the artists created a series of activities and events asking locals how they would like the space to be used – and even what name the area should be given. The entire area was used for an installation of local creative responses to a suggested name, which was ultimately adopted by the City Council. |
| The weight of Iron carried from China for you |
| 2015 / 2016 Commissioned by BeHave, curated by Stephanie Delcroix and Michael Pinsky on behalf of Fonds Belval, Luxembourg |
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| Breaking Ground |
| 2014 / 2016 Bradford, England |
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| Collective Breath |
| 2014, performance and video commissioned for WOMAD Festival |
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| Collective
Breath is part of Experiments in Black and White,
a new work commissioned from Neville Gabie for the 2014
WOMAD Festival in Charlton Park, Wiltshire. This work is
an exploration of four materials – ice, chalk, oil and air – fundamental
aspects of the natural world that are variously contested and debated
as we look to the future of the planet. During the festival the
project comprised a daily performance-drawing with a huge chalk
boulder; outdoor screenings of five films featuring the artist working
with each of ice, chalk and oil, in arduous, physical performances;
and the Collective Breath tent where breath from festival-goers
was collected and speakers from a variety of disciplines gave talks
on the subject of breath and air as they relate to science, art,
the voice, musical performance, life cycles and eastern meditation. Inspired by his recent residency at the Cabot Institute, University of Bristol, Neville devised a system for collecting breath from over one thousand visitors during the 4-day festival. The breath from each bespoke bag has now been transferred into a pressurized container. Contributors to the project have made suggestions for the site to release the breath and record the sound as it plays through the specially made instrument. Postcards with a photographic record of the event and a link to the film of the Collected Breath release will be posted to all contributors. |
| Experiments in Black and White XIII - Richmond South Africa |
| 2014, video stills |
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| Experiments in Black and White VII |
| 2013, video stills |
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| Afloat |
| 2013, video still (Achiltibuie, Scotland) |
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Afloat is a film recorded over 18 months in the remote
West Highland community of Coigach. The 27 minute film follows the
construction of a St Ayles Skiff and a season of rowing under the
banner of Scottish Coastal Rowing. Commissioned by IOTA, the film
would not have been possible without the enthusiastic support of
the Coigach Community Rowers and the wider community of Achiltibuie. Whilst the boat is central, filming its construction was perhaps an indulgence for thinking about something much more personal. I am fascinated by this tiny community, not all indigenous, or even Scottish, living on the margins between land and sea. I saw a bond there that I envied and was terrified of in equal measure. I encountered my own ghosts and rootlessness starkly reflected in this odd mix of people drawn together in the embrace of a very unique landscape. Neville Gabie |
| Map Projects, Richmond, South Africa |
| 2012, photograhic work of temporary installation |
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| Freeze Frame |
| 2011, photograph, printed in the Metro Newspaper with a one-off print run of three million and single image print 3 x 2m, part of the Olympic Park Residency, London |
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| Every seat in the stadium |
| 2011, video installation part of the Olympic Park residency, London |
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| Wide Eyed and Legless |
| 2009, video still, part of the British Antarctic Survey (Weddell Sea, Antarctica) |
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| Cabot Circus Cantata |
| 2007, video still |
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| Flat - Further Up in the Air |
| 2003 |
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Over a five year period artists, writers and photographers; Grennan &
Serandio, Dirk Konigsfeld, Philip Reilly, George Shaw, Chloe Steele,
Leo Fitzmaurice, Kelly Large & Becky Shaw, Neville Gabie, Lothar
Gotz, Gary Perkins, Greg Steak, David Mabb, Catherine Bertola, Paul
Rooney, Elizabeth Wright, Will Self, Vittorio Bergamaschi, Jordan
Baseman, Julian Stallabrass, Anna Fox, Marcus Coates, Stephan Gec,
Bill Drummond – lived in residence and developed work alongside
the resident community. Such a project would not have been possible
without the support, involvement and goodwill of the residents on
the estate. The project took place on the Sheil Park estate, North Liverpool during the process of demolishing three tower blocks. Up in the Air was based in Kenley Close, Further Up in the Air, in Linosa Close, the last of the three buildings to be demolished. Hosted by Liverpool Housing Action Trust, the project had ACE, Lottery, Capital of Culture and LHAT funding. |
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