Addo and the Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology, Wrexham Glyndŵr University, are pleased to announce Pilot Hole. A durational public realm project engaging with neglected spaces. Pilot Hole will see seven artworks sited for 24 hours over a period of seven days, from 12 noon each day.

Artists involved:

Sunday 19^thMay               Alec Shepley

Monday 20^thMay             Sue & Barbara Simpson

Tuesday 21^stMay             Ryan Saunders  & Kevin Tanton

Wednesday 22^ndMay      Manon Grugwyn & Jasmine Roberts

Thursday 23^rdMay          Anne Hill & Sophie Holliday

Friday 24^thMay                Paul Heppell

Saturday 25^thMay            Paul Jones

The team of undergraduate students from the Fine Art Programme at the Art School in Regent Street will be involved in the curation, assistance at any opening event, documentation, invigilation etc., and staff from the Art School would also provide administrative and technical support. Evaluation using feedback from people interacting with the project, is an important part of the research around located practice and the process for evaluation is key to students’ learning.

Hole in the Wall Gallery and specifically ‘Pilot Hole’ is seen as a part of an enabling discussion around future work – a larger scale project in Wrexham about reimagining its cultural infrastructure through occupying vacant spaces.

Although a very lively place, with large numbers of people present at any given time of day, there is often a sense of decline and failing infrastructure within Wrexham town centre. Located practice in this project explores differences in the infrastructure precipitated by utopian and dystopian templates. Through located art practice or socially engaged art practice, this rather negative impression can be turned on its head.

For many artistic projects a key component is the publication – it is an important vehicle providing dissemination, further engagement and a record of a project. However, it often does not reach as broad an audience as intended due to for example, ‘high end’ publication costs which provide limited numbers, and therefore speak to a narrow audience. So, rather than a ‘traditional’ book, and because the context for the project is the street, the publication for this project will be in the form of a free broadsheet newspaper and will aim at as high a number of the public as possible.

There will also be a blog/FB/Instagram page produced by the students, which will document the process and be a vehicle for evaluation, in the form of comments and hits, and also plays a role in developing and engaging audiences.

The publication can reflect the wider projects aims, document and reference the project artworks and act as an artwork in itself.

The Hole in the Wall Gallery, Wrexham, rather than being a fixed building, exists as a series of impromptu public art happenings occupying void spaces around the town. In this iteration of the project, ‘Pilot Hole ‘ is housed within a void space in the wall at the old Fire Station, Bradley Road in Wrexham, the exact dimensions of which are 17.5cm (w) 11.5cm (h) 18cm (d). You can find a map of where to find us below: