Test Space Takeover.

Hard to believe the Test Space take over of 42 New Briggate and the basement of Crash records has come to an end. I seemed to spend most of last week nipping in and out of those places, even got roped in as a nail monkey and general picture wrangler one evening when the guys were changing the the stuff on show. And if you thought, like I did, how hard can it be to bang a few pictures up on a wall, you really ought to spend a few hours with Neil and Steve. Neil needs everything millimetre perfect. Every piece must balance, every picture has to complement or comment on another; and Steve turns into a proper curatorial dictator stroke diva! Listening him talk airy fairy arty twaddle for hours on end, hand on hip, squinting into the distance as if inspiration lay somewhere just beyond Far Headingley, was quite a revelation. You’d never believe he came from Beeston. Still, all the effort was really worth it. They managed to put on eight days of events, installations, talks, workshops, films, music and performance, all from local creative talent, most of it good, some of it brilliant, and none of it boring. Quite an achievement.

The sheer amount of stuff they managed to pack in and the rapid turnover was pretty incredibile. The only drawback was that I missed things I would have loved, like most of the music at Crash Records (especially the wonderful and ever so slightly dippy Laura J Martin,) Tom Martin’s talk, most of the films . . . and it meant that I was around for stuff that I might not otherwise have chosen to see . . . like mime (can somebody explain the point? Unless you have a severe case of laryngitis, speak, dammit!) and poetry. Can’t say as I’m all that partial to poetry; I can do with out all that flaccid, florid, fatuous emoting, and if I really want to “share” there’s day time TV. Which at least is honestly awful. Anyway, apart from being subjected to some of my pet peeves, I did see some wonderful stuff. Not wanting to miss anybody out, and this is just a personal selection of things I managed to see, a few the highlights were:

Mr Yen’s delicate and devious, frugal and fragile little papercuts.

Matt Ferres who I saw paint one of the boards on the final day’s rivetting show by Best Joined Up. Matt has also to be congratulated for turning up one Sunday afternoon as he was passing by on a shopping expedition and mucking in with the picture hanging. He proved invaluably handy with hammer and nails until he realised he’d been with us for over three hours and might be missed at home . . . great bloke and major talent despite his unhealthy obsession with clowns and numpties.

Photographs by Tom Morris and Jay Maude.

This amazing and beautiful image by Justin Grasty. Apparently the number of dots that make up the image make up the number of days the lady lived.

The creepy, uncanny cosmic holiday adverts from Deep Dark Voyages. I really wanted to take the set home with me they were that good.

Weird and wonderful stuff from Moenipulation, whose Strays pieces I find genuinely disturbing (though I can’t understand what he’s on about on the website!)

LimnLimnLimn who did some really interesting live drawing.

Matt Saunders, AKA Rabbit Portal, did a fabulously detailed narrative window drawing that was tragically short-lived. The girls from Itty-Bitty Art Committee wiped it off the day after in preparation for their pint-sized planetarium.

And the crafty folks, Kitschen Sink (love the website Rowan, and I recognise that kid!) and Steph Says Hello (lovely stuff but Mr Site website doesn’t do it justice!) I even made a paper penguin with @gazpachodragon.

Test Space wasn’t just about the art. It was a welcoming place to be too. One of the nicest moments was when a mum came with her small kid, Albert, all of two and a half, maybe three years old, and Neil invited him to do a drawing. Albert was naturally a bit shy. Neil cut an untidy sheet off the roll of brown paper they’d been using for the doodling table and Debi (the indispensible and omnipresent Debi Holbrook) sorted some felt tips. Albert’s mum was quietly encouraging. We all continued talking and left Albert to it. Later I heard him forcefully correct his mum who had appreciated his picture of a bird; “it’s not a bird,” he said, “it’s an owl!” When he’d finished Steve proclaimed it a fine piece of art and found a space for it on the wall with the same care for position and effect as of any of the other pieces. It’s the only piece that was there, unchanged throughout the week. Albert apparently is thrilled. He’s given his picture a title (which I can’t for the life of me remember.) I hope Test Space manages to get it back to him.

On Saturday I took my sister and two nieces. The elder niece (15) loved the bands in Crash Records. She hung around most of the afternoon and became a big fan of Die Video Die. The younger one (8) hasn’t quite got pop music yet so I took her off to 42 to do some painting. She was fascinated by the display of live graffitti, and Bodie from Best Joined Up kindly sorted her out with a canvas and some pens. Rowan from Kitschen Sink allowed her to choose a piece of jewelery to copy and almost an hour was passed most pleasantly. Again the painting was hung on the wall, along with the “proper” art. Niece didn’t stop telling everyone about it all weekend. Both kids had a great time and sister was happy that the kids were occupied. What more could you ask for? . . . Actually, beer would have been nice! And, later that evening as I dropped in on my way back to Temple Works, the beers were flowing. A pretty perfect ending to a very special week. A big thanks to Neil and Steve for organising it, and a huge thank you to Debi who did all the hard work!