Exhibition
9th - 17th May
SVA John St Gallery
Open Friday and Saturdays, 10am-5pm or by appointment
As part of the public programme for Dan Guthrie’s Spike Island and Chisenhale Gallery co-commission Empty Alcove / Rotting Figure, Stroud Valleys Artspace will present one of the video works, Empty Alcove, 2025 in their John Street Gallery space for its Stroud debut.
Empty Alcove is part of a new commission by Guthrie which continues his ongoing exploration of the Blackboy Clock; an object of contested heritage publicly displayed in his hometown of Stroud.
The clock, which incorporates a wooden blackamoor figure in its design, was originally assembled by a local watchmaker in 1774, during the height of the transatlantic slave trade. Relocated to a specially constructed niche on the front of a former schoolhouse in 1844, the clock has undergone restorations in 1977 and 2004 and has remained a constant presence in the town. The clock is still on public display on Castle Street, less than a ten-minute walk away from the John Street Gallery.
Guthrie’s commission puts forward the ‘radical un-conservation’ of the clock – a new theoretical concept proposed by the artist to describe the acquisition of an object with the express intent to destroy it. Empty Alcove proposes one aspect of this potential future: what if the Blackboy Clock figure was simply removed from public display?
This presentation coincides with the closing weekend of Empty Alcove / Rotting Figure at Spike Island, Bristol (concluding on 11 May) and precedes the exhibition’s opening at Chisenhale Gallery, London on 5 June. As part of the commission, a new digital platform earf.info, documents the clock’s timeline, from its historical origins to current debates over its future. The website also publishes new texts by Guthrie and other writers, thinkers, and artists on themes relating to the project.
In Conversation: Dan Guthrie & Layla Gatens
The Goods Shed, Station Approach, GL5 3AP
Thursday 15 May, 7-9pm
On Thursday 15 May, Guthrie will be in-conversation with Layla Gatens, Senior Curator – Art and Exhibitions, The Wilson Gallery, Cheltenham, at The Goods Shed to discuss this new body of work and ongoing conversations about the Blackboy Clock’s future.
Tickets: Pay What You Can £4 /£6 /£8
Empty Alcove / Rotting Figure is commissioned and produced by Chisenhale Gallery, London and Spike Island, Bristol, with support from the Henry Moore Foundation.
