TWSS’ Lauren Power checks out The Loovre: perhaps one of the most unique exhibition spaces in the city.
Toilet cubicles, despite what one might think, are spaces where a multitude of activities take place – gossip on a night out, a mid-library session boogie, eating lunch, amongst other things. In Stokes Croft, one functions as a gallery.
Last Sunday evening, my friend Maisie and I were welcomed out of the rain to the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft (PRSC) to the opening night of the latest exhibition at The Loovre: Frame the Tune: A Synesthetic Exhibition of Art and Music. Users of the facilities are encouraged to bring headphones to fully immerse themselves in the experience. This is curators Rose and Orla’s third exhibition in the space after responding to a call for curators last year. Since then, the team has grown to include the lovely Luanna who kindly agreed to chat with us last week ahead of their opening night.
For Luanna, The Loovre is all about the enjoyment of creating art and connecting with others. The setting immediately promotes their sentiment of silliness. The whole experience was very tongue-in-cheek. The PRSC is a free, open space, yet the lock on the door of the Loovre gallery plays with the idea of what is public and what is private. Are you meant to lock the door when you go in or leave it open for someone else to see the work with you? Would it be embarrassing for someone to walk in? The familiarity of the space means that you are immediately confronted with the work, it exists alongside you, almost looking obtrusively at you rather than you doing the looking. How should one behave in a gallery space that is also a toilet? Do you use the loo or is that disrespectful? If the loo isn’t used, does it then become part of the installation? If you do use it, do you then become part of the art? Where do you draw the line? Does it matter? The Loovre’s existence throws popular ideas about what constitutes a gallery out of the window. In doing so it questions the purpose of the barriers often incurred by those who want to see art. Great art can exist in galleries that cost $17 to enter as well as in those that are free. It can exist alongside works by other great artists and alongside loo roll and its greatness does not change. The Loovre’s silliness is ‘revolootionary.’
The ‘revolootion’ has spread outside the doors of the Loovre and further into the PRSC. The team took over the People’s Art Club last week, forming a ‘synaesthetic soup.’ Attendees were instructed to create art based on a playlist of contrasting songs. To help people loosen up there were a series of prompts for each song, like ‘don’t look at the page’ or ‘use straight lines only.’ Having never done something like this before, Luanna was keen to emphasise that it was not a masterclass but rather an opportunity for people to come together, to form connections over art instead of completing it individually or in a more formal classroom setting. The idea was essentially to let people play and feel like children again. To be curious about how sounds might look on the page and being unafraid to commit pen to paper. To those at The Loovre, providing a space to play is a key part of their project and is something they are keen to continue in the future with more outreach programmes and workshops.
Submissions from the workshop greeted us as we entered the PRSC and led the way to the bathroom. The playfulness and community spirit generated in the workshop was present on the opening night. The door was wide open for everyone to come in. There were plenty of sheets of paper and pens at the ready so that anyone could join in with the ‘art jam.’ People created art inspired by what they had seen in the exhibition, the music that filled the space, and the life drawing models who played around with an assortment of props and positions. Visitors were free to wander into the Loovre itself and spend as little or as long as they wanted inside. A few people left with chalk moustaches, and at one poignant moment in the evening, one of the models reached over her platform to the bass player and they high fived. It was a physical reminder of the playful ethos of The Loovre: everyone is welcome to get involved in their arty-farty business just as long as they have fun!
Frame The Tune is currently showing at The Loovre, The People’s Republic of Stokes Croft (17-35 Jamaica Street, BS2 8JP)
People’s Art Club 2-4 Tuesday afternoons at People’s Republic of Stokes Croft click here for more information.
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