Gabrielle Hoad

Action from Random Art Machine  |  Preston Street Union  |  Art Week Exeter 2017

Preston Street Union (PSU) is an Exeter-based affiliation of art workers who generate new work and learning through social, collaborative processes. Recent public projects have included Anyone may come and go (2020) and SERGE/SURGE (2019), both commissioned by Exeter's Royal Albert Memorial Museum; Galleries R Us (2018); Preston Street Union Random Art Machine (2017); and
Five Bridges & A Waffle (2017) with guest artists Tony Whitehead and Juneau Projects.

SERGE/SURGE was a series of brief, live actions focused on the theme of migration. Inspired by Exeter's historic wool trade, PSU worked with a 15-metre bolt of red fabric to consider the flow of people, artefacts and ideas crossing Exeter's city wall over the centuries and to provoke ideas of incursion, escape, defence and hospitality.

Galleries R Us was an itinerant, wearable artspace, which appeared briefly at public sites in Exeter including the bus station, the quayside and a building site, then dispersed again into the surrounding crowds. The gallery's programme was built around a series of five-minute residencies by commissioned artists including Nick Davies, Lucia Harley, Laura Hopes and Pete Kingston.

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Photo: Preston Street Union.