Steven’s new show at Colchester's Firstsite features controversial bricks (From Gazette)

Steven’s new show at Colchester's Firstsite features controversial bricks

8:00pm Friday 3rd February 2012 in Leisure By Neil D'Arcy-Jones

THERE’S a lot to be said for being out of the loop. Tomorrow, artist Steven Claydon launches two exhibitions at Colchester’s Firstsite art gallery.

One, Culpable Earth, features his own, newly-commissioned work.

But it is the other one – a collection of work by other artists, curated by him – which has created the stir, mainly because it features an infamously controversial piece of minimalist sculpture.

London’s Tate Gallery attracted a huge media storm in 1976, when it paid £2,297 for Carl Andre’s Equivalent VIII – 120 bricks, arranged in an oblong block.

Equivalent VIII forms part of Claydon’s exhibition, Equivalents, which opens at Firstsite tomorrow, alongside his own Culpable Earth collection.

However, when we met, Claydon seemed more concerned with installing the shows than what the good people of Colchester might be saying about them.

Claydon says: “Forty years ago, the same piece was getting the same kind of reaction.

“What we’ve tried to do with it is expand on the relationship between Carl Andre’s piece and the collection of cloud photographs taken by Alfred Stiglitz, also called Equivalents.

“I’ve extended that to Constable’s beautiful cloud studies. It was a rather wonderful coincidence, because I had already been thinking about Andre and Stiglitz, after reading an essay about it, and then this opportunity came up.”

Despite all the pre-exhibition fuss, it should be made clear Equivalents is only a small part of Claydon’s current involvement at Firstsite The main attraction remains his own Culpable Earth show.

Reading Claydon’s CV, which includes shows at some of the world’s most prestigious galleries, it’s clear why Firstsite asked him to put together an exhibition in the new building.

And there is a link between Culpable Earth and Firstsite’s Roman-themed opening show, Camulodunum.

He explains: “You could say Camulodunum laid the groundwork.

“It certainly absolved me from having to grapple with the history of Colchester, so I could concentrate more on the idea of a place.”

Having just exhibited in another city with a Roman past, Lyon, in France, Claydon began to think about the diverse towns and cities around the world which share an ancient Roman heritage.

He says: “I started talking with the museum and then exploring the town, chatting to local taxi drivers and just getting lost on purpose.

“I would find myself in an Eighties-built shopping centre and then wander down an alley, and find a 16th-century house.

“This fascinated me. I quite like the way the bus station is right next to Firstsite. I think it’s great you have this hub of utility alongside a cultural hub.”

Claydon also worked with local craftsmen and women to create some of the pieces featured in Culpable Earth.

He explains: “It’s an important part of my work to strike up these relationships and I’m looking to continue them in the future.

“It’s also been very exciting to be involved with a building which is itself finding its own place in the community.”

The free exhibition is on until May 7. For more, phone 01206 577067.