The Opening night of The Great Central and the preview of the inaugural exhibition:

The Logosis Common

Alex Pearl, Richard Peel, Rob Smith

7^th November – 12^th December 2009 Friday – Sunday 12noon – 5pm

Preview: Friday 6^th November 6:30-9:30pm

The Great Central – the first and only artist led contemporary art gallery in Leicester – opens the doors for its inaugural exhibition ‘The Logos is Common’ on the evening of Friday 6th November. The exhibition of newly commissioned works by Alex Pearl, Richard Peel and Rob Smith documents and investigates the past, present and future of the physical space that The Great Central occupies.

‘The Logos is Common’, (Heraclitus of Ephesus - c.535–c.475BCE) roughly translated means: all things progress through reason. Though Logos has multiple meanings; both speech or account, and plan or formula; it is also the etymological route of the word Logic in English. The title of the exhibition is a play on the meaning and reading of the word Logos – developing our brand, logo & raison d'etre, and alluding to the logical progression of The Great Central, from previous artist led projects in Leicester, as a new forward thinking, aspirational and experimental space.

Alex Pearl visited The Great Central in July of this year to document the space before the gallery was developed. His ‘Automatic Films’ are filmed and acted by self-powered automata and camera carrying devices cobbled together from bits and pieces. Expect cameras on helium balloons, toy cars powered by elastic bands and motors attached to scrubbing brushes. These rarely perform as expected, breaking, falling, and surprising in turn. The three screen film of The Great Central is an ode to the past and to the transforming nature of the space.

Richard Peel is known locally for his ‘Proto Ballets’ and the plethora of comics he produces. It’s through his ‘proto ballets’ that the bazaar characters from the comics come to life mimed to a pre-recorded narrative, deliberately and comically naff, these stories are a satirical take on all our real lives even if we are not ‘Secret Cyborgz’ or ‘The beast Ramvenomax’. A brand new ‘Proto Ballet’ commissioned specifically for the opening of The Great Central will be performed at the Preview on 6th November and filmed for screening during the rest of the exhibition.

Rob Smith creates artworks to document details often invisible or un-noticed, by classifying according to properties such as colour, proportion and scale. For ‘The Logos is Common’ he has created a new video capturing the space using a camera mounted on a rollercoaster. It is as fun as it sounds, although it is made through the arduous process of a stop frame animation. The rollercoaster remains in the space as a sculpture and a key as to how the film was made.