The Woodmill GP
The Woodmill GP

about:
"(...) The first part of this organisation’s name comes from its previous location – the Woodmill building, rundown former council offices in Bermondsey, southeast London, that, from 2009 to 2011, was home to a hundred artists, designers and filmmakers. (...)
During a short period of itinerancy, enforced by the end of the tenancy, the six original studio holders – Naomi Pearce, Stuart Middleton, Anna Baker, Angharad E. P. Williams, Richard Sides and Alastair Frazer – in liaison with their newly founded board of trustees spent many hours working out what the Woodmill should be (as well as searching for a new location – no former primary school, warehouse or empty retail unit was left unturned). The upshot of this was a decision to build the idea of constant flux into the organisation’s character. This resolution was not just a pragmatic one, but also one that resonated with the Woodmill’s desire for perpetual reinvention, for avoiding its own establishment and for eschewing any desire to become an institution with permanent footings. Happily ensconced, for now, in a former doctor’s surgery (which supplies the ‘GP’ part of the new name: ‘general practice’) – in which the old waiting room doubles as a shared studio and temporary exhibition and screening space (dinners, gigs and workshops are on the cards), with each of the doctor’s offices becoming private work digs, including a gratis residency studio – the Woodmill will move on again after one year. And it will voluntarily repeat this annual migration for the foreseeable future. Each time it moves, the Woodmill will evolve: it may become more popular; it will engage with more people; it may get written about more; the gallery footfall may increase; the space it occupies may be larger; it may move somewhere smaller. But by the nature of its instability, it won’t put down roots. It won’t be forced into an upward trajectory. Which, in a world dominated by the socioeconomic buzzwords of ‘growth’ and ‘development’, where artists are categorised as failures if they don’t move from the ‘emerging’ label to ‘midcareer’ or ‘established’, is a pretty grand ideal."
Oliver Basciano (2012), "Off-Space no 9: The Woodmill, London - Entering the Establishment"
online available at: http://artreview.com/features/off_space_no_9_woodmill_london/
(accessed 13 Sep 2013)
how is/was it run/structured ?:
what is/was it's legal status ?:
- charity
how is/was it funded ?:
history of the site:
Local GP Surgery
management/organisers/directors/board/committee:
studio artists:
artists/curators in residence:
exhibited artists:
exhibitions, events, workshops:
'Medulla Oblongata' - Ilja Karilampi (commission)
11.2013- 02.2014
'Boiled Angel' - 18.10.13 - 08.12.13
Artists: Michael Bell-Smith, Max Maslansky, Louise Sartor, Ariana Reines, Mike Diana
'Wendel! Open Your Door', @ Cafe Gallery Projects + Southwark Park, 06.07.2013 – 28.07.2013
artists: Sol Archer, Anna Bunting-Branch, Cindie Cheung, Will Cenci, Beth Collar, Annie Davey, Chris Fite-Wassilak, Alastair Frazer, Patrick Goddard, Anna Gritz, Charmian Griffin, Dean Kenning, Una Knox, Lawrence Leaman, Daniel Lichtman, Will May-Robinson, Stuart Middleton, Laura Oldfield Ford, Naomi Pearce, Sam Porritt, Richard Sides, Frances Scott, Christopher M. Smith, Jennifer Teets, Simon Werner, Angharad E.P Williams
'Robert Crosse: Home Advantage', Screening @ Millwall FC, The Den: 27.04.2013
'Residency #4: Martin Groß', Exhibition + Screening: 11.06.2013
artists: Martin Groß + Emily Richardson with Jonathan P Watts
'Residency #3: Daniel Lichtman / Public Access Television Within a World Systems Pattern of Understanding', Lecture event @ City Business Centre: 27.02.13
'Residency #2: Beth Collar - Ancient Britain', 14.11.2012 – 14.12.2012
'Dickens Dinner': 08.12.2012
Dinner time event by The Woodmill with invited contributions: Lucy Beech & Edward Thomasson, Ben Burgis, Adam Christensen, Beth Collar, Dave Green, Rafael Hefti
'Nobody Ordered Wolves - Screening Series', 22.10.2012 – 03.12.2012
'General Practice', 06.10.2012 – 14.10.2012
artists: Anna Baker, Cindie Cheung, Ben Connors, Annie Davey, Renaud Jerez, Michael Robert Johnstone, Una Knox, Stuart Middleton, Frances Scott, Richard Sides, Simon Werner, Angharad E P Williams and invited guests.
address:
websites:
total size in sqm/sqft:
usage:
previous usage of the site:
number of studios:
number of exhibition/project spaces:
types of studios:
- open plan, private