Contains Art Evaluation Report 2020

Final evaluation, January 2020
Chris Dobrowolski:
Transit Transition
06.10.18—04.11.18
https://youtu.be/Gwe7sE97i1E
Chris Dobrowlolski was
brought to our attention by
Tessa Jackson who knew of the
artist from his residency as part
of the British Antarctic Survey.
Chris was selected for his
makeshift aesthetic and
celebration of modest
materials—this exhibition would
be the final container exhibition
before we prepared for our
new development—it was
essential to our brief that the
artist should honour the nature
of the gallery, its fabrication
and its future transformation.
The artist directly addressed
this time of metamorphosis
for the shipping container
art gallery that has housed
exhibitions on the quayside for
five years now.
“I’m emphasising what a
shipping container is—a
space that’s very purpose is
to be in constant transition.
Essentially it’s an art exhibition
about shipping containers in a
shipping container.”
Chris took what was a simple
starting point and through a
series of mechanical, playful,
even absurd works, which often
repurposed household objects,
explored the unexpected,
makeshift and haphazard
nature of transition over time.
In this, his work also looked
to the future of the shipping
containers at the East Quay,
where the gallery container
is expected to be repurposed
once again into a community
workshop.
“The primary use of a
shipping container is to
move manufactured goods
from where the work force is
cheap to where people have
money. Taken out of this cycle
of exploitation the Watchet
container is also taking its own
course, subverting this box of
exploitation into a space that
nurtures the community.”
Chris was also influenced
by Watchet’s connection
to Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the
Ancient Mariner’, which was
referenced frequently in the
exhibition—used to draw out a
sense of the romantic seafaring
tradition and contrast it with
our more banal contemporary
world of global consumer
capitalism. “An image I
found on the internet that
has haunted me is that of a
shipping container accidentally
lost overboard. Like the
wandering albatross it appears
to be destined to drift forever.”
Chris found the location an
unusual place to show work
partly because of the broad
range of people that visit.
He noted our reputation that
attracts the people you would
expect to visit an art gallery
but also having a genuine
passing trade of locals and
tourists who ordinarily wouldn’t
visit an art gallery. This is partly
down to the location but he
thought this may be a result of
the shipping container itself—
having an accessible down-toearth
quality about it which
people find unintimidating.
He mentions our particularly
good outreach, as well as
a lot of school visits. When
invited to give an artist talk,
we held the event in our local
pub, a small venue recognised
for its intimate folk gigs and
award-winning cider, which
Chris enjoyed for its diverse
interaction and lack of
pretention.
Chris found the space was
quite an interesting challenge
to show work in but found
it suited him very well. He
made a lot of new works to
fit the space, and we found
that the spectacle of this—
Chris built a model railway
through the container walls,
leaving a lasting legacy of
the exhibition—along with
other interactive, mechanical
and kinectic pieces, appealed
to an audience who would
appreciate the simplicity of its
craft and playful delivery.
Chris was really impressed
with the number visitors we
managed to attract and our
online presence. Our ‘simple,
but well made, promotional
film had over one and a half
thousand hits before the end of
the exhibition’.
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