(Of) Bath, MMXXII, by JamesPlumb and Rich Stapleton

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JamesPlumb and Rich Stapleton have collaborated on a joint show at Francis Gallery in Bath. Curated by Elliott Smedley, the exhibition titled (Of) Bath, MMXXII, is a dialogue between Stapleton’s single edition photographs and JamesPlumb’s wall-mounted works and freestanding sculptures.

JamesPlumb’s entirely new body of work from includes 20 wall works and 2 sculptures, with each one being unique. Partners Hannah Plumb and James Russell did not originally know what they would create for the exhibition — the choice of material, however, was clear. “The exhibition gave us the chance to immerse ourselves in the city —and for us, that meant working with Bath stone,” says Russell. “We had a strong instinct that the works would be related to architectural remnants, rather than carving a form out of a fresh block. So, our first point of call was to visit the local stone yard, to see what we responded to.” The resulting functional artworks embrace the use as sculptural benches or tables. All the pieces have been created from blocks found lying dormant in a local stone yard, having been retained from past construction projects over the years. The proportions are therefore of varying traditional construction sizes and defined by Georgian architecture.

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Photographer Rich Stapleton exhibited a series of images gathered over the course of a decade living in the city. Since reviewing the material after a move to Los Angeles, Stapleton found the photographs revealed a different place from the one he had associated with home: instead, he saw a city transformed by time and distance. The archival footage captured the tension between the real and remembered. Stapleton’s photos, through the expression of a highly personal vision, evoke a shared experience of home—both as a physical place, and preserved in the space of memory.

Underlying the show is a critical yet celebratory deconstruction of Bath; that formerly fixed ideas can be fluid and generative. The show opened on the 14th of July through to 10th of September at the Francis Gallery in Bath.