“The Outskirts” 
by Peter Fillingham

LAVOMATIQUE studio Seamus Farrell Invites you to the opening of the presentation 

Opening Saturday 22 of May at 7pm, 6 rue Claude Monet 93400 Saint-Ouen. Exhibition runs from 22 may to 19 June 2010. By appointment t. 06 85 80 09 23 Metro line 13, Marie de Saint-Ouen or line 4, Porte de Clignancourt.

The artist Seamus Farrell, opens his studio, a converted laundrette in Paris, to artists with whom he collaborates on a variety of projects. The first exhibition of this kind took place in January 2010 with a projection of documentary shorts by Mohssin Harraki, Mason, the second artist invited into the space, chose to test a new prototype of rotary camera showing ten colour photographs taken in the suburbs of Marrakech. The space allowed the artist the specific requirement he needed for setting up this particular device. Seamus Farrell chose to make the space open to the public on request in order to provide a more personal experience and moment between the work and the viewer. An artist’s studio such as this is a space for both the fabrication of ideas and the returning of experiences according to a set calendar. It is along this line of thought that the English artist Peter Fillingham accepted this invitation.
For this third collaboration, Peter Fillingham has focused his attention on the assemblage of everyday objects, returning to question the use and function of the object. It has now been four years since Peter Fillingham moved to Saint Ouen, a suburb of Paris that reminds him of his hometown in England. Saint Ouen offers many possibilities. The working space on Rue Claude Monet becomes part of daily activities, as its doors literally open up onto the street, making this working space a part of everyday life.
This partnership between Peter Fillingham and the Laundrette makes evident, that the studio is first and foremost a space for production and testing certain devices. He is fascinated by the functionality of objects and the misappropriation, which they offer. The particular aesthetic association of each object and how they are used, how we live with them according to the era from which they originate. He has a strong relationship and interest in his living space and equally with his own working space as an artist. In his work there is a certain intimacy which expresses itself through the way people arrange their spaces both in their public and private lives.
This work anchored by its autobiographical ties, presents memories of shopping as a family ritual. “It is one thing to consume an object, and another to question how one uses an object and the associations that we make for such things. I question my everyday life, this is the main body of my work.”
The work installed in the Laundrette comprises of three components. The first (Untitled 2010) is a large format television from the 1980s, which shows a series of autobiographical photographs with subtle references to the wealth of his previous collaborations (such as with the director Derek Jarman or the artist David Medalla or the curator Peter Lewis).
The second component entitled “Something that will last forever” 2010 is taken from the artist’s collection of things, which also features within the previous work. Thirdly, an arrangement of bottles of Sherry and Sherry glasses.
“What is important is the mixture of objects, as aged as they are beautiful. I see them as a collection of objects that have to remain as one; together they assume a different life. Like a tomb of my belongings, a sort of archive, but one can imagine that it could be a kind of baptism or celebration.”

by Cécile Bourne-Farrell, Saint-Ouen le 11 mai 2010.

Peter Fillingham is the Chair of the Fine Arts in Parsons Paris School of Art & Design.
The artist wishes to thank Cecile Bourne-Farrell, Rachel Daniels, Seamus Farrell, Caroline Hancock, Tracey Heyburn, Charlotte Moth, Vivien Rehberg.
The presentation has been set up with the complicity of the
non-profit association www.chooseone.org