Headspace's 5th Birthday

The Egg Café, Newington Street
23rd July – 15th August 2010

By Charles McIntyre

The Egg Café's gallery – HeadSpace – has recently celebrated its 5th year with a special birthday exhibition, featuring the work of contributing artists from the gallery's lifetime.

In recognition of the gallery's five year achievement, I met up with its curators – Karen Henley and Jazamin Sinclair – to find out more about the history of HeadSpace.

“Jo Derbyshire asked us to give her a hand setting up the exhibitions in 2005”, recalls Karen. “Jazamin and I studied Fine Art at University and met Jo when we were setting up a few exhibitions with 'The Long Journey Home Group' in Liverpool in 2004. She asked us if we would come on board and we thought ‘Why not? We love The Egg!’”

Jo has since left the HeadSpace project and Jazamin and Karen have curated the exhibitions ever since. “Our policy is to provide a platform for all emerging artists and art groups, and to give advice and help to artists”, Jazamin explains. “It has now been five years since we started at EggSpace and we have helped to curate and organise the majority of the exhibitions, with the assistance of my sister Kaya Sinclair for the last few.”

Wandering around the exhibition, it's easy to see why the gallery has endured for five years. Residing atop a staircase of vines, The Egg is a retreat from the hustle and bustle of Bold Street where you can relax with a coffee and a slice of cake whilst taking in the artwork adorning every wall as well as panoramic views of the city sprawling below.

Karen and Jazamin explained to me how The Egg's unique setting is key to its success: “Holding the exhibitions in The Egg Café gives us the perfect atmosphere for displaying diverse pieces of art. We hear The Egg referred to as one of "Liverpool's best kept secrets", and a review by True Punk said that The Egg is "possibly the most bohemian place on earth". We put a lot of effort into trying to make sure every exhibition is just right and we spend a lot of time talking to our artists, as well as promoting new talent.”

The art on display at the 5th Birthday exhibition is impressive. Pieces like Tony Bishop's 'Hazy Days' (above) and 'Lucidity' reinforce the Café's soothing and reflective mood and naturalistic ideology, while the photography of Jackie Stevens (right) and Denise Harry, and the introspective pieces of Carolyn Sinclair, broaden the exhibition's horizons. Instead of simply collating pieces that best conform to an ideal, the duo continue to use and promote unusual and sometimes radical art pieces, and this substantiates the accolade that The Egg Café is a bohemian and free thinking space. Despite such a wide range of reference and media Karen and Jazamin manage to convey a unified artistic impression. Their exhibitions are well considered and well informed, and considering the restrictive environment of the cosy Café they utilise space exceptionally well.

I foolishly asked the pair to pick some highlights from their time curating, but luckily they each have good memories: “Over the past five years we have had a lot of artwork from all over the world on our walls, so it's hard to choose from all the great exhibitions. One particular highlight was ‘Continuous Lines’, our Independents Liverpool Biennial 2008, where we had the public take part in an interactive continuous drawing piece. They also drew on our Etch-A-Sketch and sent us photos of their masterpieces; Minako Jackson is the best Etch-A-Sketcher we have ever seen! And of course our ‘5th Birthday Exhibition’ – we even had edible art in the form of a birthday cake thanks to Denise Harry!”

So what is next for the hugely popular exhibition venue? “In the future we hope HeadSpace will expand and find an additional venue or even its own gallery. But that's all in the future. At the moment we love it here at EggSpace and already have many exhibitions planned for the next few months. We have the group exhibition ‘Pick 'N' Mix’ on our walls until 12th September. Our next exhibition is ‘Twenty-Ten’, which is our Independents Liverpool Biennial exhibition from 17th September until 28th November. Hopefully, there will many more exciting exhibitions to come in 2011!”

Given the strength of the exhibitions over the past five years, this is a certifiable guarantee.

HeadSpace will be taking submissions for ‘Twenty-Ten (Independents Liverpool Biennial 2010 exhibition in conjunction with The Long Night)’ until Tuesday 31st August at 12 noon. For more information please visit: www.eggspace.org/EGG/twenty-ten.html

If you are interested in taking part in an exhibition, find out more at: www.eggspace.org/EGG/exhibiting.html and then email: submissions[at]eggspace.org

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