Publication:
The Citizen, 11 October 2008

Headline:
Blackpool kite exhibition is huge success

Editorial:

By Tyrone Marshall

An exhibition that includes enormous kite sculptures and a wood-burning stove is creating a buzz at the Grundy Art Gallery.
The Queen Street gallery’s most ambitious project to date features the work of Ivan and Heather Morison, two of the country’s most prominent contemporary artists.
The highlight of the exhibition is two kite sculptures that were inspired by rocks the artists found in Arizona in the USA.
Stuart Tulloch, the curator at the Grundy, said: “These artists have been involved in the biggest visual art events to have taken place in the last two to three years. To have them produce some entirely new work for the Grundy is a major coup.
“It is an exhibition of regional and maybe even national significance and it is something that hasn’t really been done before.
“Blackpool is a great place to hold it as it brings together popular culture and the man-made environment.”Working with kite designer Carl Robertshaw, the artists have produced a sculpture that measures over five metres in length and resembles a meteorite.
Suspended in the gallery’s exhibition spaces it appears incapable of flight, however, it has been designed to fly and was flown on Fleetwood beach (pictured above) shortly before the exhibition opened.
Throughout the exhibition a guardian will also perform a series of tasks each day, which will include maintaining a fire in the stove installed in the gallery space, which is used to heat water in a kettle to make cups of tea for visitors.
Mr Tulloch added: “People who have visited the exhibition so far have left the best comments we’ve ever had so it is proving extremely popular. Everybody seems in awe of the structures.”