A major new exhibition is coming to Gosport Gallery this spring.
Machine Borders is the third and final show in a trilogy of exhibitions specially commissioned by Hampshire Cultural Trust to mark the refurbishment of Gosport Museum and Art Gallery in 2022.
The exhibition is a new sculptural installation by London-based Tom Dale, whose work is held in a number of both public and private collections. Dale has had solo exhibitions in the UK and internationally, and is best-known for his large-scale, conceptual sculptures that explore the contradictions in our society and challenge us to wonder about the history and inner life of everyday objects. Unafraid to think big, he has even used the sky as a canvas for his work 'Terminal Blue', which involved flying a giant colour swatch across it to gauge its colour that day. This work was recently included in a global survey of public art published by the renowned Harvard University Press.
In this new commission, Dale reflects on change, on how time passes, on our place within the world and the time that we have in it. His work is inspired by Gosport: a small town on the south coast but one which has more than played its part in global events; a town experiencing great change that is echoed in the world at large; a town isolated at the end of an isthmus from which people and things depart.
This sense of change and transience is realised in Gosport Gallery, with Dale taking a fleet of aluminium dinghy masts and partially melting them into pools of molten metal on the gallery’s floor. The reclaimed masts – representing the past and Gosport’s maritime history – were all originally manufactured at British port towns whose heyday is now over, while the liquified pools of metal represent a more uncertain present, one which is fluid and where we are no longer rooted in place.
Dale was influenced to create this new work by elements of the town’s history that can be found in the collections at Gosport Museum and Art Gallery. These ranged from fossils to personal items that speak of Gosport’s 20th century social history, all conveying a sense of the passage of time as well as Gosport’s place in the world.
Dale comments: “The name of this exhibition was inspired by a book of wallpaper designs from the early 1960s that was produced by a local manufacturer. There are so many Gosport companies, products and people that have had a far-reaching impact on the world – this company’s wallpaper is on the walls of houses all over the UK, during the Falklands War all the lights in the town were dimmed if a ship that left from here was hit, luxury yachts made in Gosport sail to the four corners of the globe.
“But like many coastal and rural towns around the UK, Gosport is one of those places that people grow up in only to move away. Boats are so much a part of Gosport and its history, and the abandoned masts in the exhibition are a symbol of abandoned dreams and places, the passage of time and journeys that have come to an end.”
The difference between seeing a picture of something and seeing it in real life is something that the World of Interiors notes in their article about Dale’s inflatable sculptures but perhaps it is the Guardian’s description of Dale’s work that best describes what is in store for visitors: “Dale’s art packs a feel-good punch, but it soon has us looking beneath its surface bravura.”
Hannah Spruce, Exhibitions Manager at Hampshire Cultural Trust, said: “This is such an exciting new artwork, we are so privileged to have Tom create it for us, and it is fitting that a maritime element sits at the heart of this third and final exhibition in our trilogy of commissions. We have been so fortunate to have been able to work with and host such nationally significant artists at Gosport Gallery, who have responded to the depth of our collections and offered our visitors thought-provoking experiences, as well as simply joyful new encounters with contemporary art.”
Machine Borders opens on 8 February and runs until 3 May 2025. Admission is free.