Week 19, The Caravan Gallery, 40 Stories

Joanne Bushnell, Director

Aspex has always sought to support artists, to help them to develop their practice and thrive. Over the years I’ve had the great privilege of working with some extraordinary artists at key points in their careers. 

My relationship with The Caravan Gallery goes back a very long way, even before the caravan! In 2000 I worked with Jan Williams on a small show called ‘General Public’ of exquisite pencil drawings, featuring scenes observed around Portsmouth and Southsea, with a postcard ‘Greetings from Somerstown’ commissioned for use as an invitation. At this time Jan Williams and Chris Teasdale were converting a caravan into a gallery to take the art to the people, and make them, their high streets and localities the subject of the work. I attended the very first Caravan Gallery ‘appearance’ at Castle Field, Southsea later that summer, and even helped install the signwriting on the side of the van. 

What set Jan and Chris’s work apart at that time was a truly genuine interest in people; in their everyday lives, in what they thought and felt. We worked together again on ‘About Yourself: An Exhibition All About You’ in Autumn 2000, when visitors were invited to contribute in diverse ways including submitting objects and completing surveys. The Caravan Gallery flourished, visiting towns and cities across the UK, exploring and documenting areas that have been changing quickly in the name of progress, and so often losing their distinctive characters.

Five years on, as we prepared to relocate from Somerstown to Gunwharf Quays we invited The Caravan Gallery back to work with us on a project to celebrate their hometown. ‘Postcards from Portsmouth’ invited residents to express what was important to them about their city. All of the submissions were shown in the gallery and some were featured on postcards, sent around the world and displayed on billboards throughout Portsmouth.

‘Is Britain Great? The Caravan Gallery UK Tour’ was the perfect show with which to relaunch Aspex at the Vulcan Building in 2006. We had relocated to make our work more accessible to a wider audience, and Jan and Chris’s show did not disappoint, filling our new home with laughter and joy. In the intervening 15 years the caravan has toured the world, providing the focal point for a practice firmly rooted in the importance of place to communities. So it is with great pleasure that we mark our 40th anniversary with a new Caravan Gallery edition ‘HAHA, Southsea Common’, which is now available to purchase in our Shop. Click here to find out more.

Please share your own #AspexAt40 stories and experiences, and help us to develop and build Aspex’s archive.