Auction House is an artist-led project space in the heart of Redruth, Cornwall, founded and directed by artist Liam Jolly. Established in 2018 as a space for contemporary artists to experiment and test new ideas, AH has quickly grown into a dynamic platform for public exhibitions, residencies, and events, supporting emerging local talent as well as national and international artists.
CURRENT :
Rudera – of the rubble
Simon Lee Dicker
Private View : Friday 3 July, 6-9pm, all welcome
Open : Saturday 4 - 25 July, Friday & Saturday, 11am-5pm (or by appointment)
Rudera – of the rubble is a dual site exhibition taking place at both Auction House & Back Lane West in Redruth this July, including film, sculpture, drawings and prints made over the past 18 months.
Following on from The Flatlands (2023), “a sustained piece of deft and subtle irony, playfully gesturing towards our predisposition to mythologise rural landscapes”, Dickers obsession with heaps, mounds, piles and stacks continues. Drawn to The Bings - from the Old Norse word bingr meaning heap - in West and Mid Lothian, Scotland.
These gigantic man-made mountains of shale are biproducts of the industrial process of oil production, re-visioned as an artwork by John Latham in 1975, the year Dicker was born, and now a scheduled monument and accidental nature reserve.
This journey, spins, spirals and ascends but clarity is denied. Descent and introspection ensue. There is no long view, just a reflection on the (often invisible) materials we use, then discard, to grease a comfortable path through life, the persistence of nature in the face of
destructive human activity, and the importance of cheese toasties.
Filming for Rudera took place in March 2025 at Greendykes, Westwood and Tarbrax Bings in West & Mid Lothian, with cinematography and Edit from Liberty Smith, Sound, Neil Rose, Animation, Simone Einfalt and narration from Emma Aitken
Ceramic work was developed through a REACH Scotland Residency at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop throughout February and March 2026 using a combination of Lothian shale, Cornish Granite and Coker wood ash. Additional firings took place at Brickfields (St Austell, Cornwall), Oxford Kilns (Oxford), Leith pottery (Edinburgh) and OSR Projects (Somerset)
Drawings and additional sculptural work were made in at the artists in Somerset, with lithographs drawn whilst at ESW and printed by Artlab Contemporary Print (Preston)
Venues:
Auction House - The Buttermarket, Station Hill, Redruth, Cornwall TR15 2PP
Back Lane West - Back Lane West Redruth TR15 2BT
check out past show here
