Mon 7 Oct - Sun 2 Nov 2002

Everybody loves a clown ... or do they? In Ugo Rondinone's extraordinary installation, clowns are stripped of their power to entertain, or even to menace. Life-sized clowns sculptures, cast in fibreglass from live models, are painted and costumed by the artist. The clowns sleep as they lounge around the gallery floor, reflected by huge shattered mirrors. The environment created by these scattered figures and mirrored walls poses questions about leisure, vanity, alienation and observation.

Swiss Artist Ugo Rondinone has lived and worked in New York since 1998. he has exhibited world-wide and his rainbow coloured fluorescent signs have been installed outside the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

A galaxy fo wire wheels, rivets, springs, screws and chains that click and clunk as they create artworks of their own.

Inspired by last year's hundredth anniversary of Meccano, artist David Williams was invited by Q Arts to come up with ideas for an art work that could create other pieces of art. In response, Williams made the beautiful and comples "Drawing Engines", so called because the initial starting point is drawing which is used to externalise and discuss ideas. The drawing which is used to externalise and discuss ideas. The drawings are then constructed using steel wire as a sculptutal material direclty relating to the lines on the paper, indicating a progression into three dimensions. Each is powered by a mains motor, adding movement to the work and thus enabling a new drawing to be created. A fascinating meeting place between art and engineering.

David Williams is based in the North East and has previously undertaken commissions from organisations as diverse ad BBC and ITV special effects and the National Trust.