Curatorial work Caraboo Projects
Songs Of The Sirens
Songs Of The Sirens (8 Jun 2019 – 7 Jul 2019) featured the work of Verity Birt, Victoria Lucas, Jake Moore and Solveig Settemsdal. Curated by John O'Hare.
According to the legend in the Odyssey, the Sirens were alluring, androgynous figures whose songs would enchant sailors, leading them to become intoxicated by an insatiable thirst for adventure. The songs were said to mesmerise passing sailors, and once hooked the sailors would become forgetful, never to pleasure from the idea of returning home; eventually, delirious and emaciated they would drown out at sea. Songs Of The Sirens takes Odysseus’ encounter with the Sirens as a point of departure as we look at what new pleasures and anxieties are emerging today in a world of constant connectivity, and what knowledge these ancient sites and mythologies might transfer as we inhabit an increasingly digital space. The exhibition presents the work of four artists who explore themes including mythology, fluidity, power, materiality, artifice and our relationship with our environment through mixed media practice.
Image credits Savinder Bual.





Watching Limbo
Watching Limbo (21 Sep 2018 – 21 Oct 2018) featured the work of Jessy Jetpacks, Kris Lock + Josephine Sweeney, Olwyn Carroll, Paddy Gould + Roxy Topia, and Vicky Smith. Curated by John O'Hare and Jack Friswell the exhibition launched Caraboo Projects and the studio and gallery space at the Works, Bedminster.
Animation can be defined as bringing something artificial to life. Whereas once this suspension of disbelief was limited to the realm of celluloid, our relationship with screen-based media increasingly defines us as social creatures and the relationship between a life lived and a life captured is blurred. This exhibition unpicks animation as both craft and concept, probing connections between print and screen, digital and virtual environments, whilst elements of the bodily, the tangible and the visceral resonate amongst the works on show.




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Scratch Lab
Scratch Lab was a week-long artist residency series produced by Caraboo Projects, providing artists with a focussed environment to explore ideas, take risks and form connections. Artists were selected from an open call to work together for five days in the gallery space, developing new work resulting in an installation, interactive project, or performance that opened to the public.
Scratch Lab 1 (11-16 Mar 2019) featuring artists Charlie Dance, Eleanor Duffin, Isis Whiteaway, Happynings, and Laura Fernandez Antolin.





Scratch Lab 2 (6-11 May 2019)
Scratch Lab 2 featured artists Richard Allen, Christopher Earley, Happynings, Frances Kelly, and Sam Smyth.
Image credits Christopher Earley.





Scratch Lab 3 (17-23 Oct 2021)
Scratch Lab 3 featured artists Kelsey Cruz-Martin, Finn Dovey, Maisie Newman, and Sammy Paloma.
Image credits Maisie Newman.





Scratch Lab 1 & 2 were curated by John O'Hare, Jack Friswell, and Polly Maxwell and presented at Caraboo Projects exhibition space at the Works, Bedminster.
Scratch Lab 3 was curated by John O'Hare and presented at the Island, Bristol.