Vehicle Arts at LCB Depot
31 Rutland Street, Leicester, LE1 1RE
Vehicle Arts has been working hard in the background, and been very quiet on our socials! We’ve have partnered up with LCB Depot and taken on the gallery Lightbox, and co producing their exhibition programme. Find it here
It’s been hard but we have successfully secured a National Lottery Project Grant to commission four artists/ groups over September to December exhibition season. Find more out here . First Launch is at LCB Depots street food night LastFriday August 30th
Lightbox gallery LCB Depot 
Zu Dominiak 
Shortwave Collective
October part of LCB20, LCB Depot celebrating 20 years
We are pleased to announce our second artist commission as part of ‘LCB20’ working with illustrator, cartoonist and curator Zu Dominiak to coincide with the celebration of our 20th anniversary, commissioned in collaboration with Vehicle Arts and part funded by Arts Council England. Visitors can expect to see a range of art, craft, design and film in this group exhibition along with a newly commissioned collection of ceramic artworks and paintings associated with the theme of home by Zu Dominiak.
For this project Zu has explored what the theme of ‘home’ means to her, beyond the place where she lives and sleeps. Having grown up spending time near the sea, mountains and forests in Poland as a child and later on in Scotland, Zu is now based in Leicester and misses the connection with nature. Visitors to the exhibition will see imagery in her work to represent these memories of nature including shells, barnacles, mountains and forests.
Zu Dominiak 
Zu Dominiak
Her connection to LCB Depot goes back to 2022 when she started to rent a studio at Makers Yard and became a member of the Clay Room (also based at Makers Yard) to produce functional works in ceramic. Zu, who has a PhD in Comics and Curation is the second of four artist commissions to join the creative programme throughout October to create a new collection combining her love of illustration and ceramics. This new collection will combine large-scale painted comics with ceramics, using sgraffito, a technique using stoneware terracotta and white slip which has been carved into, to recreate motifs inspired by a recent trip to the Trossachs in Scotland. To see more of Zu’s artwork visit her Instagram profile here.
“I am extremely grateful to be the commissioned artist for October. I hope to share my love of nature with the visitors, and evoke the experience of being immersed in the wilderness.” – Zu Dominiak
September we had
In 2024 LCB Depot celebrates its 20th anniversary and to mark the occasion, it has commissioned four new projects in collaboration with us and is part funded by Arts Council England. The commissions is being led by artists and makers to showcase a range of creative themes starting with sound as a focal point in September
The LCB Depot creative programme will showcase a variety of audio works in collaboration with Phoenix cinema using sound art, music and audio production in new and innovative ways. The exhibition season is an exciting opportunity for visitors to explore music, sound art, radio, podcasts, and other audio made in Leicester/shire and beyond by established sound artists and audio producers as well as emerging talent from DMU’s Music Technology course.
The first of four artist commissions to kick off this season of sound throughout September will be international creative practitioners, Shortwave Collective, who will be performing ‘Edges of Transmission’. This exciting group of artists have an interest in creative uses of radio. The collective uses a wide range of disciplines from sound, radio art, activism and social science all brought together by an interest in feminist approaches to amateur radio, sharing resources, considering DIY approaches and inclusive structures.
“We are planning a sequence of micro-broadcasts, transmitting selections from our archive of DIY radio recordings from around the world and recordings collected locally via homemade radios made during a community workshop in Leicester. Visitors can borrow a handheld radio and explore the locale, testing the boundaries of transmission and how the materiality of the built environment affects this.” Georgia for Shortwave Collective. Find out more about Shortwave Collective here www.shortwavecollective.net
As part of ‘Sound 2024’ we will be hosting a number of participating artists, providing a platform to showcase new work and works in progress and to support individuals’ professional development.
Visitors can expect to see (and hear) a long-list of over 20 sound artists and producers performing at LCB, Phoenix and other venues including Eloïse Bertil, who will be presenting ‘Home sweet home, I guess’ an immersive soundwalk from Eloïse’s front lawn to her entrance door, offering reflections on life in flatshares. Patricia Azevedo (Brazil) and Clare Charnley (UK) have been collaborating since 2007 and will present ‘Stone
Hitting Stone’, a video based on a small village deep in the hills of Portugal where many of the inhabitants have a profound and lived understanding of music that’s reflected in speech patterns. A sort of guessing game with the locals evolved, with neighbours teasing each other and playfully reinterpreting sounds recorded locally. This and many other sound pieces can be watched and listened to on screens, via headphones or as part of events, workshops or installations.
More details here