"The provisional, but vital, stages of making artworks; the fluid open-ended possibilities for their interpretation through display; the uncertain destinies that await all material artefacts, however precious – these often disconnected moments in the ‘life story’ of an art object are the topic of a new exhibition in Gallery North. Co-curated by Chris Dorsett and Sian Bowen from Paper Studio Northumbria, this exhibition explores not only how contemporary artists utilize the special properties of paper but also how the passage of paper-based artworks across studio tables and gallery walls can lead to an unknown ‘after’, a contingent world only tentatively related to the immediate concerns of viewing an exhibition. Paper Studio Northumbria (PSN) provides a unique facility nationally and internationally for the research, teaching and scholarship of paper in relation to fine art, conservation and archiving. Importantly it is a platform for an exchange of ideas that transforms the processes of making and exhibiting into research-rich activities. By providing tables as well as gallery walls the curators offer exhibition visitors artworks that can be shuffled, picked up, and examined in a manner that underlines the artefactual status of paper. The aim is to present a ‘jumble’ of ideas about the future of paper research. Gallery North’s visitors are unlikely to behave as if they are at a jumble sale but our ambition is to stimulate the haphazard discoveries associated with this traditional method of trading second-hand goods. Imagine the wealth of ideas that might be rifled through and then re-used or recycled as a result of applying the notion of ‘rummage’ to PSN works of art." Chris Dorsett & Sian Bowen