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Setting Stages

February 8, 2013 //
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London Art Fair.

Hadn’t been before. It felt manageable though we didn’t go round all of it. Headed straight to the Art Projects Space.

Bearspace had a good spot and were showing Suzanne Moxhay’s enigmatic photographs.

Susanne Moxhay

Suzanne Moxhay

I love the way her photos are staged. I have been looking at other artists that use a similar process of building sets to photograph.

Didier Massard (2)

Didier Massard

Didier Massard for example. I stumbled across a blog about his work a while ago.

Edwin Zwakman

Edwin Zwakman

Other artists are mentioned in this blog one of which is Edwin Zwakman who constructs miniature landscapes to photograph entirely from memory. Through his process all places and objects morph into new variations. Scale and perspective change. The images do not show what you could photograph but how you experience them.

I like this idea and so for the new collagraph I am making I thought I would try this approach.  Is it possible to see something in your mind that isn’t constructed from things you have actually seen and to see that immediately as a sudden flash.  My ideas seem to grow slowly in my mind, fermenting over time and then suddenly they seem ready to go from there to a very rough sketch to a plan of action.

I am aiming for a scene of desolation, a dystopic landscape – a clearing reduced to ruins. Then a last refuge. I see this as a glass house, a protected environment for things to grow.

I have bought some A1 card for the plate and am experimenting with making structures from paper and card. I am planning eventually to insert the glasshouse as a shallow 3D model into the collagraph. Eventually made from acetate and filled with sublimation printed organza images.

I have taken up key holder membership at Ochre Print Studio. This gives me full-time access to the studio so I have more time to experiment and be playful with my work. It is great to feel the whole day stretching out ahead of you without the worry of clearing up almost as soon as you have got started. I am a slow worker so I need this.

I also bought an easel with some birthday money. My studio has had a big clear out and one side looks refreshed and ready for a new episode in my work. Other side still piled up but progress is being made.

I was able to get lots of tips on different ways to print collagraphs from Katherine Jones course at Ochre.

Katherine Jones Stove

Katherine Jones ‘Stove’ Etching and collagraph on paper

Katie was really helpful and her work is beautiful. I love her colours.  She creates a wonderful ephemeral light in her work. She has done a series on conservatories. It felt a bit weird to discover this as it looks like I was copying her.

Stove is a reference to John Paxton’s ‘Great Stove’, a hothouse built and designed for the gardens of Chatsworth House in the 1800s which was later dismantled.

I asked her if she had come across Frank Stainbridge in her research about hothouses but she hadn’t. One day I will try to find out if the extraordinary stories about him are true.

It was encouraging for us to see how many prints Katie made from one plate before she was happy, changing the colours, adding and removing sections until it all came together.

Collagraph Plate

I have got my collagraph plate to a point where I want to see how it prints.

Collagraph relief

I made an impression of the print on card ready to cut as a relief print to add layers.

While thoughts of the forest and the bestial freedom that Vico wrote about in his ‘New Science’ are in my mind these thoughts have been reinforced by Haruki Murakami in 1Q84 which is my novel on the go at the moment.

The character Tengo reads passages from Anton Chekov’s Sakhalin Island to Fuka-Eri. Chekov writes about his encounters with the indigenous people, the Gilyaks (now known as Nivhk) ‘….they do not understand the purpose of roads. Even where a road has already been laid, they will still journey through the taiga. One often sees them, their families and their dogs, picking their way across a quagmire right by the roadway.’

Fuka-Eri warns Tengo of the Little People’s wisdom and power – that it might cause him harm. ‘Better be careful in the forest. Tengo found himself looking at his surroundings. True, the forest was their world.’

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The forests were first

January 23, 2013 //
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I have spent a lot of time looking at my work and thinking about my intentions, going back to old statements and looking at my dissertation from 2007 to try to home in on the most prevalent themes and ideas. Disconnection from nature is something that I explored very early on in my practise along with ideas about desire for an idealised nature. This led me to the myth of paradise and trying to understand where desire originates and how paradise might be visualised. I see the connection between nature and desire as being the myth of paradise. To take these ideas further I want to look at the relationships and analogies that can be made between nature and the mind. Both beautiful and unpredictable.

forest

I have gone back to reading Robert Pogue Harrison’s book ‘Forests: The shadow of civilization’, going through it in more detail, annotating and making notes of references I want to understand in more detail. The main purpose of his book to is to examine the history of the forest in the cultural imagination and the consequences of the loss of these great wildernesses. In his first chapter he looks to the theoretical studies of Giambattista Vico written in 1744. Vico proposes the birth of religion began when man first read manifestations in nature to be the language of God. The first messages appeared to come from the sky – thunder and lightning, the movement of the stars this led to the conclusion that God must therefore reside somewhere above. As the sky was mostly hidden at this time by the dark canopy of the forest then God could not be seen but must be imagined. Nature became uncanny, no longer merely a habitat but a meaningful world. Vico’s analysis of ancient fables led him to believe that the bonds between humanity and nature were broken long ago as man established laws to govern the developing settlements, clearing the forest to put down the roots of civilization. Fables such as The Aeneid which tells of an Arcadian-like forest where man was born from the earth were already stimulating nostalgia for a time of unison with nature, a time before civilization, before religion.

Gordon Cheung 4

In his recent show ‘The Solar Cry’ at Edel Assanti Gordon Cheung portrayed a world teetering on the brink of collapse. In his customary style of techno sublime, he uses heavy layering and sculptural use of acrylic paints and dayglo gels and the financial times newspaper literally forms the backdrop to his landscapes.

Gordon Cheung 1

Taking this metaphor of the all pervading and powerful stock market further he has, through papier-mache, returned the financial listings full circle back to wood, back to the forest; but as the dead branches of driftwood, like beautiful fossils of a wonderful beast.

Gordon Cheung 2

In the catalogue to the exhibition he talks about his own interest in mythologies and the connections he makes between the stock market’s use of animistic symbols and similar uses in myths such as the Minotaur and the Mithraic cult’s bull sacrifice to the sun. From the earliest times to the present day our fear of an apocalyptic end is something we share, the threat itself however alters over time.

In Shunt’s recent theatrical production ‘The Architects’ the myth of the Minotaur was referenced, albeit rather obscurely.

Shunt The Architects 1

Ideas of bestiality, child sacrifice, control vs mayhem were explored aboard a cruise liner set which you entered via a genuinely disorientating labyrinth.

The Architects by Shunt

There were probably lots of references made to the original myth that were lost on us and we were waiting in vain for the chance to become a hero but we all really enjoyed the event.

0117 Shunt (3)

Adding to my current theme of myths and legends was a trip to Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty. Fables and fairy tales over the years have always varied slightly in the telling,  poetic license here turned the good fairy into a vampire and updated the story to allow for some sexed up turn of the century costumes.

Matthew Bourne Sleeping Beauty 1

The gothic layered onto classic romanticism made for a wonderful indulgent confection. And the dancing was superb.

Matthew Bourne Sleeping Beauty 3

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Inbetween places

December 11, 2012 //
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subluna

Studio work – synthetic textiles on board

A day of contrasts was spent viewing the Turner Prize and The Pre-Raphaelites (Victorian Avant-Garde) at Tate Britain.

Luke Fowler was the favourite for me, I found his film ‘All Divided Selves’ about R.D. Laing fascinating enough to want to see it all and it was 98 mins long.

Then I liked Elizabeth Price video about the Woolworth’s fire. The clapping like the crackle of the fire building the drama of the story.

While I did appreciate the technical accomplishments of Paul Noble’s drawings they made me feel a bit queasy. All that amorphous flesh and the tilting perspective of his buildings gave me sea legs.

I did like the simplicity and characterful nature of his sculptures though. The Spartacus Chetwynd performance was a bit mystifying. I do like a theatrical event but the short episode with the puppets left the audience unsure if we had witnessed anything or not. I suppose I expected something a bit alarming – like if Beetlejuice turned up.

Since starting this blog the winner of the Turner prize has been announced. I am happy Elizabeth Price won. I think hers is a work I could go back to again and get more from.

The block buster pre-raphaelites show was heaving with people and with the gaudy reds greens and golds, general sumptuousness and crammed walls gave it an air of a Christmas market.

It was all a bit much, I started to feel the subjects in the paintings were only there to drape a fabric over to show off the skilful rendition of coarse cheesecloth or silky satins.

I thought I would be more drawn in to the romance of it all to connect with my own ideas of nostalgia for a natural world vanishing before us but in the end everything felt too solid, too defined.

There are common points I feel in what they were attempting with their saccharine high-definition paintings and what I am interested in; the search for the sublime,  the tension between the physical and emotional experience of our surroundings and how the imagination conjures idealistic fantasies to embellish an impoverished reality, all this intensified by events happening that are beyond the control of the individual but which impact on everyone, back then it was the industrial revolution and as a consequence of that now it is climate change and dwindling natural resources.

Saw ‘Ignorance/Jahiliyyah’ at Hampstead Theatre.  Despite being uncertain of the context the powerful performances made it compelling to watch. This play is about the clash of cultures, looking at an event in the past from two opposing perspectives. The total belief in a paradise and the total disbelief. A huge chasm to cross.

Another thought provoking theatre experience was ‘The Effect’ – a brilliant sharp script and vigorous acting made an emotional impact. How far can we trust our thoughts when we start to add chemicals. This play questions normality and our perceptions.

The RCA Open Day left me fired up and really wanting to go. The new premises are vast and crammed with all sorts of wonderful machinery.

The big change from last year to this year is the portfolio requirements. Now it all has to fit in an A1 folder so my plans to build a wheel along trolley with all my work including lightboxes slotted in has had to be drastically revised.

I have a new plan now – a nice deep folder with foam padding for 4 sample pieces on wood, a concertina book of exhibition photos, a small layered piece to be held up to the light and the rest as photos.

I have been struggling with my statement, trying to get the words to below 500 while making all the points I think I need to mention. I’m not sure if I have been specific or clear enough about my goals and there are things I want to mention but there isn’t room. They did say getting an interview is based on the portfolio so I must get that looking smart.

It has been good to spend some time really thinking about my practice and trying to clarify my thoughts. This was given a boost by a small group engine chat chat meeting at the Biscuit Factory. All but one were ex Goldsmiths students in need of a supportive framework for critique which is something Elizabeth Murton is very good at.

On the way there I called into Another Room and saw the evocative installation of Juliette Losq. The setting in the dilapidated Georgian property was perfect, it was like the wall had fallen away to reveal an otherworldly vista.

121121 Juliette Losq (1)

Juliette Losq

Like stepping into a dream or the sepia tinted past it was very beautiful and enigmatic.

Another favourite artist I got the chance to see was Suzanne Moxhay ‘The Aftermath’ at Bearspace.

Suzanne Moxhay

Suzanne Moxhay

This is a new series of photographic work ‘Penumbra’.

Her images have an epic quality which comes from her use of light and shadow to give drama to an unpreposessing scene but also to give away the constructed nature of the image.

Landscape becomes stage-set, the mundane becomes mystical.

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Landscape in Flux

November 19, 2012 //
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Joanna Gore at Canvas and Cream had the hard task of curating a joint show of very different work.

Ashley Hanson and I were voted winners of the Canvas and Cream art prize last February at the inaugural exhibition of this new concept gallery in Forest Hill.

Susan Eyre ‘Entrance’

I was showing ‘Entrance’ in February and Ashley was showing two paintings from his City of Glass series.

For our joint show Ashley had completed his series of 8 paintings inspired by Paul Auster’s novel City of Glass from his ‘New York Trilogy’.

These are large colourful canvasses mapping the land mass and streets of New York through clues and narratives relating to the novel and Ashley’s own memories of New York.

Ashley Hanson ‘City of Glass’ series

Ashley’s interest in the relationship between fact and fiction, natural and man-made landscapes and layering techniques in his work meant we shared some common ground to build a coherent show from.
 
Joanna was drawn to my StrataGem series as she felt these pieces, considering man’s geological interference in the landscape, worked well with Ashley’s take on the geographical changes imposed by the city.

StrataGem series

The StrataGem series imagines the possibility of the formation of geological strata and beautiful gemstones created from the waste of plastic food packaging trays.

From this point we considered what other work of mine would be strong enough to hold its own against Ashley’s vibrant paintings.

I was very happy that we chose the new piece ‘Incidence’ as a complete contrast visually but still relating to the passage of time within the landscape.

Incidence

‘Incidence’ explores both a spiritual and scientific response to nature.

Reflecting on the loss of childhood it exploits a nostalgia for youthful abandon when nature was full of wonders to be discovered.

At the final hanging stage Joanna decided to include two more small pieces of mine and this really balanced the show.

Graft I and Graft II are very much about the changing landscape, the urban and the cultivated space, the hybrid landscapes and the empty in-between spaces where imagination can flourish if nothing else.

Graft II Graft I

Back in the studio I am still working on the idea of the Graft, as a process of cutting and joining using some of the other collagraphs I made as starting points for new pieces.

I am cutting and combining two prints as the background for one image – not a purist approach at all.

I have taken some images of bonsai trees and blown the scale up against the background so they become full-sized fantasy trees.

work in progress

I want to give these trees big shadows but as yet am not sure what medium will work best for this, maybe another collograph printed on top if that is possible once I have joined the background together.

Also I am thinking hard about my practise and its core values while I struggle with my statement for my MA application.

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Darker evenings

November 6, 2012 //
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One of those precious autumn days of mist and damp when the sun still has a bit of warmth was spent in Camley Park before the close of Wild New Territories.

Camley Park is small, overgrown and on the canal which lends an even greater air of dankness to its earthy decay on such a day. The bright plastic coated artworks contrast strongly in the undergrowth. Outside video screens and large format prints are placed amongst the trees. The artwork explores the interplay between the urban and the wild, some of the work using a sledgehammer approach and others making beautiful and enigmatic interventions.

A favourite was ‘Howe Street meets Camley Park’ video by Kathy Kenny and Ron den Daas

Video footage of passers by is set against an urban background that morphs from reality into a painted depiction of a landscape, from fact to fiction.

Like suddenly entering a dream, stepping back in time or forward into the future, the same place in another time. Very beautifully done it was mesmerizing.

Also I was keen to see if the bull skull Gordon Cheung had installed in a bee hive had in fact been turned into a skull shaped honeycomb.

Not quite but there was lots of honeycomb around and it gave a whole new aura to a bee hive.

The last in the Odds Against Tomorrow series of exhibitions opened at Bearspace  and I went along for the private view.

Exhibit D draws together work with a dark side. I found David Lupton’s abattoir series of drawings the most disturbing.

 Detail from Abattoir 3 by David Lupton

It brings back memories of the abattoir in my childhood village that we would visit peering in through the bars to see the whites of the cattle’s eyes as they waited their turn, but it is mainly the character in the drawing.

He has a clown like face with eyes that touch something even deeper in my memory that is uncanny and unsettling.

Lupton says he is exploring horrors of reality and the innate violence of man through his work.

It is an uneasy relationship between us and our meat. Distanced from the horrors of the abattoir, the raw flesh and such evidence of death it’s almost like a parallel reality going on somewhere else.

Another pause for thought about the horrors of violence was the satire ‘The White House Murder Case’ by Jules Feiffer. When it comes down to survival, mortal or political what are we prepared to do? Where are our sensibilities?

This tension between physical and emtional disconnection and facing up to violent realities were also something that came across listening to Andrew Salgado talk about his paintings in the show The Misanthrope at Beers Lambert.

Salgado set himself the tricky task of building a show around the premise of the misanthrope – someone who hates people – and took the gay serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer as a starting point to consider his emotional response in painting such a reprehensible figure. The outcome has been an arresting set of paintings bursting with emotion built up with thick gestural blocks, drips and splashes of paint.

It was also interesting to see how his painting has evolved since the first Surface show at The Crypt in 2011.

So my thoughts have been directed around facing up to those darker sensibilities of violence which emanate from something close to nature but also to the new relationships that evolve within our urban environment.

I was delighted to hear the founder of The Roundabout Appreciation Society talk on radio 4 about his love of the roundabout which he described as ‘an Oasis in a sea of asphalt’.

In my directory of folders sits one called Roundabout with lots of images like this

all waiting to be incorporated into a series of work called Oasis. I should maybe get in touch with the association – he said they lacked women members.

In the meantime I have finished the second Graft piece looking at ideas of transplanting, cutting and inserting something appealing onto a base or unappealing substrate.

A hybrid plant in a hybrid landscape. The rhododendron image is revealed by cutting into the background image with a soldering iron incising the polyester to reveal layers underneath.

I was interested to read in the local paper that the rhododendron ponticum a non-native variety introduced by the Victorians to the Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park is being removed as it is causing a risk of disease.

And so the landscape changes.

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Overload

October 29, 2012 //
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From a studio bound summer spent looking inwards I plunge straight into cultural overload.

Metamorphosis, Future Can Wait, New Sensations, ‘The Majesty’, Christian Marclay’s ‘Everyday‘, Joana Vasconcelas, Chris Hawtin, Lindsay Seers ‘nowhere less now’ plus 11 films in 10 days at the London Film Festival.

The predominant theme of many of the films we saw this year was the resilience of women. In the most dire of circumstances and oppression women across the globe fight their battles by whatever means they can to cope with what life has dealt them. Political or religious conflict and its fallout was also a strong theme. The great thing about the London Film Festival is seeing the same human emotions played out in every language. Most life affirming and poetic was ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’.

Last year All Visual Arts staged their big autumn show in the decadent shabby grandeur of Portland Place but this year due to some last minute shenanigans it had to be moved to the crypt at One Marylebone.

The lighting was challenging.

Polly Morgan at Metamorphosis

The works were spot-lit in the darkness causing severe shadows to block the work on approach and bleaching detail from afar. Viewing became a dance.

Dolly Thompsett ‘Guarding the Ruins’

A terrible photo of this painting but it illustrates the echoing of the black arches in Dolly Thompsett’s painting with the arched architecture of the Crypt.

I was drawn to this painting of beautiful vine entwined ruins, misty horizons with sweeps of iridescent glitter although I found it almost too sugary.

It is the same attraction that Raquib Shaw exerts on me I think, the telling of some mystical fable but in this case there is no balance of the grotesque to counteract the sublime, the primates are not tearing each others eyes out.

Another painter whose work struck a chord with me was Hyojun Hyun at Saatchi’s New Sensations show.

Hyojun Hyun at New Sensations

Scenes of neglect are transformed into transcendental experiences in paint through the use of light, creating magical scenarios ready for a midsummer’s night dream to play out.

A less subtle use of light and glitter to create spectacle was employed in ‘The Majesty’, a horticultural installation by artists Tony Heywood and Alison Condie for Cityscapes. Billed as a reconfiguration of the show garden ‘Glamourlands’ from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, which evolved from a picturesque landscape portrait of the Dorset coast above ground, into a subterranean fungal landscape of the sublime below ground. ‘Glamourlands’  featured a landscape of excess created from gold carbon and jewel encrusted forms. Directly after the Chelsea Flower Show it travelled to The Old Vic Tunnels where it became ‘The Majesty’ –  a new landscape with additional sculptural elements within a spectacular underground setting.

The Majesty

We were offered face masks on entering the space as there was a possibility of  poisonous spores emanating from the fungal growths, this along with the cordon of flames and the lake like puddle preventing approach made us feel like explorers braving hostile lands to visit some glittering shrine.

Going underground again, partially anyway we made a quick visit to this years Serpentine Pavillion designed by Ai Weiwei and Herzog and de Meuron.

I was disappointed to find Haunch of Venison has moved from the airy splendour of Burlington Gardens to smaller premises on New Bond Street.

But Joana Vasconcelas did not disappoint. Her steam iron water lily ‘Full Steam Ahead’ was a wonder of engineering – hissing puffs of steam into the room it was the deadliest of flowers and the pendulous sculptures snaking throughout the gallery were magnificent explosions of embellishment.

I wish I had known about her exhibition at Versailles last year it would have been wonderful to have seen that but I had to make do with leafing through the catalogue. Her vision of scale is inspiring and I am very jealous of her large warehouse sized studio spaces and teams of technicians.

Christian Marclay took his signature splicing of film clips to create a visual stimuli for a group of musicians to overlay a soundtrack echoing the rhythms and emotions in the images. Like an improvised jazz session the musicians fed off each other as well as the film in a sustained assault on a climax which is never reached. The collage of images repeat an action stripped of its own narrative with the same action from many films until what might have been an insignificant moment becomes something portentous.

Lindsay Seers work is all narrative but is not a linear story. The past present and future entwine with the thoughts of multiple characters. Everything is connected but like in a dream those connections are just beyond grasp as they shift and change and merge. I wasn’t sure if I fell asleep or not, my eyes seemed to be open but I had those moments of falling from consciousness being tucked up in a warm blanket can induce. The haunting sea shanty played in the headphones ‘ the sea will take her slender body..’ over and over, a narrative from one side in Seers soft tone then someone speaks abruptly from behind, another voice is heard at a a distance, some music starts up and all the while the dual projections onto giant convex and concave spheres in the disorienting location of an upside down ships hull sweeps through history into a CGI future and back to the present. We were given a free book on exit, it is another layer to the whole experience and I have no idea what is true and what is fiction, this means the fantastical can appear to be reality and I like that. There are many things to wonder about in Lindsay Seers work.

Lindsay Seers at The Tin Tabernacle

In Seers work the explanation about the work is part of the work and so may be just a fiction as much as the work itself.

The artists conundrum – how much to explain? Chris Hawtin was concerned that his back stories to his amazing paintings and sculpture at Canvas and Cream in his ‘Predator’ show would shut down the work for viewers to embark on their own narrative journey. What came across in his talk however was his passion for painting, his dedication to research and the care he took to make sure the viewer was drawn into the fascinating clash of sci-fi and primitive landscape he created.

Chris Hawtin ‘Dredger’

Seeing all these other artists work has been really inspirational. What I want to bring to my own work from this is the idea to leave more space for the viewer to be drawn in.

I need to define the content of a piece before I start but then let the work develop more organically. I tend to plan things out very much beforehand and I would like to try to be freer in production.

So that is my plan.

 

 

 

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What The Dickens

October 15, 2012 //
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After many weeks of research, collecting crates, working on images, printing, wiring and constructing it was time for the installation of ‘Syndrome’ at Shoreditch Town Hall – in the basement, a rambling rough space and perfect setting for this Illumini Event celebrating Charles Dickens love of the supernatural.

Dickens passion was the stimulation and nurturing of the imagination, to retain a childlike wonder in the world throughout life. As a small boy he experienced the frisson of fear from the grotesque and macabre tales his nursemaid delighted in telling him. Stories from the Arabian Nights with their supernatural imagery were also a big influence on his understanding of the power of the mind to create all sorts of fancies.

First day of installation was the delivery of all the crates. Now I have my wonderful Ford Galaxy I no longer need to hire a van every time I want to transport work.

It did take 2 trips though, so most of the day was spent sitting in traffic and negotiating the narrow streets and one way systems of Shoreditch while avoiding the congestion charge zone.

pre installation

Second day of installation – setting up – thinking it would take a couple of hours but finding it took all day of course.

Not having put them together before in entirety I had to decide how the light boxes would be stacked so that the 1 metre LED connectors would reach from one box to the next.

The LED tape is clipped into each connector – simple in theory but not when trying to see in a dark room even with a head torch while reaching around the back of crates in awkward angles – very fiddly and frustrating as lights flicker and die time and again. Then up the ladder to hang the organza panels which have been pinned to bamboo poles and are suspended from loops of monofilament attached to whatever we can find protruding from the ceiling. These old spaces are great venues but often stipulate no more holes to be made in the walls. I have to thank my ever tolerant Kevin for his help loading, unloading, carrying and holding stuff but most importantly for being on spider spotting duty and removing any before I get hysterical.

phobia alert

Third day is finishing touches – adding some bits of wood to hide cables, attaching torches to the wall for viewing the two boxes that are not lit internally.

‘Syndrome’ installation

Then helping Jane Webb, the curator with the rest of the show installation.

I find myself spreading glow in the dark cobwebs around her space while keeping an eye out for rats.

Jane Webb ‘The haunted rocking chair’

The basement is full of artists crawling and climbing, fixing and connecting and is slowly transformed from bare bricks to a kaleidoscope of interpretations on the supernatural – the Dickensian getting somewhat lost at times amongst a keen enthusiasm for all things spooky.

I become anxious that my work is not scary or dramatic enough. The room next to mine is filled with polystyrene severed heads daubed in red paint. Not very subtle. But at the other end of the space and spectrum is Jojo Taylors beautiful chandelier made of suspended cut glass artefacts and paintings made with impressions taken in smoke and soot.

Jojo Taylor ‘The Lost and The Found’

Jojo Taylor

I am late leaving for the opening night as I struggle to gothify my white summery Victorian hat with black lace, fur and ostrich feathers leaving our bedroom looking like the cat has committed a massacre and arriving just in time to miss the evacuation of the building and arrival of the fire brigade. Luckily a false alarm triggered by some incense sticks but leaving Jane a little stressed. The audience, already queuing around the block when I arrived began piling in and quickly filled the space with whoops and screams from gangs of teenage girls. The plethora of performers (£4,000 worth)  booked for the opening night began plying their trades around the corridors, accosting, alarming  and delighting visitors with juggling, Victorian Quackery and magic tricks.

Chris Brown

Ahnemon

People Pile

Cilla Conway tarot readings

I stood in my Victorian ensemble outside my room disconcerted to find a performer positioned in the dark corner of my space lighting up his suit and leaping out at people as they began to investigate the crates.

The visitors were having fun but being totally distracted from my work, running out shrieking – after a while I sent him packing. Scrooge indeed.

One surprise of the opening evening was bumping into Kat Hawker the beautiful curator from Bearspace who had selected my work for Exhibit C.  Kevin and I were just saying how different this experience was from Bearspace when she appeared before us. I was glad to have a chat. Kat said she didn’t mind the lukewarm Time Out review of Exhibit C and it was good that they had come at all. It’s only the opinion of one person.

‘Syndrome’ – the syringe

Illumini Events are all about inclusion and democracy.

Aardvark Productions – the body snatchers

Free entertainment for all, combining artists with prop makers and performers to break down barriers and get more people involved and engaged in art. Jane also has a strong interest in history so the venue, historic in itself is littered with information sheets on everything from body snatchers, abandoned tunnels to haunted pubs. There were walks, talks, ghost stories and performances all through the week.

A very popular spot was the dressing up room. I spent hours here invigilating and came away with an aching jaw from laughing so much. People loved it – the big frothy dresses, the wigs, tails and top hats – posing extravagantly and morphing into character – it was wonderful to witness.

Amazing how a costume becomes a disguise and you another person.

By the end of the week I was no longer hiding at the end of the corridor in my Victorian garb but out on the street handing out leaflets and encouraging those tentative souls who weren’t quite sure what to expect to risk a quick look round. Most were very surprised and thrilled by it all.

‘Syndrome’ Mr Wright’s feet

I was really pleased with how my installation came together in the end.

One friend had found it very unsettling and had to leave – I hadn’t expected quite such a strong response.

‘Syndrome’ – the séance

The room was perfect and had a natural chill from a large unseen hole through to the outside which also caused the organza panels to waft mysteriously.

I think a lot of people missed the peep in boxes and after 3 days one of the torches had been stolen anyway but guests were invited to borrow a torch or lantern at reception so the possibility was still there.

I have always liked there to be something left to discover in my work for those who look.

‘Syndrome’ – the cows, the doll

‘Syndrome’ installation view

I also had my light box ‘Entrance’ installed in a small annexe further up the corridor which it fitted into very neatly.

‘Entrance’

entrance n.1. an opening allowing access.

2. an act of entering.

3. the right, means, or opportunity to enter.

entrance v. fill with wonder and delight. >cast a spell on.

‘Entrance’ reflects on the shadowy workings of the imagination and the desire for a spiritual encounter. A glimpse across the threshold  between the tangible and the ethereal can cause us to stall in our everyday routine to consider the possibilities of the supernatural.

Illumini events always have huge ambitions and bring in a real mix of people so it is a very different but always fun experience.

It gave me the chance to create work for an unusual space and try out some new ideas.

Taking the show down had to be done in one exhausting whirlwind morning – it seemed a lot of work for a one week event but 3,200 visitors passed through in that time.

As we had a deadline to get out I did have to hire man with a van to get all the crates home. Annoyingly they charged £90 not the £60 I expected – £10 for the congestion charge that we didn’t need to go through so can’t recommend manwithvanhire.com.

Now just left with the problem of where to put them….
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Crate Expectations

September 28, 2012 //
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Feeling the pain, physically, financially and emotionally of a hard slog to get these crates ready for installation.

Testing Testing

In the flurry of construction and sheer exhaustion the ideas that built the work have been engulfed by the practicalities of production.

These small light boxes will sit inside the crates

The remit was to create something relating to Dickens and his fascination with the supernatural.

It wasn’t something that seemed relevent to my practise at first but after visiting the excellent British Library Dickens exhibition I was drawn in by Dickens interest in mesmerization and his belief in the power of human will.

Dickens was a champion of the imagination and of finding romance in familiar everyday events, to beautify reality through fancy and alleviate disappointment in life – key themes that inform my work.

Much of his writing is about aspiration and redemption, set against atmospheric depictions of an underworld of nefarious characters and forbidding locations. I am trying to introduce some darker elements into my work and wanted to convey an idea of a surreal dream where images of forgotten fears are recalled. As I am using personal fears whether this translates to other viewers I am yet to discover.

the madness

The installation ‘Syndrome’ recalls events and imaginings that disturbed me as a child – things that may sit in my subconscious waiting to be drawn out during some therapy session.

the séance

I have joined London Printworks to use their large format heatpress to print the tormented forest on organza panels which I intend to hang around the crates as a kind of ether of escaping memories.

My first session at Printworks was almost a complete disaster until the wonderful Margaret came to my rescue. I had almost been about to give up and go home as I was wasting fabric and stencils producing blotchy prints.

I still came away after 3 hours with only one useable panel not the 9 I had hoped for so I booked in for another full day session which did mean I got the number of panels I wanted but was an endurance test for my back.

We have cut some bamboo from the garden to use as battens to hold the panels. Light & cheap.

There is a whiff of vinegar about the place as I have been ‘aging’ the newly cut edges of wood on the crates with the concoction of steel wool steeped in white vinegar for 24hrs. Dousing the wood with a strong brew of tea beforehand lends a much darker colour.

Exhibit C at Bearspace is over now and I have been to collect my work minus one ‘Collected Thought’ which the super supportive Ursula bought as it makes her smile.

Collected Thought (4)

There was no feedback from the gallery on my work.  Also I had expected the gallery assistants would make good the walls but this was not the case and they expected the artist to do it.

I hadn’t gone prepared so Julia Alvarez let me off the task as I was parked next to the periscope warden car but I felt I left with bad feeling.

This experience has galvanised my determination to give my practise an overhaul and big assessment. I hadn’t thought I wanted to be deconstructed and rebuilt as the RCA promise but now I think I really do.

Next move after Illumini will be contemplating an MA application.

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Mind Disturbance

September 14, 2012 //
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Well since I have been exploring those forgotten childhood terrors I have had a seriously terrifying supernatural dream.

Not a fear of tidal waves, ‘public’ toilet, large spider anxiety type of dream but a real chiller.

I guess a lot of those fears are dormant under the surface still. Those boxes really do have chinks.

Coming up to a deadline for a piece of work has its own anxieties. The procrastination caused by fear of it all going wrong – delaying that possibility of disaster against the need to take the plunge so if it does go wrong you have time to fix it.

And there have been problems – the polyester I was transferring images onto turned out to have diagonal lines running through the fabric which only become visible when a dark ink is applied.

heatpress action

Also the quality of the organza I bought was not great. Curse Fabric World.  I wasted an afternoon in vain searching for better quality white polyester glass organza. Trawling Berwick Street & surrounds I finally found a shop that had some stock only to discover it was £29 a metre.  This must be where Marilene Oliver got hers for her piece Dervishes. I did ask her such a banal question when she came and gave a talk at Ochre. I remember Cathy de Monchaux’s advice in a talk she gave at Goldsmiths – always use the best materials you can afford.  It was gorgeous – really like liquid glass. I know where to go when I am making something special. For ‘Syndrome’ I really doubt I will get any money back from this so must be circumspect. Oxford Street John Lewis fabric dept. no better than Kingston. Brick Lane my salvation. I am aware that I talk a lot about trying to save money. Obviously I want to produce high quality work but in reality I know I’m not going to make the money back on it so I have to have limits.

In the same vein – more time & money wasted – the paper roll ordered via eBay from the Swedish Army surplus was creped! and rather crumpled. Not to be defeated I spent about 3 hours ironing it – well it was for trees, a little texture would be good. All in vain though, the surface was just too rough to take the ink. So a whole day wasted as well as the expense of the paper and studio time. Off to Atlantis, via Hamar for Perspex and Brick Lane for organza, to buy a roll of Fabriano 120gsm paper only to find on arrival they were out of stock. Could’ve cried so tired, managed to track some down at Cass Art in Islington but so much walking with purchases bound to my wheelie hold all, heavy and unwieldy it didn’t quite make it home in one piece.

Having purchased the paper I finally got to print the trees for my haunted forest at Ochre Studio.  An exhausting day grappling with A0 screens, very gloopy sublimation inks and metres of paper.

Lightbox images transferred onto polyester and organza are put on stretchers.

Lining up the images on silky polyester and slippy organza tests my patience and concentration.

Getting it together at last. Busy sanding and staining stretchers, cutting holes in boxes for connector cables, fitting ledges fr the perspex to sit on, fitting the LED lights and testing connections.

Have had lots of low points through material frustrations but the most flattening was the much anticipated but ultimately disappointing Time Out review of Exhibit C.

I could just not mention this. Only 2 stars for the show. The main complaint does seem to be with the curation and selection but it still feels personal, comments about my own work were non committal/condescending.

So I checked out the credentials of reviewer Friere Barnes.  Turns out she really admires Esther Teichmann so we have that in common – she also shares a lot of connections with me on LinkedIn.

Cheering to find some visitors to the show have given it a 4/5 star rating online even if some are the artists themselves!

One good upshot of this was I watched Esther Teichmann’s film ‘In Search Of Lightning‘ which is really beautiful.

Shame Freire Barnes didn’t rate the show and it does feel a public shaming but have to think about the next piece because the next piece is always going to be the one.

Listened to Audrey Niffennegger one of the guests talking on radio 4 in relation to the Japanese artist Hokusai about the artist’s drive to produce that one piece that fulfills the urge to create.  That it is a lifetimes endeavour is summed up by Hokusai who felt nothing he did before the age of 70 had any merit and if he lived to 140 he might finally be able to create something truly divine.

The harshest critic must be oneself.

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Odds Against Tomorrow

September 1, 2012 //
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ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW Exhibit C opened at BEARSPACE.

Taking its name from Robert Wise’s classic 1959 Film Noir, ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW is curated by Julia Alvarez and Katherine Hawker.

I am so pleased to be a part of this show.

Exhibit C looks to imagined and real cities, utopias and dystopias. Coined in 1516 by Thomas Moore, the word Utopia derives from the Greek for ‘no place’, and the later English homophone  deriving from ‘good place’. It is this double meaning which is of interest here: the vices and virtues of a modern city, and a contemporary sense of instability. Artists critique existing cities, blur boundaries between the everyday and the extraordinary, and build ‘no places’

It was a really busy Private View – so busy I didn’t get a chance to take any photos.  I am hoping I can get some from the gallery as it’s nice to get a record of the buzz.

Julia Alvarez the gallery owner said Time Out critics were in to do a review which is supposed to come out next week. Apparently they don’t give anything away when they are there so will have to wait and see what they have to say.

It was good to show Collected Thoughts all together for once.

Collected Thoughts

This work reflects on ideas of preservation (conservation – but of a romantic idea of nature)  and references the Victorian enthusiasm for creating stylised tableaux of the natural world held in glass domes.

I wonder if anyone actually picks up on this idea without being prompted.

The other work showing is Calypso Wanderer II which is inspired by the evocative names given to the prosaic caravan.

Hung in the small annexe it’s a bit tucked away but at least right by the bar.

My thoughts have had to move straight on to all the work needed to get ‘Syndrome’ ready for installation.My maths has let me down again! The wood I gave to Pete to make all the stretchers was only enough for two sets of 4 and I need 9 sets.So off to get some more – hopefully enough this time & I bought it from Champion Timber as it was much cheaper than Wickes.I have got the LED strip lights on a roll from eBay – why did I spend a fortune before on LED bars for the Christmas lightboxes when this stuff is so cheap and easy to use. The prices vary so much.Also I have found some LED connectors  with 1 metre wires for 3528 SMD LED strip lights.  I will have to connect the lighting of all the crates together at installation once the pile of crates is in place so to find something that doesn’t involve those tiny screws in regular connectors is a real bonus – these ones snap onto the strip. The idea is that I run the LED strip around the inside of each box  with the connecting wire coming out from a hole and connect to the next box and so on finishing with the transformer plug. Pete has made the first lid with broken slats forming a viewing hole – looking good.

Still need quite a lot of carpentry doing but I have all the images back from Promptside now – much cheaper than I expected too so that was another bonus and compensated for how much I have had to spend on wood.

Two of the boxes will not be lit but will have a torch available for viewing.

Caught in the light. Going up the darkened stairs. Then to get to my room, passing across the stairs to the attic. Terrifying.

I have been doing a bit of work on Graft ii

In Graft i I worked directly onto the collagraph – a bit like a real graft – cutting and incising a desired idea/plant onto a base substrate.

In Graft ii I have transferred the image of the collagraphed garage doors onto polyester and printed the fantasy growth of rhododendron a typically hybrid plant, onto organzadirectly over an aluminium base.

Then I have added more layers of polyester printed with the fantasy growth. The final image is on top and I am in the process of cutting into it.

It’s a bit more subtle than Graft i. I hope they will sit well together. I am planning to make four pieces all exploring this same image of a grey urban non place with an exotic idea transplanted onto it.

A lot of hours this week were spent drawing through the pain of RSI on my little bamboo tablet.

I am planning a small tormented forest on 2m organza panels to go in the room at Shoreditch Town Hall with ‘Syndrome’.

A stressful 3 hours were spent getting the stencils printed at the ever faithful Call Print of Richmond as their software kept crashing or wouldn’t open the file.

I have made the screens to print sublimation ink on paper ordered from a Swedish army surplus store and then I need to beg a favour…..

 

The other artists in the show are Liz Collini, Sophie Hoyle, Louise Potzesny, Daniel Soma and Joseph Steele.

Only managed a brief chat at the PV with Liz about the neatness or not of her text based work and a brief discussion with Joseph about his powerful apocalyptic images.
We were all asked to respond to an email interview for Odds Against Tomorrow.
These are my unedited responses
Where does your inspiration come from?

It comes from my environment and the people I see around me. I look for evidence in the city of a need to connect with nature.

How does the place you live in affect your work?

I live in suburban London where there is a lot of hedge trimming and hanging baskets. I look for the undercurrent fantasies to expose in my work.

Which artists do you admire most?

There are so many including Joana Vasconcelas, Alex Hartley, Mat Collishaw, Gordon Cheung, Hew Locke, Jeremy Deller, Raqib Shaw, Olafur Eliasson, Grayson Perry, Andy Harper, Pipilotti Rist

What do you find most exciting about art/culture right now?

Despite all the cuts the sheer abundance of art being made and the enthusiasm for engaging with it. As it permeates more areas of society new audiences are being found such as those drawn into a gallery by the TV show on Grayson Perry’s tapestries and the local people of Deptford seeing art out in the street during Deptford X.

What are you planning next?

I am planning to apply to study for an MA next year to move my practice on through a period of intense reflection and assessment.

What would your dream project be?

Being given a derelict building to work directly on the surfaces and create a whole interconnecting installation and immersive experience that would be on-going and evolving

What are your aspirations for the future?

To keep working to always be striving for the next piece, to have the opportunity to realise new ideas, to be a part of current discourse and to overcome my nerves to speak confidently in public.

What is in store for you tomorrow? (Not literally – of course)

I am working on a large installation piece using old crates as light boxes which explores the inner recesses of the mind for an event in September and I have a show in November which was the prize from a public vote on my work at Canvas and Cream Gallery.

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