Archives for category: Uncategorized

Landscape in Flux

November 19, 2012 //

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.

Tags Art Prize, geographical, geological, Graft, Landscape, plastic packaging

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Darker evenings

November 6, 2012 //

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.

Tags abattoir, Andrew Salgado, Camley Park, Graft, horror, hybrid, Oasis, Odds Against Tomorrow, rhododendron, Wild New Territories

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Overload

October 29, 2012 //

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.

Tags Chris Hawtin, Christian Marclay, Dolly Thompsett, Hyojun Hyun, Joana Vasconcelas, Lindsay Seers

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What The Dickens

October 15, 2012 //

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….

Tags Charles Dickens, Illumini Event, Shoreditch Town Hall, supernatural

Categories Uncategorized

Crate Expectations

September 28, 2012 //

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.

Tags light boxes, personal fears

Categories Uncategorized

Mind Disturbance

September 14, 2012 //

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.

Tags Bearspace, Esther Teichmann, marilene oliver, Time Out

Categories Uncategorized

Odds Against Tomorrow

September 1, 2012 //

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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The decorative in Deptford

August 18, 2012 //

Enjoyed Deptford X with a walking tour heading off from Bearspace led by the lead artist curators of this years festival the wonderful Hew Locke & Indra Khanna.

This year the theme was THE DECORATIVE.

Dzine’s ‘Phenomenon’ sculpture took decoration to the nth degree. Capturing the spirit of ‘Szwaybar’ a phenomenon of Curacao where the humble bicycle is pimped into a statement of style and showmanship..

Felt like I was on holiday, joining a group to be shepherded round the local sights on a gorgeous sunny day. Nice to find some old friends from Goldsmiths also on the tour. Starting off at the imposing St Paul’s Church to see some site specific installations by Adam Walker, Charlotte Squire and Lisa Snook and calling in at Gallop to reminisce about Biba with people who could remember visiting in its hey day. Blank Promiscuity at St. Paul’s House had put on a good show. It wasn’t easy to tell who had done what in the group but the overall feel of the show for me was a cocktail of voyeurism, the body and scientific exploration. There was lots of peeping through (which I love) theatrical and laboratory elements.

At The Faircharm Paul Coombs had created a sobering installation ‘Filthy Dirty Homo’ which listed all the countries in the world where homosexuality is illegal and the consequent punishments delivered. The list was frighteningly long. He had also made tortuous looking sculptures which came from his feelings of society trying to shape him into being something he was not.

Henna Nadeem’s images from A Picture Book of Britain had been made poster size and pasted along the wall at Ha’penny Hatch.

I first saw her work at Charleston back in 2006 when it was part of the Brighton Photo Biennale. Her overlaying of pattern and combining of images to create a new landscape is something which really appeals to me. There are cross cultural messages here, the celebration of the quintessential landscape of Britain looked at from a non western heritage perspective.

Hew Locke has been considering the financial crisis today and relating it back to the days empire and colonialisation.

Hew Locke discussing his work ‘Gold Standard’

He has been looking at the highly decorative old share documents which tell not so beautiful stories of great wealth, exploitation and ruin with the fortunes of countries completely turned around in the course of the last 200 years. He paints over the share certificates highlighting and obliterating the history of the companies that raised money for foreign investment, tracing the rise and fall of financial powerhouses.

The installation ‘Gold Standard’. This building looks made for its embellishment.

China was once trying to raise money from the west now they are the world financiers.

We finished the tour at Van Khan Gallery to see Doug Jones ‘Non Sum Qualis Eram’ ( I am not what I used to be).

A sinister crocodile of subdued children with heads bowed, dressed like little bishops with no faces. He is interested in the way pattern and design convey meaning, the social group and about fitting in. Apparently his influences come from his days as a choir boy. From this they don’t look like happy days.

The big excitement for me this week though was installing my own work at Bearspace.

‘Collected Thoughts’ had been agreed on but I was waiting to see if they would want Calypso Wanderer or my new work Graft i.

Graft i

In the end they stuck with their original choice of Calypso Wanderer but choosing MkII.

Calypso Wanderer Mk II

I was a bit disappointed as it would have been nice to have a new piece in the show and I had worked hard to get it done in time but they felt it fitted better with the other work.

The interesting part was to see how my work would be priced. This is something I have always had to struggle with alone before and I had never really had a professional opinion on it. ‘Collected Thoughts’ I found particularly hard to price as the pieces are quite small individually yet each one takes several days to construct. I was happy with the prices they gave and this will help me in future to make a judgement.

I had been hoping to go to Engine Chat Chat this week but was unable to in the end. I had wanted to get some feedback on my images that I have prepared for ‘Syndrome’.

I wonder what changes might have stemmed from a group discussion. As it is I have had to make my own decisions. I have settled on 7 images that will be lit from inside and two that will need a torch to view. They will go to Promptside to be put on sublimation paper next week so any final tweaking will have to be done very soon. I will need 36 stretchers which the ever patient Pete next door has been tasked with. The basis for each image has been something that disturbed me as a child whether real or imagined. something that may have subconsciously contributed to fears and anxieties in later life.

It is interesting to see how my own memories of an event differ from my Mums. I talked to her about my memories of a séance we performed at my Uncle Les’s one Christmas with cousins who were much older than me. We apparently made contact with a lady called Lily who had been murdered by her husband. We both agree it was scary and involved my Uncle Les and messages of death. We both believe he died shortly afterwards. She remembers that he came to the table and the glass spelt out DEATH and stopped at him. I remember that he wouldn’t come to the table and the glass spelt out ‘GET LES’ repeatedly but he wouldn’t be involved and in response to a question ‘is it a matter of life or death’ replied ‘YES’. The glass then moved faster and faster around the table until it spun off and smashed.

We never discovered if someone was pushing that glass but in my memory it didn’t feel like it.

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Transforming

August 8, 2012 //

Visited Supernature for the twilight event featuring The Human Lounge (Tailor-Made Dance) & Amy Turk (Harpist).

Sitting on hay bales in a small copse opposite the Guildford Spectrum listening to the amazing talent of Amy Turk conjuring music with expressive flowing movements as the light faded and Mary Branson’s magical light and sound installations came into their own.

The woods came alive with the amplified sounds of the unseen local insects and wildlife.

Back home I’m afraid the insect inhabitants of my crate collection weren’t being celebrated.

It was time for drastic action as the old wood was fast turning to dust.

Just hope nothing escaped into the house while the boxes were sitting in the hall waiting for a fine day and this dousing with Cuprinol has done the trick.

Comparing memories. Assembling the images for ‘Syndrome’.

I have been working on the images which relate to things which disturbed me as a child. I have not tried to corroborate my memories but accept them as they are.

Though it was interesting to find out this weekend after discussions with my parents that when our neighbour Mr Wright died an ambulance was called but when it arrived Mr Wright was already dead so they refused to take him.

Hence his sojourn in the bedroom adjoining mine and the fear of those feet coming through the wall in the night.

I probably have more images underway than I need now so may have to choose between them once I see how much it will cost to get them put onto sublimation paper.

I use Promptside to put my images onto paper for me which I heatpress at home unless they are very large.

They are not being terribly prompt at the moment though and have had some images to print for about a month now. This is worrying if they take as long to do the ‘Syndrome’ images I could be in trouble.

I had been hoping to make 2 new pieces to offer to Bearspace next week when I deliver my work for Odds Against Tomorrow but looks like it will just be one new piece.

I am very excited about the Bearspace show – to be in the same gallery that shows some of my favourite artists and I can’t wait to see their latest show by Dzine which I will go to on Friday – curated by Hew Locke

it looks a real treat.

Dzine

I’m not sure how likely they are to take a new piece of work in place of what they have selected but after reading their paraphrasing of my practice I was inspired to finish something I had started earlier this year.

They wrote ‘Susan Eyre transforms a concrete block into a utopia with mixed print.’

Ever at fault for being too literal I can’t wait to cast a concrete block and print on it, and cut fabric onto it.

For now though I have taken the collograph I made from chopped up sandpaper, plastic mesh and cardboard of a grey brick area and iron grille doors and fixed this onto an aluminium base with 3M positionable mounting adhesive.

Nick Amott of J & R precision Engineering in Turnham Green cut the aluminium for me. A really helpful guy who was recommended to me by the innovative mechanical sculptor Tom Wilkinson.

Then I painted a fantasy undergrowth on paper in sublimation inks that I have transferred onto polyester.

Next I cut the polyester onto the collograph.

I received free membership from the Printmakers Council this week – a prize awarded about 3 years ago at an Ochre summer exhibition which didn’t reach me at the time.

I’m not sure how much I will benefit from it anyway, I have a busy year already and I expect they mostly want framed work on paper for their shows. The first call for submissions does seem to be in that vein and also offers a browser facility.

Can’t be doing with that. Although I work with print I have no urge to make repeated copies of the same image and I don’t like the title etc on the front of a work mostly I find it distracting.

At his Southbank Meltdown performance for some reason Antony felt he needed to distract us from his extraordinary voice with the antics of Kazuo Ohno wandering the stage with various bizarre accoutrements. We just wanted to hear Antony sing. I guess he thought he was offering us something more. Joanna Constantine swaying in spooky fashion under a wavering moon in a cloudy sky to the accompaniment of a distorting soundscape was OK for a bit but became a test of patience as we waited for Antony to sing. Then there was the film – Ohno suckling from a pig, wallowing in mud. It felt tragic. Antony had promised strength and beauty and an exploration of spirituality – all he needed to do express all those things was just to sing. Still it seems ‘Cut The World’ taken from the Life and Death of Marina Abromovich is about to be released so I have that to look forward to now.

As for his intentions…

Antony recently said on his choices for Meltdown, “I want to create a kind of paradise. I want to walk through that forest and see and hear the hardcore beauty and strength in art and music that makes sense to me. The weather is changing and everybody knows it. I want to participate. What is my relationship and responsibility to the world around me? Frontier expressions of emotion and beauty can be fantastic tools with which to enter that discussion.”

– sounds a bit like transforming a concrete block into Utopia.

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Surface II

July 23, 2012 //

Surface II at The Crypt Gallery, St. Pancras Church opened on 12th July 2012 with a very busy Private View.

There has been a lot of discussion amongst the artists of Surface II about how much information should be given about the work and in what format.

Although we did have a small pamphlet with each artists statement included some visitors felt this wasn’t explicit enough and contained a lot of nebulous language.

I spent a lot of time at the Private View and during the week when on invigilation duty explaining my ideas that led to ‘Incidence’ so maybe it did need something available for people who want to know more.

It is easier to just talk about your work informally than to write a short piece about it. Even producing one sentence can be draining. The reason why the language used in artists statements is often a bit vague is because it is so hard to pin down a visual idea that has formed from many different ideas morphing together over time and some of which will be subconscious.

Sometimes reading an artwork can be daunting rather than uplifting, a fear of not understanding and missing the point. With Grayson Perry’s tapestries, if you weren’t familiar with the iconic religious paintings he references would you pick this up. Is the experience less because of it. Often there aren’t such clear ideas going into the work as with Grayson.

We held a bit of an artists crit at the gallery on Monday. The discussion about my work centred around what was a spiritual experience, what might be happening in the brain. Is the connection with nature being calming coming from the patterns that formed us. Also the possibility of paranormal activity was discussed and how this might manifest itself, interesting to see how many people feel they have had such an experience.

Crawling through the low tunnel to the mysterious octagonal room in the hidden depths of the crypt not currently open to the public it felt very possible that something unnerving might happen. It was pitch black and I had no torch so had to fire the flash to light the room, then check the camera playback for unwanted presences.

All clear.

There is an abandoned wheelchair in a disused tunnel, maybe left over from the war – it has lost its wheels and is on the point of disintegration.

I may use this image in ‘Syndrome’, new work about the inner recesses of the mind where fears are stored. It will come under the fear of medical intervention. My own experience at the age of 7 is being slapped by the dentist and then pinned down by 2 men and having a gas mask held over my face to subdue me after kicking out frantically when I saw the big syringe coming my way.

Thanks to the careful selection of artists and curation of works by Louise Harrington and Fiona Chaney Surface II was a very rewarding experience.