2nd Year, End of Year Show, Work in Progress

Thought I would take a minute to post about what I'm working on in the studio. I began the term, thinking about notions of loss and family. I attended my grandad's funeral in January and was interested to learn that he had been a draughtsman. On top of this, one of the readings at the funeral was an extract from one of my Dad's plays. My Dad has had Dementia since he was 50 so has long since become divorced from the person he once was. There are three strands of work currently in development in the studio which attempt to digest these ideas.. of heritage.. loss.. the 'fleeting-ness' of life, and how any truth about life can be so hard to pin down. Just when you've made an attempt to process it, it gets away from you again. I have been creating a sculpture by shredding a variety of fresh and found materials - remnants of fabric from my own stash and bought in from fabric shops, and flotsam and jetsom collected on walks around Exeter. The idea is that this pile of matter could be tucked into edges and corners at the exhibition, maybe where the wall meets the floor, or up and down the staircases. Another piece of work involves projecting a blurry photograph of this matter in situ. I may even try and get the projector to shake, emphasising this sense of the fleeting and elliptical nature of life. The third strand is some 'poetry'. Quotes from other artists and writers, text messages, random thoughts and graffitti created in moments of frustration. When all this text work has simmered down, I hope to have some concise words to intersperse with my objects for an installation.

End of Year Show, May 2012

Great week! Knackering and up and down as ever but I'm getting a lot of energy from the fact our end of year exhibition seems to be coming together. We've found a venue and have visited it a number of times over the past week. There are three empty buildings in a pedestrianised area of Taunton town centre. They have been furnished for use as offices, so there are hairy blue carpets, those nasty vertical blinds and strip lights in odd aluminium shells.. but it has great natural light, is not too overlooked by other buildings, is in a central location and for the past two weeks has been home to an arts project which has created a lot of local interest. There are three floors to each building and some interconnecting doors between them, meaning a potentially interesting, labyrinthine experience for the audience and a real opportunity for the curators and artists.

Today, our year group attended the wrap up session of the lively arts project that's been taking place in said buildings. Artists have been inhabiting the space, and interacting with the community with the aim of formulating a vision for some kind of arts establishment in Taunton. They also canvassed opinion on what the community think of recent regeneration plans. During this occupation, young people have had the opportunity to make films and music, and passersby have been able to 'get creative' using the resources set up by the artists.

Hopefully some of the ideas generated by the project will feed into future action through the town council and the various arts organisations already in existence in Taunton. Better partnership working and more focus on shared agendas was definitely being advocated today. For example, an arts diary for Taunton was suggested.

For us students, we now have three and a half months to make some work for the show. Can't wait!

Here are some shots of the location, just to give a feel :)

It has been great to meet Nic Brace, a passionate musician and arts facilitator and to continue to work with Tim Martin, the arts bod at the Brewhouse.

Saatchi

I'm not usually that modest when it comes to my art. I figure you've got to just go for it and see what happens (hopefully something!). However have just been looking at Saatchi Online where you can upload your work and sell it and I feel well intimidated! I wonder if there is somewhere a little less prestiguous for artists who are not quite that confident...

I have taken a lot of pictures of my paintings today, trying to get some professional looking shots. I have uploaded them in the Gallery section, check out the link above.

The plan is to put them all on there. Something to add to the to do list!

Emancipation

Today I came across a snippet from a diary, written 100 years before I was born (1879). The lady writing the diary had moved to Paris hoping to become an artist. Here's what she wrote:

What I long for is the freedom of going about alone, of coming and and going, of sitting in the seats of the Tuileries, and especially in the Luxembourg, of stopping and looking at the artistic shops, of entering churches or museums, of walking about old streets at night; that's what I long for; and that's the freedom without which one cannot become a real artist. Do you imagine that I get much good from what I see, chaperoned as I am, and when, in order to go to the Louvre, I must wait for my carriage, my lady companion, my family?

It's easy to take for granted some of the liberties we have today. Freedom is an important condition for the artist. This morning I went out and collected flotsam and jetsom in a bag. I don't think this lady would have been able to do that!

British Art Show 7, Plymouth

The British Art Show 7 will be showing at Peninsular Arts in Plymouth until 7th December. Somerset College students have the chance to submit a piece of work, to be shown at another venue, in response to the key themes of the exhibition.

I'm hoping to show a piece I made last year. I had recycled some of it for a new sculpture, so I've had to recreate it. It's a structure made out of wood, with the text from two genuine SMS messages in two of the 'cubicles'. It can generate lots of different interpretations. The cubicles are analogous to days and also mobile phone screens. I used wood, because its a material with warmth and history. The materials our personal, electronic devices are made out of are much 'colder': metal, plastic and circuit boards. We've been asked to submit 50 words. See below.

‘Heart On My Sleeve’, 2011, Mixed Media

My piece is about the passing of time and the fluctuations of relationships. It's also about how reliant we are these days on technology, conducting much of our communication via devices, like mobile phones and computers. The themes I relate my work to are 'the order of things' and 'parallel realities'.

Update

Spent today, 25.11.11, down at Royal William Yard in Plymouth where we had our show. Its a really lovely area - a former naval victualling yard, which has been developed into a mix of studios, restaurants and businesses. The views across the sound are stunning and the weather was great today.

  

                                                                                                                                                                              

The show was inside the Mills Bakery building, unfortunately a bit too tucked away to make it easily accessible to the public. Still, the unit was very nice and it was interesting to see the work of other colleges. Also, when your work's up amongst that of your peers you get to see how loudly or quietly it resonates and whether you want to tweak your aesthetic or not. I felt my work came off pretty subtle. Maybe I'll make it a bit louder for the next show.