Blog created for professional practice 2 module

Perhaps the end?

Professional Practice Rationale

Blogg

Although I initially resisted the idea of having a blogg and also being forced to sign up to the social networking site facebook in order to fully participate in the module this initial resistance all due to my technological ineptitude. I have found the overall experience quite useful in the ways it has helped me to keep abreast with what’s going on with my peers in terms of the organization of the exhibition and also where they are with there own practices. I have also found keeping a blog has helped me keep a track of my artistic jaunts. Reflection after the events has led me to consider what it was about the exhibitions and performances that I have seen that appealed and in some cases failed to appeal to me, and made me consider these strengths and weaknesses in terms of my own work

I never did work out how to do some things with the blogg like imbed video, include links, etc but in terms of personal progress I am not disappointed overall.

I am unsure as to whether I will keep the blogg up after the assessment but would like to think that I would keep it as a record for posterity is nothing else.

In the future I intend to use the blogger site to make a gallery page for my work, for the purpose of the personal hyperlink from the ‘Lost Property’ I have chose to stay with my Saatchi page as it’s already there easily updatable and I am quite happy with the format.

Audiences

I have found the audiences meetings very informative, learning about the arts organizations operating in the area, and also learning of some of the difficulties which may arise as we enter into the world of the practicing artist, as well as the practicalities of putting on a group show.

Also by joining LVAF an act initiated by the audiences discussions’ myself and Melanie have been offered some educational wing of the ‘Owl Trail’ project which will hopefully lead to further opportunities as the organisation develops

Marketing

I haven’t particularly spoken about my marketing role on my blogg as most of the planning issues have been raised and resolved face to face amongst members of the group.

Within the group I was delegated the task of helping to produce flyers. Myself and Amy worked together on producing a silkscreen to use for overprinting appropriated flyers with the logo for the show devised between Michael and Johnny.

The initial intention was to hand these on however due to the not so small encumbrance of the law regarding littering and the necessity to acquire a flyer pass for such an activity, the handing out of flyers never came to pass however they were left in strategic places, and will be available at the show with details of the website.

Conclusion

The force behind this module was to take part in the organization and delivery of a group show. Despite the lack of input from some of those taking part the show, as I write this rationale is very much on course to achieve all of our aims. To have a successful private view on Thursday 13th generating as much interest from members of the public and our peers as possible followed by a three day show over the weekend commencing Friday the 14th which we will all be taking responsibility for looking after.

Art in unusual spaces film screening

cinema-povera-1web.jpg

as part of art in unusual spaces there was a film screening on Saturday 1st of May in the old tkmax unit, previously used for floppalgangers and sliceland.

The screening was fantastic aided by the atmosphere of an art lock in. sat on the floor in front of the projection split into three simultaneously playing films accompanied by live music and readings from TS Elliot's waste land. when the event came to an end we wee hustled out of a back door and down the fire escape with samples of film real to take as souvenirs.


Marvellous!

Tramway Douglas Gordon

Visiting the Tramway in Glasgow was a real experience what a fantastic venue!
The work I saw was predominately video based which worked incredibly well in this industrial converted space

event_160_1.jpg

Douglas Gordon 24hr psycho back and forth to and fro,

A piece originally commissioned for the tramway was playing on a loop in one of the spaces, having the work in such a dark vast space really played along with Gordon's themes of memory and time emerging from the darkness.


Follow link for tramway visual arts podcasts feed://tramway.jellycast.com/podcast/feed/2

CCA pocket theatre-experience the magic

Théâtre de poche (Pocket Theatre)
The CCA was actually one of the first places that we stumbled across in Glasgow, a small hub with a bookshop full of specialist literature, a large gallery space and cafe bar, there was also behind one of the doors a small theatre with old school raked seating and the film pocket theatre 12min playing on constant loop. having the film playing in this small devoted theatre really addend to the magic of the experience, very apt for a film inspired by the magician Arthur Lloyd's thumb card index.
One of the real successes of Sliceland was that despite its low budget those involved really made it a great experience, with the huge workable robots and live music playing, they really made the atmosphere a successes. I am loosing focus so shall leave this particular post going back to the pocket theatre film which if you can find it online you should really have a look at it is really very good.
Extract from CCA Website
A magician pulls seemingly random images from his pocket, including family photographs, playing cards and film stills, arranging and rearranging them in mid air. Inspired by the 1930’s magician Arthur Lloyd, the so-called Human Card Index, Froment plays with illusion and the authority of visual communication.

Vestages Park!


By far I think a Highlight for all those on the Glasgow trip
Vestages park situated in what could be called an area of wasteland just outside of the Glasgow sculpture studios was a project conceived and initiated by Lowsalt. the park was produced by 16 artists. The park itself was a fantastic experience humours and surreal. it really showed how you can make something truly great and inspired a collective when you pull together, Lowsalt said that they appropriated the the public land from the local council and after clearing the land up for the park there is interest for other projects to go on in the once abandoned space. This reminded me of what gary had said about the art in unusual spaces project and how Artists/the creative community are there ready to fill in the cracks and opportunities to produce and show wherever possible. Personally given the choice I would much rather put on a show/display work in a piece of scrap land than in a shopping centre or a gallery for that matter.
extract from promotional material

"A Collective Intervention into a Forgotten Landscape"

Vestiges Park does not exist, cannot exist, will not exist. The artists involved deny all knowledge of the project and the authorities are mute. In some cases these artists may not actually exist – they split, double, multiply, evaporate, condense, dissolve and merge until truth and fiction, science and magic become indistinguishable. Vestiges Park is a chimera – there and not there – dare to find us, dare to enter and let us take you to the edgelands, the rotting places where nothing is as it seems...

...and if you cannot find us it is because we have fallen off your maps. - Lady Ada Lovelace

JACK WRIGLEY ~ CLARA URSITTI ~ ROBBIE THOMSON ~ ANDREW SUNLEY SMITH
JEN SYKES ~ JONATHAN SCOTT ~ SHELLY NADASHI ~ ROB MULHOLLAND ~ PHIL LEE ZUZANNA KALINOWSKA ~ ALEX GROSS ~ CHERYL FIELD ~ ACD FERGUSON
BEN DEMBROSKI ~ JIM COLQUHOUN ~ JUDD BRUCKE

VESTIGES PARK PREVIEW Saturday April 17th 2- 6pm
Open From Twelve until Five Daily

Open Thursday Evenings 5- 8pm

145 Kelvinhaugh Street - Glasgow G3 8PX

Vestiges Park is inspired by the 1844 anonymous publication of ‘Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation’'. The book, written by Scottish journalist Robert Chambers, exposed a cosmic theory of transmutation which pre-dated Darwin's 'Origin of the Species' by 15 years.

The story of this work, its author, and its reception remains one of the most intriguing tales in the history of science. In it we can see foreshadows of many debates that still occur to this day - among scientists and public alike - including those about the validity of evolutionary theories, the demarcation of science from pseudoscience, and the effect of popularization upon scientific ideas. The publication of the first edition would see the birth of one of the greatest controversies of the nineteenth century, one that would result in the sale of over 23,000 copies over a sixteen year period and the publication of a further eleven editions. (Secord 1994, xxvi)

Adam’s Sedgwick (Darwin’s geology professor) described it as “philosophy out of moonshine”


David Noonan

David Noonan
milliard2-12-09-5.jpg

The first of our visits to the Michell Library introduced us for the first time to the work of David Noonan The work itself consisted of several large scale 2d wood elements with silk screen images printed directly onto the supports the images on the pieces where of protests, children playing and sinister looking characters.
The work holds references to stage props and carry s a strong impression of performance and the curator of the work said of Noonan that he uses a large imagery archive in order to leave the images ambiguous the fantastically grand lofty space that the work occupied in the michelle library added to the sence of movement.

An extract from exhibition literature read

'Noonan blends myth fact and fiction in his creation'


Art in unusual spaces wander 16/04

several art in usual spaces openings happened on the 16th of April, mainly in the leeds shopping plaza.
downstairs in the units we will occupy there were several pieces of artwork on display in the units running down the left hand side (facing old zavi) these works were displayed in a mixture of ways on, plinth's, on boards erected in the window and also suspended from the ceiling. the suspended pieces I personally felt worked really well as they seemed to negate the problem of making the exhibition carry the feeling of a static art society display, which I thought was a slight problem with the selling exhibition that had happened in the opposite units a few weeks prior-not that it was the work in that exhibition evoked this impression it was rather the board displays which it was mounted on.
In the unit which previously had the selling exhibition (to the right of zavi) there was a collection of video pieces, one large projection being projected onto one of the freestanding boards previously used for the selling exhibition (this use of the boards did not offend me) and three monitors placed on floor level almost flush with the window.
Those involved with the exhibition had also used a window marker to write and draw on the window text relating to the exhibition. This worked extremely well as it made use of the huge window space without detracting from the video display as laminate lettering might (it was also probably far more economic than laminate lettering as well) .
Overall the space felt really quite dynamic also the booze table was out in the main public area outside old zavi making it known to the general public that something was afoot!

Floppalgangers
upstairs in the old tkmax space which previously held sliceland, there was a group exhibition displaying really very different work dispersed quite far in the space. this distance between pieces worked far better than I would have imagined it might. the work didn't just turn into follies in the vast space, rather the space around them gave them room to be appreciated, I doubt we will have the opportunity to have such space as there are 44 of us but it was nice to see how there is no need to be afraid of work standing alone.
on the downside I am not in any way wanting to be a spoil sport but the health and safety aspect of so many suspect exposed wires did concern me slightly, especially with the possibility of little inquisitive bodies exploring the space; by this I mean children not vermin.

There was also an art in unusual event in the cornexchange, of site specific posters created for the external shop faces running around the balcony. Was not impressed with this, it looked like something that might be there anyway just to fill the space, perhaps this was the concept in which case it was lost on me.

It's been a while!

Chapeltown Salon

I paid a visit on wednesday to the chapetown salon at union 105.
It was interesting to see work displayed in this way, all sizes all heights jumbled together almost floor to ceiling. it would be interesting to know whether the logic for hanging the work went beyond the jigsaw of fitting the multiple pieces on the wall which must have been a feat in itself?

Because even if hung only in relation to size, the narrative and presence of a work extends beyond the picture frame (all the works in the salon were 2d) your perception of one painting bleeds onto another and vise verse. A sense of humour, or nostalgia or subversion may be taken from one piece and affect another.
Exactly why exhibitions are curated along a theme, making the work sympathetic to the other works that it shears a space with.

There were a couple of quite novel ways of hanging that I did quite take to. One piece a pan and ink on lined note pad paper was sellotaped to the wall, cheap, affective to purpose however I presume quite unsalable as you would have to remove it with a scalpel knife. also there appeared to be quite a few frames of the kind you might find in a charity shop, the ones you get for 50p with the added extra of a print of a cat or something of that ilk, again cheap fit for purpose however I did question if the artist chose it for this reason or whether they were trying to add a kitch quality to the work.

The Work of art and the beholder -Wolfgang Kemp

'The work reacts to it's spacial and functional context through the means of it's medium, through it's size, it's form, its shaping of the interface or border between the ''outside'' and the ''inside''its inner scale, the degree of it's finish, and its spacial disposition (i.e the manner in which it either continues or negates the outer space and positions its beholder)' (Kemp p186)

Sterio Views............



Mark Wallinger Curates – The Russian Linesman. image from exhibition in Leeds art gallery last year

How to display a stereo viewer in the exhibition?
I have seen stereo views within the 'Gallery' twice before one being as you can see in the image above (which I ripped from a previous blogger) with viewers set into the wall all at the same height none of the mechanisms on display playing on the idea of looking through into another world 'thru the keyhole' as it were. the other occasion was in the Kodak gallery at the Media Museum in Bradford, the Edwardian viewer set in a semi ornate wooden case.
the physical involvement or participation of the viewer is essential to the affect i want to achieve, phenomenology, reception theory essentially the stereo viewer is my blank.


like Nicolas Maes curtain, (Kemp) and I think I like the idea of the viewer and the mechanism i.e the twined photograph set on it to be viewed as well, the image will be of an illusion of my making however the image/photographs will be in themselves be unaltered the only illusion in the actual 'image' is created by the eyes.

Today Gary made me think about how I could translate the space of the original image, or set into the gallery space, setting the viewer at my height would mean for most people that they would have to lean in thus physically engaging and bringing into play the idea that they are are looking as a scene as I would as if 'looking thru my eyes' so I need a Katie sized plinth/stand/pole.

Psychogeography group presentations 23/03

Leeds psychogeography group presentations Tuesday 23rd of marsh held at Leeds university business school

Tina Richardson- Introducing Deep Topography short film clip from Nick Papadamitrio

Video that I can't work out how to embed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnW1XDo7usI

excellent website http://www.middlesexcountycouncil.org.uk/


Tim Waters - Neighbourhood Maps Denis wood, this American life radio extract on his work

'ACT ONE. SIGHT.
Denis Wood talks with host Ira Glass about the maps he's made of his own neighborhood, Boylan Heights in Raleigh, North Carolina. They include a traditional street locator map; a map of all the sewer and power lines under the earth's surface; a map of how light falls on the ground through the leaves of trees; a map of where all the Halloween pumpkins are each year; and a map of all the graffiti in the neighborhood. In short, he's creating maps that are more like novels, trying to describe everyday life'www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/110/Mapping



Relay humorous and interesting way to look at and and in a way quantify the world around us and how we pass through it the routs we chose and the indicators we leave behind us
for instance when looking at the concentration of street signage Wood found that the main concentration of signage was to be found where people from outside the area where passing through whereas the least signage was present in areas mainly used by local residents.
non of the images will load from flicker so please follow this link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thisamericanlife/sets/72157602618985796/

Wood also found a correlation in his findings with the houses most mentioned in the local neighborhood newsletter and and those prominently displaying pumpkin 'jack o lanterns' on Halloween.

what kind of ways might a gallery space be mapped? the people traffic followed?
  • Signage?
  • litter?
  • Incidents of interference?
  • noise frequency?
  • demographic of interest in various areas? who goes just to see the new exhibition and who goes to see the permanent collection
Or what about mapping the plaza what order do people visit the shops? where is our space in that order? do different demographics of people tend to stay in certain areas of the shopping centre?




The Sunday Review

This was ment to be the sunday review on the 6th of March but things got the better of me
Leeds Art Walk 03/03/10

Straggling behind the main bulk of of art appreciators out on the cultural razzle in Leeds I found this months art walk to be a mixed bag.
first call was the Midnight Bell where I discovered for the first time the drawings of Richard Taylor

'drawings address the subject of living environments from the opposing viewpoint of creating structures that are subtly different each time and repetition is non existent.'
http://www.midnightbell.co.uk/news/read/bellspace-gallery

I really enjoyed these expressive yet detailed drawing's reminding me in part of illustrations from Einid Blyton's Magic Faraway tree, not to suggest in any way that these drawings where quaint and I think there impact was blighted from being on display in a pub, they where deffinatly not 'cafe art'

Next Stop along the way (reached by bus rather than foot I will add addmit) was the Henry Moore institute for a brief talk on the curren't exhibition, Alan Johnsonton's wall drawings

I must say I was far more taken with the reasoning for the work than the work it's self

'Johnston’s drawings give new perspectives to familiar spaces; thus the striking architecture of the Institute’s top-lit galleries – Victorian wool merchants’ offices which were converted by Dixon Jones in 1993 – comes into focus. Whilst not being obviously three-dimensional, the drawings highlight the galleries as sculptural spaces in their own right. Alongside and framed within the large wall drawings, the exhibition includes a series of smaller abstract pencil drawings on plaster, lino, and wood prepared with titanium and zinc white.'
http://www.henry-moore-fdn.co.uk/hmi/exhibitions/alan-johnston

Did the wall drawings do any more to highlight the space than leaving the space white would have done?

Next stop 'The art Market' Merrion Market,

I think the art market is a fantastic set up, they will soon if they have not already be opening a mini shop down at PSL

The current exhibition is of work from an ex leeds uni student and member of the art market 'hub' along with a guest artist (names may be inserted at a later date) both artists work with photography and there work held a simular sence on nostalgie/place in the 70's
in terms of practicall display, the work was all fairly small scale and hung in a very infromal way. Some of the images where mounted directly onto the wall, while others where simply in clip frames I don't think this worked for me unless the aim of a piece of work is to be uninposing it should be hung in a way that comands some kind of respect.
otherwise it may as well stay blutaked to the studio wall.

The next stop on the walk was trinity where there where free mini eggs and crispy buns a plenty!
there was a performance piece by urban angels, which I personaly found not to be enjoyable, there where times when it was increadably moving however these where when the performer was still.
follow this link to learn more of urban angels http://www.urbanangelscircus.com/

The Road


Slight diversion...... This evening I went to see The Road for the second time, I did not enjoy the film content on either visit but (thou I suppose that was a given) however on second viewing with the removal of initial horror I found the film bringing to mind the garden of Derek Jarmans rather photographs I had seen of of the garden in an exhibition at Manchester City Art Gallery called 'The Art Of The Garden',
The images that where brought to mind differed from the one I have put on this blogg as they where early colour productions with the kind of skewed colour saturation that colour photos of the time produced, the unintentional affect of the unrealistic colouring in my consideration went further to convey a sense of bleak isolation.

Arts Council Photography collection at the Laing Gallery

Arts Council Photography collection at the Laing Gallery visited 04/02/2010

Exhibition of work from the Arts Council collection, I found there to be in the selection of work a focus on the Urban, abandoned the forgotten,

Routes 2Byker Newcastle- series of 25 color images,

Stimulates the idea of journeying thru a place, passing streets and unknown figures who do not notice/acknowledge the camera

Damien Hirst Pharmacy


Damien Hirst Pharmacy at the Baltic visited 04/02/2010



Pharmacy has been sent to the Baltic as part of the Tate Connects, a program established in 2008 to encourage collaboration between galleries and promote wide ranging public access to national collections.

Hear follows an extract from the Baltic publicity on the work

'Medicine has been a consistent theme in Hirst's practice. He has parodied the idea that medicine can cheat death. The installation 'Pharmacy' (1992) explores these ideas. The installation is an apparently functioning pharmacy, complete with counter and floor to ceiling cabinets holding preparations and drugs. The clinical an authoritative atmosphere connects the laboratory or hospital with the museum or gallery space. The work suggests that medicine, like art, provides a belief system which can be seductive but deceptive'

Although as the extract says 'Pharmacy' can be seen in part comment on the art world/market 'like art, provides a belief system which can be seductive but deceptive' I found this reference pretty irrelevant to my experience of the work. On a quiet Thursday afternoon, I was able to spend time in the space alone all bar the attendant sheepishly reading private eye, really looking at all the little boxes in rows, blocks of color and pattern, it really was an amalgamation of museum/situation and gallery. I found the unoccupied desk particularly intriguing. On the counter where four apothecary bottles placed to represent the four elements earth, wind, air and fire, referring back to practices of old and the passage of time and beliefs, the faith that we now have in medicine or the 'Pharmacy' was once placed in the apothecary I don't think this serves as much to highlight progress as our need to have an authority where we can go to ease our pain take our burden, we are like the fly's being drawn to the homey on mushroom stools in Hirst's 'Pharmacy' which are then zapped by the insect-o-cutor it is pre determined that our search for a cure for all our ills and an escape from death will be unfruitful.

Fiona Crisp - Subterrania


Fiona Crisp Subterrania at the Impressions Gallery. visited 23/01/10
solo exhibition by the British artist Fiona Crisp. The photography of Fiona Crisp is presented within the gallery space in large scale format this adds to the imagery's seemingly overwhelming affect, the imagery has been collected over the past seven years, using a diverse range of locations
I personally found the use of light in the photographs to be key to their awe inspiring effect, communicating in a sense the idea of being whiteness to something, this feeling compounded by the images large scale format, taking over the gallery space, becoming independent of it. I would draw a parallel with the experience of entering a Cathedral even though the images where on the wall they carried the sensation of looking up, Turing again to the importance for me with the affect of light almost ethereal

An extract form Fiona Crisps website says of the images

'Ranging from Early Christian Catacombs to a Second World War underground hospital, the apparently disparate locations for the images were chosen primarily for the sense of physical power that they evoke but also for the fact that they are all now tourist sites where complex relationships between heritage, leisure and history are brought into question. Here, contrary to a location’s specific historic purpose that allowed access to a defined group of users, these sites have now been opened up for tourism where the boundaries between modern experience and historical truth are unavoidably blurred'

Neeta Madahar at the Media Museum

Neeta Madahar exhibition at the National media Museum. visited 23/01/10
The Five bodies of work segregated into five sections within the exhibition space each series varies incredibly from each others. At first glance there is no apparent relationship between the works, without Madahar's name being placed next to each work it would be easy to think the work exhibited was produced by three different individuals however in in his article for ‘archive’ Derek Horton comments on this difference as being merely superficial as running thorough these three bodies of work ‘is a concern with the relationship of nature and the artifice'

In ‘Falling’ Madahar combined still and moving imagery of sycamore seeds in motion all artificially set up for the event/image these images reflecting a naturally occurring event. The focus is of the sycamore seeds falling no context is given other than sky. These images might be seen as evocative of childhood memories focusing on a small wonder experienced, remembered and stored as a snapshot

In the ‘Cosmos’ Madahar created a series of unique photograms using handmade origami flowers, the tones created by light shone through the paper pettels are practically indistinguishable from those that would be expected if ‘real’ flowers where used again bringing home what Horton said in his article of the works ‘relationship of nature and artifice’

Sustenance is a series of Documentary photographs Madahar produced while studying in the USA. The images of birds in their habitat where taken form the balcony of the apartment where Madahar was staying in Massachusetts. A similarity might be drawn between these images and those of Jill Cole’s series ‘Between hear and there’. Images where taken on a nature reserve within and army garrison, Cole’s images document a conservation project involving the capture and identification of birds. Both Madahar’s and Cole’s series can be seen as reflecting on issues of home and belonging, both using as mediator simpler creatures. Madahar watching the bird feeder just bejond her balcony, Cole looking into the nuances of army life hear in briten from the inside of the army garrison.


'Photography shows us not what the world looks like but what the world looks like photographed, but we see the photographed world so much that our vision and perception is fundametally changed by it' Derek Horton 'archive' journal October 2009