presentingpossibilitiesattheendofitall

A great day at Camberwell - today on the Book Art Course has seen the delivery of a part of the sequence of sessions set up within the course that explore the process of hanging the final show - thinking about the role of the exhibition in a practice - the meaning of the screw v the nail - looking at past exhibitions - health and safety calamities and working without restrictions in an ideal world. here is a link to the presentation https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/final-show-2017 It's going to be an excellent show - as diverse as ever, each student has been developing their own voice and the show will contain work that both celebrates and challenges notions of book - it will all make you think. come along - http://events.arts.ac.uk/event/2017/7/13/Camberwell-Postgraduate-Summer-Show-2017/?_ga=2.202896465.1912006096.1497984293-1873703396.1485343360 becoming obsessed with reply all https://gimletmedia.com/reply-all/ and their yes yes yes section - http://yesyesnos.tumblr.com/ hear the more esoteric areas of the internet explained.

backfrombarnsley

back from an absolutely excellent 4 days in Barnsley working with the Open College of the Arts. It was the final year MA Fine Art Degree Show at the Civic,  

http://www.barnsleycivic.co.uk/ a culmination of all their work and a physical manifestation of the online experience. The title of the whole event was called we are connected (WEARECONNECTED) which was so apt. One of the things I love about helping to hang the final show and then assessing the unit is meeting these people physically for the first time. It's quite a wild feeling in that one feels that we know each other, often we have been in each other's bedrooms or at least living spaces but at the same time how tall are they, how do they exist in 3D? The private view was one of the nicest I have ever been to in all my years of teaching, with supportive speeches, great comments, conversations and presents and some great work by the artists; Rob Brisco, Tanya Ahmed, Monika Brueckner, Alison South, Ines Gonzalez Cordero, Maire Keogh, Mwamba Mulangala, Emma Delpech, Mathew Aldred and Susan Miller....how good is that. The MA Fine Art course leader is Caroline Wright http://www.carolinewright.com/ and whole thing is run so professionally. I managed to get out and about on my folding bike for a couple of hours as it was such good weather.....not bad.

stayinginandgoingouttoseethings

John Wick 2 was a little like John Wick 1; a blur of fast paced close combat choreographed  fighting with unflinching use of weaponry, all structured by ritualised codes of conduct underpinned by honour......it's a certain kind of excellent. And onto House of cards - what to say with its travel ban, the closing of borders, cyber attacks and conspiracy theories around voting......A full night of theatre tonight at Pulse Festival; Lucy Grace with Lucy, Lucy & Lucy Barfield, unlimited theatre with Am I dead yet? @ithinkiwilldie and Jack Rooke with Good Grief @jackrooke after an afternoon being trained on Wellbeing and Resilience in an attempt to gain some armour in the oncoming war of looking after myself!!!

watchingandlistening

well the Netflick's War Machine was a strange one - very little happened but when I realised that it was derived from a book by a journalist embedded within the American war machine it started to make sense, the exposé being the thing and the I Daniel Blake, maybe for some a revelation but if it is a truth known by many one has to ask why?...... a full weekend at Pulse Festival in Ipswich https://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/pulse-festival/ . Suitcase day is a great concept, all stuff on stage has to come on public transport... but this year many groups opted for single voice storytelling rather than clever stage craft but it was a great day and highlights included James McDermott's rubber ring, http://velvettrumpet.co.uk/rubber-ring/ George Orange's First Lady https://georgeorange.com/work/first-lady/ and Robin Boon Dale's What Does Stuff Do http://befestival.org/events/what-does-stuff-do-robin-boon-dale-uk-30-min/.  Day 2 was scratch day where stuff is still being worked out. The whole day was excellent and difficult to pick out highlights but recommendations are  Fuel's The Dark https://fueltheatre.com/projects/the-dark , Nicola Werenowska's Invisible http://www.thereviewshub.com/pulse-points-nicola-werenowska-invisible/, Johny Cotsen's Louder is Not Always Clearer https://www.experimentica17.org/whats-on/2017/2/9/louder-is-not-always-clearer. 

aren'tyoungpeoplewonderful

The CSM final show part 1 was an interesting one - The BA was very full and had some really considered video work combined with lots of I must guess purposely badly made work - new punk? all about how individuals feel about personally about stuff. The MA Fine Art was good with a seemingly large focus on pornography and war. It is interesting to think of the final year shows as a form of litmus test as to what young people are interested in. The year 2 fine art show at Chelsea was full of vibrant exciting work. It felt broader and slightly more considered than the CSM show even though it was only year 2.

Crawling through Netflick's 13 reasons - I know, I know but it is as most 'box sets' are slightly addictive - it appears to be a show about parents fear of their children and children's fear of themselves therefore each other.    

A day of interesting presentations at Camberwell - symposium 2 is always a fantastic occasion where the growth of individuals during their time on the course is made evident within their presentation. Then onto Chelsea to see and crit an exhibition in the library of work created around the fold. all good

anticipatingthenearandfarfuture

finally got round to watching T2 Trainspotting -  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2763304/ just so sad, something about the loss of hope with the passage of time - their youth, even if hopeless did appear to have optimism but later it's all about despair. But it's quite mesmerising and Danny did not let us down because it was important that it was good. Venice Biennale gets closer I can hardly contain myself but getting tickets for Pulse https://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/pulse-festival/ will keep me going - suitcase day is always a winner having the opportunity to see half formed thoughts tested out - looking forward to seeing how last year's winner, Tell me Anything by www.ontheruntheatre.co.uk has been developed, although everybody is talking about Golem but just I'm looking forward to seeing a mass of theatre and the Wolsey Theatre is such a great place to see work. On the podcast front I have to recommend reply all https://gimletmedia.com/reply-all/ it's all about the wonders of the web - there will be stuff in there you have no idea about but it is happening now and it is about to take over your world.

womentalkingandfastcars

Back from a conference where I spoke about my role as artist in residence at NanoDTC - for more information check out my other blog which covers the project 

http://unfoldingthinking.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/talkingwithteachers.html before getting on a train I managed to see the latest show at the glorious Raven Row - 56 Artillery Lane http://www.ravenrow.org/current/ explores notions of home - the stand out work for me was a woman's place a film by liberation films made in 1974 http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6d544432 it's an extraordinary document in so many ways. The content is a fantastic slice of social history - strong women attempting to challenge societal norms - men depicted as helplessly fools failing to run the crèche whilst mansplaining but then you have the camera angles and interview techniques to contend with as well as the chronological indicators of fashion and social fabric - all in glorious black and white. There is also the rare treat is access to the top flat that is preserved in a time warp - it was like stepping back in time into my Great Aunts house in the 1970s. And then there was fast and furious 8 - oh dear, maybe not the best......