thepastthreedays

the past three days have seen me at the Royal College of Arts working with the printmaking MA students developing their experimental book making skills. the whole thing was a glorious experience - it was good to be treated professionally with courtesy and civility

the facilities are exceptional, the food in the senior dining room dangerously moorish (and the plates have the royal college crest on them) and the views from all the rooms, especially the 6th floor are outstanding – i am sure that every student must make work about it for the first term!

the room i worked in looked over the albert hall.

meanwhile back at NUCA there was the undergraduate private view on tuesday – the ba textile work looked very tight and knowing - comments from the public and past students were very positive – i think that we have finally moved from textiles with a small f as in fine art (it was a very large one) to textile design with a capital Dhttp://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=402134129501&share_id=118690811495999&comments=1#s118690811495999
tutorials with MA drawing students at NUCA tomorrow and then next week the run up to new designers building the show makes it another 2 days in London at the design centre http://www.newdesigners.com/and after that hanging the book art postgraduate show at Camberwell the rest of the week http://www.camberwell.arts.ac.uk/65242.htm

timeseemstobeflying

well time seems to be flying – the last week saw me working extensively on the Moulsham street project – writing, designing and laying out the detailed plans for 245 interventions into the paving.
work at NUCA was focused on the final marks for the BA textile students and working with the students on the layout for the MA Textile Culture exhibition.
meanwhile the evenings and weekend has been full - the aldburgh festival is on – the highlight so far was a promenade performance titled The Way to the Sea - a homage to Britten’s On This Island, which included newly commissioned film and installations at various locations in Thorpeness. it prompted me to youtube one particular song – the water is wide – the most haunting version i found was by joan baez.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4pDTSKREvU&feature=related

The Water is Wide

The water is wide, I can-not cross o'er.
I Neither have thywings to fly.
Build me a boat that can carry two,
And both shall row, my true love and I.

A ship there is and she sails the seas.
She's laden deep, as deep can be;
But not so deep as the love I'm in
And I know not if I sink or swim.

I leaned my back up against a young oak
Thinking he were a trusty tree
but first he bended and then he broke
Thus did my love prove false to me.

O love is handsome and love is kind
and loves a jewel while it is new
but when its old love
it growth cold and fades away like the morning dew.
And fades away like the morning dew.

managed to get into London at the weekend and saw the students shows at Chelsea and Central St Martins – as ever the energy and possibilities seem endless and there seems hope if all these young people are now out in the world – thinking and being.
My friend laurence edwards has a show at Messums http://www.laurenceedwardssculpture.com/ which we popped into see- a very professional operation in Cork st. also managed to see the gormley at white cube and the book art element of the royal academy summer show.
this week sees the private view at NUCA and me at the Royal College working with the printmaking students on a 2 day book course – looking forward to it already.

theweekend

a word on this weekend - we were invited to watch a performance by the poet dean parkin http://www.deanparkin.co.uk/ a work in progress that he is taking to edinburgh this year - an intriguing self portrait told through a mix of strange tales from his childhood and poetry.

newworkmadepublic

yesterday evening saw me at 2 pulse performances both in unusual spaces - an underground car park and a shipping container http://www.3rdringout.com/- the day centered around writing up the assessment paperwork for the textiles BA and creating a blog to make the latest work public http://les-recent-work.blogspot.com/

roundingupthemoment

since i got back from cycling in the lakes it’s been very busy – it was straight back into thinking about organising the final shows for the various courses i work on – it’s a very ‘all encompassing’ experience for the students who have to consider their own work, often determined by the space they are allocated and then their work within the light of others in the cohort but also there is the context of the group, the space and then how the show is a public event for the college or university.
it is also that time of year where we talk about professional practice with the students, considering how the end of this course is just the beginning of start of something new – this is a link to a recent presentation. http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/professional-practice-2010
i have started to look at images taken when i was in the lake district – i am intrigued by notions of nature and natural within the context and confines of the forest and the forestry commission the photo above was taken deep in an area of managed forest where very little light reached the floor – the monochrome nature of it is something to work with and possibly seek out in the forestry commission land in Suffolk – meanwhile the trees that had fallen over exposed very shallow room systems – images of which will find themselves in presentations for textile students about networks and extending various ideas around textile activity.
onto others matters - at the moment it’s the pulse festival in ipswich, friday saw me watching the excellent pregnant - a piece of performance art involving a cross dressing pregnant man with 3 projectors – one of which is on his head! http://www.pulsefringe.com/ met robert pacitti in the foyer and talked about his taking the lead project at langard fort http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/news/pacitti-company-wins-500000-london-2012-cultural-o/ and the dockside dandies of Lowestoft. http://www.peter-wylie.com/dockside.htm and finally just saw the yinka shonibare on the 4th plynth – for me it looks a little too much like a prop from something ‘swashbuckling’.

cyclingback

23 years ago I spent 3 weeks in the lake district and 3 days looking at sculptures in grizedale forest cycling between them on my new mountain bike (the bike was often a talking point as mountain biking was a new phenomena) the sculptures were exciting as was the idea of a sculpture trail. i’ve just spent the past 3 days cycling in the lake district with the family recreating the experience. it was odd to find myself on organised trails, signs controlling where to cycle and most of the original work gone, it was disappointing to not see goldsworthys sidewinder, a huge twisting mass of logs or a piece called greenscale birdman but a huge surprise and a pleasure to again rearrange/help the fragile david nash piece as i did 23 years ago.