foldingandsewinginisolation

after a day of interviews at NUCA yesterday – effectively deciding on the fate of individuals and in turn the future of the textiles course it was interesting today to spend the day in isolation folding and sewing

professionalcontexts

a most excellent teaching day at NUCA - starting with a professional practice session with year 2 textiles students. http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/10-professional-practice-21-march-2011 this was really to begin to talk about the many ways to approach writing about your own work – starting with the idea of the question and thinking about the idea of context. it led onto discussing the 5,000 word report and how to embed it within your overall practice. the afternoon was spent with students who have entered the wallpaper competition – some superb ideas – they just need executing - finally an image to add to my picture file titled wonderful town planning and why the world is like it is

crossstitchbookworks

friday saw an evening at snape maltings to watch far by wayne mcgregor and random dance – the lighting object by Lucy Carter at the back of the stage was truly wonderful to watch - matched by the Ben Frost soundscape that at points disrupted ones internal organs but the dance was really in the way most of the time - a lot of the usual angular noodling which didn’t appear to go anywhere - a shame as i was looking forward to it. in the studio during the week I’ve been stitching into some of the bookworks i have been working on that celebrate their materiality – galvanised by a visit to the national gallery and viewing paintings that have pattern on cloth that does not take into account the fall and folds or perspective – teaching at nuca was a mixture of briefing, reading and feedback around learning agreements, one to one tutorials and support around the final show.

cyclinglookingandsharing

i have to flag up again slideshare.net – a wonderful service – a place to post presentations so they can be accessed from anywhere with a web connection – to see what I’ve up to go to https://owa.nuca.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell recent presentations are all about deconstructing course documents for briefing sessions with students. – next one is on Monday with year 1 textile students at NUCA. managed to slot in a visit to the wolsey theatre in Ipswich on Monday to see the devil has quentin’s heart - a faustian pact with movement! –the drunk/dance scene was mesmerising - a one man show with Benji Reid, although the on-stage sound by Andrew Wong was startling and inventive – if you get the chance it’s a thoughtful show to see https://owa.nuca.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/2211/shows/the-devil-has-quentins-heart.html while we are here i should mention the lighting – moody and strangely illustrative by Paul Colley. cycling around Heveningham hall at the weekend i came across the creek men a work by Laurence Edwards http://www.laurenceedwardssculpture.com/ a piece i last saw looking quite splendid in the reed bed at snape maltings, having been floated/sailed/punted from Laurence’s studio at Butley – a place worth a visit on their next open day http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB-y89E5-As especially if they are pouring.

springinthecountry

spring in the country. another faster than sound at snape on saturday – quite possibly the best attended but the most gentle in terms of its impact on me. leafcutter john made some interesting noises in interesting ways and the drumming from Seb Rochford got good when he ventured into his jazz-noise phase – but i think i prefer to hear him talking and explaining http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3W-3PVUofY&feature=related took some interesting shots in the dark on the walk back. monday saw a full day at NUCA it was the deadline for the proposals for the students to have an idea of how their work should sit in the retail space linked to the final textile BA show – some very professional ideas so far – there will be some awesome things to own. there was also a session to support the wallpaper history competition – again some really exciting starting points. tuesday was wall to wall tutorials with the year 3 students – the fear has started with only 6 weeks to go. after the trip to Venice the realisation that my art education started in 1900 was brought home – so what to do? I have called on the services of Kenneth Clark and the wonderful civilization series. what a wonderful way to be educated – i now know why rome fell, the role of the church, the reasons behind the dark ages and so much more and i’m only on the 3rd programme.

thevenerablebede

i have been creating work for some time which looked at the hand in relation to the book but my recent submersion into the world of 1400 – 1500 paintings has led me back to the book itself. combined with ideas around a bookwork i am creating for the sunderland book project http://culturgen.ning.com/profiles/blogs/open-call-for-submissions-the which has as its focus a quote from the venerable st bede http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bede . this recent body of work has at its core the elimination of all but the books and will be printed within a bookwork and as full size (the size of the original paintings) prints.

writingyourwayoutofsomething

after a week in venice where the focus for the day centred around deciding which church or gallery to visit the past two days have been a little hectic. monday saw a full day at NUCA briefing year 2 on unit 6 for BA Textiles – deconstructing the course documents and supporting the writing of their learning agreements. the afternoon was a rather wide ranging, all encompassing raucous affair – the presentation looked at the idea of extended textiles with a view to mapping an individual relationship to textiles. this is a version from 2 years ago - http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/09-008-extending-textiles-a meanwhile tuesday was mid-point review at Camberwell where students present silently their work and the cohort critically discuss the merits of the work – quite a full-on experience - with questions such as - is the work a tool for the curation of narrative? being posed.