Saturday 31 May 2014

weloveasda

You have to love ASDA – this is what happens when you let loose on our streets an organisation that appears to have little understanding of any cultural references other than the bottom line.

Meanwhile - maybe it’s time to stand up....getting paid for what we do http://www.payingartists.org.uk/

Thursday 29 May 2014

thecentreofuniversalcoolnesswearealldoomed

An excellent day at Camberwell with all the students who are graduating this summer presenting work at symposium 2. The work was of a high standard with some really interesting research strategies on display.  I went to the degree show at Central St Martin – the ‘new’ space really is quite a corporate monster of hipness– the centre of universal coolness. There was some excellent work – my key moments were the interventions into the space by Marijam Did and the response from the organisation says something about the nature of the place. The truly beautiful domestic dance/movement piece Ritournelle by Dorthe Slej Pedersen was very moving http://dortheslejpedersen.com/
The work of Dan Gardner a video of a word for word transcript from a ‘porn’ film spoken in a matter of face way had me in stitches, especially the boredom etched on the face of the male as the woman said yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes YES.
Meanwhile at Norwich we are deep in the middle of assessments – which are going well – each year the standard improves with the level of teaching. The work we are doing around professional practice is giving the students a great grounding for getting them ready for the ‘real’ world – it’s becoming more focused and this is evidenced in the presentations the year 3 students  have been giving as part of their assessments.  

Last night the start of Pulse festival was marked by the thoughtful Credible Likeable Superstart Role Model by Bryony Kimmings. The piece explores the world through a nine year old girls eyes – or in one instant a lack of them!  - thoughtful and thought provoking – see it while you can – Taylor can only be nine for a short time! http://www.bryonykimmings.com/tourdates.html

Tuesday 20 May 2014

teachingandtalking

Another great teaching day at Camberwell – 2 sessions – the morning was all about context and the effect of the structures that mediate the art that we see and the afternoon was a workshop that focused on the idea of storytelling – next week is the symposium and so it seemed the right time to think and talk about  how we create and tell stories – for the students the future is all about how they communicate and I am reminded of all the workshops and sessions of storytelling I did with traditional storytellers in the 90s while living in Lincolnshire. I see Hugh Luptons name occasionally.

Managed to get to the Tate to see the gloriously mad work by Phyllida Barlow – the Duveen gallery is just very very full in a way I have never seen before - but there is also thinking – her proposal and ideas behind the work are really fascinating - http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/tate-britain-commission-2014-phyllida-barlow/exhibition-catalogue/proposal its a must see.

and then there is Kenneth Clark exhibition which lays out his life and its connection to the arts – a lot of interesting facts illustrated with a collection of artworks that display a focused good taste http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/kenneth-clark-looking-civilisation

Looking forward to working with the PAL’s (Peer Assisted Learners) tomorrow at Norwich – they are a wonderful group who volunteer to support the new year 1 students next year- it will be good.




Tuesday 13 May 2014

comicsaregoandsome

I have a bookwork in an exhibition of book art at DIY Cultures - 'the annual day-long festival of zines, artist books, comics, artists-run spaces, talks, films, animation, exhibitions' – it’s  at Rich Mix in London: 25th May 2014 https://www.facebook.com/DIYCultures?ref=stream
Looking forward to some events at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival this week – Pioneer http://www.nnfestival.org.uk/festival/performance/pioneer and Opus http://www.nnfestival.org.uk/festival/performance/opus-no-7

Meanwhile I have been finishing off the building of the area around the extension which basically means manual labour – digging and shifting mud and stones!

Tuesday 6 May 2014

bookpresentationfoldinglecturesmockingideasgeneratingstartingpointsworkshop

An interesting session at firstsite in Colchester – running a workshop with the Colne and Colchester Embroiderers Guild. http://www.embroiderersguildeast.org.uk/branches/branches-a-j/colne-colchester/ The session was a hybrid book/presentation/folding/lecture/smocking/ideas/generating/starting point’s workshop. It went down well and as ever, through reflection it is interesting to consider the learning - what we know, the skills we have yet often take for granted and how our experiences inform us. A good time was had by all.
The shows at firstsite were quite baffling – in a good way - Simon Denny, The Personal Effects of Kim Dotcom was a quite bizarre collection of stuff (mainly shiny) – the title of the show explains the work – it begins to question so many things - ownership, capitalism, consumerism and of course taste! The film by Aleksandra Domanović, specifically From yu to me looks at the history of the Internet domain ‘.yu’ was fascinating and a great companion piece to the Kim Dotcom exhibit. The Henri Chopin show was very familiar – some really excellent and intriguing work – a must for people interested in concrete poetry and visual sound. http://www.firstsite.uk.net/page/1/Home

Meanwhile a patch of tarmac on the road outside my house was a distraction from the digging that has to be done.

Monday 5 May 2014

blackfittingswithemotions


Went to see Gecko’s latest piece at the dance house in Ipswich – Institute - http://www.geckotheatre.com/project/institute/ - technically it was wondrous with some very clever set pieces, especially when a man rewinds his past to his childhood in about 2 minutes whilst wearing his own lighting but it was a little lacking in its ability to create an emotional response, to really connect with the characters  – maybe it was the woman guffawing inappropriately sitting in front of me – who knows, but it’s still worth seeing. Turn the page book fair in Norwich yet again showed a great range of book making. There was some good student work on display, I look forward to discussing their experiences at the next seminar. http://turnthepage.org.uk/ 

The black electrical fittings are in the new space – worth the wait they look excellent.