Monday 30 January 2017

walkfilmexhibitfilmwalk

alongside attending the Private View of the Textile Design student show at CraftCo http://www.craftco.co.uk/exhibitions.html it was a great weekend of walking and watching film.  Silence http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0490215/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 is a stunningly relentless beautifully brutal  film which will have you discussing the idea and point of religion for a long time. American Pastoral was a favourite book one summer holiday so the film was going to have to work hard to fulfil expectations. Unfortunately it didn't.   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376479/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 I recommend the book. A week of interviewing potential new students and teaching ahead with a briefing for BA3b at NUA which I have filled with memes and gifs http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/briefing-for-ba3b and then onto Leeds to see some experimental dance http://www.yorkshiredance.com/sketch (looking forward to Christopher Owen - In The Shadow Of The Penis) and also a couple of exhibitions while also dropping in on clerk 37 https://soundcloud.com/clerk37

Friday 27 January 2017

madeinprogressisdone

Just finished hanging the show at CraftCo in Southwold, Suffolk - it's the work of 8 students from the BA  (Hons)Textile Design Course at Norwich University of the Arts who have taken up the invitation ​to show work within the CraftCo gallery. The project set the students the task of developing their practice and steering it towards the creation of objects of desire that will be for sale. The wide ranging work on show is testament to the creative minds of the individuals involved alongside the student centred approach to design that is embedded within the Textile Course at NUA. You'll be able to see items that have creative and practical value with innovative thinking at their core. The activities involved includes spinning, weaving, knitting, embroidery, printing. The work in the exhibition is affordable and accessible, I would recommend coming to see these designers at the start of what will be exciting careers so you can say you saw them first, while there why not buy while they are still affordable. 
@ambermayde @ambermaydeshop @Ameliaellwood_texiles miaellwood@hotmail.co.uk @Charlottestextiles_ charlottestextiles@tumblr.com @danielletaylordesign danielletaylor27@hotmail.co.uk danni_rainer dannirtextile.tumblr.com/ @lizziekimbley www.lizziekimbley.wix.com/textiles/ @shonajmorris @sophiecookdesigns

Monday 23 January 2017

sunshineyellowsolardot


finished - the title of the work is sunshine yellow -solar dot. really pleased with the multiple possibilities afforded by the structure.

caught up with theory of everything - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2980516/?ref_=fn_al_tt_4 stunning acting from all especially Eddie Redmayne. there is a wonderful sequence where the development of his character throughout the film is demonstrated in a dreamlike sequence - wonderful you realise that you had forgotten where he started.  For a feel good but taking you into places you hadn't thought it would and with a slight twist kind of film check out The hundred foot journey http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2980648/?ref_=nv_sr_2 don't watch feeling hungry.

Sunday 22 January 2017

mirrorrorrim

just back from a 6 hour walk around Orford, and Chillsford stopping at The Butley Orford Oysterage for lunch - a totally wonderful  no messing great food kind of place that I haven't been back to for years back when it was a regular eating place at the weekend  http://www.pinneysoforford.co.uk/the-restaurant/  the day was so still and the water up to the creak at Butley like a mirror - extraordinary. Ended up walking in the dark past the space where Sudbourne Hall, once owned by Kenneth Clark, used to be! all that's left is the pair of urns denoting where the entrance steps were. http://www.lostheritage.org.uk/houses/lh_suffolk_sudbournehall_info_gallery.html
I want to take a little credit for being a small part of what is a great website created by the final year cohort of the MA Fine Art Course on the OCA - it's a wonderful example of collaborative activity and celebrates the interconnectiveness of the course. A true celebration of creativity http://www.weareconnected.online/ one could spend hours on the site exploring the many possibilities.

meanwhile - The girl with all the gifts http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4547056/ another 'zombie' film - what's with all the zombie films recently? I spent most of it recognising locations - Bentwaters, the airbase down the road served as the base and it does have an intriguing if nihilistic(ish) ending. There's a wonderful insightful interview on Sid and Jim's podcast https://soundcloud.com/artistsandfriends/dont-ruin-the-magic-ft-bob-bicknell-knight with the creator and curator of is this it http://www.isthisitisthisit.com/ although at the moment there is a guest curator called Jake Moor in control of the site.

Wednesday 18 January 2017

peoplearewatching

The editioned work on the bookwork for the show of average sunlight for millimetre02 space is complete, I just need to send it off. The rules of the brief were restrictive in terms of size but the structure allows the piece to expand beyond the A6 size.  Using sunshine yellow and parts of the circle, the folding allows for multiple ways of viewing the work, all of them correct.

I had a really excellent, lively session with year 1 MA Fine Art OCA students this week - exploring the relationship between research and making - we were looking at ways of developing a holistic practice with research embedded at its core.
http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/initial-presentation-year-1-2017 I gave the presentation on Monday and it already has 165 views and there are only 12 in the cohort. 

Sunday 15 January 2017

powerpointtokillfor


it's really nice that the bookwork's in the show for paperscissorsbook will be shown at The Tetley International Artist’s Book fair 2, 3 March - http://www.leedsartbookfair.com/  then at the Arnolfini in Bristol on the 1st April at the book fair. http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/babe-2017-bristol-artists-book-event  It's wonderful to see that Collective Investigations are showing gutter - a curatorial experiment and an investigation into the contextual presence of book as an object and as art object  http://www.leedsartbookfair.com/the-gutter/  
meanwhile
8 students from the BA (Hons)Textile Design Course at Norwich University of the Arts have taken up the opportunity of showing work within the CraftCo gallery in Southwold. The project set the students the task of developing their practice and steering it towards the creation of objects of desire that will be for sale. It has been an intense time for the students in their last year at University. From the initial invitation through to their initial proposals and the development towards final pieces has been only 2 months.   
The wide ranging work on show is testament to the creative minds of the individuals involved alongside the student centred approach to design that is embedded within the Textile Course at NUA.
You will be able to see items that have creative and practical value with innovative thinking at their core, activity involved includes spinning, weaving, knitting, embroidery, printing. There will be scarves, bags, jewellery, badges, masks,  even tea towels.
The work in the exhibition is affordable and accessible, I would recommend coming to see these designers at the start of what will be exciting careers so you can say you saw them first and while there why not buy while you still can afford it.

recent films include Deepwater Horizon http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1860357/ a standard by the numbers film - evil corporation, money over lives of individuals - profit rules - plucky individual heroes - but I love the line spoken by Mark Wahlberg's character - 'Hope is not a strategy'. Train to Busan http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5700672/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 Zombie action that has some disturbing visuals and follows Zombie rules in brutal detail. La La Land - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3783958/ - disappointing maybe even a boring sad film where you are told that you can't have everything. It does all the cine literate stuff - great but obvious lighting, sets that nod to other films etc but I found Bad Moms http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4651520/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1  - a tighter more interesting portrait of women - a feminist vision indeed - it passes the Bechdel test https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test and presents strong women who take control. It also has the PowerPoint to die for!

Tuesday 10 January 2017

Thursday 5 January 2017

listeningwalkinglooking

I am the morning, you are the light You make the morning such a beautiful thing I am the green grass, you are the rain Fall on me, make me grow -

there has been a lot of walking during this break - especially out in the Estuary around Orford and Aldeburgh.  But I've also 'discovered' the abandoned railway line between Leiston and Aldeburgh thanks to a renewed  interest in the area as a result of the development of another nuclear power station. some great little walks around the area... http://www.mapmywalk.com/gb/aldeburgh-eng/
watching Richard Linklater's trilogy before sunrise, before sunset, and before midnight in one sitting is an 'emotional rollercoaster' http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112471/ , http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381681/?ref_=nv_sr_2 and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2209418/?ref_=nv_sr_2 not catching the films as they came out I had missed their individual release's -but this experience was so moving - I was really glad to see them in one go - the references within each of the episodes were a beautiful light touch and the characters journey feels like it must in some way connect to the actors and of course it acts as a mirror to one's own. There has to be more - what happens when their children leave home?
a slice of Jack Reacher takes you to a place that is so familiar that the title Never go back seems a little ironic http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3393786/ if you like the obvious broadcast 20 minutes before it happens this one is for you...