someteachingsomefilmssomecomplaining

yesterday had a couple of teaching sessions at NUA which went well - here are the links https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/to-quit-or-not-to-quit - mainly trying to talk about giving in - it's that time of year within the academic world - so support is much needed - it's all about planning. https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/label-work-why talking about the why, how and what of labelling - it's all about storytelling. and then some films - Wiener-Dog http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4144190/?ref_=nv_sr_5

oddball is a term created for this film - any starting point that has a 'sausage dog' at its point has to be a good thing. 3 idiots http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1187043/ a fun yet politically conscious film that has so many knowing moments. The underlying themes are wholesome. and then there have been the 2 series of lovesick http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4051832/ - it's worth getting to season two to start to love Luke! the back story is always the key - just very sad but glorious writing. meanwhile a great sign to be found near me on the coast that helpfully explains how wonderful nature is in pictures whilst simultaneously messing it up - because you need a photograph of the space where you are standing in the actual space to help you really enjoy the space.

somethinking

over at https://unfoldingthinking.blogspot.co.uk/ there are endless starting points for lines of enquiry, almost to the point of being overwhelming. Using the lab based experimental science practice I've been exposed to as starting points I have created a number of experiments which have manifest themselves within an array of outcomes - films, objects and prints. The flow diagram explains some of the thinking and lays out the order of activity.

From observing the hand movements within the lab when explaining scientific processes I had developed a number of articulated structures that were to be manipulated in the hand.

Electron microscopy sets out to map surfaces by 'firing' matter at the material they are investigating, the evidence of this activity is mapped. Extrapolating the space between surface and probe provides data to make sense of the surface.

I am currently following a line of enquiry that looks at this space between, making physical something that cannot be seen by casting the negative space of the folding structures that explored the hand gestures, fixing a moment in time.

I then developed the articulated structures into static 3D forms by fixing the shapes, transforming the nets into boxes and casting their internal spaces. I am going to develop this work by looking to cast the space around the negative forms so that the 'empty space' is revealed.

3Disthefutureweshouldgetone

This week has seen me be a small part of the organisation that is Open College of the Arts - tutorials with students from around the world. The experience of connecting around the globe is fairly awesome/humbling and at the same time very efficient. I'm in a book! - there's an image and mention in the latest publication that covers The International Contemporary Book Fair - Pages - Future Potentials / Future Legacies. http://www.leedsartbookfair.com/pages-reviewed-collections-revisited/  it's a great photo by Chris Taylor and an interesting overview of the paperscissorsbook exhibition by Karen Babayan. I've been selling a few items of work recently so have been updating my site http://les-recent-work.blogspot.co.uk/ I've also delivered some work to the wonderful bookartbookshop http://www.bookartbookshop.com/ if you are in Hoxton I recommend dropping in - you never know what you might find. Today culminated in a glorious visit to D2W (I don't know if you know but 3D printing is the future)! Jonathan has a great take on this technology. I also got to see a number of exhibitions which were all inspirational - White Cube at Mason's Yard - Fred Tomaselli is stunning - the psychotic doodling is a futuristic version of Tom Philips at work, makes you think!!! The supreme rifts…a measured propinquity with work by Sol Lewitt, Gabriel Orozco, Gerhard Richter, Ettore Spalletti and Niele Toroni at Marian Goodman Gallery is stunning. The Richter structure is very special and his line piece feels like it is physically changing you. At Carroll / Fletcher the film piece by Wood and Harrison Semi Automatic Painting Machine in the basement is excellent - serious fun... obviously Eva and Franco Mattes are awesome but Michael Joaquin Grey's Citroid System Play Room  has some exciting elements. The whole show is a winner -  Looking at one thing and thinking of something else. An Exhibition in Four Parts - Part Four: Disrupt / Disorder / Display

netflixiskingin3D

work for https://unfoldingthinking.blogspot.co.uk/ continues. Looking forward to a visit to D2W this week with students from Textile Design at NUA. I've been working with 3D printing myself so it will be great to show the students the potential of 3D printing. I intend to get to White Cube http://whitecube.com/exhibitions/fred_tomaselli_masons_yard_2017/ Marian Goodman WWW.MARIANGOODMAN.COM and Carroll / Fletcher http://www.carrollfletcher.com/exhibitions/62/overview/ recently I've been moving through Netflix sets.....the oa is truly traumatic and the last episode takes the viewer to a very dark place when the realisation of what you have been watching is made plain....or is it? https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/dec/17/the-oa-review-netflix

my crazy ex girlfriend https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Ex-Girlfriend_(TV_series)  is bonkers - I love it when the narrative is broken up by the singing and dancing which is itself subverting the very idea of the musical - the lyrics are sharp and acerbic there are so many good ones - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFUk79fBOiQ  or try https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky-BYK-f154 onto films - Patriots Day, the second in the series by director Peter Berg of films driven by actual events - this one makes you proud to be a Bostonian, hang on I'm not!! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4572514/?ref_=nv_sr_1 the edge of 17 is a screwball-sweet coming of age moment - very nice http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1878870/?ref_=nv_sr_1

dontxxxdoit

interchange at Norwich University of the Arts is two days of inter-course-experience for year 2 students across all courses. I ran an experimental book making workshop for 8 students - some interesting conversations and work ensued, it would be interesting to see what would emerge if art schools and universities adopted this model every day.
the fantasy portfolio session at NUA was interesting, getting them to think about whats next https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/fantasy-portfolio

looking forward to seeing snap an exhibition and night of performances by year 2 Fine Art Chelsea at Longfield Hall in Knatchbull Road, London, this Friday. https://www.facebook.com/events/1895324857378988/  unsure why I watched XXX - don't, add Taken3 to the list but Hologram for the King is a wonderful jaunt http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2980210/?ref_=rvi_tt with Tom taking us on an emotional yet fun trip.

arteatshopartmerch

Another fantastic day of teaching on the Book Art Course at Camberwell - The Review - basically it's a 4 hour conversation about art that focuses around new pieces made by the students on the course - a mid-term session to support and direct practice. went to see the extraordinary dance piece Stepmother / Stepfather by Arthur Pita & Headspacedance at The Place - highly recommend it if you like your dance big on narrative with a large dose of the macabre. And we need defiantly need more live rewinding of time on stages! http://www.theplace.org.uk/performances The Tillmans at Tate Modern is stunning in its curatorial display - the idea of generating an archive by looking out and then mining it to enable looking inward - the work about process which then become about ideas are beautiful and then disturbing. http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/wolfgang-tillmans-2017  Gavin Turk at Newport St Gallery is full of 'yes I get it ' and the space is wonderfully showy - all good. Hockney at the Tate...... was Hockney at the Tate and finally went into Chelsea College to see the A217 gallery - organised partly by  http://www.isthisitisthisit.com/ it has a show confronting the internet at the moment - worth a visit to see new stuff before anywhere else. https://www.a217gallery.com/i-miss-you-blockbuster

lostinglasgow

A weekend in Glasgow - some friends, some drinking and some eating but also some seeing - A night of Scratch performance as part of Take me somewhere festival was a range of experiences - editing, try it - is always advice in these circumstances but I am left with a woman covered in hair, the strong smell of weed, breast feeding, a talking cloud, doppler sound, glitter, visual sound bites, ironic hipness and the best face painting ever. The Hunterian - http://www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian/ all good. CCA was all inclusive and active art participation stuff but my experience there mainly focused around trying to buy a coffee and getting into the argument of how to do it with the person serving - went away deluded around the roles of customer/server. The documentary films by John Samson at The Gallery of Modern Art were excellent - wonderfully, charming and yet painfully, gloriously dated - showing a time of grime and a tarnished past - the subject matter - tattoos, steam engines, fetish wear and Eric Bristow - whats not to like. seek them out. http://five-minutes.ru/video/4510755/eric-bristow-arrows-1979-john-samson Transmission the space of song lyrics has a queer Caribbean show - great use of balloons and text. The Modern Institute is a beautiful space, if felt modelled on New York loft spaces but that could be to do with its location and the busy disengagement atmosphere of the people working there. https://www.themoderninstitute.com/ Tramway http://www.tramway.org/Pages/home.aspx  had a hauntingly melancholic film by Oliver Laric - http://oliverlaric.com/  it just makes me want to weep. Initially the work of Claire Barclay is stunning but the more time spent the more one starts to unpick some choices and eventually one is left looking at the space and surfaces of the materials used.  St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art overlooked by the creepy necropolis is a great find - so many inspiring pieces crammed together to form a kind of knick nack soup of religiousness. Glasgow - worth a visit.

microbooksarego

of average sunlight opens tonight - the micro show (in a good way) looks great http://www.kingsgateworkshops.org.uk/single-post/2017/02/17/Also-up-next-millimetre02-of-average-sunlight-BookMare-II making work within such tight restrictions was liberating.

moonlight http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4975722/ an extraordinarily beautifully painful film full of loss and possibilities - a must see. assassin creed http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094766/ lots of jumping, leaping, dust and roof tops I think the best bits are back here rather than there.... a busy weekend coming up with a trip to Glasgow which includes a mass of galleries, food and the Take Me Somewhere festival of contemporary performance which takes place across Glasgow.