tellingstories

Final day of putting the work in the spaces at Snape, 2 rooms of work that cover vast areas of the year and 2 installations that focus on specific areas of the residency. Pleased with the hang. Onto screens – The Penguin Stories – a sweet story about dictatorship and kidnapping thwarted by a bird. Onto Industry – more hideous people behaving hideously.

ayearofvoices

after a year of work it’s time to make the work visible to a wider audience – my first year of the residency at Sizewell C has been amazing and I can’t wait to share the work with the community…..it will be interesting, hanging the work over 4 sites today was instructive, so many voices in my head instructing and guiding my decisions. onto screens Eternity – oh dear, in another writer/director’s hands the interesting premise might be more interesting and less hetro-normative and just dull. The Rip – tight acting served by a great script. The Life of Chuck will have you confusedly torn apart in a beautiful way.

behindyouohyesitisohnoitisnt

Its glorious pantomime season at Wolsey Theater in Ipswich - this year the experience is one of full on fun - with sing along tunes and 'site and time specific' jokes you know and love - it's a must see - https://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/shows/aladdin/   

meanwhile a busy week of teaching - working with year 1 students at NUA to create specific drawing tools to make marks that in turn will lead to supporting the initial ideas for the weaving induction - the session was all rounded off with a mini exhibition in one of the corridors of their submitted work - curated, created, hung and critiqued in 20 minutes. Camberwell Book Art students had theirs and the courses last unit briefing which involved a series of workshops envisaging each other's project proposals with equations and plastercine. Then back to NUA with year 3 students to present possibilities around the body https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/some-thinking-body and interiors - https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/some-thinking-space basically extended ideas around textiles relationship to fashion and interior design. meanwhile I think Once Upon a time in Hollywood could be one of the most amazing meta films ever - so much to think about and then there is Mandalorian - worth watching for so many reasons - baby Yoda, Werner Herzog as a baddie, fantastic costumes and did I mention there is a baby Yoda. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8111088/

lifeworklifeanda#proundparentmoment

well a busy couple of weeks and we are still in it - assessments on the Textile Design at nua was smooth with some wonderful work -  the show at nua is almost up - we have built an extraordinary series of structures, creating an environment  to show off the work to its best - I've been north working on the assessment for OCA on the MA Fine Art Course and staying in the Premier Inn in Barnsley, there was some really excellent thinking underpinning great work. The next two years graduation shows could potentially be wondrous. The Degree Show Private View at Chelsea was gloriously old school - a packed space of randomly dressed individuals all enjoying being there - some excellent textiles and of course fine art - highlight was a #proundparent moment - Bob Bicknell-Knight. meanwhile A very English Scandal https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p065sk93 was tragically funny but I spent most of the time marvelling over Hugh Grants stunning performance. I got to see Solo - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3778644/ wonderfully geeky - with something for everyone - great back story infilling alongside swashbuckling set pieces. Christopher Brett Bailey https://christopherbrettbailey.com/  was the standout session at Pulse 18 last weekend - I cannot recommend him enough - I think this was my 5th outing and he just gets better. Meanwhile Snape Festival had a new opera - a kind of brutalist Jacques Tati set in a Kafkaesque modern space with a nod to the Truman show aesthetics. The Appalachian Spring session by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Huw Watkins on the piano and conducted by Oliver Knussen was viseral. Playing Coplands Music for a Great City, The world premiere of The Book of Ingenious Devices by Philip Cashian, Feldman Structures and Coplands joyous Appalachian Spring one was swept away. On the way to see the Pavillion next to the Serpentine Gallery ..............I bumped into Christon next to the Christo in the Serpentine which was and which is fantastic and worth seeing offline.

thinkingandnegotiating

It’s all go within the world of education at this time of year – hanging the textile degree show at NUA requires a skill set that includes the mediation of Nelson Mandela, the steely nerve of Amelia Earhart and the dedication to truth and fairness exhibited by the wonderful Sharmishta Chakrabarti 

Or on the other hand maybe it’s more like the truth spoken by Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinski affair, the understanding of other people’s needs evidenced in the work of Putin and the focused thought of late Elvis on pain killers. But this year has the potential to be one of the best shows having spent 2 weeks with some quite excellent work while assessing it.

Meanwhile I have been shortlisted for the Parallel Practices Craft Council project - well more through to the next round of many – it’s going to be a fascinating process of speed date matching art and craft with medicine which is very exciting

There are so many opportunities for active participation around Cley14 from walks, talks and workshops – I would check out the web site. http://www.cleycontemporaryart.org/nwt.htm