theendistheend

the end is underway at Camberwell - we've started the planning process for the final show for this cohort's MA Book Art students - this year it's in Wilson's road annex as the major re-development takes over the main site. Got to see Tina C on the Southbank last night - if you like your men dressed up as female patriotic, Christian right wing country and western singers this is for you. The latest show is full of comments on the referendum and Donald Trump - go see. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTli2s_QaEA The Felix Gonzalez Torres show at Hauser and Wirth is beautiful - favourites include the blue mirror piece which is starkly blunt whilst the light bulb piece hangs poignantly within the huge space. http://www.hauserwirth.com/exhibitions/2784/felix-gonzalez-torres-curated-by-julie-ault-and-roni-horn/view/ The mentoring at Kings is going well - John Grayson is doing a great job with the maker space and the work is going well - it will look excellent within the bookcase - its final resting place. The discussion/presentations today were illuminating, with lots to build on in the future. The issue of inter disciplinarian collaborative activity - its benefits, from the feel good factor, embedding fun and ways to talk about monetising activity. 

seeingstuffandtalkingaboutstuff

Still looking through the images from Rome but after 2 days of student presentations and 3 days of assessing actual work the marks are complete (apart from recognition of external issues that might occur at the assessment board) - it's an interesting time - the marks are in but not public - the students have no knowledge of their marks but the digital black ink is on the forms in the appropriate boxes. https://johngraysondesign.wordpress.com/

The first event of The Norfolk and Norwich Festival - The Tempest at The Hippodrome (where a large pool of water that moves and has rain and normally holds water extravaganzas) - it was a spectacle with some great visual moments lodged in my head. Next is the James plays on saturday - 3 plays in one day - full on Scottishness.   

A trip to London to I have my first 'mentor session' with John Grayson who is working on the next wave of Parallel Practices with the Crafts Council. His work is extraordinary in its extraordinary endeavour to elicit a response from its audience - hours of painstaking skilled work goes into each piece. The eye is drawn in by the craft skills employed in the making of the work and the humour embedded within these time bombs of pomposity bursting is a way in to engage the brain. I am already looking forward to our next conversation.

Managed to get to see a few shows Marian Goodman has the most sublime show of work by Ettore Spalletti often the space becomes the work and makes you re-see what you thought you knew. It is truly exquisite - especially the pieces that are so slight almost nothing happens and the site specific piece in a side space is transcendent - I chose not to find out how is was created (easily done by bending down) as I so enjoyed the otherness of it. http://mariangoodman.com/exhibition/3061/installation-views

Thomson & Craighead: Party Booby Trap is at CarrollFletcher - http://www.carrollfletcher.com/ I am becoming more and more attracted to the work shown there - favourite piece here was a fragrance made from the many elemental elements mentioned in the old testament - wonderful idea.

The Photographers Gallery is free before 12:00 and has on The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2016 http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/exhibitions-6 There is quite a wonderful homage by Erik Kessel to his dad - a moment when their two worlds beautifully collide even though they occupy different worlds, meanwhile the disturbing work of Trevor Paglen continues - just who is watching us? - the list continues.

White Cube had a fancy way of mapping drug consumption by Jac Leirner - Junkie lite for the IKEA generation. http://whitecube.com/exhibitions/

ICA  has a great show upstairs by Martine Syms: Fact & Trouble.  In the archive area it has PIL images from another time - metal box is just harrowing https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions

finally - Richard Prince at Sadie Coles - crude marks on crude imagery - unsure if two crudes make it okay.  

musicmusicmusicandsomeotherstuff

3 days of interviews at Norwich University of the Arts – I really enjoy the process of interviewing and feel that I personally work hard at making it a positive experience for the candidates. This is due to the many terrible experiences I have had where the interviewers see it as a combat zone rather than a space to explore opportunities (especially the student who often sees it as a point scoring contest, not the way to get the best from a candidate). This is on top of a really interesting ‘carousel’ process that NUA have instigated. The system includes time for everybody; candidates, interviewer, student and support staff to talk, find their best and reflect - really excellent.  I’m already looking forward to working with the individuals we have offered places to next year.

I’ve been following Casey Neistat http://casey.nyc/ for a while but wanted to share his thoughts on education - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWaQM38Pzf0 2:49  mins in Casey’s advice to students is excellent - 

And then there’s the music – an eclectic mixed bag - a little scary - but isn’t that the point - girlpool blah blah blah blah - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWqzp3JGrRY enjoying the fractured cut up of barney khan - https://soundcloud.com/futuregarage/barney-khan-apakon-edmcom-premiere  old school knob twiddling from CLAP RULES - "123 cantyousee - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFEJ97rP588

back to the brutality of mumdance logos with hall of mirrors -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8e4Zg3c1oE so slow its almost pulled over- dirty and bad - unlock the swag rae sremmurd- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM7IprQO82U A slow burn from Levon Vincent - Woman is The Devil- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1AjHY93Sbg

Finally the film made by the crafts council for parallel practices is on line - http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/articles/parallel-practices-1?utm_source=Crafts+Council+Newsletter+%28via+craftscouncil.org.uk%29&utm_campaign=945fe31d5c-Crafts_Council_News_February_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_04051a3fb3-945fe31d5c-85097149

thefutureishere

Well – fame by association ish – I appear to be a (small) part of the winning team working on the MA Fine Art, Open College of the Arts (OCA). The team, nominated by students has won the best teaching team (arts and humanities) at the Prospects Postgraduate Awards beating well....everybody! Especially the shortlisted - School of Architecture/Landscape Architecture Team, Birmingham City University and the Fine Arts Team, University for the Creative Arts Canterbury. Working in the future is very exciting – the technology sometimes is a little fuzzy/cluttered but in general it brings order and discipline to the creative thinking. Looking forward to the show in Sheffield.

An image of my work with Naomi Mcintosh features on the blog for parallel practices at the crafts council - it looks good http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/articles/craft-and-healthcare/  

squeezefoldbendandexpand

success - I’ve got through the initial application, a day of meetings/presentation, ‘interview’, the short-listing and the joint application to have the opportunity to work with the Crafts Council on a project titled - PARALLEL PRACTICES - http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/parallel-practices/

It’s a really interesting collaboration I am about to work with Thrishantha Nanayakkara http://www.kcl.ac.uk/nms/depts/informatics/people/atoz/nanayakkarat.aspx who works at The Centre for Robotics Research, School of Natural and Mathematical Sciences at Kings in London and Naomi Mcintosh who creates body related Jewellery and Jewellery related objects - http://www.naomimcintosh.com/. It’s going to be a great journey of discovery for us all. The project we have created is called Squeeze Fold Bend and Expand - Structural Memory in Deformable Objects. We want to extend current soft robotics through model making, challenging and expanding our practices by exploring ways of controlling movement and articulation of objects in order to build new structures whose functionality and manipulation will be framed and enriched by knowledge of soft robotics – phew!!!

buildingmatchmakingexhibitions

The matchmaking event I was invited to attend at Kings College Hospital was very intriguing. The full-on session organised by the Crafts Council saw medical academics and makers giving one minute peckha kuchas and then speed dating for an hour with 3 minute segments - which felt like 10 seconds or/and 10 hours as it whizzed by in a blur of slow motion of new concepts and words and then 30 mins of balancing food and talking all the while assimilating complex medical research and trying to find a way of connecting practice’s which was really interesting but each conversation needed a day - anyway - efficient and organised. I learnt why medical research uses tiny fish, about robotic origami, how to grow bones, invisibility cloaks, 3D mapping of the brain using toilet roll holders and a lot of other stuff that sounded more like science fiction - but all most excellent – I responded by folding paper as a way of communicating what I do and what I have to offer - I may said WOW and mentioned Science Fiction, The Big Bang Theory, The Matrix, Star Trek a little too often - the only sadness was not having time to talk to the other makers who were all so confident, eloquent, positive and supportive. It would be good to invite some of them to talk at Norwich as part of the Thursday lecture series.
The post-grad shows at Camberwell are almost up. The Book Arts space looks really good and all the work explores as ever the wide range of inherent qualities embedded within book. Book as tool, vessel, guide, instrument, weapon and beautiful object. I recommend checking it out. It starts on the 16th july with the Private View on the 15th. 

Invigilating at Cley14Friday and Saturday - looking forward to it.

Its because they are transparent......the fish.

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