collectingthinking

I have been working with 3D printing over the past 6 months with a specific idea in mind. I’ve been attempting to create work that is on the edge of collapsing, trying to explore the ‘handmadeness’ within the process. The output of 3D printing often leads to the design route, making art with it is a challenge but when pushing its structural parameters, the work starts to reference natural structures. After a great conversation at Kings this week I realised that I have been working with ideas adjacent to the engineering concept that is "form-finding”, a design process by which the shape of structures and systems is determined. The idea is to achieve the optimal form that delivers dynamic stability, adaptability, and sustainability. It considers structural stability, functionality, and beauty.

A busy weekend - Managed to get to Dance East – I’ve missed so many dance events due to clashes - being away and friends significant parties but the double bill unknown realms was too much of a pull even on a Friday night after a busy week - not excellent but interesting. Prompted conversation about what's new in dance, focused on ideas of the modern and contemporary.  Next up Laurence Edwards and Alex Jennings at Jubilee Hall. Live sculpting while talking about creating characters. A truly mesmerizing experience, I was captivated, and the 2 hours just flew by, being totally in the room was exhausting, focusing on the experience of watching somebody make something in real time.

I reflected on the visual memory I have after experiencing all the museums and galleries I have encountered, and all the objects within. The idea of learning through making, how we experience the world through our hands as much as our eyes. Ingold argues that creativity emerges from within an ongoing, improvisational process between makers, materials, and other non-human things such as tools and the physical environment. Also, Ideas around public/private, the studio and the gallery v the rehearsal room and the stage, – something I’ve thought about with the scientists and the science spaces I have worked with and in. some words from a previous experience...........

“The glove box and the laboratory are very specific spaces. That they often protect the specimen within the experiment from us rather than us from it is an intriguing idea. These spaces created to manipulate objects are contained, clean, dry in an attempt to be 'non'.   Within this extraordinary space, specific materials and situations are monitored, ready to be recreated, actions controlled to be repeated. These spaces have their parallel in the art world: the space of the gallery, the white cube where the art is on show, an anonymous space where the art is supposedly the focus. Obviously, no space is neutral and each have their meanings, which can be read, but the aspiration to create a static continuum brings to mind the words of Heraclitus 'No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.'  It appears that science and art are constantly trying to create a time and space where the river is still”.

 

spillmemories

so Spill – https://www.spillfestival.com/whatson a long weekend of thoughtful work. It was great to feel held by the curatorial hand of the director Robert Pacitti – links and connections were all around, strands flowing and fleeting creating - on memory was an opportunity to reflect on the past 10 years and at the same time make new memories. Highlights include the glorious Naked Life by Olja Grubic’s which has given me PTSD flashbacks when I grate carrots, 60 acts by Wendy Huston was on the right side of hopeless cynicism, Charlie Barlow’s Alone Together was a moment of contemplation, Robin Deacon’s thoughtfully rigorous Screen Memories was a joy, and John Bowers Memorygrinderresonancemachine in an abandoned silo was a great rounding up, the ideas behind the work resonating with thoughts of my own psychographic relationship to Coventry. But there was also Albesila Luminarium with its light and Instagramable possibilities, The gentle throbbing of Chorus, a big earth of Gaia in a dark room, growing vegetables in Eden, the thoughtful films Daughters and I want to be traditional, TheThe’s Comback Special and in conversation was a little mainstream angst with prog jazz thrown in, the hypnotic immersive Gone, Gone Beyond, Jenny created a cyborg space while exploring the gender reveal wars, Atari Punk Girls was serious techno fun, and Shabnam Shabazi’s silent stillness was all encompassing.

whenworldscollide

Don’t you just love Photoshop! – in between teaching at nua I have had a week of photo editing in the studio, working with photographs I took last week of the articulated structures. Exploring how the sculptures could become a visual intervention alongside the physical one, thinking of them as tools for resistance or/and engagement. The images look towards documenting a private moment of meditation/mediation, an accidental ritual where techno meets nature. Meanwhile if you like your films full of revenge for wrong doings, a dash of mid-life crisis with a touch of The Transporter, John Wick and finally a glorious segment celebrating Home Alone then the film Nobody is for you. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7888964/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0  Thinking of moving into the world of fashion? – check out Halston on Netflix for your road map, don’t know who he is – listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDwutKpVyas

adayoutandsomework

a shout out to the most excellent show - Bit Rot by Bob Bicknell-Knight  (yes a relative). Its weaving of narratives in the digital and handmade, the real and imagined, on and off line are worth the trip to the Broadway Gallery in Letchworth.

https://www.broadway-letchworth.com/studio-gallery/whats-on/bit-rot-bob-bicknell-knight . Working at Kings in synthetic anatomy with the wonderful Celia Pym - it was a great workshop around the idea of narratives held within textiles. A day out in London with MA Book Art students to look at real examples of display, to talk about hanging work. It was interesting to check out a few things - the meaning of the screw, the role of text on the wall, what is available to take away, how we are treated by the staff. There was also some exciting work along the way Pi artworks had some beautiful clothes that incorporated text https://www.piartworks.com/exhibitions/location/2/ James Turrel at Pace was very James Turrel https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/james-turrell-9/ Fischli and Weiss was fun at Sprueth Magers  http://spruethmagers.com/exhibitions/511

Sadie Cole had work from the gloriously disturbing Jordan Wolfson if you get the opportunity see his piece Real Violence it is challenging in so many ways  https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/sickest-artwork-of-all-time-allows-viewers-to-watch-man-beaten-to-death/news-story/9492c9f143535d7aa69694f9c95ff736 - here he uses 3D holographic fans to good effect https://www.sadiecoles.com/exhibitions/774/installation_shots/ The Science Gallery had an intriguing show about Gender https://london.sciencegallery.com/genders An interesting  space I have not been to before, the Celia Brunson Project, had a group show of Latin American artists which had a reading space that might be something to work with https://www.ceciliabrunsonprojects.com/exhibitions/58/overview/ and finally Cerith Wyn Evans No realm of thought… No field of vision at White Cube was an instagram opportunity with all the nice lighting and reflective surfaces.  https://whitecube.com/exhibitions/exhibition/cerith_wyn_evans_bermondsey_2020 Stopping off along the way at the Materials Lab is always good for the soul. https://www.material-lab.co.uk/ Martin Creed performing at Toynbee Hall was superb - a blend of freeform, absurdist oddball, stand-up comedy - Tommy Cooper meets John Cooper Clark talking about not making decisions. If you get the chance go see his thoughts and observations on stuff you didn't know needed thinking about. The Steve McQueen show at Tate Modern is magnificent - for me there are a couple of gaps but there is a good spread of his work. The presentation of his work has been really considered - each space has a different set up - for the long films you have actual start points at the beginning and everywhere there is information about the start times and when films are ending - excellent.

breathingin

After Ron Athey's show at Norwich Arts Center I'm ready for a 'breathing in' day in London - time to check out a few spaces on the way to a night out in Peckham. 180 The Strand has United Visual Artists doing their thing with lights, lazers and smoke, which is good but in the same building is Transformer a rebirth of wonder - a huge sprawling, mixed show throughout the building, transforming a range of spaces but always giving the viewer a sense of discovering the bowels of the building. Doug Aitken’s room is a stand out piece, truly mesmerising - 3 projections in a room of mirrors play with the mobile phone and its associated imagery. Jenn Nkiru’s film Rebirth stunning - great music and editing - her presentation of a black experience is outstanding. Danh Vo at Marion Goodman looks straightforward enough but has many surprises, it’s simplicity belies many possible narratives and references so much - my school woodworking bench created in hard wood was a surprising 'time-travel' revelation. Frith street Gallery has some beautiful images of archives by Dayanita Singh within some interesting structures. Mark Lecky’s homage to youth culture continues under a bridge at Tate Britain - it’s important to see the whole cycle of the work so give yourself time - it’s worth it. Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe at Marlborough is a bit like a post apocalyptic, sci-art, psychedelic Mike Nelson - it fills and occupies the numerous rooms throughout the 4 floors of the building - unsure what it was about but it was most enjoyable. Damien Hirst at Whitecube was a little like expensive interior design - pretty but lacking in context or meaning - the sort of art the Roy family might buy - reference to Succession. 

Shobana Jeyasingh Dance's Staging Schiele at the dance house in Ipswich was a mixed bag - somewhat over staged with a range of visual languages that clashed and seemed to make little sense - but the dance itself was dark and thrilling - some superbly challenging movements and great costumes that seemed to bring to life the fluid and transparent nature of Egon Schiele's paintings.

spillisover

so a woman leaves the space via a giant vagina after performing labiaplasty on herself with bacon, a man uses rubber gloves to talk about care and loneliness, I stand in a room but through technology am in a wood the first time and then on the beach the second - surrounded by birds, watch the question chicken or egg performed by a woman 'black faced' with electrical tape, understand our culture through repetitive action, a flower emerges, a doll emerges both from within body orifices, people in costumes created from the DIY store explore alienation, mirrors are used to present ideas and a vagina, a whisper takes my breath away and so much more - yes I have emerged from Spill a little bit wiser and a little more open. I was struck by the respect spill audiences have for the space of performing especially as I walked late through Ipswich. check out tweets - @BicknellLes  some photographs of the aftermath from the performances.