ongoinglookingforward

Looking forward to next week, at Norwich, delivering a new project to year 2 and working with my friend Liz from the National. Another week taking people to the show at Snape and with each iteration of this activity I learn more about the work I have been making over the past year. Some people want me to explicit about the reasoning behind the work, explaining as if an activist, which I am not. Applied to be part of a conference (see below) we shall see what comes of it. Sizewell C is a building without geographic specify. Its structure is like that of others across the globe, its conception and construction at no point addresses the essential Suffolk space it will reside in. The shapes designed and the industrial nature of the materials used bare no connection to the landscape, a space which was seen by its designers as a blank canvas, it was envisaged as this and it has become a non-space, a concept conceived all be it within the concept of architecture by Marc Augé. Control and ownership of this land is now tightly controlled. Fenced and patrolled the public can no longer enter, humans that do are subjected to a vast barrage of rules and systems. My first work as artist in residence was to look at maps, created by SZC and to cut out these controlled spaces, leaving negative shapes. I have made scale models derived from official plans that in the hand become toys or gifts. This was initially a way of engaging with the vast complexity and sheer scale of the project that is SZC. But I have come to understand the power of the model as an idea itself and its function within the design world as a tool of visualisation but also its awe. popped in to see Conceptual Art and Christine Kozlov at Raven Row - truly challenging wonderful work. Onto screens – the last episode of Industry left everything on the table or maybe under it.

blackfoldexhibitingevil

I’ve been invited by Sarah Bodman from the Centre for Fine Print Research, UWE Bristol, on behalf of the International Association, Moscow Book Arts to be part of an exhibition in Russia. It’s from the 13^th March – 18^th May 2014 at the State Historical, Architectural, Art and Landscape Museum-Reserve, Moscow.  It’s an interesting group –

Angie Butler, X =, 2012

Anwyl Cooper-Willis, The Elsewhere Necktie Archive, 2011

Barrie Tullett, A Poem To Philip Glass, 2011

Charlotte Hall, Insectapolis, 2013

Christopher Robinson, La Chamade, 2009

Craig Atkinson, Preston Bus Station: Lost and Found, Craig Atkinson, 2013

Elizabeth Willow and David Armes, Hanging Valley, 2013

Guy Begbie, Black Cross Channel, 1998

Hazel Grainger, Digital Doesn’t Make Me Happy, 2013

Helen Douglas / Thomas Evans, Pivot, 2003

Jackie Batey, Future Fantasteek!, 12, 14 and 15, 2012-2013

Jeremy Dixon, Some Like Awesome American Soldiers, 2011

John Bently Liver & Lights No 40 My Ancestors, 2008

John McDowall, Atramentum, 2012

Julie Johnstone, ten skies, 2007

Les Bicknell, blackfold, 2013

Nancy Campbell, Doverodde, 2012

Otto, Dance, 2013

Pauline Lamont-Fisher, teastains, 2013

Philippa Wood and Tamar MacLellan, Mr Craggs’ left-over type, 2013

Sarah Bodman, GM Future, 1999

seekers of lice, quot, 2008

Simon Goode, Various Small Cookies, 2011

Simon le Ruez, Elsewhere, 2013

Sophie Loss, Swinging Susan, 2010

Stephen Fowler, White Heat, 2010

Susan Johanknecht, moments of forces, 1997

Theresa Easton, Thrifty Tips, 2013

Tom Sowden, Fortynine Coach Seats Travelling Along The M4, 2003

I’ve also got a small show at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UWE Bristol from Mon 7th April - Sat 31st May 2014. It will be nice to show the folded 'smocking is evil' sculptural paper pieces to a wider world

Meanwhile my proposal for Cley14 has been accepted so I need to focus on that to firm up some logistics – the statement – proposal for Cley14

the book - a space of debate – a place for the storage and dissemination of information – an exchange – a position – a settlement.

The work takes the form of structures that are created from joining (binding) two or more book structures together. The arrangement of book forms joined together enables reflection on the notion of conversation. It is a comment on the books that are in all of us, a response to the idea that when a person dies it is as if a library is burnt. It is a reflection on our negotiation with ageing and death.

I would like to make an intervention into the graveyard. I would attach at least 2 and possibly more books to every grave. At the moment I am considering working with rope/heavy twine to ‘fix’ the work, although I also like the idea of holding the books down with a large stone collected from the beach, referencing the Jewish tradition of placing stones on graves as a sign of remembrance and a symbol of the permanence of memory.

The books would be very simple handmade and blank. They would act as a symbol of narrative, of story, of conversation. The audience filling in the blanks. The piece would actually be the connection of the books with the stone of the grave, highlighting the text cut into the stone.

The work would change over the time of the exhibition, deteriorating with the weather, but they would be secured so as not to litter the space.

I would also like to display a limited editioned bookwork within the church; it would support the thinking and engage with the ideas behind the intervention outside.