weekendleaningtothemonday

A full Saturday – first off For Folks Sake private view at The Cut. A great crowd in a place transformed by wonderfully bloody-minded lighting - glorious. Its always a pleasure to turn out to see Eastern Angles, usually at a village hall somewhere in Suffolk. The Town Council building at Orford was the venue for their latest show - The Deep https://easternangles.co.uk/event/the-deep Monday at Norwich University of the Arts I dopped into a fashion lecture by Jeremy Hutchinson - having access to thinking reminded me why I work in an academic context. A really thoughtful take on the object and its role in the capitalist project we are caught in. Making an object - making meaning - object making - object meaning - the language of the image - the ritual of exorcism - creating something that hovers between object and subject - a person and a thing - shamanifacture - black Friday as a carnival of death - most excellent. Onto screens - The Instigators - slow start but a funning second half. 

somethoughtsandclips

I had a clip of the work made whilst at NanoDTC in ‘Making Bread with your Feet’ at the recent Midlands Conference of Critical Thought as part of the Gentle Gestures strand curated by Alice Bell, Danica Maier and Mark Kasumovic. The work is made up of many small/short moments of action whilst reflecting. Just heard that murmur, a film made within synthetic anatomy at Kings is to be included in Aperiodic, an exhibition, and catalogue curated by Lucy Ward in Bristol. Really pleased that the work is been seen by a wider public, beyond the Kings community as it is a beautiful document of human behaviour. Onto screens – struggled with Fallout, stopping after the first episode but am deep into Ripley, just tense through every episode, with the black and white giving extra gravitas. Saw Nye – a live stream of the National Theatre play. I am sort of caught between the hybrid nature of the exercise, neither theatre nor film but the play was truly wonderful – recommended if you can get a ticket but watching a film is still pretty good. Currently obsessed with Out & About by Amplify and P Money – play loud! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EA32_-v_b8 

lisbonandmagic

Whenever I’m in Lisbon I head for the Gulbenkian and this painting - Les Bretonnes au Pardon by Dagnan Bouveret. There is something about the crisply folded starched headdresses and the women’s faces looking out from the past. I have always wondered what was on the spire and I have just found out that it was festive flags. Check it out here. One can’t help but be blown away by the tiles on the buildings whilst waking between churches and art galleries, eating various versions of salted cod. Saturday night went to see The Making of Pinocchio by Cade and MacAskill was extraordinary https://www.artsadmin.co.uk/project/the-making-of-pinocchio/ highly recommended – a fabulous story told with great props and sets.

bookendyourlifenow

a great day at Symposium 2. for me the session takes the form of a bookend to the MA Book Art Course at Camberwell. Symposium 1 is a sharing of life before the course along with aspirations of what is to come. Symposium 2 is the evidence of activity - what has happened over the 2 years within the course and what could be next. Along with the opportunity to see growth and change it also gives a flavour of the final show, although that is still 4 weeks away and a lot can happen in 4 weeks. meanwhile another weekend of theatre beckons - Pulse Festival in Ipswich - https://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/pulse-festival/ looking forward to it all but specifically The Complete Deaths - https://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/shows/pulse16-the-complete-deaths/ and then I've still got to catch up with PhotoEast shows http://photoeast.co.uk/ some of it is on in Ipswich and some in Halesworth - if you can't get to the Cut art centre in Halseworth to see the moving Eyes of War by Martin Roemers you can see it here http://www.panos.co.uk/stories/2-13-556-1124/Martin-Roemers/Eyes-of-War/# I forgot to mention last week - the thoughtful yet/and raucous night out at Norwich Arts Centre - Martin Figura - if you get the chance go see him - if you are middle aged, have kids, are a bloke live and your life through a soundtrack of music it is essential http://www.martinfigura.co.uk/

movingstuffstilledasimages

I'm disarmed - It's 11:30 and my penises count is already up by 2 - yes I start Pulse festival with naked men - I'm wearing headphones and listening to a woman's voice in my head harassing them. During the weekend I go onto see work that explores death, suicide, eating disorder, sexism, the value of bread, the end of the world - the list goes on and on and the mind becomes filled with moments that include a Spanish woman dressed as zebra flamenco dancing whilst breast feeding plastic zebras, capitalism portrayed as a demented penguin plastic toy, women dressed as fish discussing their relationship, silent magicians playing Jenga, a frenzied dancing woman wearing sparkly pants in a cube, an audience member playing hangman on a white T shirt worn by a black man and revealing that the word was nigger. Highlights- or maybe more of a recommendation are the oddness of Figs in wigs, the magnificent Byron Vincent's show about depression http://www.byronvincent.com/  and if you want a cracking laugh out loud night at the theatre check out Police Cops - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxulOPQGUMk it's a bit like watching live Will Ferrel and Robin Williams freestyle having being trained by Buster Keaton - you might just be converted if you don't love theatre. Also managed to fit in a talk with PhotoEast - http://photoeast.co.uk/  extraordinary images of Ipswich docks - the archive  looks excellent. http://photoeast.co.uk/news/ipswich-maritime-trust-launch-digital-archive-alongside-photoeast-festival-2016/

disturbingdislocatingfolds

The leaflet for fashion 360 is attractive and makes my work look good - the image of the work and the text work well together.

I've just had a long and mostly frustrating time battling with the Norwich and Norfolk Festival web site buying tickets - but anyway - some of the list..... particularly looking forward to The James Plays - a full day of 3 linked performances from the wonderful National Theatre of Scotland, responsible for Black Watch, a previous highlight of a past festival. The Tempest in Great Yarmouth is on the list and there is some great spoken word stuff with Francesca Beard and Hollie McNish alongside live art at The Arts Centre with Martin Figura directed by the most excellent Ross Sutherland http://www.nnfestival.org.uk/festival/performance/martin-figura

Shane Carruth's follow up to the unsettlingly disturbing Primer is the fantastically oppressive Upstream Colour - the imagery is out-of-soft-focused and leads you down a range of dark fractured beautiful slight narratives which you have to build and then after it has finished discuss it for as long as the film ran....just what is the role of the sampler? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084989/

Unfolding - my proposal for ALL (Art Language Location) in Cambridge has been accepted - it will be fascinating to see the videos of the folded structures in the hand that explore both the possibility of architecture alongside that of multiple reading of language on the welcome screens in the entrances to  The Department of Architecture and The Faculty of Law. These would give the opportunity for a half imagined moment of possibility.

forcedtheatre

a day of building projects and making connections - then onto 2 sessions of Shakespeare with Forced Entertainment - I managed to see 8 plays with everyday objects standing in for the characters, all on a table top - storytelling of the first degree - it really was brilliant. If you ever get the opportunity to see Forced Entertainment grab it and if they are doing table-top Shakespeare start lining up.....Although badly hung Electronic Superhighway at the Whitechapel has some gems - Allan Kaprow's Hello was very funny and of the moment (in both 1969 and 2016!) another odd historical piece was the very creepy surveillance shoe by Jill Magi. Of the new work on show JODI's Geogoo and Jan Robert Leegte's Scrollbar Composition were highlights. The Wellcome Trust has States of Mind -Tracing the Edges of Consciousness a mixed show of work created by artists and historical documents from their collection. it's worth it to see Mary Kelly's Post-Partum Document.

controldirectmapandfeel

a day at Norwich Castle - working within the build your own exhibition (alongside Turner Prize winners Assemble!)- developing an 'alternative' way of engaging with the permanent museum displays. I have 'chosen' 3 objects and am attempting to unfold from a very cluttered brain (looking forward to Christmas) a range of connections and questions between and to them. Exploring the idea of creating a range of entry points to understanding an object within a collection and then being able to navigate through a collection are key concerns of the 'mini residency'.

Sword in the Stone - this year's 'rock and roll' panto at The Wolsey in Ipswich is a truly great night out - shed your inhabitations before you enter and it will be good - very good - men dressed as women, behind you, evil combated by good, fire, smoke, illusion, oh no it isn't, dancing - rude jokes - its all there - every year I marvel at the performers ability to sing, dance, act and play a wide range of musical instruments - fantastic, who needs irony?http://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/shows/the-sword-in-the-stone/

love and mercy - the Brian Wilson biopic is stunning in its portrayal of where songs come from - the moment it 'arrives' as the essence of a fragment, building its development, the combining of sounds and words, the weaving of layering towards a final piece. brilliant. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903657/

thinkinglookingtalkingandbeingaparent

METIS http://metisarts.co.uk/ are developing a new piece and as part of their development they have been looking at how clothes are made within a global context – I went to a sort of sharing of our research so far session at the Wolsey Theatre on Saturday – not bad – some interesting ideas were thrown up about labelling in clothes in relationship to food, the lack of direct health issues around purchasing cheap clothes (within the manufacturer of clothes it is other people’s health that is at risk). http://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/shows/pulse14-world-factory-the-shirt/ Later New Art Club http://newartclub.org/ were as excellent as expected and a bit more – I think that I was crying with laughter within minutes and the last monologue was so beautiful - making us all evaluate the whole show – thank you. Meanwhile back to assessment today with a quick break for year 2 textile design student’s introduction to year 3 at NUA. http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/introduction-to-year-3-35664784  Then off to see the Foundation show at Wensum Lodge in Norwich 

http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/Leisure_and_culture/Adult_education/Types_of_courses/Courses_for_learners_16-18/NCC086964 vested interest - my child is graduating so I will be in proud parent mode. 

theatricalcoffinonwheels

A weekend of theatre at High Tide Festival in Halesworth – the big meal http://www.hightide.org.uk/event/the_big_meal and incognito http://www.hightide.org.uk/event/incognito - both plays with interesting fractured narratives and a staggering amount of stage craft - it’s great to see such interesting work just down the road – meanwhile out of the scrape materials from the building work going on around me I’ve built two multi-functional-seating-day-beds-with-storage for the new space – they look a little like coffins which could give them another use...................later