calmingfrenchnessandsomemore

My paper/presentation at turn the page symposium  https://www.turnthepage.org.uk/  seemed to go well - it was a little rambling as I attempted to cram 27 years of thinking about book art and bookness into 40 minutes. It was great to be surrounded by like minded people and listen to inspiring presentations - Maria White speaking about the idea of collecting was absorbing and Kate Farley's thoughts about reading patterns has got me thinking!

I recently went to the extraordinary Chateau la Coste https://chateau-la-coste.com/en/walk/ a space of splendid calm where art wine and architecture are surrounded by ancient Provence landscape. The work of Tadao Ando is particularly special. After staying at imprints http://imprints-galerie.com/ in Crest  where the market is so wonderfully French - if you boiled down all of Frenchness you would get this place A quick trip to Marseilles is always a bonus and in the railway sidings I noticed this building.

It's that time of year when several festivals are in full swing - at Aldeburgh Festival I saw Bastard Assignments https://bastardassignments.com/  who make experimental sound performative work - Neo Hulcker's piece crackles was excellent. At Norfolk and Norwich Festival Shon Dale-Jones of http://www.hoipolloi.org.uk/  has been performing a trilogy which demonstrates his wondrous storytelling skills. I'm looking forward to Pulse at the Wolsey in a couple of weeks https://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/pulse-festival/  Meanwhile it's also that time when assessments are about to kick in - so far a day of reading reflective thinking and professional practice thoughts has been informative.

turnthepagetalkingandsomethinking

the nicest comment so far has been that my rambling pluralistic presentation contained nothing controversial but was inclusive and allowed people to realize that its okay - relax - play. this is a link to the presentation given at the Turn The Page Symposium in Norwich @ttpABF - https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/ttp-2019-les-b-with-links

joiningandmakingsense

decided to join instagram - https://www.instagram.com/les1bicknell/ it will be a documentation on my everyday activity that supports practice. my instagram profile image is me dealing with and being dealt by the wonderful Alfedo Jaar http://www.alfredojaar.net/main.html piece at MOMA - Lament of the images http://www.moma.org/collection/works/138623?locale=en I first saw it at The Tate in another iteration and then went to see it on my last two trips to New York making the pilgrimage to be altered. His work for the Chile Pavillion at the Venice Biennale was extraordinary you had to really be there to get the full experience, comming across it - but check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFuAzBEOcMI

some films this week -  The 100 year old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2113681/ a wonderful funny life affirming experience - in so many ways a better Forest Gump!  Parallels - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3479316/?ref_=nv_sr_1 nice idea but more of a tv series pilot as so many issues are either initiated in the last 5 minutes or left as cliff hangs  Dear white people - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2235108/?ref_=rvi_tt a quietly scathing look at racism and our role in it. the Aldeburgh festival threw up Tamsin Waley-Cohen on violin and James Baillieu on piano - a front row seat means that you really get the sense that playing an instrument is an endurance sport. the Debussy and Elgar were discordant and challenging - speaking of death, destruction and the context that they were created in - the new piece by Freya Waley-Cohen with its loops and forceful architecture was an interesting counter balance and gave space to consider our location. Looking forward to the pump house on Friday - The wild man of Orford a piece based on 'actual' legend http://myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/origins63-the-wild-man-of-orford.html  and maybe stay to watch Dead Rat Orchestra playing salt, sawdust and 200 shards of micro-tuned steel. Turn the page book fair is this weekend in Norwich http://turnthepage.org.uk/ its great to see so many people who are connected to the MA Book Arts Course at Camberwell attending - we have a stand this year - and I see that Rosie Sherwood will launch her new poetry book and art installation 'The Ellentree' as well as Karen Apps having her own stand -  come along - it will be interesting as the selection panel - Sarah Bodman, Su Blackwell and Jules Allen bring a wealth of knowledge to their position as selectors.

thinkingturningrethinking

Turn the page in Norwich is coming up this weekend - http://www.turnthepage.org.uk/index.htm a must see for seeing interesting books and book related objects – they have an exhibition by Brian Dettmer which will be full of obsessive cutting and the mining of alternative narratives within books http://briandettmer.com/  while thinking about Norwich check out the Relux project which is part of the festival http://dedomenici.com/redux richard has been remaking various films – most awesomely bizarre. The Thursday lecture at NUA was by Celia Pym http://celiapym.com/ really wonderful journey – the focus was on connecting, finding out who to work with and how to sustain a practice. titled Is this a thing? I started to think about the students experience of Listening – why come to a lecture that’s not what I do....she made me rethink ...make a link with the Yoko Ono – cut piece – thinking about the real violence of the act, the fact that in archives all clothes are catalogued as a personal item and also it made me think about the role of a tutor – talking and listening professionally. Beautiful.

tonetflickornottonetflick

Completed two group tutorial sessions for the Open College of the Arts – an on-line experience which sees me wearing a microphone like early Madonna and I love it. The process is fascinating and the connection with students all over the world is an extension of the work I am involved in at Camberwell. It’s interesting to be part of the future in some way!

The digging, drilling, cutting, shifting part of my life nears its end – the ‘floating’ step is on its way and the new house bit should be completed by Friday.

I have become slightly obsessed with a nonsense bit of Netflicking – to Netfklick – he Netflicked – etc - Person of interest – the graphics are interesting if the plot is often ludicrous, even laughable at times. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1839578/

Its turn the page in Norwich this weekend – it will be interesting to see how it is developing, I had a table and was part of the judging last year – this year I am just a punter. http://turnthepage.org.uk/

turnthepagechoice

An intriguing day in Norwich. A day on the selection panel for Turn The Page. A day looking a wide range of approaches to the book. Always interesting to look at images of books rather than the actual objects. The book - a 3D object that exists in space, that often explores time, sequence and order, can be manipulated in the hand and whose materials have often been chosen carefully for their textural qualities. It was nice to meet the other selectors Tanya from the bookartbookshop, Nicola Dale from Rogue Studios, Manchester and finally Jules and Marina the organisers. Turn The Page has the idea of being more than a book fair - the cross between fair and exhibition is a good one and favours visual work that uses/explores the idea of the book. But its also about the idea of supporting local and young (in terms of their CV) artists, providing opportunities, of generating a buzz in the city and working within a very public space. So on the whole the two days in May - Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th May 2013 will be an eclectic mixture challenging the nature of the book - looking forward to it already.

grindingmalevolenttone

In the middle of an interesting week – 2 days at home making work in my 'new studio' and 2 days at NUA (Norwich University of the Arts) new name – unsure if this is 3^rd or 4^th version in my lifetime - Norfolk Institute of Art and Design (NIAD), Norwich School of Art and Design, Norwich University College of the Arts and now Norwich University of the Arts. Its history dates back to 1845 when it was called Norwich School of Design - interesting. 

Monday was supporting the 3^rd years collaborative project – some of the groups have envisaged wonderful ideas for the future and worked really well as a group - all groups are learning important lessons for the future in terms of collaboration, considering how one feels about having to own an idea that is created in collaboration with a group is a great learning curve. The Textile course team at NUA generally and the collaborative project specifically are all about presenting opportunities for learning. The nature of learning takes many forms and often what you actually set out to learn isn't what you actually learn, the important thing is to reflect on ones actions.

Tomorrow is Research into Practices Unit feedback tutorials for the MA Textile students and in the afternoon the presentations for the collaborative project for the 3^rd years which should be an excellent learning opportunity.  

Friday is working with turn the page http://turnthepage.org.uk/ I’m on the selection panel http://turnthepage.org.uk/page10.htm with Tanya Peixoto and Nicola Dale - it should be interesting to see a wide range of bookworks.

Meanwhile have to promote black moth - http://blackmothband.co.uk/ - have been playing tracks from their killing jar LP - the articulate dead and blackbird falling on a loop since hearing them as part of the chain on 6 music’s Radcliff and Maconie.

turnthepage

I have been invited to be to be one of the selectors in this year’s juried annual artist’s book fair turn the page. I am in the wonderful company of Tanya Piexoto (Director of bookartbookshop), artist Nicola Dale and Jules Allen (TTP). Held in the forum in Norwich TTP 2013 is now supported by Arts Council England so I am looking forward to seeing how it grows. I'm already anticipating seeing a great body of work as book arts appears to be undergoing one of its periodic spurts of interests within the art world. www.turnthepage.org.uk

Meanwhile I'm really enjoying how the music works by David Byrne. I've been a huge fan of talking heads and Byrne, (well I was at art school in the 80s) both the music itself and the ideas behind it, the book is a wonderful insight into the mind of this free thinking intelligent man.