latticeknowhow

Constellation - an exhibition of bookart that I have some work in has been extended till August 14th - https://www.wyofile.com/a-constellation-of-artists-books-challenges-viewers/ so again if you happen to be in the area pop into the County Library in Cheyenne, Wyoming. https://lclsonline.org/constellation-inspiration-and-the-artist-book/  The break means that I have had some time to create new work for knowwhere - monumental miniatures that explore lattice structures.

White cube Bermondsey has a show of 3 people - Peter Dreher's obsessive paintings of an empty glass are truly excessive and the paintings of Des Lawrence go beyond painting, their conceptual and practical making have an almost impenetrable otherness. A visit to Tate gets you a very busy lesson in 'reflected light is interesting, with Olafur Eliasson and Takis has some magnets and bulbs - the only compensation was that the Tate had left out the more dubious sculptures of women that was in his show at the Palais de Tokyo in 2015. After a long drawn out set up Captive State has a nice but fairly clearly transmitted twist and with Lying and Stealing we may of been here before. Its Latitude weekend - mainly looking forward to revisiting Underworld but quirky second choice is going to be the proto-analogue-electronic - KOKOKO - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QwjURBSIPA

newspacesandnewwork

In between the busy time of assessing and creating exhibitions as part of my teaching duties I've been working on the second iteration of knowwhere, the miniature space within the studio. This is a series of works based on the structures that support works within museums. Meanwhile some exhibitions - Mike Nelson's poignant display at Tate Britain  https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/mike-nelson  Joanna Piotrowska's extraordinary photographs at Tate Britian https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/joanna-piotrowska Kate Coopers formidable videos at the Hayward https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/blog/interview-artist-kate-cooper Us https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6857112/ was truly disturbing, a dark tale of slavery and oppression in a capitalist world. Catch 22 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5056196/was another study of capitalism, another form of control. Less than a week to go to Pulse at The Wolsey in Ipswich - so much theatre in two days - scratch day and suitcase day are upon us  https://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/brochures/pulse-festival-2019/ suitcase day is such a great idea - having to bring all props for the show on public transport in a suitcase.

knowwherestartshere

I have a created a new space called knowwhere - it will be a place to show large scale work within a small space. the first show is of pieces that came out of a making day for the Open College of the Arts - OCA. Meanwhile I'm working on the talk for Turn the Page - its developing into 3 stages - 1 bookness explored, 2 the practice created as a result working within the concept, 3 specific deep dives using recent activity - Book as hand tool for thinking maker – object – audience, space of a book - the influence a book inhabits and rethinking the idea - the books influence. The images are sorted I just have to work out what words go with this.

meanwhile I have to recommend a couple of books - 4321 a stunning book by Paul Auster https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/27/4321-by-paul-auster-review it is a mind swivelling trip of possibilities that might just make you rethink your life - everything will be. Middle England by Jonathan Coe https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/25/middle-england-jonathan-coe-review  is a dark comedy commentating on our time. I sat through all 10 episodes of Homecoming https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7008682/?ref_=rvi_tt  in two sittings in a kind of moreish exercise where you are unable to stop watching. The show has some excellent acting in between the rather odd (in a good way) cinematography. Lunatics by Chris Lilley goes up to a mythical line of acceptable taste and sort of rubs it out - but again in an interesting way. The Orville by Seth MacFarlane is a great comedy nod to Star Trek - worth a watch but it doesn't stress the brain cells too much but again this may be a good thing. Serenity has had a tough ride with the critics, yes its wooden, yes the twist is signposted a mile away, yes everybody is a 2D trope but I really enjoyed the beautiful sadness. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6476140/?ref_=rvi_tt