foodartandmorefood

There is a great show at Messums in Cork St of one of the current strands of Laurence Edwards body of work. It focuses on an interesting public art project where the heads of former miners are being modelled and cast in bronze for a proposed piece in the centre of Doncaster. I love the original waxes they are full of movement and energy and genuinely seem to be alive. I'm clearing shelves in my studio, getting rid of stuff that no longer makes sense to have in my life, mainly materials and expired technology no longer needed but I found the notes from the first book makers conference organised by Stefan Szczelkum which was a moment of odd time travel for me. click to go to a powerpoint link to see what we were doing in 1993. https://www.slideshare.net/secret/z5E5tJGV4wlC1A

on a short weekend break to Sète in the South of France in between eating some extraordinary food I slotted in a visit to see apres a multi-part exhibition by Eric Baudelaire at CRAC. It was a mixed show that included some interesting work of other artists to build context for a long community project - it was good to see the work of The Gorilla Art Action Group and some early video work including  John Akomafrah's Handsworth songs with dub cinema and Partially Buried by Renee Green which explored ideas around loss and nostalgia. back to the food Sète  like most of France has specific speciality - this area has Tielle - an octopus pie - https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tielle  truly wonderful.   

observingmappingattendingandlooking

It's been a busy 6 days of student exhibitions and teaching. After assessing on the MA Book Art Course at Camberwell, lots of mapping of practice with post-it notes, I went to see the final Year Fine Art midterm exhibition at Chelsea which was full of ideas and on the moment thinking around critiquing all things social media. The NUA Textile Design final year midterm exhibition in St Margaret's church was a hugely eclectic success, the work looked good and lots of learning took place and with 6 months to go the tone felt about right.

I also managed to drop into Laurence Edwards studio to see the wonderful madness that is a 25ft man - it is going to be truly extraordinary - well it is already. http://www.laurenceedwardssculpture.com/

castingawaynegativespace

I spent the afternoon yesterday at the studio of sculptor Laurence Edwards casting negative space - it's a great place to think and my time there allowed me the opportunity to play with 'traditional' materials - it was really nice to be around like minded people and have the stuff of stuff lying around to allow space to reflect on the nano project. https://unfoldingthinking.blogspot.co.uk/ Laurence's work is becoming monumental with lots of technical issues to be solved which I like watching, you can feel solutions in the air, the space is all about process. http://www.laurenceedwardssculpture.com/

joininginandhavingfun

I have joined in with Mathew Aldred! http://www.mathewaldred.com/ - he is working on a project called grey matters http://www.greymatters.xyz/ it's a way of collecting images but really it's about creating connections and joining people, the whole project presents a model of decent behaviour and respect as a response to current global situations. The week has been mainly about creating work for unfolding thinking https://unfoldingthinking.blogspot.co.uk/ which is going well.

I have almost managed to get to the end of Narcos http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2707408/ - a brutal portrayal of honour, betrayal and love. Often misplacing emotional responses in a glorious way Wagner Moura is extraordinary as Pablo Escobar - it's really nice that he never shouts at his kids!

A party in Halesworth on Saturday meant that I got to see the development of Laurence Edwards studio http://www.laurenceedwardssculpture.com/ - it looks great - very grown up and professional. 

itsthattimeofyear

In academic life it's that time of year - submissions, assessments, final show planning and

some tense but excitable students full of expectation and some looking for the time machine to go back and do work that they didn't manage the first time around (due to planning issues) - it's going to be a good one.

meanwhile - making for ALL in Cambridge progresses - with new objects made and filmed.
Looking at ideas of text and pattern generation.

As well as consuming the final episodes of Girls - harrowing but redemptive and Better
Call Saul - just so sad I've been checking out a few films that I'd missed the
first time around - the all consuming Margaret being the most moving http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0466893/ - there are many commenting on the thing that is youtube but maybe the most astute/disturbing/angry is h3h3 https://www.youtube.com/user/h3h3Productions

finally check out the film about the sculptor Lawrence Edwards - beautiful

listeningthinkingandlooking

A most excellent day in London - at Camberwell – Symposium 2 on the Book Art Course was full! It was made up of a range of student presentations that illustrated diverse individual relationships to the book. Ranging from the voice accompanied video performance, new work shown large for the first time, promos for books, chronological narratives and     The session is an outcome, evidence for a moment of reflection on the course – for me it was a great pleasure to see the development of the students practice and I left with a note book full of starting points to research. One student – Joanna Brinton back from a residency in Japan is in a show titled Down the Dori - The Cookhouse Gallery at Chelsea College of Art, London July 2 – 5, 9 – 8pm – to see more of her work ... http://camberwellmabookarts.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Joanna%20Brinton

Amber Ablett also back from Bergen - http://www.amberablett.com/ had an interesting body of new work. another link to a personal presence on the web. http://feltbug.blogspot.co.uk/

Then off to the BA show at Camberwell – two stand-out shows - Drawing was very eclectic and made one rethink the idea of drawing and Illustration, usually lost on me as a concept – it was very professional with some engaging work. Then off to Cork Street to see Laurence Edwards show at Messums – http://www.messums.com/artist/162/Laurence-Edwards/  Laurence’s work is very exciting (for Bronze casting!!) and thought provoking. I of course take all the credit for his ‘truth to materials’ aesthetic and engagement with the Bronze casting process that came out of conversations during our collaboration on the Louth Art Trail. http://www.commissionseast.org.uk/html/casestudies/louth/Louth.htm But seriously see the work on his web site if you can’t get to see the work in the flesh. 

http://laurenceedwardssculpture.com/  

  

iminabook

I'm in a book! Strange I spent 10 seconds complaining in my head that ‘somebody’ had created a piece of work just like the one I had made with Laurence Edwards for the Louth Art Trail then only to read the copy! Nice twist to be in the index after Joseph Beuys.  

http://www.laurenceedwardssculpture.com/ 

http://www.commissionseast.org.uk/html/casestudies/louth/Louth.htm 

thinkingsculpture

Managed to get to the private view at Peter Pears Gallery in Aldeburgh – it’s a joint exhibition of Laurence Edwards http://laurenceedwardssculpture.com/ Craig Hudson http://www.craighudsonart.com/about.htm and Brian Taylor http://brian-taylor.artparks.co.uk/artpark_sculpture_sculptor_details.php?artistID=152&sculptor=brian_taylor  It’s really good to see such an honest premise for a show – the passing on of ideas and support that artists have for each other. The work was excellent – Brian’s work appears to be case from the actual material souls are made from – you can see thinking in Laurence’s work and Craig’s men have a hulk-like twinkle of wit about them – go see - http://www.list.co.uk/place/20018586-peter-pears-gallery/