endingsandmaterials

I was invited to a really interesting network meeting the other day - I gave a short presentation and took part in a Q&A session with the Cambridge University public engagement team, it was great to revisit my time at NanoDTC, to reflect on the work I did there and consider how it continues to fuel my thinking  within my practice. Meanwhile at Camberwell College of the Arts we are reinventing the final weeks of the Book Art course to really reflect on needs and wants of the students. Each week mini projects are being set by the students and shared through Zoom, it will make a great collective legacy. So far we have created posters - one based on Russian typography and another on Film titles. In the studio I have been photographing and filming some of the material experiments I have been working on.  

and onto films - Aniara - a twisted sc-fi dystopian tragic tale, Just Mercy - an oppressive tale of human ugliness, High Note - lovely but doesn't really go anywhere apart from a twist nobody will see coming, The Lovebirds - an interesting premise that should be funnier ditto Space force.  

lookingtothefuturefromhere

Over the past month I have been contemplating the parable of the man, the child, and the donkey.

A man and his son were going with their donkey to market. As they were walking a man passed them and said, “You fools, why are you not riding your donkey?” So the man put the boy on the donkey, and they went on their way.

But soon they passed a man who said, “Lazy child, he rides while his father walks.”

So the man ordered his boy to get off, and got on himself.

But they hadn’t gone far when they passed a man, who said, “Shame on that idle man to let his child walk.” so they both got on the donkey and rode on.

But then a man passing by said, “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor donkey?” The man and boy got off and thought about what to do.

They had a great idea, they cut down a pole, tied the donkey’s feet to it, and raised the pole and the donkey to their shoulders. They went along amid the laughter of all who met them.

I'm looking forward to a break so it's good that the Summer has started - the Private View at Camberwell for the MA's was a full on experience - it was very hot and full of lovely people. I spent a lot of the time explaining to shocked individuals that this was the last but one show as the course is closing, all this whilst surrounded by some very exciting work that was embedded in the pursuit of exploring the book. oh well.

meanwhile - deep in series 3 Stranger Things at the moment - it really has turned into full on horror. Black Mirror was a more subtle and interesting experience, especially Ashley O - it was doing all the usual trapped rock start tropes and then became something else.....great writing. Years and Years was a little too close for comfort. Shoplifters has many lessons about what makes a family - beautiful and moving. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8075192/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1

dontworrynewstuffwillemerge

I've been engaging in a new walk that takes in both Walberswick and Southwold which means going past a fishmongers so after 1/2 dozen oysters in the harbour I'm yet again walking through the town so dropped into Southwold Museum for the first time ever  https://www.southwoldmuseum.org/ . It's full of fantastic stories - each one connected to a wonderfully odd object. Coffee sent by Haile Selassie after the great flood of 53 http://theconversation.com/1953-storm-surge-how-britains-worst-natural-disaster-kicked-off-the-debate-on-climate-change-71310  and spikes dropped from zeppelins based on designs created to deter Roman Chariots were two of my favourites. meanwhile Hotel Artemis is an amalgam of several films you have already seen, there are no surprises but it looks good and Jodie Foster shines. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5834262/?ref_=nv_sr_1 and Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot - is beautifully shot by Gus Van Sant with some glorious acting by all - Jona Hill is superb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6288124/?ref_=nv_sr_1 On the Music front enjoying Chet Faker and FKJ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw-hw7rVOrA today working at Camberwell - running the last what is a book session where structural folding leads to building an individual relationship to bookness. After last week's Textile Design lecture I realised that I had left my keys in the theatre - really pleased this happened as KlangHaus were setting up for Fine Art - the performance/lecture was really engaging and informative - I last saw them in an immersive/performance/gig in an old factory in Norwich. If you get a chance go see them. https://klanghaus.co/

buildingcuratingassessing

more building, curating and assessing - the MA Book Art show at Camberwell looks fantastic. There is some really considered work that is underpinned by exceptional research and has at its core conceptual thinking around personal notions of book. meanwhile 2 films with 'interesting' premise's at their root that should of been funnier  I Feel Pretty and Blockers do not watch these. back at The Bridge season 4 all is dark and menacing https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09m2k24 I am obviously very late to the party but have become interested in Daniil Kharms and am wading through the wonderfully obsessive book - I am a phenomenon quite out of the ordinary by Anthony Anemone and Peter Scotto. it's the notebooks, diaries and letter and is a fantastic insight into the man.

There was a red-haired man who had no eyes or ears.
Neither did he have any hair, so he was called red-haired theoretically.
He couldn't speak, since he didn't have a mouth. Neither did he have a nose.
He didn't even have any arms or legs. He had no stomach and he had no back and he had no spine and he had no innards whatsoever. He had nothing at all!
Therefore there's no knowing whom we are even talking about.
In fact it's better that we don't say any more about him.

a great day out in London on Tuesday - the discussions with MA Book Art students from Camberwell around the work in the exhibition at the photographers gallery - radical feminism and then in the permanent treasures Gallery at the British Library were superb - as ever the students brought a range of new understandings to the work and some wonderful concepts/questions/thoughts- the role of fundamentalist typography, tyrannical layout, books that have one purpose - the performance of the book, how display informs understanding - subversive labels - labels as the work  - the list goes on. The exhibition of feminist work is worth a visit and contains a range of work that underpins a lot of the performances that I saw as part of Spill at the weekend - a post moment rethink and the upcoming exhibition around maps at the British Museum is sure to be wonderful and a recommendation. In the evening the talk I gave for the Norfolk Contemporary Craft Society went well, I would like to think, with lots of ideas thrown out and a number given back which will be followed up when I get a moment . As I cycled back to the station (to be subjected to another example of poor service from Abellio) the lights and reflection of the St George building at NUA lifted the spirits. a mention for adultswim - http://www.adultswim.com/music/singles-2016/ a beautiful web portal. Meanwhile another day at the Maxwell Centre brought fresh revelations - http://unfoldingthinking.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/chemicallogicofthemicrobialcommunity.html

whatisinpetmince?

a great day of structural thinking on the MA Book Arts on tuesday - some excellent folding and conceptual bookness went on. http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/001-a-what-is-book-bookness-2016 as part of Southbank Centre Young Adult Literature Weekender some students from Camberwell MA Book Arts - Muqiu, Lena and Charlotte are running a workshop at the South Bank Centre - it will be good - go get involved.

http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/book-binding-workshop-1001990

I'm working for Open College of the Arts on a really interesting project - supporting final year MA Fine Art students in creating an online exhibition - thinking of using www.isthisitisthisit.com  as an example of good practice.

thursday saw the induction workshop and day at NUA - the whole week exists as an instagram feed #gotextiles check it out.

meanwhile the film The Brothers Grimsby manages to envisage and then enact scenarios that I could not even conceive of - this is not necessarily a good thing but it is a series of open mouth is-that-really-happening-moments

theendistheend

the end is underway at Camberwell - we've started the planning process for the final show for this cohort's MA Book Art students - this year it's in Wilson's road annex as the major re-development takes over the main site. Got to see Tina C on the Southbank last night - if you like your men dressed up as female patriotic, Christian right wing country and western singers this is for you. The latest show is full of comments on the referendum and Donald Trump - go see. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTli2s_QaEA The Felix Gonzalez Torres show at Hauser and Wirth is beautiful - favourites include the blue mirror piece which is starkly blunt whilst the light bulb piece hangs poignantly within the huge space. http://www.hauserwirth.com/exhibitions/2784/felix-gonzalez-torres-curated-by-julie-ault-and-roni-horn/view/ The mentoring at Kings is going well - John Grayson is doing a great job with the maker space and the work is going well - it will look excellent within the bookcase - its final resting place. The discussion/presentations today were illuminating, with lots to build on in the future. The issue of inter disciplinarian collaborative activity - its benefits, from the feel good factor, embedding fun and ways to talk about monetising activity. 

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/

wearehereandwehavehadenough

Reflecting on Spill – considering the position of creativity in society.

The edge is recognised, acknowledged, subsumed, mopped up and assimilated by a kind of Borg-like-conventionalism within a capitalist paradigm that atomises individuality then reconstructs and regurgitates it as a commodity for the individual.  The main-stream is veracious in its overwhelming consumption of the ‘other’. Initially spurning what it does not understand, then consuming but never acknowledging or validating the deep roots that initiated the creative thinking that underpinned its watered-down presence in our everyday. This is repeatedly the case – be it the role of the arts in the gentrification of derelict and disregarded areas of the city or the alternative death celebrations that have arisen, initially created by a generation questioning coming to terms with early death. This lack of recognition and respect is on-going thanks to ignorance and fear. Thoughts collated from the last 35 years whilst sitting within a like-minded group of people waiting.

The MA Book Art students have an exhibition for three weeks in the library at Camberwell of altered books – the results of a short set project. The crit yesterday focused on discussing the creative strategies the students had employed to develop work from the books they had been given, finding and developing texts or alternative narratives embedded within the initial books. How much to leave, remove, alter, add or possibly use the book as a starting point to other work. Onto the Polar Institute in Cambridge where I gave a paper for SHARE on the work I have undertaken with The Costume and Textile Study Centre at Norwich Castle.  All went well – myself and Ruth were a wonderfully unscripted double act – it’s all about trust - in the other parties involved, knowing what you do and finally believing in and understanding your role.

Managed to see The Polar Muse at the Polar Institute Museum. http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/museum/exhibitions/ It’s a number of texts specially commissioned as responses to objects from the collection. The textual interventions were vinyl cut onto the glass of the cases that hold the collection – it was an interesting experience to see the objects through a veil of words. They also have the wonderful Caroline Wright working in residence there de-constructing de-accessioned objects – powerful stuff.

The current show at the Whitechapel is most excellent – the work by Richard Tuttle explores his use of textiles; everything from single threads that protrude from the wall and play with the real and imagined, cut canvas sheets through to complicated constructed pieces. http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/richard-tuttle-i-dont-know-the-weave-of-textile-language The current children’s commission by Fraser Muggeridge: Mimeographica Alphabetica - work using stencils and old technology of the rotastat machine – the Proustian rush! (I can still smell the chemicals) is very playful and explores an interesting intersecting place between Graphics, Typography and Fine Art practice. http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/fraser-muggeridge-mimeographica-alphabetica

excitedandlookingforward

Spill tickets have arrived with 6 days to go till the opening party – can’t wait. Meanwhile – with many references to Brazil, although without the humour and a nod to David Lynch the Double is worth a watch http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825157/  Work wise - after a day of assessing on the MA in Book Arts course on Monday it was straight into 3 days in a chalet with the new year 1 students in Hunstanton making, bonding, drawing and encouraging lateral thinking and problem solving – most excellent – some wonderful moments despite the driving wind coming straight off the sea – or maybe because of it! and then there are the issues of economics made visual in the buildings.

momentbeforeanactionanactionandarepeatedaction

bookmare is/was a great success - the show has a number of marvellous moments when the works are in dialogue with each other and in my case with the space itself. the illustrated presentations were most excellent - the event was tweeted live - if interested - @ccwgradschool #bookmare. stack 665 given by arnaud desgardin focused on his piece in the show which explored the idea of book choice and re presentation as art piece and talked with passion on both the selection of books, the idea of the book and the mediation required for this kind of work.  claire louise staunton curator of flat time house gave the most eloquent presentation of the ideas behind john lathams work I have ever heard - truly informative, thoughtful and entertaining - lots to think about around the idea of the time/moment before an action, an action and a repeated action -  and the role that the objects play in his practice - meanwhile I talked about my historical proximity to a factory building and the men who worked in it, its relevance to my practice both now - some huge ideas such as skill, revelation and testimony were covered by anecdotes whilst also throwing in references to an interview with the lead singer of the dirty projectors, a possible role for the artist in society exampled by the show next door at the south london gallery (stephen willats) and a piece of work I had just seen at invisible - the show at the hayward - a text piece by robert barry - A GREAT CONCERN TRANSMITTED TELEPATHICALLY all in all a good experience  http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/bookmare-presentation-with-notes . now onto latitude!