wanderingaroundandlooking

A busy week of teaching - completing assessments, a bonding with fabrics, sublimation and rubber workshop and feedback tutorials at NUA. For OCA I ran a writing workshop where we began to talk about how to write about work, specifically looking at our relationship to making and the work. Friday was mostly spend in a 4 hour meeting at The Bookartbookshop in Hoxton, (a gem of a place) thrashing out a plan with Tanya, with much tea, for the next phase of the MA Book Art course at Camberwell - lots of guest speakers and more group crits and opportunities to discus our work. Despite its context - that of closing - the course is experiencing some good work as it drives off a cliff into being taught out to its demise. During a fantasy artwork seminar this week we rethought the Grand Tour for the Internet Generation - using Google Earth and instructions to send each other around the world from the comfort of our phone screens. #someofmybestteachingistakingplace. Other work includes being invited to run an Artists Book surgery at The Tetley in Leeds as part of PAGES and its New Voices project and running master class workshops with The Design Crafts course at Middlesex University. Both of which will be interesting opportunities and I'm really pleased to be part of their worlds.

At the weekend a quick jaunt around some east end galleries to check out this years edition of Condo http://www.condocomplex.org/london/ - where galleries give their spaces to galleries from around the world - some interesting work in mixed shows - Andrew Bick at Hales Gallery was a graphic geometric feast and I enjoyed the knitted maps and dictionaries at Flowers East. Whilst walking around the back streets I came across some magnificent examples of smoking architecture - buildings built as a result of the smoking ban for the express purposes of smoking.

magnicentspaces

The Herbert Art Gallery in Coventry has an artist room from Kiefer which had some interesting early work - mainly him giving a Nazi salute which is still a chilling image. The highlight was going to the wonderful Cathedral - it is a very special space crammed with stunning artworks from the mighty Sutherland tapestry to the pennies embedded within the floor - all under a beautiful roof held up with the slenderest of columns.  crossing London getting home took in the problematic (not in a good way) work of Martin Elder at Newport Street Gallery luckily the show at Cabinet around the corner was wonderful - a curated show by James Richards has the stunningly thoughtful gif novels by Dennis Cooper http://www.kiddiepunk.com/zacscoralreef/contents.html

meanwhile the glorious Roma is a stunning film https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6155172/?ref_=nv_sr_1  - the camerawork and soundscape are all encompassing and the deeply personal storyline connects with the politics of a country in a way that is deeply moving. A recent winning podcast is broken record - unlike the usual music-talk from old-men-sitting-around-reminiscing-about-their debauchery-experience - the presence of Malcolm Gladwell makes this a nerd winner https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/broken-record check out Rick Rubin. another example of smoking architecture..

smokingtotheend

While cycling back to Liverpool St Station I came across this fine example of smoking architecture (an architectural intervention developed expressly for the purposes for smoking). I will add it to my collection. OCA this week has been the start of Testing Boundaries - the assignment that is creating new work for new spaces - all within an incredibly short timeframe. It's a real challenge but one that everyone rises to and goes on to succeed. As we embark on this year's iteration I think we have a strong possibility of doing something especially challenging after the first session threw up many issues around culturally specific locations. A day of group crits at NUA means 4 sessions of 8-9 students for an hour and a half each back to back - it's a full day, but there are some very strong bodies of thought emerging. Camberwell continues to be a long celebratory wake as the course is taught out and I run two more sessions for the very last time - writing reading and presenting problems. I think the relaxed atmosphere is bringing out some of the most extraordinary conversations, again the group consists of individuals from many corners of the world with multiple culturally specific knowledge - it really is a privilege.    

So far halfway through Good Girls - it's a Netflix winner that started out as an interesting portrayal of strong women doing it for themselves has now added jeopardy and turned into a worry - will they be okay? Watching They shall not grow old was an incredibly odd experience - getting beyond the 'unnatural naturalness' - the 'it's a little like a war movie' feeling was a challenge - the everyday footage of German and British soldiers 'hanging around' in the same place somehow symbolised the seeming pointlessness of it all. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7905466/?ref_=rvi_tt

walkingsmokingwatchingthedarkness

a week of long walks - came across another example of smoking architecture in Orford - to add to my collection - https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/smoking-architecture  The next stage in the work for Goldlay Sq is that the title of the piece will lead the public to a social platform where the research that supported the thinking and making can be viewed - thinking @knownknowledge is the answer. Posts later. season 4 black mirror was as expectedly dark as it should be and at its best when engaging with technology that appears to already be here, but is it becoming a place to scare the children and promote fear of the future?....meanwhile all these sleepless nights - a truly beautiful film that shines a light on the stupid glorious wonderfulness of youth - it just hangs around being young - how wondrous. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5146068/ The remake of The Beguiled http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5592248/?ref_=nv_sr_1 by Sofia Coppola has some interesting directorial choices in relationship to the original with Clint Eastwood - check out the mad trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n47_BZ2pj5U

lookingthinkingandmorelooking

spent a day last week working at NUA on the PAL scheme. Peer Assisted Learning - a wonderful project that aims to enable the outgoing year one students the possibility to formally support the new year one students arriving in September and generally the scheme engages with the good in people. It was a room full really positive individuals who have volunteered to give of their time and share their experiences of being a first year. I was brought in to chair(ish) the day and run ice-breaker-type workshops between sessions and to generally deconstruct the idea of being a PAL, giving the students tools to own the idea. Fun and worthwhile - whats not to like?
Today has been a day in London with MA Book Arts students visiting two shows to look at the meaning of display and the context of the gallery as a site for work. The Whitechapel Gallery had several exhibitions within the venue and we explored a range of subjects including – Hanging and Display - how it informs and directs our understanding of the artworks. Everyday objects as visual metaphor – how the character and qualities of objects can be used to explore or represent ideas. Practice as Process as Outcome – when does one become the other? If and when Design becomes Art. The idea of the Design Classic. Collection and curation as art practice. Recognising book-like qualities within display.  Defining the role of the embalmer/educator as practice. After a swift walk and lunch it was Whitecube at Bermondsey - it really is a stunning building and I never cease to marvel at its excessiveness - we had some interesting discussions around the role of texts within a gallery and its relationship to the work. (Whether they have been written by the curator or artist). 

Meanwhile two new examples of smoking architecture.

sculpturalroadtrip

a road trip north to view sculpture – first stop Yorkshire sculpture park http://www.ysp.co.uk/ – a truly magnificent experience with old favourites like Goldsworthy and Nash spaced a good walk away from the car park doing their thing with wood and stone and landscape. Old school plonk art was well represented by a marvellous family set by Hepworth, some thoughtful Moore’s

others worth a mention are James Turrell’s Deer Shelter Sky Space, Helen Escobedo’s ghostly bales, Ursula Von Rydingsvard ‘s wooden piece in the orangery – the smell is transcendent and the large scale moiré optical effect experienced with Basket #7 by Winter/Hörbelt
Indoors the Miro show had his slightly too cartoony jokey sculptures interspersed with the more successful etchings, his motifs work and seem to present possibilities in 2D but seem too frivolous in 3 – the prints feel like they come from another time – its rare to see large scale rich well produced printmaking – it seemed to be all i saw when a student in the 80s.
Alec Finley’s Propagator, http://www.alecfinlay.com/projects_mesostic.html a greenhouse containing plant pots from which sprout mesostic poems based on the names of flora at the park was good but the work can also be found in an artists book – herbarium – only £10.00 http://www.alecfinlay.com/bookshop-books.html .
Sophie Ernst has a beautiful yet poignant show dealing with the idea of home – Ernst interviews people forced to leave their homes and builds an architectural model of the houses they describe. She then projects onto this sculpture video footage of the person's hands as they describe their memory of that building. http://www.ysp.co.uk/exhibitions/sophie-ernst-home
after an overnight stay in wakefield the first stop the next day was the Hepworth gallery http://www.hepworthwakefield.org/ what a gloriously brutal space, both the overall design and the stunning detail - all of which seem to disappear when looking at the work in the spaces. my favourite room in the collection was showing Hepworth in context with some good examples of the work of Nicholson, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Epstein.
the stand out work was a show by Heather and Ivan Morison which draws on the life and work of 20th century British novelist Anna Kavan, the gallery is full of exquisite objects that are beautifully conceived. http://www.morison.info/anna.html

i was interested in Hepworth’s way of blocking out of history – or rather tidying it up by painting all the windows of the building next to it black – somewhat ominous.

finally onto Caro at Chatsworth http://www.chatsworth.org/whats-on/events/caro-at-chatsworth the okay examples of his work were sited in the magnificent space - my favourite overhear comment was ‘but this one’s just bits of metal’ – i see a bookwork coming on..........

and then there was the solid northern smoking architecture.

trainingandsmoking

spent Saturday in Warwick at the GB Olympic Boccia training – i was there to work with Dan and to show him the work i had done so far for journey to the podium – it was interesting to see people I have only seen on TV or through the web. Andrew Morgan, Zoe Robinson, David Smith and of course Nigel Murray – everybody was so friendly and helpful – I became really interested in Dan’s training and stretching regime – which may become another piece of work.

meanwhile I managed to add to my smoking architecture taxonomy – one that was burnt down!