foldedpamphletsjuxtaposed

The show in Russia appears to be going well - this is a link to the pdf of the catalogue http://www.pogarsky.ru/cgi-bin/foremanel.pl?mod=books&a=books&id=291 
I’ve just packed up the work for the exhibition in Bristol – it consists of early unpicking and rebinding paper structural pieces and a body of new work in the form of unique pamphlets using digital images derived from photographing the paper structures and outputting them through a digital printer. 

listemingfortomorrow

listening to darkstar whilst organising tomorrows hang at the Gallery in Norwich. The culmination of 2 years work. The show is on for one day - thursday - the private view is wednesday 5.30 - 7.00

talkandthebooksculpture

A really positive day working at the Colchester Institute http://www.colchester.ac.uk/courses/ma-sculptural-practicewith the MA Sculpture students – morning was a presentation around public art http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/working-with-in-public-art and the afternoon was individual tutorials – it all felt good talking sculpture – discussions ranged from the abject and Kiki Smith to the sublime and Mariele Neudecker via amongst others Bachelard, Jospeh Beuys, Pitt Rivers, ritual, symbolism, skill and witchcraft! Meanwhile the book structure workshop/session at Camberwell for the MA Book Arts students followed by a bookness – what is a book presentation http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/what-is-book-bookness-2013 was really interesting with cultural hiccups left right and centre which is always an interesting thing to reflect on.....language...the digital invite to the show at NUA is out.

twoexhibitionstwospaces

2 days at Camberwell working on the MA Book Art - assessing the students final submission. 2 very long days but it was a real pleasure looking at the work, discussing learning outcomes with other members of staff alongside the nature of an Art College (University) education. But also it’s an important time where we really think about the book and the possibilities available within its form. 

The reflective journal is an interesting tool and something that within my practice this blog and my note books take the role of. The two stage – the first thoughts, unintelligible to others one and the edited version connecting and disseminating to others one are essential for the development of a professional arts practice and even more so within an educational context.

Meanwhile

The show at the Museum of East Anglian Life is up. 

researchlifeandwork

Life at the moment is cluttered with unpicking and rebinding - but found time last week to research the Venice Biennale – working out which of the many collateral events away from the main sights I’m going to get to and looking at how to get to the exhibition at Palazzo Grassi – a space that I’ve never managed to get into but if its anything like its sister space Punta della Dogana which always has excellent shows within an awesome space it should be good.

Meanwhile celebrating difference on youtube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkNEmKTuLnA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9MTGNaEXGM&feature=share

thinkingandcollecting

a quick break - 4 days in France - South of Marseilles - idyllic - amongst the books I read  I have to recommend Watermark by Joseph Brodsky - a beautifully crafted book, exquisite use of language, a meditation on light and life - centred on Venice - which I'm looking forward to visiting in a months time for the Biennial. As ever the holiday snaps represent current interests as well as long standing ones - death, fabric in/on sculpture, quirks in structural public amenity - a new one -  I became obsessed with the idea of barrier and am now collecting. 
I also managed to solve one or two issues around the unpicking and rebinding project which I have been working on this week. Having space to think was good.

teachingarchivesmeat

A week of teaching at NUCA, archives – see http://unpickingandrebinding.blogspot.co.uk/ and training – considering the National Student Survey (NSS) and our/my relationship to it. It’s important that students get the right information about a course when choosing where to study and increasingly, we are told, they along with their families are looking at sites such as which universities .com etc to make decisions, a sort of where to get the best deals on phones type site. I have been working with year 3 students on how to understand the rather elliptical questions in the survey along the implications of their tick boxes – it makes for interesting times and opportunities for us all. Meanwhile wading through some porn data with information graphics http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/design/all/04984/facts.information_graphics.htm a tombstone of a book – wonderful. 

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Albert Einstein

reallyreallyreallyexcited

Well - 2 years ago I sat in a restaurant in Venice heatedly discussing the role and representation of folding and smocking within the clothes represented in the paintings in the Academia. It culminated in the question was smocking inherently evil? as the individuals in the paintings wearing smocking appeared to have poor character qualities. The activity itself has political overtones – workers clothes and busy hands, alongside the idea of the hidden and the process of creating folds. This conversation has developed over the 2 years starting off with a small body of works for a touring exhibition in Ireland influenced by some of the structures. This was almost subconscious but later a show titled bookmare at Camberwell College of Art and the repeat show at Norwich University College consciously started the process of exploring smocking through the objects I make. A TESS funding application at nuca led to a body of work for the windows at the Imago gallery.  A lot of meetings and conversations led me to some really excellent people to work with within some interesting collections and archives in the Eastern Region. This led to a successful bid to the Arts Council to spend a year working on the idea with a number of partners – here is the initial paper table layout with the notes written on it and finally I am starting on what I hope will be a fantastic opportunity......