Points of Interest 1#

When I created this blog I did so with the intention that it would have several functions; to act as a webpage where people could view my current and previous work as well as my CV, a platform from which to reflect and write critically on arts exhibitions, events and books and also become an online sketchbook in which I could collate images of other artists work as well as text/quotes from other inspirational sources. This post is the latter and is hopefully the first of many more snippets of things which are interesting and may be influencing my practice.

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I discovered the piece, 'Tools' by Mao Tongqiang in a sculpture magazine that  eventually found its way into the art office about three months later than it should have. Still, luckily for me, this meant I came across it just recently.

"Tools" (Gong Ju) by Mao Tongqiang consists of over 30,000 pieces used sickles and axes (and hammers) that the artist has collected across China in over two years. In terms of the context of the work, the most fundamental nature of these sickles and axes is working tools, the symbol of the farming civilization that had been dominant over thousands of years. If we look at these tools from a historical or sociological perspective, they were also the most primitive weapons in countless peasant revolts that marked the changes of dynasties in feudal China. In the modern history of Comintern (Communist International in Soviet Union) and the Communist Party of China, sickle represented peasants and axe (and hammers) workers. It’s the union of the two groups that led China into victory in the Communist Revolution in the 1940s, who also constituted the fundamental force of Socialist Construction afterwards. So it’s not surprising that the flag of the Communist Party adopted a pattern of sickle and axe, which illustrates the symbol’s significance and value."

Initially I was drawn in by the obvious connection in similarity of subject matter, 'Tongqiang uses tools, I use tools.' Both of us completely different in our approaches and how we actually use/then present the tools which is also exactly why I'm interested in his work. I've never attempted to use tools as an installation/scultptural element before and equally I have never looked at the political connotations that my selection of tools may have (particularly hammers, which have quite significant associations with 'law/order', buying/selling, Communism). Similarly, ideas around repetition, layering and how the work is poignant to its context (of the country/as well as the architecture of the room its in) are also food for thought. Formalistically speaking I also get quite excited by the shapes and consistent and subtle tonal palette of browns. All of which gets me thinking about how I might approach new ideas to forming work. Ie. Maybe layering, selecting tools that have paritcular significance/association to an idea/site.

The work, 'Tools' was recently exhibited in an exhibition, 'Real Life Stories' (In Bergen, Norway) featuring a collection of artists, selected and curated by Ai Weiwei. That in itself is also quite revealing, as I thought of Weiwei when I saw the image below, as it reminded me of his piece in the Tate Modern, 'Sunflower seeds'. There is a pattern emerging it seems with Chinese artists making work that is comprised of thousands of individual components (be it seeds or tools) that are viewed both individually and as a mass at the same time. I am thinking that this is a referent to the ever increasing population of China and that, whilst each (seed/tool) is different in the eyes of a communist, political regime it is really only about the majority and 'might' of the greater whole. Similarly the association of tools with labour/work and the way in which labour (in the form of craft) also played a significant part in the making of Weiwei's sunflower seeds is indicative of the work ethic and striving for development and prosperity that is particularly present in Chinese culture.

 On a slightly different note, I am also becoming increasingly interested in artist curators, as revealed here in Weiwei's selection of artists for the exhibition, 'Real Life Stories'; the kinds of work they choose are often refelctive or similar of their own artistic practice as they are united by a concept, visual language or ideal. It seems that you can be quite creative with the message you are communicating and how works are brought together/interpreted with curating as much, if not more so, than you can actually making art. NOTE TO SELF: Find out more about this... 

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* Image from :http://www.adamsongallery.org/limited-editions/mao-tongqiang/ 

** Image from :http://artnews.org/archivesandwarehouse/?exi=11496

Stop the presses!

Tales from the print room....

 

After two weeks of quite political posts this weeks’ takes on a more reflective tone, looking at my brief stint of ‘running’ the print room at Somerset College. (Those of a nervous disposition read no further!) I exaggerate, there isn’t really much to tell nor indeed was it particularly eventful, but the very fact that I was left responsible to look-after it for two weeks is in itself pretty news worthy. It’s not in my nature to take things lightly, perhaps once, when Starbursts were called Opal Fruits, ‘Fun House’ was still on TV and when ‘walking the dog’ meant doing a trick with a yoyo; I was a bit more carefree and a lot less ‘serious’ than I am now then the prospect of being left alone in a print room would be pretty damn cool.  It still is, but then, you probably wouldn’t have wanted the younger-me to run such a place, it could only have ended in a messy, squashed-fingered and chaotic sort of way. So, there I was, the ‘serious’ adult me, the prestigious print room key in my possession. How exactly did I succumb to this opportunity you ask? I’ve been teaching upstairs in Fine Art, only for a few days, and due to a staff sickness in the print room I was asked to cover it. I’d studied at SCAT so I was familiar with the print room and specialised in mono printing for my own practice so I was fairly confident I could keep it running safely and tidily, covering the most basic of print techniques. My own experiences of printmaking had been based from taking lessons from a now retired (I think it’s safe to say) eccentric (and I use the term widely), wild bearded but incredibly knowledgeable technician who was pretty protective of his print room. Whilst I felt I learnt how to actually make prints, I never really got to learn the practical things like mixing ink with extender (perhaps obvious, but who knew if it was always done for us). So there’s a few holes in my knowledge, nothing that I couldn’t handle and wasn’t willing to learn quickly.

 

As I was saying, so I had the key (pardon the megalomania) and dozens of new opportunities at my fingertips from drypoint, etching, lino, wood, lithography, collagraph, monotype, aquatint, silk screen and more...It was also half term, so it was relatively quiet in terms of students so between bouts of cleaning/organising and finding where everything was stored I took the opportunity to try a quick drypoint and mono type, examples of which can be seen here. Although, I can appreciate the quality of printmaking and take great pleasure in seeing other people’s prints, one of my favourite artists of all time, Jim Dine is a printmaker, not to mention that as an avid bookworm I am indebted to printmaking, for if it not for print then there’d be no books. Books aside, whilst I have always felt drawn to prints by artists like Dine and others, I’ve tried emulating certain qualities from their work (be it formal or subject matter) in other ways than print taking more delight in trying to replicate their processes/surfaces/affects in drawing or paint. I take more joy in the amateur techniques, the amateur, the ’do it yourself’ kind-of mentality that makes for a more immediate spontaneity, whilst you can still achieve this in printmaking, I still think it’s more controlled.

 

I was hoping to maybe ignite my love of print, but soon after soaking the paper ready for drypoint I already found myself remembering why I disliked the process-led nature of print making, its preparation time frustrates me and as an impatient artist I prefer immediacy of drawing, painting and mono type. Although, even those processes in each of their own way has elements of preparation to them (be in stretching a canvas, or organising drawing materials, rolling out ink) so maybe it is the formal-ness of the print room that I dislike, preferring the privacy and freedom of the studio. It does, however also highlight something interesting about creativity and how it works. For example, it feels a bit silly that we create rooms like print rooms, studios etc that we make ourselves be ‘creative’ in but these sorts of spaces facilitate and nurture creativity rather than instigate it in the first instance (?).  Personally, I feel less creative when there is an expectation to be creative because I’m in the studio or print room. Hence, one of the good things of using my room as a ‘studio’ as it is multi-functional which some people could see as a distraction, but for me become more of a stimulus and inspiration to make work. However, most of my own creative thinking probably happens when I’m not ‘trying’ to be creative at all, often I get most ideas when out walking or walking home to/from work, having a shower, cleaning, reading, watching a film, in conversation over a drink, travelling on the train, food shopping etc etc. Does anyone ever really have all their creative ideas in a studio?

 

So, I’ve ascertained that printmaking (except for mono printing) might not be for me and that if anything I’m probably more interested in the room and its contents. The presses, inks, letter blocks, cutting tools and print paraphernalia. Like when Alain de Botton was ‘writer in residence’ at Heathrow Airport and made a book of observations, ‘A Week at the Airport’; I could easily find myself enthused over describing the splatters of ink in the sink, stained psychedelic rags used for cleaning, coppers, glass, Perspex, wood, the sounds of the press as it rolls and squeezes, the crisp/sticky sound of ink being rolled out, the creaking of the ‘used’ rags basket as it slowly rots and splits open and clang and clashing of the drying wrack....The smells alone could be a whole separate post, turps, oil paint, floor stripper and swarfega as could a description into the state of the skin on my hands after only spending 7 days in there! It made me realise how difficult and complex a place it is to run.

 

 

It’s easy to romanticise looking back on these experiences and when you don’t work in there every day. One could probably paint quite a romantic picture in words about working in a bookshop (as I do), until you’re faced with the reality of what it’s really like to work in these kinds of places, when you seldom have the time or luxury to reflect, appreciate or notice it. Hence my decision to reflect on it here, albeit brief, certainly given me a lot more respect for print as a process and those who choose to use it whilst my time in the print room was short-lived it certainly made an impression.

Four legs good, two legs bad

 
To clarify: From the start, this post has nothing to do with ‘Animal Farm’, its author George Orwell or indeed much if anything to do with politics. It does however have a lot to do with pigs, people and to some extent definitions of what is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad’. Fear not though, neither will I be getting too philosophical or start digressing into a discussion on ethics. What’s it all about? ‘Snout and about’ of course:  “The public art project with a twist in its tail!”

Launched this Monday in the Orchard Shopping Centre and former ‘home’ to the wooden pig seats me and Michael Fairfax unveiled the pigs along with their new look to the people of Taunton. The, ‘twist in its tail’ that the project title refers to is that the original pig seats have been altered lest they be left to languish in a store room in the shopping centre rotting, gathering dust and in some cases, falling to bits. The other ‘twist’, perhaps, is that who could have predicted the reaction they would receive sparking some strong opinions of a ‘marmite’ nature. Or then again, to cause such a stir, a debate, ‘delight’ or ‘outrage’ may be exactly the point that was intended.  Reactions from, ‘Fit for the bonfire’ to ‘Drop them off at the recycle centre when you've done with them’, ‘They looked better when they were covered in pigeon mess’ and ‘This reminds me of the Italian woman destroying the Jesus painting’ to ‘21^st Century makeover for 21^st Century pigs’, ‘Love it or hate it that’s the beauty of art’ and ‘Awesome! I love them!’

 

Wow! “Welcome to the world of public art,” I tell myself. Still, could have been worse, they might have received no reaction at all. Besides, and it is important to stress, that these pigs are no longer functioning as they did as seats. They’ve not been designed with sitting in mind or to be aesthetically in-keeping with a particular location operating in the way that public seating is supposed to do. Love or hate them, they’ve been turned into ‘art’ objects that are to be auctioned for charity then after their purpose or destiny is a mystery yet to be defined.

 

What are my thoughts, well I think it would have been naive to think that covering one of Taunton’s beloved pig seats in collaged images of tools wasn’t going to promote some accusations of ‘vandalism’ or desecration. In fact, admittedly on a regular basis I commit the act of desecrating sheets of brilliant white paper with drawings, scribbles and doodles. I too, am long aware of the sentimentality and, as ridiculous as it may sound to some, ‘icon-like’ status that the pig seats in their original condition had (for let’s put it in perspective, they were only seats and not a unique commissioned piece of artwork). I grew-up in Taunton and have great fondness for the pigs and toads which is why the decision to ‘do’ something with the pig seats as to leaving them to rot and eventually be thrown away could only be seen as a positive thing  from my point of view (baring in mind I was also doing this for free). So much so, that my original reaction was ‘to auction them as they are’, that was until I saw the state they were in at least! When talking about restoration is it about restoring something back that was lost, preserving what is already there or re-enacting what something would have looked like when new? Or is it better to create something entirely new and use an act of destruction in order to recreate or transform? Therein lays the debate as to what would have been a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ use of the pig seats. Personally, I’d like to think my intervention sits somewhere between the two, restoring what was once there and additionally changing it to make it into something new, leaving my mark so to speak. Or to reiterate what I said in the guide book;

 

“I have adorned my pig with collaged images of hand tools. Featured are images of tools used in farming past and present which I hope create an association that alludes to the history of Taunton as a market town. I wanted to remain sensitive to the original design of the pig as I saw my role as one of preserving as well as restoring the original seat that I had grown up with. Much time, love and care was spent cleaning, polishing and staining the wood before collaging the tools onto its surface. The level of reverence and respect that has been demonstrated in restoring the pig echoes the treatment, appreciation and awe I have towards tools as the inspiration in my own art practice. I wanted very much to retain the original recognisability of the pig seat as an icon of my own and many others childhoods whilst giving it a new look as an art object that left my own mark, as an artist but still had an association with the agricultural context of Taunton’s market history.”

 

 

So if, ‘Four legs good’ is the pigs and ‘two legs’ bad is us, (the humans) then perhaps there is an irony in that quote that is similar to the reaction towards our (the artists) intervention with the pigs. Maybe we should have left the pigs alone and succumb to their own ends, they may have started a revolution and created a political upheaval before in a megalomaniacal reverse in fortune become the makers of their own undoing. But then again, maybe they are just pig shaped blocks of wood that had it not been for our involvement would have been on three legs and quite frankly on their last legs! Or who knows, could have even eventually found their way into Tesco frozen beef lasagne!

 

And now, some shameless self-publicity

Well, there’s no point having a blog about your art work if you aren’t ever going to refer to any of your art goings-on. It’s on that note that I’d like to introduce you to ‘Snout and About’, a Taunton based art commission that I have been involved in since October last year.

A bit of background info courtesy of The Brewhouse;  “The Brewhouse and Orchard Shopping Centre have joined forces to launch a unique art project which will trot from place to place around Somerset's county town. Snout & About was developed to champion local artistic talent, support arts in Somerset and bring an exciting and memorable, piece of public art to the people of Taunton.

The hardwood pig benches were a much loved feature of Orchard, formerly known as 'The Old Market Centre' and loyally served the community as a meeting point, a resting place and children's attraction. Unfortunately after a decade, they were in worse-for-ware condition and were removed during the centre's refurbishment. Last year, Orchard donated the pigs to The Brewhouse so that local artists could breathe life back into them.
The pigs have now been reinvented as magnificent pieces of art thanks to the help of local artists Michael Fairfax and Natalie Parsley. Both artists independently renovated the pigs in a way that they felt reflected what they represented. This has now resulted in two unique pieces of art that have a hint of familiar, yet are new and innovative. The pigs are being kept under wrapped in blankets and will be revealed at the official launch next week.”

  

As a child growing up in Taunton, like many others, I have fond memories of sitting and playing on the pig seats back when The Orchard Shopping Centre was the Pig Market. As I grew older it became a place to meet friends on a trip into town. Now at twenty-six years old and as an emerging artist in Somerset,  I was incredibly honoured and excited to be offered the opportunity to transform, restore and ‘artistically enhance’ one of the Taunton pigs!

So if you fancy it come join us on Monday 11^th, at 11.00 in The Orchard Shopping Centre. I’ll also be looking forward to posting some images of my pig and writing some of my thoughts on here as the project unfolds.

Follow the project on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/snoutandabouttaunton

Details of the Auction evening at The Brewhouse: http://www.thebrewhouse.net/main-house/1685/snout-about-charity-auction

Below are more dates of where the pigs will be and when:

Mon 11 Feb - Orchard Shopping Centre
Tues 12 Feb - Taunton Library
Wed 13 - Thurs 14 Feb - The Museum of Somerset
Fri 15 Feb - Imagine Design Create at Shakees
Sat 16 - Fri 22 Feb - The Brewhouse
Sat 23 Feb - Goodland Gardens
Mon 25 Feb - Fri 1 Mar - The Deane House
Sat 2 - Sun 3 Mar - Castle Green
Mon 4 - Sun 10 Mar - Orchard Shopping Centre
Mon 11 - Fri 15 Mar - Musgrove Park Hospital
Sat 16 Mar - Vivary Park
Mon 18 - Fri 22 Mar - Somerset College
Sat 23 - Sun 24 Mar - St Mary Magdalene Church
Mon 25 - Thurs 28 Mar - Ginger Fig Gallery
Fri 29 - Fri 5 Apr - Orchard Shopping Centre
Sat 6 Apr - Waterstones
Sun 7 Apr - Taunton Marathon
Mon 8 Apr - Market House
Tues 9 Apr - Taunton Library
Wed 10 - Fri 12 Apr - Museum
Sat 13 Apr - The Brewhouse

A pretentious blog post about a pretentious art film

Roll up! Roll up! See, the magnificent ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’, bask in the beauty of the Mona Lisa, be wooed by the fair Frida Kahlo, witness poetic choreography, sublime felting, sculpture, drawing and printmaking for one day only as the marvellous yet mysterious, House of F, present, ‘Fakes, Fraud’s and Flagrant Rip-offs!’

 

Saturday 26^th January, I have the day off work! A red letter day indeed and what better way to spend it than visiting some art with a friend. But, not just any old art, no, this was to be a surreal, fun-filled experience of the likes that can only come from the mind of artist (and friend), Annie Jeffs. Somewhere in a tithe barn in Fitzhead for one day only, Annie Jeffs, Kate Burrows and friends as the ‘House of F’ collective (you can decide yourself what the ‘f’ is for) came together to put on an exhibition celebrating, fakes, fraud’s and rip-offs. It is safe to say that they deliberately don’t take themselves too seriously, which is refreshing and also, by how it looked, a lot of fun! Plasticine replicas of Van Gogh’s, Vincent’s bedroom in Arles’ and Vermeer’s ‘Girl with the Pearl Earring’ by Annie Jeffs (or Annie Jiffy as she is sometimes also known) are actually brilliantly accurate to the real paintings and can’t help but make you smile when you realise they are made with nothing other than a child’s modelling material. If you only learn one thing from seeing a House of F exhibition, it’s that art is fun. If you wanted to get analytical about it then you could make all sorts of associations between the intuitiveness and child-like-ness of play and using plasticine and the similarities that kind of play has with creative intuition and spontaneity. But let’s not over think it because over in the corner there is a stack of toast and a jar of marmite that is inviting us to come over and have a go at painting a portrait of the Mona Lisa on toast. And why not! Actually, this was really tricky to do, but the variety of results was fantastic. In many ways, my favourite piece of the day, and that’s from someone who hates marmite!

Moving on, the slightly chaotic, busy barn hall, taking care not to knock over any boards, animals or small children, I make my way to a rolled up parchment (pictured) depicting black and white drawings of the Poll Tax riots. ‘House of F’ always has had political undertones, proving it isn’t all toast and plasticine! These drawings were great and were created from a first-hand account by the artist who had also been there. I particularly like the way you had to unroll the parchment from left to right as the narrative unfolded.

Next, I pass a felted replica (or at least I assume it is) of Van Gogh’s ear in a box and some truly brilliant photography (pictured) depicting abandoned rooms that look, let’s just say, a little worse for wear. But you don’t need to be an ‘artist’ to know or appreciate that sometimes these sorts of decay and abandoned neglect in buildings can be beautiful, haunting and make for one really interesting photo! Again, without sounding too discerning, my only criticism of these photos was the painted, collaged frames that surrounded them that really detracted from the images themselves. Less is more!

 

  By now I was getting parched and what I really needed was a drink. Heading to the barn’s upstairs gallery, I was delighted to hear they were serving G&T and what better way to serve it, than from a tea pot, served gracefully, by none-other than Frida Kahlo herself! Woah! Definitely surreal! Refreshed, I progressed to view Kahlo’s felt-made self portrait and some equally surreal sculptures of the likes pictured below.

 

 What better way to conclude this eventful outing than with the premier screening of, ‘A pretentious art film’ in the snug, secluded seat of the fireplace (and also in wide-screen!). Reading the reviews on the wall of, “This film was such a momentous piece of art that I hid myself from the world for 3.8 weeks in order for the stunning metaphor to immerse in my mind” and “I feel privileged to have this film grace upon my retinas” set a high expectation of what I was about to see. It shows, one woman and her boat...er I mean bath tub...one woman and her dog.....three men in a boat......three men and a woman falling out of a boat or indeed a bath tub....dancing and then the end.  The images now in my retinas I stopped to reflect on what it all could mean?..... It’s easy to get caught in ‘not’ taking this film seriously (as it’s not meant to be) but even saying that is a bit like saying, ‘how do you be cool?’ when some things don’t need explanation, they defy it. However, me being me, I can’t help but naturally take some earnest in being serious about not ‘being serious’ and whilst I find it funny, I also find it kind-of clever in the way it is unashamedly taking the piss out of itself and the context and pretentiousness of some art. With running the risk of sounding too pretentious myself, I do wonder what makes a pretentious art film so pretentious or not? And is it more the context and formal-ness of the gallery space and institution that makes a work seem more pretentious than it is? Or is it about expectation, and that we don’t expect to find a pretentious art film in a tithe barn in Fitzhead but we do, in a gallery like Spacex? So interesting....even if it wasn’t supposed to make me think, it has! Have a look for yourselves.      

 

 

There you have it! Weird, brilliantly rubbish and above all fun! Eat your heart out Marcel Duchamp! Upon returning to the real world, I couldn't help but smile.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you, 'The House of F'!

Distinct lack of snakes in an exhibition of ladders at The Brewhouse...

Ladders, ladders everywhere you look. Hmmm...I think it’s fair to say there is a clear theme in Andy Davey’s exhibition currently on at The Brewhouse! The show features over 30 mixed media drawings, three massive paintings as well as several actual ladders on the wall – if merely looking at a ladder gives you feelings of vertigo then look away now!

 

As a fellow artist whose own work features agricultural and hand tools, I can understand how easy it is to become obsessed with drawing/and re-drawing the seemingly mundane. The simple fact of the matter is, the more you spend time looking at these objects [ladders/tools] the more reason you find to be fascinated by them. Initially for me, it was the formal qualities of tools that appealed to me; their shape, texture, colour and surfaces were something I wanted to make art about. My ‘relationship’ with tools in my own work later gained greater significance as I developed my practice and began to question it more whilst studying. With Davey’s drawings [some of which more fragmented and abstract than others] I get the impression that it is also the formal qualities of, in this case, ladders that is the basis for his work. The negative shapes and spaces in and around the ladder are deconstructed and reassembled amongst the (also fragmented) forms of the ladder itself.

Part of me did wonder if maybe Andy starts these drawings by chopping up an actual ladder and sticking it back together. Regardless of the exact process he may use the results are exciting, dynamic and lively compositions that almost quiver with a sense of movement and rhythm more familiar to the design of jazz posters than a ladder. These kinds of work, I anticipate, possibly leave your average viewer thinking, ‘What? That’s a ladder?!’ Who ever knew that the humble ladder could be so dynamic! Despite the places my work has taken me, what has always appealed to me about art has always been the same and that’s arts ability to give new perspective on things that we know well/are familiar with. So it is very refreshing to be reminded of this in Davey’s exhibition of work.

 

If anything the exhibition isn’t really about ladders at all, it’s about drawing and as the title suggests, ‘work’ and ‘surface’ which Davey has done even to the extent of drawing on the gallery walls themselves! The painted surfaces are layered, dragged and scrapped through revealing and disguising the structure of the ladder in the work so despite the dominance of the ladder as a ‘grid-like’ structure the work doesn’t look as geometric and slick as you might expect. They are much more gestural and expressive with the ladder often emerging out of a cloud-like vapour. Yet despite all the symbolism that the ladder and the cloud-like forms in some of the drawings could suggest I don’t, personally, read too much into them metaphorically. They could quite easily become, ladders to heaven, ladders to earth, Jacob’s ladder and many other sorts of associations (and maybe to some people they do) but for me they are more formal than that, a more compositional thing used to create an image/mark making/expressive. Who knows? Maybe they have personal significance or attachment to Andy, we’ll find out at the artist’s talk on February 6^th (see note below). I find myself making links between Davey’s drawings and the work of,  Jasper Johns, Larry Rivers and Richard Hamilton’s paintings all of whom have depicted objects in their work but they’re [the objects] are always a kind of trace of the whole thing and it’s often not entirely clear what you are looking at. I prefer Andy’s more black and white drawings, as I’m not so keen on some of the colour combinations on some of the coloured works –which could just be down to a matter of taste. I’d like to know how he does choose his colours, a question I will save for Wednesday 6^th. The only other thing was that I wouldn’t have minded a ladder of my own so I could see some of the drawings close up as they are hung high (mostly because there are so many and the hanging also mimics the height of the actual ladder on the adjacent wall) but then maybe I just need grow taller!

 Andy Davey’s, ‘Work : Surface’ can be seen at The Brewhouse until, February 23^rd. Or come along on Wednesday 6^th February to an artist’s talk, with the artist himself! More details can be found on:

http://www.thebrewhouse.net/exhibitions/1483/work-surface

 

 

Pecha Kucha at the Brew

Have a look, have a listen as 15 artists talk about their work over ten slides in 2 minutes (oO-er!)

 

Click on the link here:

http://pechakuchasomerset.wordpress.com/

 

 

Then have a read of my thoughts on the whole thing (plus some more info about what a pecha kucha actually is) below!

 

 

"This Pecha Kucha formed part of the Reveal Artist Dialogue Session at The Brewhouse, Taunton on 9 Jan 2013. 15 Artists presented 10 images for 10 seconds each. The aim was to pair up artists to make collaborative work over the next 6 months. Although some artists saw potential pairs others were looking for specific types of artists from different disciplines, i.e. digital media, that weren't present on the evening. Various ways forward were suggested - to put out a call for others to come forward, to look at other forms of collaboration that may not rely on locality or specific practices? One such suggestion was to look at collaborating remotely either through correspondence or by the web? Next steps - For artists to use the comments section to suggest ideas, pairs, ways forward. These ideas will be reviewed by the group in early February."

 

Funny, I don't seem to have much problem with making impromptu speeches at various art/none-art, formal and informal occasions. But for some reason the prospect of having only two minutes to explain succinctly my art practice of the last six years absolutely terrified me! After finally having installed a fairly decent capability to talk about my work in depth, I am now in a situation where I have to condense, refine and whittle away to the few key issues. There'll be no time to warbble on Heidegger, waffle on Merleau-Ponty or pontificate on epistemology here! And maybe, I should be happy - 'how refreshing, how liberating to be free from the ties of theory and over explanation that art is sometimes endanger of over-doing'...The images aka 'the art work', should really always speak for itself. Easier said than done!

 

Nonetheless, the challenge appealed to me and maybe there is a 'zen-like' wisdom to be gleaned from the whole experience. So the events of the evening of Wednesday 9th Jan transpired in an experience that I can only imagine must be similar to speed-dating (but with art instead of the romance, obviously!) in the way it felt difficult to 'take it all in' when the only thing really on my mind was trying to remember what the heck I was going to say and how I was going to fit it all in two minutes! Still, when my time finally came to speak, apart from what was, at the start, the fastest bit of talking in the history of pecha kucha's I eventually found my pace before speeding up again towards the end. Sigh! Delivery aside, the content of what I wanted to say was there (just about) and hopefully the images did most of the talking. Good, so we're still learning. I think if I ever did one of these again I'd just say some words or write a poem or something and really reduce it down to the key ideas. Less is more?...

 

Having the opportunity to re-listen and see my fellow artist, pecha kucha-ers again on the blog link (above) has been so useful. Perhaps a flaw in the pecha kucha process is that there is much emphasis on actually, 'doing' the two minute talk when in fact the art of listening and processing what is being said in those two minute talks is also a skill -and to be frank, one I was incapable of under the pressure of having to talk myself. I wonder if any of the other artists also felt this way? It may come as a surprise to some people, that I actually prefer to listen than to talk (yes, really!) and would have possibly preferred the role of an active viewer, listening intently and thinking about what was being said. I doff my hat to anyone capable of processing all what was said as well as actually doing a talk themselves.

 

So, after all this reflection, let's watch this space and see who 'pairs' up with who. I'd certainly like to collaborate with someone, Andy Davey being so far at the top of that list, as I think there's lots in common in terms of the drawing nature to both our practices. However, there is also the debate of whether working with someone completely different to your work, is equally if not more insightful? I don't know, I'm not particularly looking for a radical new change but want to improve and keep rekindling the path I'm already working on. All food for thought. We shall see with eagar anticipation what happens next...Although I would also interested in hearing from anyone who looks at the blog and has suggestions of which artists they'd think would be good to put together.

 

Let me know!