Keep on Swarming!

September 23^rd 2015 marked the release of my own version of an artist-led visual arts zine, ‘Swarm’ #1. Here are some of the responses so far...

“...a fascinating compendium of cool!”

 

“The book has been beautifully produced and I am delighted to have been part of your enterprise.”

 

“It's really good, love the way you've assembled it!”

 

“It's always good to see the variety of work produced by a disparate group of artists (or, similar but not the same as you say), so that in itself is fascinating.”

 

“I've been showing it off to a select few people and they've all thought the whole thing was amazing!”

 

swarm (n)– a temporary collection of bees, containing at least one queen that split apart from the mother colony to establish a new one; a natural method of propagation for honey bee colonies.

 

Through a competitive, megalomaniac driven act of plagiarism, 'Swarm' visual art zine was born. A shameless hybrid off-shoot of its 'sister' zine 'Hive'! 'Swarm' is a compact version of 'Hive' in which a group of artists are united together in producing a visual art zine of their work to a set theme proposed by the editor (in this example, me). Each invited artist produces X number of copies of their page (X = total number of artists taking part) and sends them to the editor who compiles the zines and sends each artist a completed copy back in the post.

 

Maybe I got greedy, maybe too ambitious, but being part of 'Hive'* had feverishly inspired me and that what the art world was missing was, well more art! The aim was therefore to make my own zine with friends whom I'd met/known over the years who could 'Swarm' together and celebrate each others work! On a perhaps more sentimental level it was also an opportunity to showcase the talents of my peers to whom I owe a great debt of admiration and thanks for continuing to inspire me.

The theme for ‘Swarm’ 1# is ‘similar but not the same’ and features the creative juices of the following: (as pictured left to right, top to bottom) Chris Chapman, Phil Kingslan John, Mike Calver, Helen & Ama Gatland, Sue Hazelwood, Paula Forster, James Marsden, Elizabeth Earley, Erin Awon, Mike Cawthorne, Faye Dennis, Scarlet von Teazel, Natalie Parsley, Claudia Haffner and Graham Seaton.

 

 

 Each participating artist also received a 'Swarm' badge (pictured above) and there are only 15 copies of the zine itself as it isn't designed to be reproduced or sold. The physical copy exists as a way of owning and participating in something that is unique and quite intimately special. To those involved its purpose to provide a fun outlet to make work, share it and discover new artists! However for the first time I have also uploaded an online version so as to share the zine to a wider audience. The quality of image and printed feel of the physical 'real' book of course cannot be reproduced digitally but I hope it will perhaps inspire others for what I hope will be a future edition of Swarm! 

 

You can view the Online version of Swarm 1# by clicking here: http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/p/swarm.html

 

* Previous Post about 'Hive' on: http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/here-are-my-bees.html)

Four Eyebrow-raisingly Good Reasons to Visit Us This Art Weeks

Somerset Art Weeks 2015 has begun and if you were wondering where might be a good place to start then look no further than Venue 1, The Old Brick Workshop in Wellington. Yes, I am exhibiting as part of a group show here, but if the allure of seeing my work alone isn’t enough (and why not?!) then there are plenty more ‘eyebrow-raisingly’ good reasons to make some time in your Art Weeks schedule and visit us...

 

1) A Brand New Brilliant Venue in Wellington, Somerset Set in a former Brick Works on the Poole Industrial Estate; I can confidently say we are as proud of the building as we are the exhibition within it. Under the enterprising vision of local business woman, Alison Cosserat the building has undergone a radical transformation, largely of which (and with many thanks) at the hands of local builder turned artist, James Marsden along with tireless hours spent by Alison herself, exhibiting artists and enthusiastic volunteers in the form of family and friends. The building now boasts nine sizeable studio spaces divided between the upstairs and downstairs areas, a community area/gallery space and purpose built exhibition space downstairs. Every gloss painted door, chiselled-paint removed brick, concrete floor and plaster boarded ceiling, spotlight and wall tells a story. We’d love you to come in for a nosey!

 

2) Loads of Art! This first exhibition features well over a hundred works by fourteen artists* including painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, film and installation. In addition to our professionally curated gallery space there is also art work to be discovered in our corridors, upstairs and downstairs and in our community room gallery.  

*James Marsden, Anna Newland Hooper, Diana Pilcher, Debbi Sutton, Alex Conetta, Nicky Withers, Jane Mowat, Teresa Wilson, Ashley Thomas, Jane Kelly, Natalie Parsley, Alex Bangay and Judith Crosher 

 

3) We have Cinema Chairs in our film room! 

 

4) We also have a very fine looking propeller!

Duchamp's remark to Brancusi visiting the Paris Aviation Show, 1919; "Painting is over and done with. Who could do anything better than this propeller? Look, could you do that?"

Visit us and decide for yourselves?!

Venue 1: The Old Brick Workshop, Wellington is open now, everyday 11-6 until Sunday October 18th

http://somersetartworks.org.uk/venues/the-old-brick-workshop/

http://www.theoldbrickworkshop.com/

Art That You Really Really Will Not Have Seen Anywhere Else!

Yet another, but perhaps more self-publicising reason to visit our exhibition at The Old Brick Workshop this Art Weeks is to see twelve entirely new works I've created over the course of this year. After having a fairly substantial break from exhibiting anywhere, it is very exciting, enjoyably nerve-wracking  and important to me to have the opportunity to receive feed back and show new work again. They include some familiar themes of mine, namely tools as well as a few new surprises! [See: http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/art-weeks-2015-sneak-preview.html]

 

Apart from being a shameless plug for the exhibition this is the first in a series of posts I’ll be writing about that recent work in an attempt to understand it better and share a few thoughts on the making or thinking behind some of the work.



Natalie Parsley 'We Two Tools Together Clinging' 2015 Mono print and ink on paper. 24 x 32cm.



The more familiar tool related thread to my practice includes the work, ‘We Two Tools Together Clinging’ (pictured) inspired from Lee Lozano’s drawings of tools, depicted anthropomorphised locked in embrace or mortal combat [See: http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/post-lozano.html ]. The colour scheme unintentionally mirrors that of an early David Hockney painting, ‘We Two Boys Together Clinging’ whose title I have deliberately manipulated to fit my own. That is pretty much where the similarities end and recommend you visit the real thing as Hockney’s is an amazing painting!  Hockney’s references a headline from a climbing accident, "Two Boys Cling to Cliff All Night" which he propagandised into being about his own homosexuality at a time when it was taboo to shout about it publically/openly. I haven’t really assigned sexuality to the tools in my work, it could really be interpreted either way as I’m more interested in it being about a relationship of sorts rather than comment on gender specifically. The ‘clinging’ in the title of my work alludes to the human sense of ‘embrace’ as well as the function of clamps as a tool, to cling, hold or grip something. If assigning human attributes to inanimate objects in this work, the word-play of ‘tools’ could be read both literally about tools but also the derisive  slang of ‘being a stupid or socially inept person’. Rather than mockingly it can sometimes be empowering when such negative labelling is adopted by those it is originally intended to make fun of and there is a sort of strength in unity that these two ‘tools’ of any gender or social commentary have come together in a form of embrace. One could read it that way or of course, it could simply just be two clamps locked together! I enjoy discussion about the double or multiple meanings of art, how it is interpreted. At the very least that is what I attempt to do when I view or write about work I've seen. What is significant and important to me about this piece of my work however is that it is one of the first times I’ve used a title to manipulate the reading of a drawing I’ve created. That’s quite significant and interesting to me and will be something I think I will revisit again for future work.

 

David Hockney 'We Two Boys Together Clinging' 1961 Oil on Board. 48 x 60"

You can see my work as part of the exhibition at The Old Brick Workshop, Wellington. Open daily 11-6 now until Sunday October 18th

http://somersetartworks.org.uk/venues/the-old-brick-workshop/
http://www.theoldbrickworkshop.com/

Art Weeks 2015 Sneak Preview!

Exciting times ahead as we prepare for the opening of our Somerset Art Weeks 2015 exhibition at The Old Brick Workshop. I am exhibiting with twelve other artists but thought I'd give you a sneak preview of what my new work in this exhibition is about...

 

The exhibition opens 11am this Saturday 3rd October. Hope to see you there!

 

“Extremely weak. Fault of Pot. Seed”

 

On April 28th, 1992, Christopher Johnson McCandless hitched to the stampede trail in Alaska. There he headed down the snow covered trail to begin an odyssey with only 10 pounds of rice, a .22 calibre rifle, several boxes of rifle rounds, a camera and a small selection of reading material –including a field guide to the regions edible plants, the ‘Tana’ina Plantlore’. After surviving for more than 100 days McCandless perished sometime around the week August 18th from what was later believed to be starvation by poisoning. It is still uncertain whether the exact cause of his death was due to mistaken identification; the edible Hedsarum Alpinum (Eskimo potato) for the poisonous Hedysarum Mackenzi (wild sweet pea) or the mould which grew on these seeds during their storage inside a plastic bag. Despite the tragic circumstances of his death, McCandless’s story about how finding oneself sometimes conflicts with being an active member in society (actions which were deemed controversial to some) and inspiring testament to the search for enlightenment by immersing oneself into the natural world devoid of material possessions became the bestselling book, ‘Into the Wild’ by the writer and mountaineer Jon Krakauer.

 

 

Nineteen years later, I discover the book for the first time in the local bookshop where I work as a Bookseller in Taunton. Inspired by everyday objects, my work in recent years has been dominated by the tools found in my Grandfather’s tool shed. Taking that same fascination of objects and the possible stories they hold, I have created drawings of the objects that McCandless took with him on his journey. I speculate that I am curious too, not in the materialism he chose to abandon but in the significance and essentiality of the few items he chose to keep with him. Ultimately I believe it is about how books can be as informative, influential, misguiding or deceptive as the illusionary, interpretive qualities of art itself.

 

 Never trust an Artist. Never trust a Bookseller!

 

 You can see my work as part of the exhibition at The Old Brick Workshop, Wellington is open daily 11-6 from this Saturday October 3rd until Sunday October 18th

http://somersetartworks.org.uk/venues/the-old-brick-workshop/
http://www.theoldbrickworkshop.com/

The Long Way

Surely there can be no objections in walking to a Richard Long exhibition? Even if it is only partly from Bristol Temple Meads train station to the Arnolfini. You’ll hear no complaints from me! I don’t have a dog or often seek out ventures to walk in romantic forgotten landscapes but wherever and whenever I do walk, which is everyday and often as a means of getting from A to B, I enjoy it!

Fundamentally Richard Long is an artist who has turned walking into his art form. Simultaneously it is both process and product from which the creative process is conceived and executed. Time, distance, temperature, latitude and longitude become the measurements to which these walks and interactions take place. Since the 1960s Long has been creating work that explores how we move, document and experience walking in the landscape using aesthetic approaches and thinking influenced from conceptual and minimal art practices. In 1972 Long presented ‘Stone Circle’ at Arnolfini, Bristol where now a new exhibition is on display featuring new and previous work from Long’s relationship walking within Bristol and the South West.

“No matter how mundane some action might appear, keep doing it long enough and it becomes a contemplative, even meditative act.”* Murakami’s comment on running could be said as much for Long’s walking and they share testament in the idea that the act of walking/running become very much about thought through physical effort. In Long’s case this physicality of a connection with the land takes form in natural human ancient traces of moving stones or painting with mud. Anyone who has ever walked on their own for over an hour in a particularly remote landscape can relate to the feeling of escapism, isolation and (debatably) humbling smallness this kind of being immersed in the activity of walking can create. What is interesting about Long is how he attempts to bring these quite big, experiential, outdoor ideas into the gallery.

Richard Long 'Muddy Water Falls' (2015) at Arnolfini

In the ground floor of Arnolfini is Long’s exhibition-based work at its most iconic and awe inspiring, ‘Muddy Water Falls’ (the mud of which, appropriately has been taken from the bank of the River Avon). The work brings the outside, in; the mud creating two huge wall-based mud works that appear to cascade down the back walls of the gallery in a partly uncontrolled, partly hand painted piece of cave art. In its smell, texture and earthy rawness it is quite striking and consumes the gallery space on an impressive scale. Long’s wall mud works have a feeling of wildness about them, there is a giving-in to the uncontrollability of the mud as it runs/splashes down the walls but there is also a Sol Lewitt form of control to it as well. The composition is divided between the controlled (i.e. painted back walls) and the spontaneous which whilst alluding to ideas of an implied ‘wildness’ of nature also and more significantly in Long’s work, touches upon our human relationship within it.

 The text-based works also in this room have similar affect, each providing a means of documenting through list based measurements the walks which Long has undertaken. In example, ‘Red Walk’ listing each of the red things spotted during a walk. Conceptually I enjoy the written works as they conjure thoughts of how we process experience, which is so often through memory snap-shots of colours, sounds, landmarks or smells that build-up our relationship with a sense of place. I can also imagine the ideas in Long’s walks have been interpreted many times as ways of getting adults and children alike to engage in the landscape. Whether these works need a gallery context is something I am less sure on and feel that they are best understood acted-upon in the context of the landscape, read in a book or perhaps on an App that prompts you to consider things/look when out on a walk. Artists are already using this such as ‘Poetry Pin’+ by Christopher Jelley which includes stories, poems and hidden objects to spot and interact with along various walks in and around Somerset.

Richard Long 'Time and Place' (2015) at Arnolfini

Circles and cross motifs and lines are reoccurring symbols in Long’s work and feature in sculptural and photographic works in the upstairs gallery. ‘Time and Space’ (pictured) is a new work made from slate taken from a quarry in Cornwall whom Long has worked with for many years. X literally marks the spot with the cross being assembled in the heart of the gallery, its motif sharing symbolism with points of a compass and other mapping devises. In the room opposite a series of concentric circles mark the central floor space, a sculptural piece which has been placed in many different sites including The Downs in Bristol and in locations throughout the Irish countryside. It is at this point I realise how far reaching Long’s work has been and ‘walked’ from photographic works that depict walks in the Himalayas to Antarctica.

I have expressed an uncomfortable uncertainty toward land art in gallery spaces before, believing it is a double-edged sword that on the positive side provides exposure/education to this type of work but on the negative side feels sometimes a little too detached, forced to conform  and sterile from its starting source of the landscape. Maybe that juxtaposition in itself is interesting.  There is a new work titled, ‘Boyhood Line’ on The Downs in Bristol as part of this exhibition that I didn’t get to see but have seen Long’s work outside in Cornwall previously, often accidently crossing  or stumbling over his line arranged stones! I think these interactions with his work are more genuine and whereas work inside the gallery reacts more architecturally to space these respond more to the human body and our location within the landscape it is placed. Both perhaps, are important in documenting/preserving and ensuring (pardon the pun) the longevity of this artists work.

Richard Long, 'Time and Space' in Arnolfini is a point of departure and after leaving the exhibition should really mark the beginning of a new experience of noticing and engaging with world outside. The exhibition continues outside the gallery...

Richard Long ‘Time and Space’ can be seen at Arnolfini until Sunday 15^th November 2015

http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/richard-long-time-and-space

+ http://poetrypin.info/

*Haruki Murakami ‘What I talk about when I talk about running’

Somerset Art Weeks 2015

Saturday October the 3rd marks the opening of an exciting new gallery and studio space in Wellington Somerset. 'The Old Brick Workshop' where I along with eleven other artists will be exhibiting for Somerset Art Weeks 2015.

Saturday 3rd October to Sunday 18th October, daily  11.00-06.00pm
At: The Old Brick Workshop, Higher Poole, Wellington TA219HW
Directions: From Chelston roundabout follow signs for Poole Ind.Est and Recycling Centre. The Venue is on your left opposite Formula Cars. [Follow the yellow Somerset Art Week Signs for Venue 1]

 

Hope to see you there!

http://somersetartworks.org.uk/venues/the-old-brick-workshop/
http://www.theoldbrickworkshop.com/
 

Something(s) Wicked This Way Comes!

That's right! When I'm not visiting, writing about or talking about art I do try squeeze some time to indulge in the process of making my own! On that note there are a few news related items this week as projects and art happenings that have been brewing away begin to bare fruition...

1#

'Yellow Hammer' (pictured above) accepted into Ilminster Art Open at The Meeting House. Mono print/ink on paper. First drawing of a few new 'tool' related pieces of which retrospectively I feel is now the least successful in how it was drawn/placed compositionally but has lead to other work(s) ideas that I am more pleased with. This piece, originally intended [and is] as part of the art zine project (mentioned below) and works better within its printed, page context  as I've added details/text/format to make it more of a parody of a bird spotting guide book, rather than being quite the 'one-liner' it appears as here. However, elements of how this was printed/painted have since been used in other work (watch this space) so it marks an important, albeit slightly tentative beginning to new work that has followed.

2# 

swarm (n)– a temporary collection of bees, containing at least one queen that split apart from the mother colony to establish a new one; a natural method of propagation for honey bee colonies.

Through a competitive, megalomaniac driven act of plagiarism, 'Swarm' visual art zine was born. Shameless; a hybrid off-shoot of its 'sister' zine 'Hive'! Maybe I got greedy, maybe too ambitious, but being part of 'Hive' had feverishly inspired me that what the art world was missing was, well more art! The aim to make my own zine with friends whom I'd met/known over the years who could 'Swarm' together and celebrate each others work!

'Swarm' is basically a smaller more compact version of 'Hive', hosting a printed platform from which a select group of contributing creatives produce work to a set theme which is then produced into zines distributed to each of the participating artists. There is no profit, they aren't for sale but exist as a exclusive slice of owning and participating in something that is quite intimately special. To those involved its purpose to provide a fun outlet to both make work, share it and discover new artists!

The button badges are ready, the covers have been made and the work has slowly been flying in for the publication of this project toward the end of September! More news here when its out!

3#

*

 Speaking of which, the 'Hive' 2# will arrive on September 23rd, once more featuring the artistic workings of Nina Gronw-Lewis, Jon England, Anna Newland-Hooper, Malcolm Plastow, Frank Edmonds, Eileen Rosamond, Megan Calver,  Kevin Hawker, Stuart Rosamond*, Tim Martin, Ruby Petts, me (Natalie Parsley) and joined by a new contributor Rico Ajao!

MORE DETAILS ON 'HIVE' 1#:
http://spannerintheworkz.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/here-are-my-bees.html
*Image by Stuart Rosamond from 'Hive' 1



4#

Spent a significant proportion of yesterday looking, chiselling and hammering away at this section of brick wall at Somerset's most exciting, upcoming NEW exhibition space in the former Virador Waste Management Offices in Wellington. Looking further back into the buildings' history in the 19th Century when it was home to Poole Brickworks it has since been dubbed the Old Brick Workshop (and, my there are a LOT of bricks!). The building boasts nine self contained studios and communal space (currently occupied by local artists). OBW will host activities and workshops and is soon to have its own exhibition space opening in time for the public during Somerset Art Weeks 2015 on the 3rd of October! 

As if that wasn't exciting enough, I am  deliriously delighted that myself and a dozen other artists will be amongst the first to exhibit in this new venue during Art Weeks. Featuring amongst others, Alex Conetta, James Marsden, Anna Newland Hooper, Diana Pilcher, Debbi Sutton, Jane Mowat, Teresa Wilson, Ashley Thomas, Jane Kelly and Judith Crosher.

More details as and when it happens, you'll hear it here first!

We are Venue 1, The Old Brick Workshop

The Old Brick Workshop
 Higher Poole
Wellington
Somerset
TA21 9HW

In the mean time, pick up a preview of our venue in the Somerset Art Weeks catalogue for 2015 or visit link below:

http://somersetartworks.org.uk/venues/the-old-brick-workshop/

Look out for the propeller!