Only just realised its been a very long time since I last posted… Sorry! I’ve been really busy, this post will cover the last month of my life which has included producing and presenting new work as a part of Junction Festival of Contemporary Art, a group show as a part of Saltburn Arts Fair, presenting Untitled (Network of Artist-led Activity) at Supernormal Festival, planning two events for Althorpe Studios and Gallery and making new work for a solo show In The Window at Airspace Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent which I’m installing on Saturday! As well as all this I’ve been working on average 33 hours a week at Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum, I’ve not really slept much!
A-(Discussion)-Board, a work thats been in development for quite a while was finished and presented at Junction Festival. Quite interestingly no one utalised the cork board side, however, the blackboard side was so well used that text and images spilt out onto the floor around the work! This reminded me of the audience at Rirkrit Tiravanija’s show taking it upon themselves to draw on the walls without any hint that this is what they were ‘ment’ to do. It also reminded me of the Umberto Eco quote which I have used a few times before
“The poetics of the ‘open’ work tends to encourage ‘acts of conscious freedom’ on the part of the performer and place him at the focal point of a network of limitless interrealations”.
spacetimearchitecture was presented at Saltburn Arts Fair, I wasn’t able to attend the fair but the curators have sent me some interesting stats about it;
1000 visitors to the School Exhibition8000 visitors to the FairMany visitors to the Saltburn Artist’s Projects’55 attending the symposium100 attending the launch party95% of artist selling work
And the documentation they sent of the install made me very happy! I like the video being reflected in and around the space…
Untitled (Network of Artist-Led Activity) was performed at Supernormal Festival, the script is being updated as we speak ready for the next performance of the work which will happen at some point in the future! I think the next performance of the work will have a video backdrop of footage collected at the Lombard Method during the Grad Residency where the work was first developed, as opposed to the fabric backdrop used at the festival. On a side note if anybody would like a copy of the script from supernormal I have some left and will send you on for the price of £3.00!The next Show at Althorpe Studios and Gallery that I have curated will be Grace Williams’ Students Never Change. Grace has said
A one night solo presentation by Grace Williams charting the adventurous and performative antics of the Midlands Art student party brigade 1930s to present day.
Inspired by a selection of archival photographs taken between 1930 -1950 at the bi-annual School of Art ball ‘Students Never Change: Art student parties and nights out 1930s to present day’ explores the creative night time antics of historical and contemporary Art students, tracking how celebrations have developed over the years. This night time exhibition will be transformed into an event providing guests the opportunity to participate in the creation of a new set of images for inclusion in the work. Adorn fancy dress and become part of the future exhibition of this work whilst enjoying a varied soundtrack reflecting the generational musical changes of the art student party.
Through an interaction with Birmingham City Universities Art & Design Archive held at BIADs School of Art, this exhibition re-contextualised at Althorpe Studios and Gallery marked the first in a series of events, exhibitions and workshops developed by Williams that drew inspiration from Archival collections and coincided with the launch of a new web resource focusing on improving accessibility to the Archival artefacts.
For further information please visit:
www.archivesandcreativepractice.posterous.com
Grace’s show is happening on Weds 29th at 7:00, hope to see some of you there! Info on the other show will follow very soon and it will be very exciting!
I will post more about Untitled (Firewall) at Airspace Gallery after it is all installed at the weekend…
Untitled (Firewall) Detail
