Art From London Markets, a-n feature

WEDNESDAY, 29 JUNE 2016

So on Friday I will be taking my piece in to Folkestone for the aptly titled  show, “Both Ends of Madness”.  While the  current political climate may make this title appear to be social commentary it is actually about mental health, and my piece is concerned with the slow process of distintigration of the self that is presented by dementia.

This weekend is the last chance to come to see me with my work at Open Art Spaces, Faron Sutaria, 506 Fulham Road, I would love to see you there. Saturday 11-4 and Sunday 12-3.

I have just started reading “The Silk Roads, A New History of the World” by Peter Frankopan. A look at the history of the globalisation of trade, and an illustration of how important trading blocks and trading relations are.

From next week I will begin charting food market prices once again, as they become affected by the flailing pound, and changing relations within the EU.  They had reached a point of some stability in my research over the last year and a half, where it had become unneccesary to keep recording that you can buy cheap fresh produce from standard street markets, feeding the needs of a family of four in fresh fruit and vegetables for around £25 a week.  And that you can currently find whatever luxury, organic,traditionally grown and fancy imported goods at farmers markets and places like Borough.  So that strand felt done.  In light of what is happening, and in this period of instability, it is not done.  We import such a large proportion of our food (around 60%)  that the prices of our most basic needs can only be affected by a fluctuating pound and changing trade relations.

These are worrying times.  We have the power vaccuum created by a Parliament which is imploding.  We have some of the most disaffected groups in our society feeling betrayed by liars and cheats, finding that what they voted for is not what they will get.  We have almost half of our society who wanted to remain in the EU feeling distressed by the result.

And I have Things Fall Apart  popping into my head at the most unuseful times.  A hundred years on from the first World War what have we learnt?

This is a time for building unity.  The cracks in our society are exposed for all of us to see, and while it may be tempting for people to play a blame game and stand on either side shouting at each other it is really important that we find areas of consensus.  That love triumphs over hate and that we put our efforts into creating social cohesion and a more inclusive and outward looking society.

PLASTIC PROPAGANDA PRESENTS: “BOTH ENDS OF MADNESS”

She walks slowly into the Leith without a boatman to guide her swiftly across

My work is featured in this exhibition in the Sassoon Gallery Folkestone, coming soon.  the exhibition deals with mental health, this piece is concerned with the process of disintigrating memory in dementia.

From Monday 4 July to Friday 22 July, Plastic Propaganda will be presenting their latest art exhibition at the Sassoon Gallery, Folkestone Library, Folkestone Kent  

Throughout the History of Art, madness and an associated range of pathologies, creative and otherwise, have informed and often accompanied the execution of artistic practice. Since antiquity, thinkers have associated creativity with psychopathology—the classic idea of the “mad genius” with stereotypes taken from both mass culture and fine art traditions.  Examples include, for example, the manic pursuit and creation of the perfect artefact or object to the recognition of creative practice per se as a displacement from trauma, addiction and illness or indeed as a therapeutic and reflexive response to such.

The exhibition will include work by a range of contemporary artists including Richard Brooks, John Butterworth, Emily Jane Campbell, Anjula Crocker, Deborah Crofts , Dom Elsner, Jez Giddings, Lucy Gresley, William Henry, Mark Howland, Sarah Needham, Angus Pryor, Clare Smith , Kamilla Sztyber ,Sally Ward and Heidi Yssennagger.

In addition to the main exhibition, from 6pm until 8pm on Thursday 21 July there will be a public symposium which will explore and discuss some of the issues and themes suggested by the exhibition, including the iconography and content of specific works on display. There will be an open Q&A session with involvement warmly invited from the audience and members of the general public. The symposium panel contributors will include, Angus Pryor, Dr Grant Pooke, and  John Butterworth.

For more information, please visit www.plasticpropaganda.co.uk or email [email protected] 07775 916737

I have just been in Portugal where they take the role of art in economic development seriously, understanding how important culture is in creating change, desirability in neighbourhoods and optimism.  It was inspiring, and Lisbon is gorgeous, and good for your calf muscles with all those hills.  I arrived back in London, just in time to pour the wine for my opening.

Come and join me at Faron Sutaria 506 Fulham Road SW6 for open art Spaces, Sunday 12-3 and next weekend Sat 11-4 or Sunday 12-3.  I also have a piece in “Whenever I Feel Blue I start to Breath” in facebook details here

https://www.facebook.com/events/1120922464635420/

June 24-July 3rd, Earls Court Project rooms, 16-18 Empress Place SW6 1T

• Had quite alot of interest in my Tunisian Garden Lost piece in FaronSutaria, hope they come back and get into a bidding war!  That would be a dream. It  responds well to the sunshine through the window.

So the show is installed ready to open on Friday 24th June.  The insurance is applied for the images are in and the invitations have gone out from me and from the sponsors, Faron Sutaria.  It’s been a busy week……and then on this ordinary day, in this free society I predictably switched on Radio 4….

And as I drove back from installing the show I could hear the emotion in the presenters voice, I was confused about what had happened but then I

heard the awful news that  British MP Jo Cox has been killed in the street leaving behind a bereaved family and a shocked and saddened Nation.

It is time to stand together against hate, to remember that it is care and love and respect of our differences which make a good society. She had more stories to tell, more of a difference to make, and this was stolen from her, from her family and from our society.

I have just filled in my profile for Art rooms 2017

Please go to http://www.art-rooms.org/2017-artists/ find Sarah Needham and rate me