Between the eye and the object

Spring Cleaning

Its that time of year when I feel the insatiable need to clean and tidy all around me. Last week I decided to give my studio at Rogue a complete overhaul. This meant making room for a plan-chest that I have nabbed from my dad’s cellar so therefore getting rid of a few other items to make room for it. This ‘making room’ turned into a manic tidy and throw out session….

As you can see from the mounting pile of rubbish in the photograph above, I was perhaps a little reckless in getting rid of certain bit and bobs I had been saving to use when I had the ‘light bulb’ moment sometime in the future. I got rid of my desk and more poignantly my wardrobe work ‘The predicament of in here and out there’ that was exhibited at Cornerhouse, Manchester in the exhibition FOUR this time last year. I removed the mirrors and kept them for another piece and sawed up the wooded piece of furniture to be used as firewood. Sad eh? It was just taking over the place and I had no intention of showing it again as I have moved on somewhat with my practice since then.

I even organised all my coloured objects into catagories, including separating all the bottle-tops from everything else. It REALLY needed doing!

Many full bin bags later I had an enviable studio, ready for the forthcoming year of creativeness. I now have shelves…. SHELVES! Shelves I quickly filled with my coloured light bulbs, pen pots and spray paints. Its rather tasty isn’t it??? A good days work I’d say…

Coming up in 2014…

Happy New Year!

I am delighted to announce I will be participating in an exciting range of exhibitions and projects in 2014. Below are details of current and ongoing projects which I thought you might be interested in.

If you would like to, you can keep in touch with what’s new via Twitter or Facebook.

All the best for 2014!

AN ADDITIVE MIXTURE
Gallery333, Exeter Phoenix 14 January – 8 March

Opening next week, Liz West will be presenting new work at Gallery333 (part of Exeter Phoenix’s multi art-form venue).

An Additive Mixture is a continuation of West’s new site-specific series where she systematically arranges numerous multicoloured fluorescent stick-lights as a direct response to details in the space. The title of work is taken from Josef Albers text ‘Interaction of Colour’, where it is explained that a direct mixture of projected light demonstrates an additive mixture where the sum of all colours in light is white.

Bradninch Place, Gandy Street, Exeter, EX4 3LS

More info: www.exeterphoenix.org.uk/events/liz-west

SCULPTURE SERIES
Quays Culture, Salford Spring 2014

Liz West will be re-interpreting the recent work Vanishing Boundaries for Quays Culture at MediaCityUK, Salford in the Spring. This is a fantastic opportunity to showcase work in an alternative environment to be seen be audiences of thousands, including the home of the BBC.

Further information about this exhibition, curated by Mark Devereux Projects, will be announced very soon via markdevereuxprojects.com

THE LANGUAGE OF MIXED-MEDIA SCULPTURE
This year a reference book featuring Liz West, The Language of Mixed-Media Sculpture by Jac Scott, will be published by The Crowood Press. This volume is both a global survey and a celebration of contemporary approaches to sculpture formed from more than one material. It profiles the discipline in all its expanded forms: illustrating that sculpture in twenty first century is not something solid and static but rather a fluid interface in material, time and space.

This sumptuously illustrated volume will inspire those intrigued and interested in contemporary sculpture. Suitable for all artists, enthusiasts, students and practitioners alike, the book will form an invaluable guide to the great plethora of twenty-first century art.

FOLLOW ME

For further details about Liz West’s latest exhibitions and new works, please visit the website:
www.liz-west.com

Colour Theory in Practice

I have been basing a lot of my new work and ideas on colour theory compositions that appear as diagrams in text books. Often very formal, these diagrams are heavily based on simple shapes and configurations such as Goethe’s colour triangle or the circular spectrum.

I have been using materials already to hand in my studio, such as florescent markers, sharpie pens and my bulbs to mimic such arrangements and test ideas for future work.

I am enjoying taking my practice ‘back to basics’ in terms of amounts of materials and colours used. I think that possibly I have over-complicated things in past works; using too many elements that confuse and conflict against each other – as in my Chamber series. As beautiful as I think they were and happy to have produced them, I think there were too many concepts within them.

1. the formal arrangements of objects.

2. the saturation of objects.

3. the use of found, ‘recyclable’ materials.

4. the structure the mirrors used to encase the objects in…..

… I could go on.

I am much happier with my most recent work (shown in exhibitions On Brown & Violet Grounds and Synthesis). I feel like my making process is more organic than it used to be. I have the chance to play and trial arrangements through drawing and psychically before taking installations into spaces rather than just taking the work directly into spaces. This middle-ground allows the work to be more rigorous in its approach and gives me time to adapt in my own time scale with no rush for a finished exhibition.

I am looking forward to working in new lighting mediums in the new year, potentially in neon and possibly using LEDs within my work for the first time. Watch this space…

Proposals, Submissions & Commissions….

I have spent the last fortnight sat looking at photographs of buildings, making site visits and whizzing off emails for quotes. Its sad to say that the life of an artist isn’t just about pottering in the studio (a fantasy view). At the very least I have a pleasant dining room/office where I can flick on the kettle and grab a cookie any time I like, listen to my favourite music as well as being able to lay out all my preparatory material, sketches, printed out inspiration grabbed from the internet and my books; this allows me to see everything in one go and therefore make informed descisions about the make I might propose.

It seems at the moment I am not having much luck with opportunity submissions I send off (having been rejected from the last five or six – that rant is for another post), but better luck with being invited to propose new work and being offered exhibitions on the strength of recent work documented through my website and blog; I just don’t get it!

Anyhow, about a fortnight ago I was longlisted and invited to draw up a proposal for a new light work to be shown outdoors. This worried me at first for a few reasons;
1. I have never made work for the outdoors,
2. I have never made work in the medium required (neon),
3. Finally, I have never responded directly to a buildings historical, geographical and structural form all in one go before.
So, when in doubt turn to colour theorist and artist Josef Albers…

Out came the colour-obsessed-artists’ obligatory copy of ‘Interaction of Colour’; a book I take all my titles from as well as using it as a research tool which I dip in and out of when needed. This was a time when I really NEEDED it!

As I flicked through the diagrams at the back of the book I came across Goethe’s colour triangle; a theory for mixing primary, secondary and tertiary colours that I am well familiar with. Bingo! Its so nice to have that ‘light bulb’ moment. So, instead of trying to squeeze my ideas into a ‘design’ that didn’t represent my practice, I remembered now crucial it is to stay true to yourself and the concepts that drive your practice. If the commissioners don’t go with my idea it is not because its not a good idea, its because it not what they were looking for on that particular occassion.

As I write this post the commission deadline has passed, my proposal is typed up and sent. All I can do now is cross my fingers…

Getting going again…

After a run of exciting exhibitions and commissions spanning over the Summer and into the Autumn, its time to get back into making new work in my studio at Rogue.

The Summer began for me in June with an Arts Council England funded Barnaby Festival commission for Macclesfield’s Grosvenor Centre.

I was awarded Arts Council England Grants for the Arts funding at the beginning of Summer for the research and development of new work, for this I started making drawings, large scare light-works and invited a number of art industry professionals and curators to my studio for critical feedback sessions.

I showed this new work at my solo presentation On Brown & Violet Grounds at Piccadilly Place and in my studio space for the annual Rogue Open Studios in late September.

I was then invited to make new work for Bury Light Night by The Hamilton Project in early October.

From this, I was asked to take part in Synthesis, an exhibition exploring art and science at Victoria Warehouse as part of Manchester Science Festival, curated by Forefront Collective at the end of October.

The BBC’s Ian Youngs and Colin Paterson (online news, BBC Breakfast, Look North and North West Tonight) covered a story on my practice and work as a collector, which was very exciting. This gave me lots of coverage and brought national awareness of my work.

I really enjoyed spending time in my studio over the Summer, so am keen to get going again. As some of you may already know, I tend to struggle in Winter time with Seasonal Effective Disorder so have brightened up my studio with good old fairy lights and heaters; this makes it super cosy and a place I want to spend my time instead of a cold place.

I always like to set myself a project to help me get back into the swing of making. I have recently been asked to show work in Gallery333, which is part of Phoenix Exeter in January. This will give me a focus and allow me to experiment and test ideas within my studio beforehand. I started yesterday by mocking up the space within Gallery333 using scraps of wood, then positioning my sticklights in different arrangements and photographing them along the way to see which worked best.

As I played around, I incorporated the use of my mirrors (again, something I have plenty of in my studio). I felt this changed the piece completely, but by illusion increased the size of the space, throwing out more light and hopefully create more hue as visitors pass by the gallery window.

I went on to make technical sketches of all the different possible arrangements. This preparation will be useful for my upcoming show, but has also helped me get back into the studio and get going again. Like many artists, I always find getting going again with new ideas and work very difficult after a run of exhibitions or a period away from the studio.

Watch this space…