Between the eye and the object

I was invited to take part in the International Summer School, which took place at Bury Art Gallery and Sculpture Centre last week (11th – 15th August). It was advertised to be the following;

The moments when artists coming together to learn from each other and experiment have a celebrated history, new ideas and new art emerge. Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Centre are launching such a moment – the annual International Summer School. A week of workshops, lectures, panel discussions, practical learning and skills exchange.

The summer school invited the following panel of artists and curators to lead the sessions:

– Marianne Eigenheer (Switzerland). International artist, curator and lecturer at Universities and Art Colleges in Frankfurt, Offenbach, Stuttgart, Edinburgh and the Royal College of Art. She is also the Director at the Institute for Curatorship and Education (ICE).
– Laura Köönikkä (Finland), International Curator in various projects, institutions and organizations including Gallery Helsinki Contemporary, Tampere Art Museum & TR1 Kunsthalle Tampere and Pori Art Museum. Founder of Finnish Art Agency; Editor-in-chief FAT Finnish Art Today.
– Matt Moser-Clark (UK), Artist living and working in London. Recently graduated from the Royal College of Art. Exhibtions include; Letters to Maurice, Foundation and Trust Gallery; A very difficult pancake, Modern Art Oxford; Drawing into Sculpture, Griffin Gallery and RBS Bursary Show.
– Natalia Fedorova (Russia), a new media poet, a digital literature scholar and a mediapoetry lab curator. In collaboration with a sonic artist Taras Mashtalir she founded a media poetry project Machine Libertine.
– Chaired by Tony Trehy, Director of Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Centre.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Encouraging us to look at the town of Bury in a completely different way, Marianne asked us to venture out to look at what could be or could have been artworks. Everyone in the group came back with totally different findings, showing that we all have our own tastes within the medium of visual art. This project proves that the subjectivity of art is in the eye of the beholder.

Thinking about my own tastes in such matter; being naturally attracted to urban colours, man-made lighting, colour within the landscape/city, reflections, patterns and empty spaces. You can see the fruits of my labour below:

Try this project for yourself. See what new things you can find in your own town or city. Try it in your place of work, home, anywhere where you don’t ordinarily find inspiration maybe…

Although these few images could be documentation of real artworks, they are merely photographs of the world around us. They will inevitably inspire me within my practice. I particularity love the top image and can easily see how this could translate into a new work of mine. Watch this space…

I love the sun more than most and am certainly trying to enjoy it while it lasts.
With a busy summer ahead, including; moving my studio within Rogue Artists’ Studios this week (I will now be located on the 4th floor), installing new work within the woodlands for Kendal Calling Festival at the beginning of August and taking residence at the Merz Barn in early Autumn, it seems as though my summer will be a lively and enjoyable one!

 

PUTT PUTT #2

Turf Projects, Croydon
19 July – 30 August

Putt Putt #2 is an outdoor exhibition of newly commissioned work that takes the form of a crazy golf course, including my new work. Located in the heart of Croydon, the exhibition brings together artists from across the country to provide a critical and accessible approach to contemporary art practice.

Colour Intervals for PUTT PUTT #2 uses artificial neon plastic colours derived from cities to create a miniature cityscape maze.

Platform, Ruskin Square, Lansdowne Walk, Croydon. CR0 2BX

More info:  http://turf-projects.com/putt-putt-2/

 

BEYOND SPACE – WOODLANDS ARTS TRAIL

Kendal Calling, Lowther Deer Park
31 July – 4 August

I have recently won a new commission to make outdoor light works for Kendal Calling Festival 2014.

Kendal Calling is a multi-award winning music and arts festival set in the idyllic Lake District. In addition to plentiful music found across multiple stages, the festival has over nine years grown a reputation for featuring art pieces from disciplines ranging from large-scale sculpture to performance.

With support from Arts Council England, in partnership with Eden Arts and FutureEverything

More Info:  http://www.kendalcalling.co.uk/

 

THE MERZ BARN RESIDENCY

The Merz Barn, Cumbria
Autumn 2014

I will be artist in residence at Kurt Schwitters Merz barn for an exciting week in early Autunm.

This residency will give me the opportunity to test new ideas in both the gallery space and the great outdoors. I will be unplugged for the week; I can’t wait to show you the results of my time there.

 

THE LANGUAGE OF MIXED-MEDIA SCULPTURE BOOK

If you haven’t seen or already got your copy, in May this year a reference book featuring many pieces of my work, The Language of Mixed-Media Sculpture by Jac Scott, was 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. The book features 28 international artists working across all mediums. 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.

Turf Projects PUTT PUTT #2 Commission

I was delighted to be asked to make a playful new work for this years PUTT PUTT #2 crazy golf course in Croydon.

For those who don’t know about the wonderful work of Turf Projects, have a look on their website to find out more and see documentation from last years original project (http://turf-projects.com/). The idea reveloves around a 9-hole crazy golf course, with each artist being commissioned to make a hole each.

My hole and the work I will make is inspired by the artificially coloured utopian cities I have lived in (Glasgow, Sheffield and Manchester) in which shiny neon lights and plastic detritus is prevalent before us everywhere we go.

In this work I aim to make a scaled down town in which I utilise toy-plastic colours to playfully build my own cityscape.

Over the last 2 weeks I have been building blocks and painting them in an array of bright hues, finished with a coat of yacht varnish to keep them weather proof (as the exhibition is outdoors). I have already taken over Rogue Artists’ Studios workshop with my blocks, oops!

The work will be playable and open from 19th July. Good luck. Hope you get a hole in one!

• 
• 
• 

All good things come to an end…

I feel that my successful and fulfilling Construction Project has naturally come to an end. Intended as a two or three week project of consecutive days, instead I have spend 24 days over the last two months making test works of new ideas in my studio at Rogue in Manchester.

I feel liberated from the constants I felt I had, able to move freely around my mind in order to explore ideas, respond to space and in the selection of materials I choose.

Before the Construction Project I felt stuck. I set myself a set of simple rules to construct, document and deconstruct a piece everyday I got into my studio. I had to use whatever materials were around me, therefore I couldn’t buy anything new.

I have now got to the point of reflection, whereby I am able to look back on the images I have taken and take time to think about which were successful, which weren’t, which pieces had mileage and which I could refine. Some I could easily dismiss, others I am excited about taking further, some works are great just as they are, with no extra work needed.

Construction Project Day #24

Singular tone flat/panels were the order for today.

I paired a sheet of coloured board with a shard of painted 4mm acrylic. The contrast in surface, texture and opacity were delightful (even if I do say so myself).

I like that from the images you can not tell how big the boards are, they could be any size. This gives me room to experiment with the idea for future projects/works.

I would like to run through the whole spectrum, these three shades are just a tester. I would also be interested in pairing complementary colours together. e.g a red board with a green shard or acrylic, etc.

The juxtaposition between the neat and precisely cut board next to the organic and sporadic shapes of the plastic work in contrast with each other.

These works are, for me, sculptural. Even thought they are 2D, perhaps you would call them paintings, I see them as models for 3D works or illusions of what sculptures could become of them.

I must admit using paint is rather nice. What is happening to me???

• 
• 
• 
• 
•