Cardiff School of Art & Design

Just a reminder, The CSAD Degree Show is opening this saturday, open from 11am!

https://www.facebook.com/events/117897908345097/

Sat 9th June, 11am-6pm
Sun 10th June, 10am-6pm
Mon 11th June, 10am-6pm
Tues 12th June, 10am-6pm
Weds 13th June, 10am-6pm
Thurs 14th June, 10am-6pm
Fri 15th June, 10am-12pm

That’s it. All done, everything is hung according to my diagrams, the work is all in order, sketchbooks are out. There is nothing left to do, except go to bed. Ill be starting my new blog on artists talking imminently, it’ll be a record and documentation of my practice from now on. So three years, one degree, and twenty-six blog posts later, Im finally at the beginning.

Just a reminder, the show opens at 12 on friday the 9th of June and runs on until the 15th of June @ Howard Gardens, Cardiff, CF24 0SP

Cheers,

Bob.

Well, theres now two & a half days left getting the studio up to scatch, its getting close. All work is being mirror plated and hung tomorrow. The final selection is made, the showreel is finished, just awaiting burning to disk. The floors & walls are spic & span. The view from the studio on these late nights is beautiful during the dash for the finish line.

Prep.

The paintings are essentially finished, except from restoring my own paintings (which is a pretty odd thing to do) due to dust getting everywhere. and adding one slight layer of Bristol Silver to the landscape is Crime Season. Floors are being button-polished to seal the gloss, enamel, bitumen, oil, and general mess I’ve made over the year. Walls are having a second coat of pva to seal where I missed first time round.

The space that is able for exhibiting has expanded, the corridor that was full of lockers is now useable as exhibition space, so I can have more paintings in, hurrah!

Another quite appealing selection was made as well today, hopefully it’ll become clear what works best very, very soon.

Curatorial Nightmares.

The space (the walls) is pretty much ready to begin hanging & curation. This is a far bigger task than anticipated, given the awkward space I have. The angles in the architecture sometimes line up with the architecture of the paintings, is this slick coincidence, or a stroke of visual harmony. I’ve begun to hang two paintings that might not even go in the show, but I have to test every scenario, to maximize the space and paintings.

Position 1:

Recall left, Crime Season right.

Now this is the one that I prefer, I would love to show all new work like these two, but you cannot let a personal persuasion take over what will look best. The first thoughts on seeing this up was how commanding the Bitumen from Recall looked, but also how controlling and aggressive it was, however it does allow space for contemplation, because there is the shroud of the figures underneath. Inquisitive, would be the ideal word, however Crime Season next to it, looks a little disparate, not that this is necessarily a bad thing, they stand on their own, as coherent pieces, but standing alone.

Position 2:

Crime Season left, Recall right.

Just testing it. There are good points to it, it makes me see that they CANNOT be hung at the same height, there’s too many already occurring lines that match up, it looks somewhat gimmicky. The duality of aesthetics comes through quite well though! Also the border on Recall almost nulls and voids the slanted wall directly above it.

These choices are preludes to the full show, but every bit as essential to the process. If anything it clears up that Crime Season cannot go on the right, with Recall on the left, I think….

Thoughts?