Douglas Clasper Scholarship for Fine Art

This week ……

Anna Puhakka

This past week I have been working on the appearance of the game. Surprisingly this has led me to start painting again, a part of my practice I had been overlooking for several years. I have also begun constructing the game pieces. With a stroke of luck, I managed to find a hundred colourful plastic balls in a second hand shop for a pound and the process began. At the moment I have to say I am immensely enjoying working. I have asked friends and those in BaseNorth to make up questions for the cards in the game. In short its all starting to come together. Now i just have to make up a name for it.

Nicola Smith

I have been re-considering whether to do a live performance on the night of the private view and for the duration of the exhibition. When I am feeling really confident I think it's a great idea when I am not feeling so good I think it's a bad idea. Developing the wall text mural further I would like to put an image inside of it, I have been photographing the roundabout at Seaburn which used to be a public artwork which has since been grassed over. I like the idea ofre-presenting the image of the roundabout, opening up a space to re-consider failed public artworks. We learn from our mistakes and should not feel ashamed at presenting them for future reference and re-interpretation. I want my work to have a reflective and critical perspective in response to public art in the Sunderland area. Now wherethe hell am I going to get a running machine from?

Sarah Stamp

Trying to work out how to put the speaking I am going to record on a loop so it comes on intermittingly. This may sound very basic but I haven't really worked with sound much, so I don't know what I'm doing. I have always wanted to work with sound of speaking but feeling like I don't know much has probably put me off. However I am keen not to just work in certain ways because they are easy and familiure to me, I think it is very important to do this if just to explore other ways of working. I have also been collecting more words and phrases to use this is very similar to the way I have previously collected objects to use. Some of my favourite ones are "the happiness industry", "the ministry of truth" and "human populations will be naturally checked by misery"

I have also been searching for elocution tips to make my voice have less of an accent when recording I have learned elocution lessons are expensive so may try copying radio 4 presenters.

Today we have discussed dates for our first exhibition For Future Presentation and are awaiting confirmation for dates in October time. We are in the process of developing the BaseNorth logo and hope to get the press release out by the end of the month. We have also discussed where we are at the moment in our own work and the collaborative piece.

Work in Progress

Nicola Smith:

I plan on creating a text-based piece on the double doors, which are situated in the gallery space. In front of the doors I want to have a running machine and propose to do the BaseNorth marathon over the duration of the exhibition.

Sarah Stamp:

I am currently working on a piece of writing in the style of a public service announcement/ news broadcast which I intend to record myself reading. It is set at some point in the future and details the bureaucracy of a dystopian society.

Anna Puhakka:

At the present moment I am in the progress of making a game about becoming an artist and surviving it. It is a game FOR ARTISTS BY AN ARTIST. Like the art world the game will be elitist. It is a performance where I give the rules but am susceptible to the other players and how they play.

As a group we represent a diverse cultural and geographical mix, Nicola Smith is originally from London, Sarah Stamp from the North East, and Anna Puhakka from Finland, together we form BaseNorth. Our diverse cultural, geographical background, range of skills and experiences make us a dynamic and dedicated team committed to realising projects at a local, national and international level. BaseNorth is committed to making conceptual work in any medium, which best represents, the idea. We do not limit ourselves to working in the white cube, and work in response to the context of our surroundings.

BaseNorth are currently working at the Rednile Studios in Sunniside, Sunderland. Our first exhibition will be at the Rednile gallery space in October time. Sunniside is an area, which is undergoing re-development, the Rednile Studios are based in a disused factory, which at some point are due to be demolished as part of the regeneration plan.