Northumbria University

I sit here typing while I project the blog in front of me, it feels like a dual action. I also sit with my back to the projected artwork; both pieces can’t be viewed at once. This could potentially be a way to overcome not being allowed two spaces (I’m thinking of a worse case scenario!) I’d have to make sure that the space was big enough, even the one I sit in now is too cramped, and the projection is not large enough.

A little bit pre-occupied with other things over the last few days….making books, attending a screen printing onto glass workshop, designing acetate and glass stacks, planning what to go in the degree show catalogue and most excitedly applying for the Sakaide Grand Prix.

I found out that my two laser cuts (images in an earlier post) have been successful and will be sent on Monday.

I managed to do a few hours of filming today and think I got some good shots, especially when shot from below; it meant that an image could be created that wouldn’t be seen in reality (unless somebody lay on the ground of course!) I also tried projecting an image from floor to ceiling, which meant that the lines created by the paper seemed to integrate into the architecture of the space, creating new lines.

Oh…and I think the battle for degree show spaces is on! I tried to apply for two spaces which I thought nobody would be desperate for, how wrong I was…..

The ambiguity, or the logic of language.

I want the text to be deliberately impenetrable yet visually poetic…the new alphabet I have created, by simply removing sections of my normal writing, suggests rather than signifies meaning. The viewers gaze becomes active in that they cannot help but try to read it. I also wonder whether the letters can operate on a purely visual level.

During a tutorial today I had two opposing opinions: one was to not show the blog at all, while the other was to show it in either the same room, or the room next door (to the projected installation). Both of these, while giving me things to think about, are different to what I actually want to do, which is to show it, but in a room, in a different part of the building.

I think that, if it wasn’t shown at all, then how would it have any importance within the whole concept? similarly to if they were shown alongside each other, then how would the actual artwork have importance?

While they couldn’t have been created without each other, I want to see if they can exist on their own, without trying to place a hierarchy on either.

Although this blog is situated in a public arena, the thought of projecting it makes me nervous. How is it that the mere act of enlarging it does this? Is it because, while I sit here typing, it is really only to myself; I don’t expect others to read it, yet by projecting it, I will know they are. Scary.

Group Show “All Art Is, Is Rhythm”…….

AV Festival 2010…….

“I wish I could play the harp; not a burnt one though”

Perhaps drawing on the current tendency for exhibiting shows as “artist rooms,” the Hatton Gallery allows each of its spaces to occupy, and focus on, an individual artist in this new group show. The statement “art is nothing more than rhythm” made by Kurt Schwittes in 1926 marked the conception of the show, which takes on the themes of energy and sound.

We initially step in to a teddy bear wonderland created by Charlemagne Palestine; soft toys are arranged in patterns and lines as they “watch” projections of the artist playing the carillon. Our focus, however, is on this assembly of bears which are intended to absorb our human energy and transmit it into the gallery space like sponges. A fascinating idea, which slowly turns to the uncanny if too long is spent there.

We move on to a beautiful room of broken and burnt harps by Rhodri Davies, which are hung by fishing wire (evocative of the strings) and played by the wind produced by fans in the ceiling. Strongly influenced by the auto-destructive art of Gustav Metzger, an interference and destruction of sound is created. The human is taken out of the equation and these instruments are able to operate autonomously.

Next is Sky Wheels by Alec Finlay, a field of sixteen model wind turbines featuring poems by the artist on their kinetic blades. The blades however, remain static, unable to perform their usual function and resisting the original purpose. The piece adjacent, by Felix Hess is an installation of 500 small paper vanes which respond to any subtle air flow in the room. A differing response to Finaly’s work, they create a sensitive yet lively beauty where the artists hand does not dictate the work. Hess strives to highlight something that would usually go unnoticed, but this kinetic sculpture creates a sensitive and continuous change of pattern.

Pe Lang’s series of thermocromatic paintings are produced by an input of thermal energy to the canvas which alters its molecular structure and slowly changes its colour. While I was there, unfortunately I saw no change in the paintings; I am unsure as to whether this was due to the immense subtlety of the change, or whether the mass of fans and air conditioning needed for the other pieces affected this work.

Liliane Lijn’s work represents the world as energy. Her copper wire installations use light and motion to transform themselves and each time we move we see a different image, from solid to void, opaque to transparent, formal to organic.

Sculptural objects are brought to life by electrical, mechanical and human energy, uniting technology with the forces of nature.