Northumbria University

Well I have secured the Sculpture Graduate Fellowship at Northumbria and I am now also the Co-ordinator of our student project and exhibition space.

I have started a new blog here – www.a-n.co.uk/p/3888221

Hopefully it will document my transition into the next phase of my practice and my exploration of the curatorial concerns I explored in my undergraduate degree.

If any final years read this and decided to blog, I can definitely give them a thumbs up! This is a great platform for criticism and to explore the processes that your peers are going through in tandem with your own practice.

Good luck.

I’m currently sat invigilating the second last day of the show. It’s been such an experience since the preview evening and it has been incredibly rewarding seeing my work being judged and critiqued by the public.

The actual night of the show was incredibly hectic and I barely got around the different floors. I’ve still been around University quite a lot however, getting in my applications to some art prizes and the Northumbria graduate schemes. I was lucky enough to have my family come up from Somerset, Birmingham and Glasgow so had a proper reunion for a few days, something that made the whole experience even more special. On the night I was introduced to some of the curators from the Baltic Gallery which was a fantastic opportunity to chat and network with some members of the NewcastleGateshead institutional community.

Since the show I have been preparing my ideas for the display of work in our London show. The space we have in the Old Truman Brewery is a large basement space and I have visited it before for previous year’s shows. There will definitely be something complimentary in the post-industrial space but I am slightly worried about the complete absence of natural light for my work.

Finally I need to start thinking about constructing consecutive works. It will be important this summer to maintain a strong creative presence and regardless of my results of the graduate applications I will need to get a studio space sorted just to get back into the motions of creating work.

Wow, well that was without a doubt the most fun/intense/stressful/rewarding process I have been part of for a very long time. The amount of work that me and my two first years put in makes me feel very proud and now I cannot wait for the preview in just over a weeks time (18th of June, 6pm for anyone around Newcastle or the North East!). I have to say that since handing in I have been mainly celebrating in the sun, something that I feel absolutely no guilt whatsoever!

I have had to go into the University every other day to water my grass, something that I still find rather amusing. There were some fantastic developments in my practice throughout the last few weeks and I wish I had kept this blog up to document them. The absurdity of it all has definitely been one of the concerns I’ve been happily exploring.

The next week is to be spent getting my bodyclock back to work mode and getting some applications in for Northumbria’s Graduate Schemes. I also really need to sort out my London accommodation, our show goes down for an opening at the Truman Gallery on the 4th July. Another event in the calendar that I cannot wait for!

After an incredibly stressful weekend spent at work in the cafe I got back in the studio and managed an incredibly productive thirteen hour stint in University. The students that were selected for Gallery North were given access at 9am and we had a short meeting outlining how the space was to be used. I wheeled over the smaller canvas piece over to the gallery soon after.

We had a meeting later to allow the students to give a little bit of information regarding their practices, before that I sorted out my rather large woodshop bill and started the process of strengthening the structure so I would be able to walk on top and sow the grass seed.

I’ve been so busy with the set up that I’ve been letting this blog slide, now I am in a pretty good place regarding the show and can concentrate on the written side of the course.

My construction has now had all the compost and topsoil laid and I have just begun the process of sowing. The actual structure is giant and I feel incredibly proud of the work that my first years and I have done!

Now I have to manage the space, keep the soil watered and paint the walkways. The weight that has gone from my shoulders is fantastic, now I just have to hope that nature takes its course and my mound of earth turns into a lush green hill!.

I’m now halfway through the first week of setup. Stress and panic are slowly turning into accomplishment and success. After a disastrous first day in which the wood I ordered didn’t turn up and a bit of a mess today with a window leak, I have now got the basic shape of all my frames. I want to get them complete and strengthened by the end of tomorrow so I can have a little play on Friday before laying the tarpaulin and the compost.

I have been using the time model of two weeks cultivation time which means I need to have the grass seed planted by Monday at the latest. This will hopefully mean a good level of coverage for my assessment!

While I am incredibly excited about the rest of the setup I have been finding the process incredibly stressing. I tend to work in a slower, planned fashion. Leaving a lot of the show up to chance – the cultivation of grass on the slope for example – is refreshing in ways but I probably shouldn’t be trying out risky techniques for my degree show!

My two first year helpers have been brilliant so far however I do seem to constantly think that I don’t have enough for them to do. As I can’t sweep or paint the floor until the seed is sown I don’t have any constant tasks for them. I have also decided against painting the brick walls due to the sheer height of the room and the rough and ready nature of the space. A blessing for my first years when I see the others sanding walls for the third day in a row…