Satellite Portflio 2011
Selected by Aid and Abet
On sale at Aid and Abet from 30th September 2011 http://aidandabet.co.uk/
Participating members featured in the first Satellite Portfolio are Dominic Allen, Jo Chapman, Polly Cruse, Nicola Naismith, Kate Parrott, Dominique Rey.
Jo Chapman:
Lost + Found
A3 monoprint on paper
Jo Chapman is a visual artist who works primarily within the public domain on projects that include public commissions, residencies, collaborative projects, temporary installations and exhibitions. Jo has undertaken public commissions for both external and internal sites, the common denominator in her work is a relevance to the site either physically or contextually and use of use of imagery that explores the effects of time and abandonment. She is interested in the unexpected, the findings on a walk and the discovery of beauty within in the ordinary and the commonplace.
The monoprint drawing is taken from a series of sketches of scenes around the port area of Great Yarmouth. The drawings formed part of the research for a public commission that Jo was undertaking for Brett’s warehouse, a center for young homeless people in Great Yarmouth. The commission was a response to the maritime history of Great Yarmouth which was once a wealthy and thriving port. The drawings explore the theme of loss, a prevalent experience of the time when there were many shipwrecks and sailors going away for a long time maybe never to return.
Satellite Portflio 2011
Selected by Aid and Abet
On sale at Aid and Abet from 30th September 2011 http://aidandabet.co.uk/
Participating members featured in the first Satellite Portfolio are Dominic Allen, Jo Chapman, Polly Cruse, Nicola Naismith, Kate Parrott, Dominique Rey.
Dominic Allan:
The Irresistable Lure of Fatty Gingo
A3 Laser Jet on Paper
My work is about coming from Britain’s crappest town, Luton, but wanting to come from somewhere else. The artwork over the last 12 years ranges from the performative to the hand stitched, from customising dodgem cars (touring archetypal British seaside resorts in costume) to market trader tourette style banners. Lighbox’s advertising the everyman and no-one. A ‘Wankers’ list. LU1 to E1 (Kenilworth Road to Whitechapel Road). Where Britishness is explored then thrown away, pissed on then thrown back up as art. But forever autobiographical. Forever ‘Dominic From Luton.’
2006 and to now. Nothing. No texts. Silence. Chris. Chris to me. Endearment. Grown-up love. Friendship. Unfriendship. Foe. Why? Over a bike. Valuation. ‘YOUR MATES STUPID”. Look at the website and give me a call. For her, not me. A girls bike. Stolen. Lost, left, unloved. Brown wrapping. A big fuck-off bow. Gathering dust. Too big for a one-bed. Too big for a fatty. For her. Not me. Try again. Voicemail. Place of work. Site of worship. Growth. Try again. Text. Try again. Through friends. Why? ‘I DON”T WANT HIM TO DO TO DOM WHAT HE”S DONE TO ALL HIS OTHER FRIENDS’. To her. Silence. Silence. Ignorance is bliss. Cockroaches. Stick insects. Boilers you shouldn’t use. Dirty sleeping-bags. A library to die for. Buddha hair-do’s and naughty pictures of Nicky. A beautiful man. Jasper, Friday nights and gorgeous Gary. Diamond life.
When we proposed a project for Aid and Abet’s Space Exchange we wanted an artist from somewhere else in the UK to set us a research task that we could undertake in the Eastern Region somewhere. Artist Dave Evans from Royal Standard took up our offer and in an email we received last Thursday he put forward some areas of interest. He has been researching UFO sightings over East Anglia (the fact there have been any is news to me). He names two incidents in particular, ‘Operation Charlie’ in 1947 and the ‘1996 East Anglia UFO Flap’ which has intrigued Dominique and I, and already ideas are forming as to how we will approach the task of being research assistants to an artist we have never met.
So equipped as UFO incident investigators, we will search for traces of real or unverified UFO incidents, gathering as yet unidentified evidence that might include photographs, objects, sound and conversations. We will send the research material to the Aid and Abet gallery during the exhibition to form an evolving body of corroboration. At a later date the research material will be delivered to Evans in Liverpool.
Coming home tonight our research journey has already begun quite by chance something unusual in the sky whilst the fans at Carrow Road were cheering (final score Norwich 2 Sunderland 1).
Nicola Naismith
Whilst compiling the portfolios we had a chance to debate the pros and cons of getting stickers with the Satellite logo printed. In seeing and handling the finished portfolio with its DIY ethos and aesthetic, we finally decided the sticker would not ‘over egg’ the simplicity of the object. We can just squeeze the cost from our slimline budget. I made some alterations to the text on a pretty unwieldy, quick-printing website, with Ikea-like routes to the check-out, but finaly managed to order 20 for the portfolios. They will look good though…
Dominique Rey
Dominique and I delivered the Portfolio Editions to Aid and Abet today. Its been a fair bit of work co-ordinating the project but as we spent an hour or so making up portfolio packs for sale and for the Satellite members it was very enjoyable. To have the time and space to work systematically and without distraction was good, very good. There is one more portflio work to arrive at the gallery, Annie who runs the back gallery has full instructions on what to do so we will leave it in her capable hands.
Each participating Satellite artist has produced the edition with their own money and resources which while obviously not ideal it has been worth it. There is a new logo on the block that can be used when no other funding mark can be appied because the work has been produced under unfunded conditions.
http://www.unfundedlogo.net/
The portflio work looks great, not that we are bias in anyway of course – will post each artist’s image and accompanying text next week, projects opens on the 30th September 2011 at Aid and Abet, Cambridge.
http://aidandabet.co.uk/projects/
Nicola Naismith
