Treading Water

Chelsea College of Art & Design: Short Course – Curating Contemporary Art Exhibitions.

I recently received a grant form Cardiff City Council to be able to attend the course above, it should prove massively interesting and benefitical for me and my practice as there’s no Curatorial education in Wales. I think some of the most important things won’t be what we’re taught, but hopefully the other students on the course will all have the same kind of urge for cross-country critical discourse. I’ll report more on the course when I know a little more about it. Last year’s schedule looked great, I hope it’s similar this year.

Having discussed my expectations and aims of the course with a few people, I think it’s hard to place my practice, either artistic or curatorial nowadays, the same (and some new) ideas still fascinate me it’s just a little blurry in terms of the hats we wear, but I don;t actually think there’s anything wrong with that, its easy to assume that you’ll be put into a box, but maybe there isnt any boxes left anymore just lines on the ground, all interlinking.

***WRITER NEEDED***

B I T Art Collective will soon be hosting their beggest event to date: No.4 – A multi-disciplinary exhibition of Contemporary Visual Art, Music, Theatre & Fashion, at West Wharf Gallery, Cardiff. 15.06.13

To co-incide with this we are looking for someone to review the show, ideally to post on a-n (but they are more than welcome to publsih it wherever they want). It would be a great chance to start building up a relationship with budding writers, and in return we would be able to offer support and promotion, reviews of their events and maybe an event at the Studios in the future also.

The event’s here: https://www.facebook.com/events/150147818505414/?fref=ts

if anyone is interested, please get in touch: [email protected]

Thankyou/ Diolch yn fawr.

Bosch in Bath.

Last month was spent organising, arranging and curating ‘Old Victoria Buildings Revival’ for Fringe Arts Bath 2013, a show that in the end featured work from: Sam Aldridge, Jan Bennett, Phil Babot, Andrew Cooper, Geraint Evans, Kim Fielding, Beth Greenhalgh, Neil Jeffries, MelvilleMitchell, Iwan ap Huw Morgan, Richard Huw Morgan, Tiff Oben + Helene Roberts, Graham Phillips, Jason Pinder, Sara Rees + Liz Waterhouse, James Richards & Soozy Roberts. All selected for their involvement however large or small with tactileBOSCH.

Most of the artists’ work was all completely new, which made is especially exciting in terms of success for a revival show, light boxes seemed to be quite popular in the show, forming tangentially I was thinking of the physical qualities of a light box, maybe a little ‘open casket’, but I think that’s maybe quite a tedious link back to the drive of the exhibition. On the opening night there were live performances from Beth Greenhalgh, Iwan ap huw Morgan and Phil Babot, who unfortunately couldn’t stay to enjoy the festivities as he was flying to Lapland for a performance festival, great pieces from all three.

There were only tminor problems that were encountered throughout the install: Solid concrete walls + plugs only on the pillars in the middle of the room: It was a little trying at times but nonetheless a good experience in problem solving. Another key issue during the install was how create impact: As you go down stairs into the basement, there needed to be a hard-hitting piece that demanded attention, as to beckon the viewers into the basement, and further, into the vaults. I played around with arrangements of Soozy Robert’s work, but ultimately decided on James Richards’ Disambiguation piece (although this caused offence and was replaced with his Practice Theory piece instead) as a 15ft projection. The projector in this location also dealt with the issues of displaying Melville Mitchell’s piece, ‘Duet’ a masculine shouting match with Bread of Heaven vs Swing Low Sweet Chariot operating as Wales vs England, and Melville vs Mitchell, a great dynamic piece but only shown once on the large projection with amplified sound, as best suited the work, high-impact then gone. This overwhelming feeling of impact continued with Kim Fiedling’s ‘Healing the site of Leakage’ installation, which was working with the vaults from the original foundations of the building while using retinal after-image to burn his work into your eyes.

It seems people have said a lot of things about the exhibition, people have been kind, thankful, empathetic, disgusted, appalled, but never bored or jaded. Such is the joy of working with such fantastic artists. A belated thank you to the event organisers, artists, assistants and attendees.

Last night tactileBOSCH gallery & studios caught fire and burnt down. I went to investigate this afternoon and saw the entire building reduced to charred fragments, broken glass, ashes and dust. The fire team were still at the premises at around 3pm this afternoon and there are still sections of the building smoking just a little, the entire site is due for demolition soon, but this catastrophic inferno has decimated the former gallery, as well as the former visibleart printing studios and woodwork shop. This tragic situation has been treated as suspicious with a number of fires being started in the Llandaff North area recently, obviously if anyone has any information, please report it to the authorities. One of the only remaining artworks from the fire is a collaborative painting on the outside of the building by David J Bull & Dean Craddock from the CITIZEN III exhibition last year, slightly singed.

I spent the day with one of the founders of tactileBOSCH, Kim Fielding who was quite shaken by the whole situation but came out with a morosely amusing statement: “The roof has finally been fixed I guess…”

Old Victoria Buildings Revival an exhibition celebrating the life of the gallery, showing work from its collaborators, instigators and practitioners opens at Fringe Arts Bath 2013, on Stall St, Bath on the 24th of May. This exhibition feels all the more important in lieu of recent events, phoenix out of the ashes comes to mind.

Diffusion Post #1

This morning it felt that Diffusion, Cardiff’s festival of photography was definitely here. Granted I missed the opening at St. David’s hall last night, but from seeing the banner’s around the Bay and hearing about it on Pitch on Radio Cardiff this morning I think it’s safe to say: it has begun….

Not unlike the calm before the storm I can already anticipate an onslaught of through-the-lens media, no doubt resulting in art-hangovers and regular hangovers in the coming weeks. Jennifer Allen put what is coined as ‘the art hangover’ into context beautifully in frieze a few months ago, half as a bacchanalian lust for art, half as mental exhaustion from saturation. I for one welcome the hangovers. First on my checklist was The Brothers by Elin Høyland at Norwegian Church Art Centre. A queer little space, usually displaying the work of local amateur artists or community artist groups alongside the occasional Roald Dahl show, takes a look at the lives of two brothers living in rural Norway, exploring their routines, their dependency and their idyllic county life. Aside from the romantic connotations there is a beautiful narrative constructed from this exhibition; A very clear exploration of the unspoken love between brothers dependant on each other, for work, for company, for shelter. A very interesting show, the venue’s ideals (as a church, a Norwegian one at that) reflect well in the work displayed. As a contemplative notion, one photograph depicts the brothers in their bedroom, sat on their beds opposite each other; then another shot, with the same image constructed, but with one brother missing. Is this the fate of the brothers? Or did he simply go collect more wood for the fire? These questions allow a personal narrative to arrive and with it a long lasting insight into their rural domain.

Diffusion: www.diffusionfestival.org