University of Brighton

It has been a whole week since the deadline and although I’m not actually making, I’m trying to keep pro-active and look for new opportunities and challenges.

I have applied for the WW Solo Award 2013 with two works from last year and my degree show work, and for the Santander University of Brighton Studen Awards for Community Engagement and Volunteering for the Artist Parents Group (£500 to be win) I’m also going to apply today for the 5 days long Heritage Residency in Northwich this August. I think it is worth to go for this too, as it will give me the space and time to think about the next year in the MA.

We have planning permission to build an office and studio at the back of the garden, this is very exciting as at some point I will have the space to keep everything organised and to make work. Not sure how big it will be and how I can use the space as a storage for work, office, and studio for making. It might be a bit of a challenge but it’s better than not having anything. Hopefully everything will come to plan and we can afford it financially. There is a necessity of expanding within both businesses.

What worries me the most is perhaps the storage part of everything. How I’m going to store the degree show work?, everything is relatively large and I don’t think the garage is the best place for this to keep it clean and safe, and there is not much space, full stop. I would like to get an exhibition proposal with my classmates, or to apply for another local exhbition, so at least the work is out being seen and it will solve the storage problem for a bit longer. I haven’t kept much of the previous works because of the lack of storage so i feel like if I want to start exhibiting I have to start from scratch and I don’t think at this stage I can’t afford to start from scratch again and again. Ideally it will be amazing if I’m selected for the WW Solo 2013 exhibition so the work can be part of this, we will see. The money from the Santander award will be so welcome right now too. If you don’t ask you don’t get, so let’s see what happens.

Only another week until the degree show private view, I hope we will enjoy a bright and warm sunny day in Brighton that day.

Now DIY at home which I’m enjoyining too. There are too many things that we don’t need. My family and I need to travel lighter.

The work is now ready to go everything is now in place and arranged in the best possible way to make the whole thing work. Incluiding the armature I did for the film in this installation was a great idea from my tutor and I’m glad that at the end I’m getting to exhibit it. And it really works well with the rest of the objects and the cocodrile/monster head.

I need to go in a do the final touches on the floor and wall but after going out last night to celebrate and gettting back home a few hours ago I just want to lye down in the sofa and don’t do anything. I’m T.I.R.E.D but excited about the private view and show and things that are to come. It is going to be fun to celebrate with friends and Simon.

We couldn’t afford to join the a-n degrees show publication this time but just want to use my blog to let you all know about our graduate show at Faculty of arts, University of Brighton.

If you are around come and enjoy another year of brilliant show full of talent in many disciplines.

Event Times

Private View: Friday 31 May (invite only)

Public Exhibition: Saturday 1 June – Wednesday 12 June

Where to find us: Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton, Grand Parade, Brighton, BN2 0JY.

Grand Parade (Art, Design and Media courses)

Thursday & Friday 10am–8pm

Saturday & Sunday 12–5pm

Monday to Wednesday 10am–6pm

The deadline is today and it’s so exciting to see the work almost done and all the show coming together. It is looking great, it has a very fun and playful feeling with loads of colour. I even think that we should try to choose a gallery in the next few months and put together a proposal and see what happens.

My work is looking as colourful as ever, there are a lot of objects made with cardboard and covered in fabric, haberdashery etc… At the end the sculptures are standing on top of a super king mattress covered with a white sheet. The mattress stands on top of a wooden platform my helper made for me and I have painted with a dark rasperry colour. Sometimes I think that the whole piece looks like a cake with the ribbon at the bottom, the white icing and all the icing figures at the top.

I have decided to leave “Cheeky monke a la Espagnole“ too facing the new work, they both complent each other and since I’m not longer exhibiting drawings or video I think I should exhibit the more the better. This sculpture also resemblences like a viewer looking at the work and it will add a bit more of humour to the whole thing when someone will be standing next to it. Because I’m attempting to talk about domestic violence too in this work, having “Cheeky monkey a la Espagnole” staring at the work, at the stage, is like wanting to mirror society towards domestic violence. Everybody knows that is there but very little gets done. Or I read it too as an approbation of abussive behaviour, not acknowledging that this behaviour is unacceptable.

I want to represent a fight in bed, what might happens in bed between a couple, the love but also the hate. Sleeping with your enemy kind of thing, caotic and passional.

The monster is trapped in a box and it might come out or maybe it has come out already, the hammer has been used, the woman’s legs are up in the air, she has been trown up across the bed and she has landed upside down. There are red tears or blood drops coming from a colourful cascade of different patterns, with a furry white background that resemblences to a mountain, like if once more time the tension has exploded and reached the cimmyt with a painful end, physiologically and psychologically.

This piece is another attempt to work with humour and trauma, in this case domestic violence.

Only two more days for deadline on Friday. It has been mad to get everything going for the last month and it has been hard work but very rewarding indeed. Winning the award for the MA studentship has definately helped me to keep focus and to keep an upwards and onwards attitude towards the degree show preparation and beyond.

I feel I have learnt a lot in the last few weeks, specially cordinating and managing time to meet the deadline. Although there is only 2 days to go and I have still some bits to do, but I’m hoping that everything will come together very soon.

I feel that giving directions to other helpers is already a big task and it takes time and energy. You have to get it right so they understand what you are after. I have been very luck with my helpers and it has been enjoyable to work with them.

Regarding the work itself, it has been a roller coster all the way through, up and downs, achievements and failures. Keeping everything clean and out of dust have been a mission! I would like to see how other artists work and how they organise studios to keep work stored and clean for exhibitions.

I choose fabric as the main material of my work as I wanted to keep learning how to sew with patterns. I have definately got more idea now and feel more confident, but, has this piece been really challenging or ambitious? Perhaps sewing in larger scales have been ambitious but could I have done better? Is this piece a result of my last years at uni?

I feel I want to achieve a number of things within the work all at the same time such as: concept, pattern, scale, colour, installation, composition. I guess this is okay but I feel I haven’t allowed myself to sit down and stare at the work more, I haven’t allowed the work to develop in other way, I have followed an original drawing to make the sculptures. Perhaps I needed to see the work more developped to be able to pose new questions but is there any time left to pose questions?

Another thing is my attempts to create work that is humourous but also reveals some kind of trauma at the same time. I wish the work could create more tension, I don’t think there is enough. I have the cocodrile/monster head in the acrylic box and the pink acrylics boxes with the piranhas and opened mouthes images on them, but are they really striking? what do they say? how they should be displayed for more impact? hanging?

I think the stress and the panic is bringing me a bit down, but I trust myself and I know deep inside me that I’m heading in the right way. And I’m also trying to be aware that this is another work on journey but not the final piece of my practice so in some way this is another experimental work that tries to bring some personal experiences to life.

There are two days left and I feel I want to used them well and give the work the final chance to develop in the right way. i think having some sound of an animal roaring within the installation could have been a good thing to have add to the work and I might look into how to get it done tomorrow.

Now, bedtime as I need all the energy to keep pushing things further.