It has been a brilliant day. I have been exploring London with fellow student, Sarah Rilot. We visited AVA in Islington where Kate Mccgwire is having her first solo show. Huge beautiful installations of feathers and smaller delicate works were on display. Kate has been using lead with feathers to incredible effect. The show is on until January and is well worth a visit. www.allvisualarts.org
After delivering a commission to the classy offices of Vogue House we nipped in to see Sue Webster and Tim Noble’s show opposite. Their self-portraits are so clever and imaginative. They never fail to impress.
A quick trip to Soho proved revealed the ‘Museum of Curiosities’ on Bateman Street. This is great for my research as I am now looking into displaying my wax pieces in a kind of Wunderkammer. The dark walls and the brightly lit pieces remind me of spooky rickety old houses. Very Dickensian – which, I suppose is partly the point. The staff were so friendly and really open to chatting with us which was so refreshing seeing as our next port of call was decidedly frosty! www.pertweeandersongold.com
Cork Street followed after a little nose at the jewellery stores in Burlington Arcade – lovely. We dropped into a gallery that shall remain nameless. Initially we were welcomed in and the assistant was very friendly. The girl then introduced us to the proprietor who was a little snotty. Still, she was ‘friendly’ and shook our hands as we introduced ourselves. She began to tell us about the show and then asked us what we did. ‘Oh, we are students’ came the reply. Snotty lady responded in a heartbeat ‘Those programmes are ten pounds and you can’t have one of those business cards – those are for my PR clients alone!’ Friendly! We left rather promptly after witnessing her saccharine sweetness directed to two businessmen (they arrived in a swanky Bentley). My mother was once flashed at and the flasher told her to ‘never judge a sausage by its skin.’ I like to stick to that motto – you never know who you are dealing with so BE NICE. I might have several Bentleys parked in my drive!
National Portrait Gallery was very busy so we were only in there for half an hour. We then visited South Kensington to see Tony Cragg’s magnificent sculptures. I have seen these as scaled down versions but when they are set on such a large scale they really are something to behold.
Check out these shows and get off the beaten track. The smaller independent galleries seem to have so much to offer.
As the days of November race by my attention is focusing (amongst other things) on my pop-up venture in Whitstable. I have taken on a shop for one week on the fashionable Harbour Street in the seaside town. I have several artists exhibiting in the space two of which I showed with at my last exhibition in London.
I attach an image of Kim Francis’s beautiful cellular paper sculpture so you can take a look. Check out her website too www.kimfrancis.com.
Information can be found about my pop-up gallery on Facebook. Look for ‘Compendium @ Show Off Gallery, Whitstable’. It would be great for the artists involved if lots of people shared the link. Thanks in advance.
The logisitics of this project are proving to be a juggle. I open for business the week I have to have the first draft of my dissertation in. I met with an interesting artist on Saturday called Maxine Chester. Max works as a mentor at UCA in Canterbury. She was offering sage advice about the essay and was pretty fired up about Marc Quinn (one of the artists I have chosen to write about) I am also considering Helen Chadwick or Stelarc as subjects for the essay.
I have been making more wax maquettes in my studio and have been thinking about how to display them. I am leaning towards some sort of installation maybe along the lines of the Grant Museum displays. I am visiting London on Friday as the wonderful Kate Mccgwire has a solo show in All Visual Arts Gallery in Kings Cross. I am sure that curational inspiration will be in abundance there!
Have just returned from visiting a small foundry in Staplehurst called Barrett and Jarvis. Very interesting! I took the small wax sculptures that I made last week and am hoping that they will give me a good price for casting the one with the matchsticks inside in bronze.
It was all fascinating. They explained the lost wax casting method and showed me the ropes. Incredibly friendly and they answered all my questions.
I had a very good day at college yesterday. The computer suite was free and the printer was working – hooray! I got plenty of research done for the dissertation. The subject matter has changed for the essay and I am now looking into art and science. Much more fitting for my practice.
I was told yesterday that King’s College Hospital are interested in hanging three of my wax bowls in their show. They already have three acrylic images hanging in the neurology department. Its very encouraging to know that people are interested in what is being made.
I am delighted that Degrees Unedited has chosen one of my images to head up their Facebook page! Take a look.
Must get back to my shed – work beckons!
A trip to London last week with the children to the Wellcome Collection and the Grant Museum of Zoology provided plenty of meaty inspiration for my latest project. I am looking into mutation, metamorphosis and change.
I am not sure if I am explaining this at all well at college as I tend to be more confused having spoken about my subject to the lecturers than I was before I opened my gob!
The specimens in jars at the Grant Museum were fascinating. I like how they were presented; groups of species crammed into cupboards with warm lighting revealing translucent tapeworms and unidentifiable creatures suspended in liquid. Apparently what is on display is only 5% of what UCA have in their entire collection.
I learnt yesterday that my Microscopic Slides of the Cellular Conversa series that I created last year are now hanging in the Neurology Unit at Kings College Hospital – right opposite the doors! Pretty good position for maximum exposure! I am quite happy with that.
Further experimenting with wax today has lead to some interesting results. Messing about with wire has created some rather organic shapes. Hopefully I am onto something here. I feel that I will have to keep to a small scale but maybe introduce some sort of magnifying glass…who knows.
Research has properly started on the dissertation. I am feeling less panicky about it now that I have started writing notes. It would help if we could get into our computer suite at college. Due to incompetent timetabling one lecturer seems to use the computer suite for his classes which is not helpful. We also have no printer at the moment which is enormously frustrating. At least I have one at home. Our brilliant student rep Sarah Rilot is on it and I am sure she will sort out our little problems.
I am going to make another trip to the Grant Museum for a drawing expedition. Watch this space…
