Work in Progress

Interim Show at the Nunnery

Now that our assessment is all out of the way, our focus has shifted to our interim show ‘Futura Bold/Futura Oblique’, which is at the Nunnery in March. We’re splitting into two shows for this as there are so many of us! It’s quite exciting as we have manged to get two external curators on board, one for each week. We’ve sorted out our proposals and such for the show, and I am currently trying to establish a web/social network gathering for the show. The first of the private views is goning to take place during the next First Thursday! Here is some info anyway from our press release:

This annual show showcases work from new artists working in a range of media. The show comprises two semi-independent exhibitions: Futura Bold and Futura Oblique, spanning two consecutive weeks. Part of the experimental nature of this year’s show lies in the decision to invite two guest curators, Juan Bolivar and Julia Alvarez, to negotiate relationships between what will inevitably be a diverse selection of works.

The choice of external curators reflects a desire to encourage an open dialogue between subject and media, whether painting, film, installation, drawing, animation, or sound, while exposing the work to wider critical and artistic contexts.

Wimbledon College of Art’s MA Fine Art interim show falls at an exciting stage of the MA course. The artists involved take this as an opportunity to showcase their evolving ideas ahead of their final exhibition in September 2011. The show provides an opportunity for visitors to engage with the new work and fresh ideas of a dynamic group of emerging young artists.

Here is some more info:

Futura Bold/ Futura Oblique – Wimbledon MA Fine Art Interim Show 2011

Private Views:
Exhibition 1 – Thursday 3rd March, 7pm – 9pm
Exhibition 2 – Thursday 10th March, 7pm – 9pm

Open Thursday – Sunday 1pm – 5pm

Exhibition 1 – Thursday 3rd March – Sunday 6th March
Exhibition 2 – Thursday 10th March – Sunday 13th March

Travel Information:
Tube – Bow Road (District Line)
DLR – Bow Church
Bus – 8, 25, 108, S2 & D8

Finally we have a twitter account and a work in progress website too:

http://twitter.com/WimbledonMA2011

http://www.wimbledonma2011.com

I hope some of you can make it! We should know which week what artists are in later this week.

Assessment Feedback

Today was assessment feedback day, after we did the peer assessments, the tutors assessed us and our feedback forms were waiting for us in the office this morning before our one to ones. We were assessed on our critical practice, studio practice and our research folios.

In terms of the results, it was kind of what I expected and a bit of a relief. Critical practice wise, I need to clarify my questions concerning fragmented imagery, confinement and nostalgia as ‘states of being’ in their relationships to geometric and grid-like structures. In terms of my new found interest in space, it’s been suggested that I look at the writings of Einstein, and his concept of space and time and how they are relative to the observer, Herman Minkowski’s conceptions of time as a fourth dimension of space. Also, Martin Heidegger’s essay on the ‘Concept of Time’ and Frederick Jamieson’s essay ‘The End of Temporality’.

For my studio practice, my peers had given me some feedback. They ask if the illuminosity changes the painting and the space and is it to contrast colour of geometry? They said that it feels very site specific, which it isn’t really, but I kind of get what they meant. They said that the work was aesthetically good in relation to space and that it is influecnced by architecture. It was noted that my strongest work (the work I had done a week prior in the project space) was stronger, but I made the decision to make a new piece for the wall space that I had. It has also been suggested that I experiement more with material play.

My one to one also gave me lots of suggestion. Artist’s such as Richard Ducker, Bram Bogart and Simon Callary were brought up in our conversation. I need to dig deep into my reasons for using my materials, such as the cement. There is the spiritual/personal reason, like Beuy’s use of wax to the more brutal use of materials like the bricks used by Carl Andre. My next few pieces of work need to deliberately challenge the ideas/comments brought up during this assessment process. All in all, it was refreshing for me to go through an assessment process for the first time in many years.

19th January

Project Space 17th – 19th January

YES, I have myself a (cheap) laptop, so I can get back on top of my blogging, and blog from the studio, and the gallery space which is where I am now. I did um and ah for ages, and I had to overcome my Mac envy (see an earlier post). I really had to convince myself that I needed one in the end, which I do, but I feel guilty having spent money on something that isn’t food or art materials. I didn’t get a Macbook in the end, as my budget won’t stretch to it, so a PC had to suffice, but I feel more productive and I’m tons happier with myself already, I don’t know how I survived the last few months without it.

There is a sense of urgency among many people in the studio this week. Our mid term review is imminent and there is lots of activity among most of us. The last three days, I’ve been working in the project space in the MA studios. It’s been great having a large studio all to myself once again, and I was rather reluctant to give it back! I decided that I needed to surround myself with my large drawings, and created a concrete looking space that felt quite different to the rest of the studio complex. It was certainly nice to spread out and see how my work felt when it created it’s own environment. I’m still not quite sure how I feel about it. I have decided to move on from the cement mixing after next weeks review though, as I’m beginning to rely on it too much, and everything is looking the same. I do think the gaffer tape works well agains/with the cement, although it was intended to just be a temporary line making tool. Following on from my postgraduate forum talk last week, I decided to add in a block of flourescent paint. I’m not going to say why, as apparently I’d be too obvious, and I should keep some things to myself.

I’m now wondering what I want to present next week, I have a large stretcher for a canvas made up, the same size as a panel of my drawings, so that’s an option, or part of one of my existing pieces. Space is limited and really I only want to show once piece, so I have some serious thinking and tinkering and possibly last minute painting to do.

The Last Two Weeks = Crazy

I feel a little out of touch with myself, having not blogged properly since Christmas, which now seem ages ago. Getting back into college was good, I started back on the 4th of January feeling refreshed after a couple of week of well needed rest. The studios were quite quiet during the first week, and we had an essay/research question proposal deadline on the 6th. Writing this has helped me to feel more comfortable about my practice and my research, and also opened up lots more questions, but that’s the idea. I found myself writing about grids, which I feel keen to get away from as well as nostalgia, ruins, confinement and the urban enironment.

The second week back was one tiring/crazy/fun/stressful week. On Monday, four of us (Katie, Alex, Scott and myself) installed an exhibition in a shop in Tooting. We were given the space for 3 weeks and it is a community arts space. We though it would jut be a fun thing to do, but actually required quite a lot of work, especially as there ended up being 27 participating artists from our course and three weeks of invigilating to sort out among other things. It was nice to play around with a range of work in a space and pick out relationships between them. The private view on the Friday was very well attended, around 100 or so people jammed into the space.

The main panic of this week for me was my postgraduate forum talk, which also took place on the Friday. I had to prepare and give a talk about the research and ideas behind my work, but not actually about my work if that makes sense. Fortunately, I had just handed in my research question proposal so I was quite well set and had lots of materials. It was good to get feedback from the 35 or so people who turned up. The square of flourescent paint in one of my pieces proved to be a talking point at the end, in the way that it doesn’t quite fit, or throws off the viewers gaze. I mentioned that the colour was the same as security people would wear and about it being a comment on surveillance, it was then suggested that I should keep some things to myself.

The exhibition is on until the 29th of January, these are the details:

SALAD ALFRESCO a fresh mix of art by Wimbledon MA Students

Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 5pm

Sprout Community Arts Space, 74 Moyser Road, Tooting, London, SW16 6SQ