Ventriloquist @ Timothy Taylor

A Mayfair PV was always going to be a bit different from a Hackney/Hoxton student one but I didn't expect that I would not be able to see any art properly.



http://www.artrabbit.com/all/events/event/10596/ventriloquist

Going primarily to see Steve's work, I hadn't even noticed the other names on the poster. The idea of the show, as far as I could gather, was that established international 'art stars' are displayed alongside and mingled with new emerging artists. The title, Ventriloquist, derives from the Jasper Johns piece from the early eighties, and the idea that an artist speaks through the voice of something that appears to be elsewhere.

I don't know whether it was because the gallery was so busy and packed that I couldn't see the work as a whole properly, or whether I was distracted by all the absurdly pretentious twonks*, but I really didn't feel the show had a strong enough connection between all the work. It felt like the new work was overshadowed by the familiar pieces. Seeing a Duchamp next to person x from the RCA was a good idea on paper but it seemed that noone was looking at person x's work, just the Duchamp. Did the curator think that the new work wouldn't be able to stand up by itself? I think it would have done.

As I said at the beginning, I went to see Steve's work of which I knew already. It worked well within the gallery space and was one of the newer works that people seemed to be discussing with genuine interest.

Steve Bishop will be at Kingston University doing one of the Wednesday lectures in March, which should be a really good one.

(*I'm not naive enough to think this wouldn't happen but the volume of twattery was truely astounding. Having come straight from the design studio and dressed in the usual slop and slightly smelling of Hackney sweat, it was a bit of a 'don't really belong here' moment.)

I can only think of things in Illustrator now,
so I'm going to add an anchor point here,
and round it out til about here,
so it looks like this,
and then cmd shift ] it to front,
then right click then
explode
in a wondrous vector explosion,

Good things in Illustrator:

- the A key
- the I key
- the clipping mask maker
- cmd shift ]
- shift C
and not forgetting
- cmd -/cmd+

www.terraplana.com - this is the brand I am helping with, SS10 collection
www.amcdesignhouse.com - this is the company
www.freeform.org.uk/hothouse.htm - this is the beautiful building

A dirty week

Been a little bit busy on the old working this week, therefore not been doing this.

Since last post I have:
- had an interview at AMC Design House for an internship
- got the internship
- been working at said internship
- (almost) mastered the pen tool in illustrator
- been to two gigs
- drunk 10 beers and 1 glass of wine
- been on 24 trains and 5 buses
- slept in three different houses/flats
- eaten three burgers
- not cooked any food myself at all

tonight i will sleep
and also charge/sync up the ipod, as last time I did something wrong and only podcasts and selected songs would play. Therefore have spent the last week listening only to Morrissey, Echo & the Bunnymen, Frank Turner, Adam and Joe podcasts and Compliment Sandwich podcasts, all of which adds up to many surreal train journeys.

"human existence as a process of perpetual falling"

Kerry Skarbakka is an American artist whose photographs are incredibly cinematic. The photographs show the artist falling in various contexts, often at the moment before impact or at the moment of no return. Bas Jan Ader comes to mind when first seeing them, both retaining references to slapstick and conversly being quite macabre.

In his own words, he 'questions ... the nature of control and its effects on this perceived responsibility', the photographs' 'exploration resides in the sublime metaphorical space from where balance has been disrupted to the definitive point of no return. It asks the question of what it means to resist the struggle, to simply let go. Or what are the consequences of holding on?'

I think they're stunning. Can't wait for them to travel over here so I can see them 4 Real.










http://www.skarbakka.com/

if you go down to the kino today

This is my contribution to the goodie bags at tonight's CAFE KINO gig featuring the fabulous Tiger and Panda, Rachael Dadd, Phil Dodd and Grizzly and the Bears. It was done quite quickly but it is for photocopying and I wanted the detail to get a bit lost and damaged when it's been photocopied. Because those DIY kids like that yes?

If anyone is free in Bristol tonight then do go, Cafe Kino, free entry, Stokes Croft, 6pm
then head to the Fleece for some New Rhodes, also free entry, 9pm; two fab gigs in one evening and I can't go.

j-j-j-j-j-jon stewart

in honour of my dissertation

and it's imminent marking, that will at some point reveal a mere simpleton's understanding of the greatness of Stewart, Jon.

image from ffffound.com

cootie catchers

Some of the shots from the photo sesh with Niall this morning. It's all terribly a bit more professional than my gekken or diana could manage and I'm really quite pleased with them.

This is the starting point for this term's work, the fortune tellers, cootie catchers, flexagons that you make out of paper in the playground at school with stupid things written inside; things like 'you're going have seventeen billion children and be really really fat yeah,' or 'u eat poo and you like it'. I wanted to change the qualities of them. When you make them out of paper they are always imperfect, disposable toys, meant for a moment's fun and nothing else. I wanted to make them become visible, tangible, definate objects; objects that display the geometry and become an aesthetic sculpture.




The latter images are of the 2nd and 3rd attempt at a cootie catcher in aluminum, the larger being 800mmx800mmx400mm using 0.8mm aluminium sheet. The next one will be approx double that.

When the smaller one was actually made the overall feature became not the surface or aesthetic qualities, but the sound that it made when the faces banged together. Being only part adult and still mostly child, continual loud banging noises and being just generally irritating are still a phenomenally fantastic way to spend time. (I think Alessandro and Ish can testify this after showing them my skill with a microphone and portable amp, otherwise known as 'The Feedback Sessions 2009') The bigger one makes an amazing clang sound, especially if you clang it in the lift at people who ask what it is. It takes up most of the lift space as it is, so when it bangs people tend to shut up, or go 'argf'.

Anyway, this is where I am going now, exploring the qualities of sound against a sculpture. I would like the sound to be heard or noticed before the work is seen. And for the work to be placed within a context where it can be mistaken for something else. I will be looking at sound within cause and effect, small actions that make big noises, big actions that make small noises. The destruction of sound also, what happens when you take away something's natural sound? The vinyl massacre of last year is something that I am still very interested in, even if it doesn't fully develop within this work.

Alongside this, creating a mechanism for the larger cootie catchers to create noise and sound without need for the deliberate human interaction of picking it up and smashing it around. This will be done by harnessing the power of Maplin to make a swinging arm for one of the sections. I'd ideally like it to still have some element of interaction but an interaction that is unavoidable and unintentional on the part of the viewer, so far this has indictaed somekind of motion sensor. All ready to change though.

Ann says it's too dominating and aggressive to work within a shared space, which I guess is true. But I at least want to see it chase and scare someone before I tame it.

so, in summary, purely for my own benefit:
paper = no
aluminum = yes
still = no
moving = yes
noise = yes yes yes

to try:
sound cause and effect
bigger one
context/space
amplified small sounds
hushed loud sounds
destruction of sound

Pancake of despair

If I am in Bristol on this weekend, it is imperative that I go to this. LOVE the pancakes, if they're anything like how I remember them. It's organised by Blake of Third Ear which just guarantees a good gig and at least one good conversation. go go go go go!


http://www.myspace.com/thepancakessuffolk

Clunk Clunk Whizz

The greatest fear I have this year other than not doing very well, is making boring work. Therefore as soon as I start to become disinterested in what I'm doing I know I have to revert to what is essential and integral within the work. For me I know that I have to maintain a sense of playfulness and motion in order to keep myself interested. I fear that I am being swayed by various inputs, be them all of valid and authoritative origin, into making something I'm really not that interested in. Have a tutorial tomorrow so will hopefully be a bit more coherent of the possibilities of where I am heading soon. I know what I want to do, which is nice for a change. But if it's a crap idea then I'd like to know, just in a nice way.

I've been thinking about what actually makes me enjoy work that I do and see.
Roughly, and susceptible to change, it is:

- movement, preferably repetitive or circular motion
- involves some kind of low-tech medium, such as cardboard or sheet metals
- being allowed to touch the work or interact with it in someway
- noise, the clankier and repetitive the better, something someone in a Berlin minimalist rave might be able to dance to.

there are always artists and work that I go back to when I have a brain melt:

Jean Tinguely


Gary Hill


G&G


Bas Jan Ader


if it's not funny, i think i've failed.

yes, more snow pictures

Because you don't realise how many other students live on your road until the snow arrives.

Favourite snow creations seen/heard of so far include the snowman bar party on Prince's Ave, Tolworth and the snow dalek in Kingston. Kudos to the dads bringing out homemade sledges, Boos to the people of Blockbuster and Subway for destroying my plans of a trashy horror film and meatball sandwich for lunch. And yes, I hate myself for wanting one too.

Our front garden!

Attempt at snowball fight

Laura and Hannah

Hannah

Teeny Football Goalkeeper Brother Update : 1-13,
getting better!

Still not quite comfortable with this blogging thing, it's all a bit self indulgent but I spend so much time on the computer for research I might as well put some of it to use I guess.

Recently went to New York and Hampton Lakes, Fl. Tried to see as much as I could, particularly in Chelsea, NY. Cannot get one particular show out of my head,

Kate Clark at Claire Oliver Gallery 513 W26th

Clark's fascination with the tension between animal and human is obvious and even though you expect it to be unsettling, seeing the work in person in installation is very much a psychologically intimidating experience. She works with previously living animals, stitching human faces onto the bodies, transforming bears and coyotes into menacing mythical creatures. The stitches and bolts are too visible to make the creatures seem anything but a disasterous Dr Frankensteinesque experiment.

The effect on the viewer when being confronted by such unnatural beings is quite massive. I couldn't stay in the gallery space longer than a few minutes as I felt that I was being watched, surrounded, sized up by the things. The expressions on the faces are distinctly human, but even the smiling ones are not friendly. Animals usually make me want to touch them, even taxidermied animals in museums have an air about them that I'd want to stroke their head just to check if they're real. But here, I wasn't going anywhere near them. They were too animated, too ready to pounce.

does crossing your fingers ever actually work?

New Rhodes - The Joys Of Finding And Losing That Girl

I'd give up liquorice for a good long time for this to do well. And I dayam loves me liquorice.