Artist book: Shit Happens

Shit Happens: An Index of Twelve Acquired Idioms (2012), 97 x 80mm, edition of 5

Artist book: 100 Acquired Roles

100 Acquired Roles, 2012, 210 x 150mm, 29pp, Japanese stab binding

Artist book: All The Things

All the things, 2012, 150 x 106mm, Japanese stab binding, 100pp

All The Things indexes all the things I sold on Ebay in 2011. The objects are represented by images cropped to the point of abstraction - the book focuses on the location of the buyers. Today. the internet and social media enables us all to become global traders.

Domino Effect - show review

To write a review of an art show from the perspective of one of the exhibiting artists presents an interesting challenge. One cannot hope to be detached and objectively critical. However, I hope that my involvement can reveal a useful insight into the creative process that was so central to this event.

Domino Effect was curated at Motorcade/FlashParade (BV Studios, Phillip Street, Bedminster, Bristol) by Emma Lilwall, Ella Riggs and Kaja Brockington – the concept was innovative: five artists were selected to install their work in succession: each having 24 hours in the gallery before handing on the baton to the next artist.  A simple idea but one that, in practice, presented increasing complexity to succeeding artists in the adaption of their proposals in response to the previous work. The importance of the creative process itself was emphasised by broadcasting live video from the gallery throughout the five days; the artists could be seen creating their work, sometimes through the night. Viewers could exchange written comments with the artists on the live-streaming website, and a photographic record of the process was built on an accompanying blog.

The curators had, in effect, founded a community; a society working in the same habitat over several generations. It was also reminiscent of a Victorian vivarium where the curious voyeur could peer in and observe art in the making. The first settler was Katie O’Brien whose architectonic painting, inspired by the gallery space itself, laid a mesh of shapes and lines linking the walls and floor. Her strong work would, in other circumstance, have stood in its own right had this been a solo show.

Following O’Brien was difficult and I was conscious of intruding into a space that she had already claimed very effectively. My own work involved extending two lines of freshly laundered clothes along the length of the gallery. The washing line, where the intimate becomes public, is a global sight connoting community, family and personal relationships. The positions of the lines were chosen to spring from the painted lines of O’Brien’s work. Together the two installations melded together to form a habitat for the succeeding artists to work within. Motorcade/ Flashparade can be a difficult space to use to good effect, but the framework created at the end of day two had laid claim to the space and created a foundation for others to colonise.

Sound artists Helibase become the third domino. Helibase (Shaun Badham and Sarah Züst) is an experimental, performative, interactive musical practise. With Züst in Rotterdam and Badham in the gallery, Helibase extended the online elements of Domino Effect to collaboration in the making of the art itself, both in the music-making and in the recording of the comments of people watching the live-stream which were transcribed onto a handwritten 22 metre scroll.

WT-1 (Sarah Wilson, Lucy Tylecote Theirl and Georgina Wood) then took their turn in the gallery. Central to their work were two videos of observations of the mundane and everyday made the day before. Their work in the gallery then became the construction of platforms for the screening of the videos from recycled materials also sourced the previous day. The artists appeared to respond to the event’s community/settlement zeitgeist in their choice of materials and structure. One video was set up to project onto a salvaged divan bed and an assemblage reminiscent of a makeshift shelter was built nestled against one of the laundry line props.

Finally the gallery was inherited by Sam Francis. Working primarily with text, Francis used words cut from that day’s newspapers, and the text left by Helibase, in interventions that were both witty and observant.

The show was remarkedly cohesive; the work of a community of artists rather than individuals. One observer commented that the process was a ‘mini version of society, but one that works’. It was not a community without its tensions though. The Domino Effect concept required that each artist respect the work of those before them, and to accept any changes to their own work that a subsequent artist might make. It is the later that proved to be the most challenging. The decision by one artist to reverse changes made by Francis to their work just minutes before the private view proved to be controversial and divisive. It was implicit that each artist should let go of the ownership of their work after their day of occupation of the gallery – their work then became group work, part of the whole – to extend the society metaphor, it became part of the community’s heritage. This show raised interesting questions concerning the boundaries of property ownership, collaboration, cooperation both in the gallery and outside.

Domino Effect highlighted the important role that curators play in shaping contemporary art. Much of the success of the show was due to its curation. Artists were chosen that had very different, but potentially complimentary and constructive, practises. How different would have been the outcome if they had selected the artist who had proposed he should come in on the fifth day and smash everything he found with a baseball bat!

Contemporary art can at times appear austere, academic and stripped of meaning. It can feel like arriving too late at a party when the guests have gone and just the leftovers remain. What is always interesting is the artist’s processes. In Domino Effect we had the best of both worlds: the process was laid bare for all to see and the completed installation was interesting and complex. Having seen the show online did the audience actually need to see it in reality? Well judging by the enthusiastic and good-humoured crowd at the private view the answer has to be yes – it whetted their appetite to see it in reality.

 Domino Effect at Motorcade/ Flashparade, BV Studios, 27 February to 3 March 2012

[A photographic record of the Domino Effect show can be seen at dominoeffect-mcfp.tumblr.com ]

'Threads' installed at Domino Effect

'Threads' installed at Domino Effect. Wall paintings by Katie O'Brien.

Domino Effect is at Motorcade/Flashparade, BV Studios, Philip Street, Bristol.  Open to the public 10am to 6pm until Saturday 3 March. More at the Domino Effects blog.

Threads - the proposal for Domino Effect

The washing line, where the intimate becomes public, is a global sight connoting community, family and personal relationships. Using traditional lines, pulleys, cleats and pegs, freshly laundered clothes, towels and sheets are hung out to dry across the gallery space.

Domino Effect - 5 days // 5 artists

Curated by Ella Riggs, Kaja Brockington and Emma Lilwall

Technology obsolescence may mean that some significant art may not survive for future generations to enjoy

The technology and media specifity of many contemporary practices, particularly those working in time-based and digital media, may mean the work is transitory with a legacy of work in which those values and ideas are compromised due to the obsolescence of the technologies they employ.

The physical legacy of some artists working in non-traditional media may be short-lived through a dependency on factory-built consumer technology. This is a matter of current debate for artists, collectors and conservators. I argue in the attached essay that artists using consumer technologies may be creating a compromised oeuvre that is only partially accessible to future audiences.

Part of an ongoing collaborative project

White kite with the word 'vista' being flown as part of a collaboration with Laura Griffin - St Werburghs Mound Bristol, December 2011

Black kite

Black kite (2011), Ripstop fabric, carbon fibre tubes, Dacron line, shock cord, Dacron tape, binding tape.

 

She flies!

White Kite (2011), Ripstop fabric, carbon fibre tubes, Dacron line, Dacron tape, binding tape

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At 2m from wingtip to wingtip this roller is much bigger than normal. On her maiden flight a strong gust of wind broke a spar - time for a quick redesign and then up in the air for a proper test flight at the end of the week.

White kite

White Kite (2011), Ripstop fabric, carbon fibre tubes, Dacron line, Dacron tape, binding tape

I have just finished this large white kite (2m wingspan and 2m high) - I feel the need to make an identical balck kite and fly them side by side.

Kite forms

Kite Form 2, 2011, Textile, withies, bamboo, cord, cotton tape, angling swivels and foam rubber, 210cm x 295cm

Kite Form 1, 2011, Textile, withies, cord, steel pins and foam rubber, 200cm x 130cm

Preparatory charcoal study

Study for oil painting (digitally adjusted), 2011, charcoal and chalk on paper, 80cm x 100cm

Chilli bacon and tomato on toast

Created this today for lunch. Very cheap and quick to make. Delicious. The recipe makes enough for two.
Ingredients:

• A generous handful of chopped bacon ( I used a cooking bacon from Sainsburys - packs of odds and sods of smoked and unsmoked bacon bits that are as cheap as chips).
• Half an onion or around 4 shallots, chopped.
• Pinch of chopped chilli (not too much just enough to add a little heat).
• About a heaped desert-spoon of fresh chopped thyme.
• Large ripe tomato, chopped.

Heat a dash of olive oil in a pan and add the bacon. I use a high heat, work fast and stir often. Cook for a couple of minutes or so and then add the onion. Cook until the onion softens and the bacon starts to brown a little. Add the chilli, a little salt and a few twists of fresh ground pepper. Add the tomato and cook for a minute longer. The aim is not to overcook the ingredients so everything looks plump and fresh. Pile the mixture on hot buttered toast and eat immediately. Nice with a mug of tea - it would also be lovely with a crisp white wine.

Family propaganda

Magnum photographer, Martin Parr wrote (Guardian, 24 August 2010), 'Most family photo albums are a form of propaganda, where the family looks perfect and everyone is smiling: we try to create fabrications about who we are.' In these works I explored an image from my childhood.

Beach I, 2010, Manipulated inkjet print (washed and oven-dried), 15cm x 10cm

Beach II, 2010, Manipulated inkjet print (over-painted, washed and oven-dried), 15cm x 10cm

Beach III, 2010, Manipulated inkjet print (over-painted, washed and oven-dried), 15cm x 10cm

hh:mm:ss

hh:mm:ss 2011, Three clocks, 24.5cm dia.

Three adapted clocks that together make one contemporary timepiece.

Preparing for a painting

Photograph of Bethany re-composed and manipulated in Photoshop

 I took a series of photographs of Bethany and selected this thoughtful, reflective shot for the subject of a new portrait painting. The manipulation below is not part of the preparation for the painting but interesting what can be done with a standard filter.

Interesting and pleasing effect created using a Photoshop filter

Voyeurism and surveillance (Cuba) III

Untitled (Cuba), 2008

Voyeurism and surveillance (Cuba) II

Balcony I (Cuba), 2008

Balcony II (Cuba), 2008

Balcony III (Cuba), 2008