Wednesday 14 December 2011
family sculpture show
big draw
Drawing on the windows of Costa in Wakefield... an outreach activity with The Hepworth Wakefield to celebrate the big draw in autumn 2011. The following week we filled gallery 7 with two huge floor based drawings using Clare Wood's paintings as inspiration. Participants of all ages imagined the creatures that could inhabit Clare's paintings, and created them using drawing, mark making and collaged vinyl.
art practice in a social context
Yesterday I attended a symposium run by Yorkshire Artspace (YA) in the brand new Knutton Road Studios in Parsons Cross, Sheffield. YA said: 'Through this event we hope to explore and examine the role that art, artists and arts organisations can play in communities and neighbourhoods'.
The day was made up of a variety of speakers and discussion, the audience were engaged and asked lots of questions. Being amongst the debate enabled me to ponder and define my place within it and where I chose to situate myself.
The speakers that really interested me were artists Kate Genever and Steve Pool and Francis McKee, director of CCA in Glasgow. Kate and Steve revealed some of the processes and responses they encountered during their residency (commissioned by YA) in Parsons Cross. They stated 'they want to be artists of the world, not artists of the art world that make work that only speaks to other artists'. Their residency was an exchange with people, not doing something to, but doing something with others. They commissioned other artists by putting out a call for proposals on Arts Jobs and this raised awareness of Parsons Cross/Knutton Road in the art community and got four more people thinking about and responding to the residencies concerns. Questions were posted and teased apart: what is community? How meaningful is an end product? With so much stuff in the world do we want to make more? Kate and Steve raised many concerns and talked sensitively about them, including problematic issues such as art as a panacea, working with both social agendas and creative agendas and fears of being seen as do-gooders.
Art practice in a social context is a complex issue that requires thoughtful, considerate and responsive negotiation, clear communication is key. Kate and Steve's collaborations gracefully acknowledge and faced these complexities head on and created useful and meaningful outcomes.
Francis McKee told of taking on the failing and hated CCA building three years ago and being told, 'You can do what you want with it'. He began by adapting and shaping the building, developing a responsive, open source approach to programming where anyone could propose to use the space. Engaging with the public and communities in this way ensures the CCA shows what the wider community is interested in and creates a diverse rolling programme for the centre. Francis has turned the building into a busy, bustling, well used space with people claiming ownership of the building. He spoke about 'leaving the art out of it', bringing people in for the cafe, bookshop, other events and then inviting them to view the art activity. This honest approach was refreshing, as much of my work in communities has little to do with ART, it is about conversations, ideas, learning new skills and self expression (which is art...).
One of CCA's early projects involved turning a room into a greenhouse, growing runner beans and inviting people to pick their own. Cooking classes were run alongside to teach how to cook the vegetables. The Abundance Project in Sheffield was mentioned as inspiration.
The day was made up of a variety of speakers and discussion, the audience were engaged and asked lots of questions. Being amongst the debate enabled me to ponder and define my place within it and where I chose to situate myself.
The speakers that really interested me were artists Kate Genever and Steve Pool and Francis McKee, director of CCA in Glasgow. Kate and Steve revealed some of the processes and responses they encountered during their residency (commissioned by YA) in Parsons Cross. They stated 'they want to be artists of the world, not artists of the art world that make work that only speaks to other artists'. Their residency was an exchange with people, not doing something to, but doing something with others. They commissioned other artists by putting out a call for proposals on Arts Jobs and this raised awareness of Parsons Cross/Knutton Road in the art community and got four more people thinking about and responding to the residencies concerns. Questions were posted and teased apart: what is community? How meaningful is an end product? With so much stuff in the world do we want to make more? Kate and Steve raised many concerns and talked sensitively about them, including problematic issues such as art as a panacea, working with both social agendas and creative agendas and fears of being seen as do-gooders.
Art practice in a social context is a complex issue that requires thoughtful, considerate and responsive negotiation, clear communication is key. Kate and Steve's collaborations gracefully acknowledge and faced these complexities head on and created useful and meaningful outcomes.
Francis McKee told of taking on the failing and hated CCA building three years ago and being told, 'You can do what you want with it'. He began by adapting and shaping the building, developing a responsive, open source approach to programming where anyone could propose to use the space. Engaging with the public and communities in this way ensures the CCA shows what the wider community is interested in and creates a diverse rolling programme for the centre. Francis has turned the building into a busy, bustling, well used space with people claiming ownership of the building. He spoke about 'leaving the art out of it', bringing people in for the cafe, bookshop, other events and then inviting them to view the art activity. This honest approach was refreshing, as much of my work in communities has little to do with ART, it is about conversations, ideas, learning new skills and self expression (which is art...).
One of CCA's early projects involved turning a room into a greenhouse, growing runner beans and inviting people to pick their own. Cooking classes were run alongside to teach how to cook the vegetables. The Abundance Project in Sheffield was mentioned as inspiration.
Thursday 8 December 2011
sites in sight
I'm ecstatic to report that I've been selected as Artist in Residence for the Sites in Sight community project in Wakefield. The Art House working with Wakefield District Housing put out a call for artists in September and I almost didn't apply due to flying off to Norway... very glad I put the late night hours in.
I'll be working in the Warwick Estate in Knottingley, in a shop leased and run by the Warwick Community Group. Our Sites in Sight project will explore the locality, looking at the place in which the community live, focusing on the theme of friendship and what that means for people of all ages on the estate. This ticks all my boxes in exploring place, space, belonging and notions around home. Had a fantastic meeting with Rebecca, Mary, Gail, Clare and others in which we began to sketch out the project. I'm feeling very positive that we will make something wonderful happen.
interior ligthning
Created for the first group show by staff working at The Hepworth Wakefield this piece took four and a half days to install using nine balls of acrylic wool, and that time again to raise my arms above my head without wincing. Interior Lightning included painting, photography, drawing, sculpture, intervention and installation.
My intervention was inspired by Hepworth's use of string within particular sculptures and a desire to play with an illusion of colour mixing in space. This work continues my fascination with elevating cheap materials using time consuming processes. People responded positively to this work and I'd love to create an adventurous intervention in a larger space.
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