Exhibition Spaces

Today has been such a busy and excitiing day. Lucy S, Rose, Lucy T and I had a meeting with Lisa Who of Curve Gallery. Our meeting was to further discuss the possibilty of a four person exhibition. We presented our works one by one and I was so happy to hear that Lisa was interested in giving us an exhibition. The dates planned for this exhibition will be 14th- 16th of April, although we will be curating our work in the space before that. Now all we need to do is think of a name for the event, produce some postcard invites and keep producing as much good work as possible so we can chose pieces which fit well together. Here are some photographs I took of the meeting.

In the evening I attended the Liverpool Art Academy exhibition to get an idea of the space I will be exhibiting in with 25 others. I was really amazed by the size of the room! I think we will even have room to spare. Here are some images of the space... although I'm not really sure it they do it justuce.

Networking

Last friday Lucy and I had a meeting with the owner of Curve Gallery in Liverpool to discuss the chances of a possible exhibition. The space looked really promising. A good sized room for a four person show. The walls were clear of cables and sockets so it would be possible to hang work up too. It would be an ideal location for an exhibition. We discussed dates and hopefully we should be able to book the room in April just over the easter holidays. The next step is to arrange another meeting to show and discuss our work further.

New paintings

I've been working at home for the past couple of weeks on three large paintings. It is a move on from my experiments with the multi canvas idea. I am considering the way we portray ourselves using facebook and tagging. It will hopefully fit into the exhibition theme of 'releationships' at the Liverpool Academy of Art. 

Although they are not yet completed I feel that these works are more successful compositionally, have more meaning and have a stronger connection to the portaiture path I itintended to follow originally. 

The New Years Resolution

So the holiday season is over, and its time to get back to work and stop drinking so much (well, its time to get back to work at least).

I must admit when we finished for our Christmas break I had a massive action plan which in no way was going to be ignored. I wouldn't say I ignored it so much as over thought it, and from then on I started, once again to question the what's the why's and the how's in far too much detail without really achieving that much.

And so my new years resolution (cheesy as this may sound) is to Think, Create, Evaluate, because I feel that the only way to truly understand how something will work out is to attempt it and see how it works in reality. I hope this is a good strategy because nothing ever seems to work exactly the way you imagine it.

Last term I had been trying to relate the contour lines of topological maps with the volume of facial features. I also experimented with the idea of creating volume by bending the canvas boards I had worked onto after becoming aware of Serra's sculptures. The possibility of a multi canvas image was also considered, and over the holidays I created a few photographic maquettes in order to try and get a feel for how a composition could be reached and its effect. The two options vary immensely, the atmosphere and meaning would be totally different.

Freelancing and Self Employment in the Creative Industries' Event

Freelancing, I think is a route that the majority of we creatives (including me) must aspire to, because it gives us the freedom to do what we love and develop our career around it. Which is why when we received an email the other day about this event I was really excited to attend.  


Yesterdays (12th Jan) event began with introductory speaker Kevin McManus, (Director of Merseyside ACME), giving a talk about ACME, a body which was created in 1997 to support and develop the Creative Industries Sector in Merseyside. He spoke about other start up schemes such as 'Vision and Media' who help to grow the digital and creative industry in England's Northwest by delivering projects and programmes that help creative companies and individuals. Beforehand I didn't even know these organisations existed. As far as I was concerned, after uni I would be alone. So to find out about this was really very comforting! I hope that one day I can make use of these opportunities. 


The prospect of the Kin 2 Kin network was something I found really exciting too. It is a professional 'Myspace', where entrepreneurs can create their own profile about their business, something which would work well as an online portfolio or even as an advertisement to sell work and to inform people of events  one may be organising.

The next talk, 'Top Tips for surviving as a freelance' by Neil Lewis (leader of Media Modo) was mainly about networking and creating a business plan. Yet another thing I hadn't given much thought to, but I am certain this information will be an invaluable resource in the future. One piece of advice he gave was to create your own website This is something I would really like to learn to do for myself. Another was to consider how you will be paid, by hour? or by project? I think personally I would choose the latter.

  

The afternoon's session was ‘Speed dating’ with industry experts Lucy Byrne (from Dot-Art) and Alex Corina, ( Freelancing Artist). It was very good to get an insight from people who are actually in the business and to hear their thoughts on how it works. Although after listening I realise I may have been seeing  the life of an artist through rose tinted glasses, but it has by no means put me off pursuing such a career. It has, however, furthered my intentions of getting a more stable job as support to begin with.

The finale of the day was a a panel questions and answer session with people and agencies that are avaianle to help starting businesses.  Again it was very interesting to hear the ins and outs of the industry from a variety of perspectives. 

Overall the day really helped me to think about the furture in a more realistic manner. I plan to visit the carrers adviser to discuss what is possible for me after univertisy.

Biennials

There are many biennials around the world. I have been lucky enough to have visited two - the Biennale Di Venezia and The Liverpool Biennial. Biennials are often brought into cities as a means of regeneration, attracting tourism and revenue. The Liverpool biennial was initiated in 1999 and contributed to the accolade of European Capital of Culture 2008. The Liverpool Biennial was devised as a ‘collaborative model for engaging art, people and place’ and claims to bring ‘art that is challenging, uncompromising and free thinking’. I would definitely agree that our local biennial achieves this. Pieces such as Ai Wei Wei’s ‘Web of Light’ 2008, A-APE’s ‘VisableVirals’ 2010 and Cristina Lucas’ ‘Touch and Go’ 2010 break out from the conventional gallery settings and move into the public view. ‘Web of Light’ was art as a spectacle, an innovative new form of art to attract and engage the tourist. ‘Visible Virals’ were art in the public realm, regenerating the city landscape and involving the people of Liverpool and its visitors and ‘Touch and Go’ again built on the fabric of the city, making visitors aware of its economic history but also making them politically aware. This aspect of Biennials is something I feel is very important for the progression of the art world. It gives a chance for innovative art to advance and also generates a festival form of art, which attracts and involves people.

However the Liverpool Biennial follows the conventional rules more than the Biennale Di Venezia. The rigidity of the Giardini exhibition area in Venice means that the biennale is more static rather than engaging the general public.

In my opinion the Liverpool Biennial is more successful because it infiltrates the public awareness more, not relying on national kudos but involving a truly international audience.

I have enjoyed exploring this year’s biennial, and have found it an invaluable resource. I feel that by having such close contact with an event such as this helps you understand and appreciate the art more, and helps you to relate/ link works that you might have missed otherwise.

Late Night at the Bluecoat

I went to The Late Night on the 18th November. It was the first time I had visited the Bluecoat. I went to the printing workshop for a while and watched the performance in the courtyard, but I was most interested in the current exhibitions there.

Ranjani Shettar’s beautiful cast bronze sculpture fascinated me. She has used an unconventional method of bronze casting to express her interest in the collision of industrial and the organic. The method used is called wax casting. It is actually an traditional/ outdated form of casting where the molten bronze is poured into channels leading to the ‘cast’. The works we are shown here would be remnants of those channels and, sadly would traditionally have been disposed of.

I think that she is wise to have used the wax casting method as it has more of a organic, human touch, yet her use of the metallic material give us an essence of the industrial.



I also made a point to go and see Nicolas Hlobo’s ‘Ndize’. I was made aware of his work a few days previously when curator of the bluecoat, Sarah Parsons, came to speak to us. She told us how most of the communication about the exhibition was made over the internet and how, originally the plan was that the piece was going to be hung from the walls. It was only a few days before the opening when the work was brought from overseas into the gallery that they realized the brackets and walls would not support the weight. So they had to rethink the presentation.

I found the story really interesting and wanted to see how their problem was resolved. The colourful objects were placed on the floor with ribbons leading up and out of the room. I see how the piece has changed. It is possibly more static than planned, however I imagine the effect is quite similar due to the ribbon gives fluidity and elevates our view.