On Kawara

Simple, yet very effective. I feel that the Date Prints and postcards by On Kawara have some significance to the latest project as working with the idea of my Grandfather's alzheimers seems to make dates quite important. Days that once held significance in his life may longer do so as his memory deteriorates, unless he has some sort of visual reminder of the date in question and the reason why it's important then it would probably just pass him by. I also like how the letters are all the same size and font etc, I like the uniformity of the whole thing as it makes me think of routine and structure which is becoming more and more important in my Grandfather's every day life.

Reactive Reaction.

Our latest project, titled 'Reactive Reaction' is about observing an area/place, time or subject that has created a reaction. It could be how I, or someone else, reacts with or within a space or environment that surrounds me or someone else at any chosen time.

It would have been all too easy to pick something from the past which has created a reaction, such as the World Wars and the Holocaust. I could probably have produced some nice work from these themes but I didn't feel I knew enough about them, and I haven't lived through these events to react to them- all I'd be reacting to would be someone else's memories or opinions. Nor did I particularly want to go with the obvious -the recent rise in tuition fees at universities or the recession, even though these have affected me it isn't something I've actively protested against or know an awful lot about. I wanted to pick something that has an affect on my day to day life, something closer to home.

For a while I've felt I needed to address my feelings about my Grandfather's alzheimers, not just talking about it but expressing my feelings through drawing or painting. This seems like the perfect opportunity. Not only is his condition is something that my whole family is having to react to day in day out, but it's also something my Grandfather has to react to. It's had a huge impact on my life- seeing a man who I've looked up to from a very early age suffer from his memory deteriorating- and it hasn't been easy.

I got roses.

The Northern Art Prize- Leeds City Gallery

We were lucky enough to see the shortlisted artists for The Northern Art Prize on the same day that the winner was announced at Leeds City Gallery. Although, after seeing the work first hand I think it'd be fair to say that none of the work really captured my imagination, I didn't have an immediate connection to any of the pieces the first time round. I did however warm to the work of James Hugonin, probably just because of how labor-intensive each piece is and the amount of time and dedication he must have put into the collection. I think I'd have liked him to win the prize. Unfortunately he didn't and Leo Fitzmaurice did. My least favourite out of all the shortlisted artists. 

 Leo Fitzmaurice

Liadin Cooke

Richard Rigg

James Hugonin

http://www.northernartprize.org.uk/2011-prize/shortlist

The BLK Art Group- Graves Gallery, Sheffield

One of the exhibitions I visited while in Sheffield was The BLK Art Group's in Graves Gallery. Full of really interesting stuff- very relevant at the moment. 

"The BLK Art Group is the name of a group of four influential conceptual artists, painters, sculptors and installation artists based in the United Kingdom. Keith Piper, Marlene Smith, Eddie Chambers and Donald Rodney, initially based in the Midlands."

"The group were all from the British African-Caribbean community and exhibited in a number of group exhibitions in both small and prestigious galleries throughout the country. Their work was noted for its boldly political stance, producing dynamic conceptual art that offered a series of inventive critiques on the state of inter-communal, class and gender relations in the UK. They were themselves influenced by the a variety of artistic currents including ideas associated with the USA's Black Arts Movement."

Donald Rodney -Britannia Hospital 2

David Rodney- The House that Jack Built

Eddie Chambers- How Much Longer You Bastards?

Keith Piper- Black Assassin Saints

By far my favorite piece from this exhibition. I think that without even reading the words written on the canvas there is a sinister feel to it. The colours themselves aren't particularly angry or threatening but when paired with the repeated faces at the top they seem to change, to me anyway. I think it might be something to do with the way the poster paint has been applied, being allowed to run and dribble, that reminds me of blood. 

Out and about.

The last few days should have been really lonely with so many people on my course being in either Valencia or London, but, strangely enough, they weren't lonely at all. I spent Wednesday in Sheffield and Thursday in Leeds, visiting the galleries and meeting up with friends for coffee etc. etc. etc. 

As always I ended up coming home with a bag full of leaflets and booklets, but I also picked up a few napkins, some lovely pieces of corrugated card- one plain and another with an amazing pattern and a length of string. 

We ended up spending a lot longer than we originally intended in Leeds City Gallery, mainly because of the ArtSpace- probably aimed at children we but really enjoyed ourselves! It was so so nice to sit down and just be creative without having to over think or over analyse things. We lesarnt to make origami chairs and shirts and threaded ribbon through hessian. But, it has to be said the activity we enjoyed most was the colouring in- it was so therapeutic just to sit down and colour the squares.(There was a game to go with the colouring sheets but we couldn't find the dice to play, disappointing as we'd have loved it!!) I think the sheets were designed to mirror the work of James Hugonin's in the gallery.

Twigs.

Twig shape covered with map copies, painting with emulsion 

and detail added with acrylic paint and felt tip pens.