The National Stone Centre, Derbyshire 

I visited the National Stone Centre  on 26th September 2015. The main attraction for me was the Millenium Wall which was built to commemorate the millenium and demonstrates the traditional craft of dry-stone walling with examples of walls from all over the United Kingdom.

The centre offers courses in Stone Carving,  Dry Stone Walling and lime rendering. 

Barbara Hepworth

 Visited Tate Britain on 21st September 2015 to see Sculpture for a Modern World,  a major exhibition of Barbara Hepworth's work which traces her growing international success.

Hepworth was a leading figure of the international art movement in the 1930s and one of the most successful sculptors in the 1950s and 1960s. 

After doing a course in stone carving about four years ago I found I had  a passion for working with sculpture in stone. I had  wanted to see  at  Hepworth's work for quite some time and it was a great pleasure for me to be able to see so many of her sculptures in one place. I was particularly intrigued by her very figurative sculpture of Madonna and Child 1954. She has said: "Working  realistically seems to release one's love for life, humanity and the earth. Working abstractly seems to release one's personality and sharpen the perceptions, so that in the observation of life it is the wholeness or inner intention which moves one so profoundly,"

  

Richard Long: Time and Space

Friday 18th September 2015:    Went to The Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol to see the Richard Long 
Exhibition called Time and Space.

Long emphasizes simplicity in his work, which relies on nothing more than the artist's own body and          
the natural environment--a coming together of a place and a moment in time.                                              

This major exhibition focuses specifically on Richard Long's work from recent years, offering an opportunity 
to consider how his work is situated today. It marks an important moment to celebrate a career spanning six decades. He is recognized as one of the most important artists working today.                                              

He makes a work of art in the place he chooses, with the materials that are there, on the slope of a              mountain, high under the sky--a line of stones if there are stones lying lying about, or if the place wants a      circle he makes a circle. Where there are no stones , he can walk up and down the path as often as             possible to make a line visible.                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                  
One of his major works in the Arnolfini is Muddy Water Falls.This is a design which covers the whole of one wall in the gallery and was created by the  artist himself using mud from the river Avon.                                                                                 
I have been fascinated by Long's work for quite some time, but particularly when I found an image of 


         A Line in Ireland

He has made work at various times  in several different parts of Ireland but this particular piece appeals to me because it was       created in 1974 and sited in an area that I am very familiar with called The Burren in County Clare.                                                                                                 

                                      
                                  
                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Saturday 17th October 2015         Visited The Mead Gallery at Warwick Arts Centre to see an exhibition called :

Making It: Sculpture in Britain 1977-1986

Making It is a substantial exhibition and represents the work of over 40 artists. It is the first exhibition
to bring together the work made by the 1970s and 1980s artists working in the UK who began to receive international recognition for practices which shared a revived interest in the sculpted object, in materials and in new ideas around making.

The works exhibited were incredibly diverse and all very interesting but my attention was particularly drawn to the following:

Gastropod's Dream (1985) by Peter Randall-Page reflects the artist's interest in the study of natural forms and organic matter and the emotive effect of nature on the individual. His work investigates the relationship between outer appearance and internal structure, between surface and volume. Randall-Page is famous for his large scale stone sculptures many of which can be seen in public places. His work appeals to me because of my own interest in stone as a material my ambition to create some more sculptural work in stone.

Gateway of Hands (1984/1991) by Glynn Williams. This piece of work was originally two hands carved in Lancaster stone which in 1990 were sliced into sections, reassembled and cast in bronze. The work is concerned with messages evoked by the gestures of hands. The work appeals to me because of my love of stone as a material for sculpture and I have in the past carved a pair of hands in Cotswold stone.

Making It (1983)  by Julian Opie. Opie used flat pieces of painted steel to created some everyday objects, mostly carpentry tools, at an oversized scale. I liked this work because it is an interesting way of showing the relationship between two and three dimensional work and between painting and sculpture.

Postcard Flag (Union Jack) (1981) by Tony Cragg is an image created from an assemblage of brightly coloured, found plastic objects made into a huge Union Jack. The work was made in the same year that Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer, a year when the air was full of Royalist passion national pride.
I like the work because because of its simplicity in the making but also because of its relevance for debates on the subject of national identity
George and the Dragon (1984) also by Tony Cragg appeals to me because it  is an amusing way of using what to me is a very familiar material; that is,  pipe fittings which are used in underground drainage systems!
The other objects he has used are domestic items and the combination of these different objects depict  an opposition between the contemporary and the traditional.

Friday 16th October 2015:                Visited  Chatsworth   to see the exhibition      Beyond Limits

This is an exhibition of post-war and contemporary British sculpture and included three works by one of my favorite sculptors:   Barbara Hepworth

Also in the exhibition were works by Kenneth Armitage, Sandy Brown, Reg Butler, Anthony Caro, Lynn Chadwick, Geoffrey Clarke, Stephen Cox, Tony Cragg, Angus Fairhurst, Barry Flanagan, Anya Gallaccio, Antony Gormley,  Damien Hirst, Thomas Houseago, Allan Jones, Phillip king, Bryan Kneale, Richard Long, Sarah Lucas, Bernard Meadows, Henry Moore, Eduardo Paolozzi, Simon Periton, Marc Quinn, Conrad Shawcross, Gavin Turk, William Turnbull, Mark Wallinger, and Bill Woodrow.

Apart from the Hepworths my favorite piece of work in the exhibition was: Pair of walking figures-Jubilee by  Lynn Chadwick. (See image 1).This is cast in bronze and depicts two figures, one male and one female as they stride forward. Chadwick has always been intrigued by movement and in many of his works has explored figures in motion.. He has also conceived a simple but ingenious distinction between his male and female figures. Men are depicted with rectangular heads and the females with triangular ones! 

My second favorite piece of work was a stunning  sculpture by Sandy Brown called: Temple.(See image 2).

Brown is a ceramicist and this particular piece of work was created as a temporary installation especially for the gardens at Chatsworth. Involving arches, columns and more than 5000 handmade tiles this work is a celebration of colour and creativity.

Although I am not a big fan of Antony Gormley I was impressed by this sculpture called: Big Gauge 11.(See image 3). This work is made in cast iron and consists of 16 blocks similar in size to those used in building houses. This is an abstract piece of work and differs from the  previous sculptures  I have seen which are made from casts of his own body.

In a very prominent setting  was one of Henry Moore's monumental sculptures: Three Piece Reclining Figure: Draped.(See image 4)). I have admired Moore's work for a long time and seeing this stunning piece in "the real" and was a real treat.

 Seeing this major exhibition of "best of Britain"  in the very impressive grounds of Chatsworth which has been described itself as "a vast sculptural intervention"was a great experience and source of inspiration. 

                                                                      

Image 2

Image 1

Image 4

Image 3

   "Something different usually happens during the summertime"

2015 -  What I did this summer

Introduction
 Having just completed my first year on the Diploma of HE  Fine Art in June, I  travelled to Ireland  on July 3rd and stayed in our holiday cottage in Galway for ten weeks. 
 My time there was spent going  for drives and walks to explore the countryside, going to private views and exhibitions, reading,  conversing with  friends and neighbors and meeting local artists.

Our cottage is situated  on the south side of Galway bay and about 3 miles from the nearest village which is called Kinvara. The front elevation is facing west and has stunning views of a tidal lake and Abbey Hill which is part of the famous and magical Burren landscape. I spent several days exploring the Burren  and its exquisite features including the many dry stone walls which I find of particular interest.

Holiday Reading 

Some of the books I read during the summer: 

The Daily Practice of Painting by Gerhard Richter. I found Richter's writings very interesting and in particular his views on how photography and painting relate to each other..  

Nothing if not Critical, by Robert Hughes. I really enjoyed reading  Hughes' essays as it has helped  me in my research into  the work of various artists  including some of my favorites:  Matisse, Picasso, Hockney and  Hodgkin.

Painter as Critic, Patrick Heron: Selected Writings. In his lecture at Leeds University in 1949 on the subject of The Necessity of Distortion in Painting, Heron said: "I believe the function of painting at its highest level is the perpetual creation of a new fusion, a new marriage between the purely formal abstract entities on one side and the everyday world of commonplace but nevertheless magical realities on the other. A purely abstract shape is easy to invent. What is difficult, so difficult that only genius can fully accomplish it, is the forging of a new formal image out of familiar, well-known forms". Reading Herons' writings has given me a better understanding of  why so many artists (including Heron himself) have progressed from figurative work into non-figurative or purely abstract work.   


Exhibitions

Galway Arts Festival 
The annual Galway International Arts Festival took place in the city from the 13th to the 16th of July this year and is a major event featuring Theatre and Dance, Music, Comedy and the Visual Arts. As the city is only about half an hours drive from our cottage, a day spent at the festival was a must. I have always found Galway city an exciting place to wander around  and with the festival in full swing my visit on 24th July was a day filled with new and extraordinary experiences.

The exhibitions were shown in various locations around the city and I stopped first at the University Gallery to see the work of Sioban Piercy. Sioban Piercy's work combines drawing, printmaking, photography and text in a three-dimensional form.  In the festival catalogue the work is described as follows: "These are books in the broadest sense. Instead of pages of words, the artist has cut, folded and bound her drawings and photographs to create three-dimensional forms and fragile, ink-covered paper structures. While pushing the notion of a book to its limits, these works still reference all that books might connote - tools for comprehension, carriers of knowledge, maps to guide or offer explanations."The objects that Piercy has created are fragile, unstable and delicately balanced and have the effect of making us question our own self-understanding and self-perception."

My next stop was Galway City Museum to see an exhibition of Louise Bourgeois' drawings and prints. As I understand it,  Bourgeois' work has always maintained strongly autobiographical themes, expressing her own range of emotions. The well known critic Robert Hughes in his essay published in Time magazine in 1982  said: "The field to which Bourgeois's work constantly returns is female experience, located in the body, sensed from within."
It was really interesting to see some of her work in its original form as opposed to reproductions. In the collection was one of my favorites: (see image below).

My next and final visit that day was to The Festival Gallery to see the work of Patricia Piccinini. Piccinini is one of Australia's most acclaimed artists and she is recognized worldwide for her startling sculptures and digital environments. Her work examines the connections between science, nature, art and the environment. She creates an imaginative world peopled with families of charming but somewhat unsettling creatures, mutants who are half-human and half-beast, baby trucks and humanised scooters who fall in love with one another! Many of the sculptures in the exhibition were made from silicone, human hair and clothing. This this gives some of the figures the appearance of being living, breathing creatures which some people find quite disturbing. Piccinini herself has said: "The creatures literally appeal to the audiences empathy, they entreat the viewer to look beyond their strangeness and see the connections. Modern understanding of genetics and biology has shown us how deeply interconnected all life on earth is. There is more similarity between creatures than there is difference.

              The Observer
Yet much of how we understand the world and its creatures is based on the idea of a fundamental difference between us and them. Every new thing we learn - whether it is about language, behaviour or biology - points to the basic wrongness of this presumption. The other creatures in this world are more related to us than not".
 
 Although I don't agree with Piccininis' theory I found her work interesting and thought provoking. My favorite piece of work in the show was called The Observer.

At first glance the boy in this sculpture looks very real! (See image on the left)

 I had mixed feelings about one or two other  pieces of sculpture including one  called The Welcome Guest and another called The Strength of One Arm as I think a lot of people might find these images  disturbing. (See images below)

The Welcome Guest                                                               The Strength of One Arm

 

Art and Exhibition          Group Project Work



03/02/15  Introduction to Art and Exhibition Module: Presentation by Tutor and Introduction to curatorial concepts.

 Virtual Exhibition
Theme:  Imaginary Exhibition. First year student Darren Logan, and myself selected two artists: Robert Long and Andy Warhol for the imaginary exhibition.
Robert Longo's powerful drawing of police holding back protesters in Ferguson was based on photographs taken after 18year old Michael Brown was shot by a police officer.
Andy Warhol's silk-screened photograph of police in Birmingham, Alabama attacking a civil rights protester.
Title for imaginary exhibition:  Capital Crime.
Location of Exhibition: This would be a travelling exhibition showing Robert Longo's and Andy Warhol's images projected on to buildings such as The BBC Headquarters, New Scotland Yard Headquarters and The Empire State Building etc. etc. 
The aim of the exhibition would be to make more people aware of the injustices of the law and the liberties taken by people who hold positions of authority.
Darren presented the exhibition to our group leader Jo Capper and the group of first first and second year students.

Group Curatorial Activity
Theme:  Narrative of Object
Our group was made up of six students:  Ella, Sharleen, Alanna, Darren, Sam and myself.
First we held a meeting to discuss ideas for the subject. We discussed the possibility of making a large charcoal drawing divided into six sections and each student would sketch an image of their choosing. Not all members of the group were present at this meeting so the idea was put on hold. We managed to get all members together for another meeting and agreed the following: Each member of the group would bring in an object that held memories from their past, something that was precious to them but not necessarily of any value to other people. We discussed how these objects might be used and decided that they should be brought into college and  photographed and the photos cut into pieces as a way of saying that the objects  had served their purpose and were part of the past.We then discussed how the objects could be presented to an audience. We decided on making a room inside a room and how this could be done to allow the audience to view without having  physical access to the space.
The chosen items were brought in and photographed expertly by Sam. Ella designed and created the beautiful artwork for the show and Darren, Sharleen, Alanna and myself built the museum for the objects. This was a room 8ft x 8ft with the walls made from sheets of rigid board insulation. The inside of the walls was papered with 1980s floral wallpaper (which my sister Anne very kindly provided)
and the outside was painted white. The floor was covered with a green carpet provided by Darren and a shelf was fixed round all the walls. The furniture consisted of a very old armchair (provided by Darren) and a coffee table (provided by Sharleen).The objects were arranged on the shelf and the coffee table. To enable the audience to view the objects Darren cut small apertures in all four walls of the space. One of the items was a very old transistor radio which we placed on the table and this was left switched on to a station to provide rather muffled sound.
The video of the installation was created and presented by Sam to our tutors and fellow students.