POP UP

Here is the flyer info for my show at the Pop Up Gallery. My work is being showcased alongside three other artists. There is a very exciting mix of things going on, Video Installation, Sound Installation, Photography and my very own mixed up concoction of stuff! Try get down and enjoy! Merci xx

The End of my Mary Greg Era

My work is now no longer residing in the Manchester Gallery archives, nestled amongst the works of geniuses, it's back home in Bradford where it belongs. This is a sad time but to soften the blow I have some very nice professional photographs which make my work look good. probably better!

Berlin Wall, East Side Gallery

I understand, and am utterly fascinated by the history of the wall, what it stood for then and what it continues to symbolise, so it probably isn't the done thing to go against any of this and just outright say that i didn't particularly like the 'gallery'. I found the whole thing very clinical for Berlin, it felt stiff and formal in contrast to what the rest of the city's art spaces had to offer. Here's some pictures anyway.

Berlin Biennale 2

The second place we visited was a beautiful space. It seemed to be like an old mill or something, with high ceiling rooms with no partitions or walls. It had the same two-staircase layout to the KunstWerke which was really nice as you could just follow the space without missing bits or going back on yourself too much. I loved the casual informality of the layout, the patchwork flooring and carpeting added a laid back homespun vibe which helps to set apart the Berlin art culture from our own, with the exception of the Museum of Everything.
The first piece on the ground floor was displayed really well. Chunky headphones dangled from the ceiling with coiled wires, whilst the video projected onto a decayed wall, it the set the scene for the whole space.
Another piece on the second floor was really intriguing, the piece subtley sprawled across the entire building, with piping and mechanisms cropping up all over. the water works were all dripping onto a huge block of salt which was consequently eroding onto a bed-like installation.

Is it a tree? Is it a Library? Its both of course

Berlin Street Art etc..

I always love to just wander around when away from home, especially European cities and admire the poster art, street art, local regular architecture (as opposed to the grand landmarks) and non-uniformity of it all in contrast to Britain. In Blighty every thing is done with approval and permission from the council etc etc, and it tends to feel stale when you get to such wonderful cultural metropolises like Berlin. I think this is how you can really get a feel for a place, when the normal boring buildings have the power to excite you, you know your not in Wolverhampton anymore! So here are a few of my pictures of the normal stuff

Holocaust Memorial

The Holocaust Memorial is an excellent piece of public art / sculpture / memorial. It has the ability to make you think about what it represents; the blocks of granite which look so harmless and insignificant from the outside, become huge, towering, oppressive and disorientating once inside the sunken base of the area. We both felt a strong sense of emotion and unease. Although the disjointed leg may indicate we spent our time in the memorial arsing around, it was almost essential so as to not become dragged under by the weight of it all. This image also gives some indication of the scale of the blocks. It is a beautiful, poignant memorial. The density of the material meant i felt lost and isolated when Simon was only on the other side of the block, i felt scared.

Bruce Nauman - Hamburger Bahnhof gallery

Boy oh boy did we see some art. You'd think we toiled away with a little itinerary skulking from one to the next. I've no idea how we did it all and managed to have a good time and see most of Berlin too:
The Hamburger Bahnhof was a much more conventional big city gallery. Modern art was the main thing on the menu with Warhols and other such gems. Bruce Nauman was on the specials and it was good to see a collection of his work. The best by far was the green light room, very disorientating. You walk down the angled entrance way and have to squeeze your body in at the last minute. Spend a minute or so in the green room, prepare to leave through the narrow hole (big people need not apply i'm afraid) and find that the world has gone purple! A real subtle but interactive piece which is ingeniously simple but amazing, i loved it.

Akadamie De Kunst - Mona Hatoum

A beautiful big Modern Gallery space to showcase Contemporary Art, in this case Mona Hatoum
Her work is very nice to look at, yet also pretty sinister. A cheese grater is magnified to the proportions of a dressing room blind, and the connotations on this scale and in relation to the human body are pretty scary. I managed to get a few sneaky pictures before duly getting my wrists slapped by an angry female invigilator. Ooops! The overall relaxed Berlin attitude to photographing didn't apply here, obvs not.

Berlin Biennale 1

Berlin Biennale was set across 6 locations, 4 of which we managed to visit. The first one was the KunstWerke Gallery, there was an amazing large scale wooden piece that appeared to be the skeleton of a house, alongside this was a chicken coop and some little birdies, it was an odd combination but inevitably a winner with me: where live animals lead, i shall duly follow. Hens aswell! I got to touch one of their feathery wings before it trotted back indoors to check out the art.

The best exhibition to date?

The Temporaren Kunst exhibition building in Berlin was like Jimmy G's (Or whatever the local name for you ballpool extravaganza is) for art-loving adults.
Designed by artist Jim Bock, inside the concrete block was a play-frame constructed from scaffolding, wood, caravans, stuffed tights, tires and upside-down sheds. Upon these hung and hidden were pieces of work by a variety of artists. Through the caravan was a kinetic installation, chair design, drawings hung from the wall of tyres (obviously) and photographs from a web of stuffed tights and socks. Burnt Pizzas formed the backbone of one room, and projected 8mm film filled another. If you are Berlin-bound it's definitely worth a bash!

BERLIN!!

This post is very uninformative and is in a nutshell me gloating in advance of my very long awaited and anticipated Birthday trip to Berlin! This has been three years in the making from one magazine article we read about the city we were hooked and dying to go. And now we are! so allow me my gloat thankyou please. Ta Rah for now! I shall have further gloats to post upon my return!

Madrid/ Milan / Madeira (anywhere starting with M)

My oh my, how we struggled to determine where we were. The women in my family are not renowned for their elocution and mastery of words so it comes as no surprise that in the space of two nights me and mum managed to travel around all European cities starting with M, when in fact we simply had a lovely time in Madrid, Spain.
Plaza Major (or in the delightful Yorkshire tones of my mother Play-o May-o) provided our first tapas meal of our stay, after which we embarked on a very long walk through the palace gardens and encountered our spanish counterparts (mother and daugther on holiday) on various occasions around the city. Our first evening was spent unknowingly in the red light district, where when finally seated in a restaurant that served other than burger and chips, and without the view of sex workers propositioning men.
We visited the Reine Sofia which is HUGGGEEEE! We only saw a fraction of it before tiring and having to eat tea and truffle cake, yummo. We also went to the Botanical Gardens and the Museo Del Prado which was beautiful.

The Reader's Room

Today i joined the John Rylands library and gained entry to the special collections reading room, I got very excited by the formality and beurocracy of it all. After requesting the title on a little slip, someone behind the desks goes and consults the trolls and goblins toiling away in the archives to retrieve your book, which are then presented on some foam supports and a chain of weighted beads to keep the pages flat. Amazing!

My geekiness aside i did have a great time immersed in this little historical literature world. The books smelt so old, it was lovely! I could have stayed for hours, I only made it halfway through my first story, a work by Elizabeth Gaskell called the Grey Woman. This story will form the basis of one of my pieces for the Tales of the Unexpected show. The second piece will be based upon Lewis Carroll's 'The hunting of The Snark'.

Ciao for Now.

Pop Up

Like a Jack in the box, up pops a lovely temporary art gallery to brighten up the Centenary Square in Bradford, this is where the BF's exhibition is being held, he is lucky enough to have space for a month (3rd Sept - 1st Oct) so we've been doing a bit of volunteering to help out and try increase the old CV a bit (objective number 4, i salute you) and its very much enjoyable!

There is some really interesting work and obviously Simon James is going to steal the show with his ever-evolving pieces.

Hopefully I will be displaying some of my own work here in the future, it's a lovely big open space just down the tootles from the Impressions Gallery. Go in!

A trip down Memoir Lane

Oh Manchester, how i love to walk your streets in the summer by myself and fool everyone around me that I still live there. Alas, i do not, but it is lovely that it still feels like home.

A trip to the Manchester Gallery after Graduation showed me that the pesky little be-masked creatures that formulate the basis of my entire degree project had fallen down. Poor things, so armed with my portfolio and glue-gun i headed for a day out. Figures re-glued, I went to find the John Rylands Library. And what a feast for my eyes! and sore shoulders (heavy bags). A beautiful gothic building plonked in the middle of boring any-city anywhere architecture. It really is a stunning building, it is like a slice of pure history just sat there.

So in i went to get inspired, i sat in the historic reading room with my little pad and sketchbook and starting doodling. A few ideas had been floated around so i set to them with my own brain leading the way. After a meet with Ellie, the founder of the theatre company we have finalised some ideas for how i can contribute to the visual art and set design of the show and i most certainly am a wee bit excited.
Eeek. 28th Aug ain't far away. I'll be a busy bee! Now lets just not procrastinate guys... I am not allowed to clean the bathroom.

One for the CV...

Manchester Art Gallery
Craft and Design (2nd Floor)

Only gone and got myself a little bit of exposure in the M.A.G haven't I?!

My work got selected in response to the collection of Mary Greg, and it gets shown for 10 Weeks in the Object Memories Cabinet. The Mary Greg collection features hundreds of everyday items, which is currently being excavated by Sharon Blakey and Hazel Jones, amongst others.

Here is a link to the site which documents the whole process and journey of unearthing this collection: http://www.marymaryquitecontrary.org.uk/

I couldn't be there to install my work due to flitting around Madrid with my ma. So i took photographs of how potentially it should be laid out, and the end result. My work sits alongside the objects which helped to inspire my initial ideas for my final year, so it is a very nice ending indeed.

And So It Begins.......

My post-uni life is now officially underway, with a hopeless scrap of jumbled letters affectionately known as my cv, and no job or money under my belt, i'm inviting you to join in and laugh with me as i try figure this 'i have to earn money?' bit of my life out.

This could be an interesting ride....

So long to student loans and the tenuous notion that it is acceptable to depend heavily on my squandering, long-suffering parents. God Love them, it's time to start giving back (BTW, i am dying inside as i write this out) So here goes:

Objective number One:

Try and not annoy my dad too much with my inability to get a job.

Objective Number Two:

Try raise some funds with an ebay sale of my meager belongings which i can no longer justify owning (my unbelievable accumulation of 'stuff' is the bane of Papa M's Life.)

Objective Number Three:

Rediscover my dormant socialising abilities. They are long suffering from my unneccesary obsession with doing work (which incidentally has not paid off so i shall not repeat this work ideology again) One tick for the 'lessons learned' section. This may appear as a separate blog as time goes by.

Objective Number Four:

CV!!!!! My pitiful excuse of a Curriculum Vitae is lacking in any real substance. This is essentially the main aim of the game, I will beg, borrow and help wherever I can.

Objective Number Five:

BLOG!!!

I have a few things in the pipeline, but this is where i exercise my alluring self-control as if i write about it all now; my blogging tendencies will nosedive straight out of the window, of which i'm already teetering on the edge.

Ta-rah for now.

I take it all Back

Well apparently good things come to those who wait, as an ancient proverb once said, he was bang on the mark!
Immediate interest at degree show = very little.
Post- Degree show interest = Belting.

The Hen's teeth Theatre company approached me to design some bits and bobs for the upcoming 'Tales of the unexpected' at John Rylands Library.

A design meeting later, things are hotting up. Watch this space, details to come.

A little thing called the Degree Show

The be - all and end - all ey? Well what a let down! And that's without any pessimism. You would have thought people could leave the football alone for one night, but no. A semi-enthused degree show crowd and next to no interest. Boohoo :-( Here's some piccy's anyway:

A return to blogging...

So this isn't exactly a 'fresh start' but i have this blog and wordpress seems tricky so i'm going to carry on using this one for now, it's my name and everything so why not?! Hold tight, the posts will be coming thick and fast soon.