Rationale

In regards to the blog I had some initial concerns about it, mainly that a blog which you are required to do seemed a little contrived which seemed the opposite of what a blog is supposed to be, although after thinking about it there are bogs which people do 'cause they feel like it and when they feel like it but also people are required to blogs to update people on things and some people train themselves to do daily or weekly etc.

I was also concerned about my tone, but that turned into more of an interesting thing than a concern after a while, I naturally adapt my tone when writing on the internet, it's much more casual and occasionally more sarcastic and changeable with my mood. This made for an interesting change from writing in a research file. I think overall it has been a good thing, it also made me think more when I went to exhibitions about more than just the art or more than just my feelings towards the art. I do have a habit of drifting in Robyn-world a bit, and it was probably a good thing to make myself look at everything a bit closer.

In regards to the show I think that it has been very good experience to be more involved in all aspects of it, its been really interesting if a little stressful. I think with a show for so many people it was always going to have its difficulties, communication being an obvious one. I was on the marketing team for the exhibition and at the beginning we came up with loads of really interesting ideas, like most things initial ideas are a lot grander than what is really realistic but I think we've done a good job of coming up with an interesting marketing strategy. I think the leaflets came out really well, the same with the posters. For various tedious reasons I was a little overwhelmed by things so unfortunately was probably not as useful in the printing etc of the leaflets which I really regret, because of this I found things I could get on with by myself like finding extra tags to add a little extra variety to the bulk order of tags laura got and setting up a facebook event for the show to add an extra way for people to invite people.

I have high hope for the show, I have had my doubts but I have a feeling things will come together in the end and actually look much better than people were anticipating, it's the kind of thing that people suddenly realise is a real exhibition when everythings up because up until that point everyones been busy marketing/curating/fundraising/logisticing as well as getting their artwork together.

Ikon

ONE of the shows I have been meaning to project my feelings on into the magic world of the internet, because I am entirely sure that people are waiting ON THE EDGE OF THEIR seats for my opinion.

WELL I'll hope to it, over easter I went to the IKON gallery in Birmingham, which is a REALLY nice gallery (and does some jolly good food also), the 2 exhibitions I saw where Susan Collis 'Since I Fell For You' and Ron Terada 'Who I Think I Am'.

Susan Collis' piece consisted of piece of wood and things that look like you would find on a building site placed in different parts of the gallery space, also there was a dripping into a bucket which created an odd atmosphere, not unlike a clock that slightly too load and makes you feel like you're running out of time. I have to say I wasn't massively excited by the piece, there were some interesting aspects though and some of the things Collis said in the program speak directly about materiality which was obviously beneficial for me to read for the project.

I really enjoyed the Ron Terada exhibition, he himself said he'd named it 'Who I Think I Am' because he wanted people to know the show reflects his awkwardness; this is something I respect and understand. One of the highlights of the exhibition was 'soundtrack to an exhibition' which was a room in the centre of exhibition with a projection of a record player (thats playing) and there's essentially a mix tape playing which you can hear in the rest of the exhibition. With good music. I enjoyed this. Self indulgent in a good way. The rest of the show uses a lot of text, which I respond to as it speaks to how I work a lot, one of them is a wall covered in plaques which are like his story. The whole show is to some extent his life.

Invites

In addition to the html majig that laura has on one of her blog posts for those who have people they are inviting via e-mail, there is also a facebook EVENT, for people who want to invite people off their friends list on facebook. Everyone off the course that has accepted I have made an admin theres still a few people left to accept and anyone from the course who hasn't been invited... either message me OR someone else can invite them.

Aces.

A Northern Tale

I went to a friends show recently called A Northern Tale from skipping with bacon.

There were 5 artist showing their work all from the Fine Art course at the uni.

The it was in the upstairs room at LS6 cafe, so it was the right number of people showing their work, it was also a nice variety of work that was different but not so far removed it was a jumble sale.

The fact it was in a sace that's not specifically used for exhibiting art was nice, it wasn't all white walls and it created a more accessable atmosphere. The space is used for things like pilates classes etc so during the week of showing their work the artists held several events i the space like beer mat designing wokshops, burlesque life drawing etc which I thought was a really nice idea 'cause it brought people to the show that wouldn't necessarily have gone, bringing in a different audience.

Boats in basements

Boats.

Basements.

Journeys.

I'm trying to blog without sounding angry. It is hard. The internet was clearly made for people to post blogs cause no one wants to here them complain about stuff.

OK I went to a basement exhibition which I hear is all the rage at the moment, people doing it left right and centre.

I'm just going to sum up cause... i don't want to write crap. OK. The piece was about fictional characters that go on big romantic journeys or quests which eventually come to nothing so the artist built a boat in his basement and spent 24hours in it. I like the concept to a certain extent, i felt like it was possibly missing something but of further reflection this probabally adds to the concept. The exhbition space was a tad small for a piece of this size, if there was one person there it would have been fine but it makes for an awkward opening night. I'm sure people got over it with wine though.

bye.

Pages and pages

I went to the artist book fair on friday and it was really lovely.

Somehow they'd managed to get an equilibrium between pretentious artist and jumble sale which worked really well, so no one felt like a fraud being there. WHICH is always a good thing.

There was quite a few peoples work from the college which was good to see, again the mix between younger and older artists was a fairly good one. The thing I found really interesting about the fair was the diverse interpretations of 'book', there were standard art books, there were books that open up to be more like elaborate colourful sculptures, books made of material a healthy plethora of ideas milling around anyhow!

.that is all.

Mittens and Ears

Hello blogosphere its been a while..... because I'm a failasaurus, however I have bits and bobs to quickly mention! Over reading week I went to the theatre to see 'Dancing at Lughnasa' in Birmingham, i had initially planned to see what was up at the Ikon gallery HOWEVER the 40min journey to Birmingham somehow managed to take 2 and a half hours so I had to go straight to the Ikon gallery cafe for food (with strange array of people, most of which I didn't know).

THE PLAY was really nice, more atmospheric than plot driven and was quite sad at times, but it was good- one of the characters were a little ambiguous but on the whole it was good.

I have been a little art deprived of late however I got myself back on the horse (so to speak) by going to Beth's opening at the place she has a studio. It was really interesting to see a show put together by people in not and ENTIRELY different place than me. There was quite a mix of people that showed up to see the work, a lot of the time you can go to an opening and you know that people can TELL you're the token students, so it was a more relaxed atmosphere. There was quite a diverse mix of work there, some interesting life drawing with stitching and some pattern work. It was good to see Beth's work, obviously I've seen it up until now and know what she's been thinking and doing as it was stuff she had been working on for this project- it's exciting that her work it showable at this stage (if I were told to show stuff from this project I'd pretty much just have a pile of crap... with my name next to it) and also exciting that it's at a stage with loads of possibilities.