A look at this week and the weeks ahead.

This eclectic post features just a few of, what will undoubtedly be many more, exciting art events to look forward to in 2012. The Diamond Jubilee, the Olympics and maybe even the end of the world (if you believe in the Mayan prophesy, that is) are just a few reasons why 2012 is going to be a year like no other! This very brief list includes the events I am at the moment most looking forward to, some of them local and some not, there will be as well, of course the usual annual open studios in Bath and Bristol, end of year graduation shows and exhibitions in London and further afield that I haven't included here but will equally be things worth visiting again this year. To top the list off, I've included at the very end two things of interest that happened during this week that you can go check out now!

So first things first, and perhaps unsurprisingly one of the things I'm looking forward to seeing this year is.... my graduation! Now into my second and final year of my MA in Fine Art at Plymouth, this September will, if everything goes to plan, see myself and my peers complete the course and exhibit the work from our research and artistic endeavours. And yes, it will still be featuring tools, for those of you who were wondering. The image below is the beginnings of a piece I'm making using mono printing, its at an early stage and there's a lot of evolving to be done before this piece is finished. In principle though, the idea was to create a 'workshop' of tool drawings. If you have seen the work of Lisa Milroy and Jim Dine think maybe those two fused together and you'll get the idea of what I'm working on.

http://www.biennial.com/

It only comes around once every two years and I wouldn't want to miss it for the world. It's the seventh Liverpool Biennial! This will be the fourth one for myself and whilst it is early days in looking ahead to see what waits in store for 2012 I'm looking forward to seeing how artists have responded to the arts cuts and all the hype of the Olympics in this years biennial. Look out for this from 15th of September until the 25th of November.

http://www.somersetartworks.org.uk/art_weeks_2012
Of course! This year is an Open Studios event for Somerset Art Weeks and once again artists throughout the land of Somerset and its borders will be dusting off their easels, unearthing their public liability insurance documents and opening up the doors to their studios as wide as their rusty hinges will allow in order so that we, the public can snoop, pry and explore these wonderful hives of creativity and inspiration. I am always amazed and impressed at the ways and means artists will try to produce work in even the most cramped or cold situations, or have boards jutting out and leaning precariously off of tables designed too small for working at. Alternatively you have the vast and glorious studios, studios with space for light and space for space! Studios with wood burners and heaters, print presses and sofas! If you are even lucky, you might find an artist inside one of them as well!

Ahem. I digress, but you get the idea of why 'open studios' is always a fun event and an opportunity to explore the working practice of artists and makers.

Dates for your diary: September 15th - September 30th

http://www.b-side.org.uk/

http://www.trishwheatley.co.uk/sueunltdapp7.html
Creating the spectacle, itttsss, Sue Austin!!
From the 29th of August until the 9th of September Weymouth will again host its successful 'B-side' festival that includes contemporary art, videos, installations, performance and sound pieces from a host of local and international artists. Among them will be Sue Austin in her powered underwater wheelchair as she 'creates the spectacle' in the form of a performance in the Fleet Lagoon. I have had the pleasure of studying alongside Sue this last year on our MA and I can not begin to tell you both how interesting and very remarkable this event is going to be. I've seen the development of what started as a very 'Heath Robinson-like' contraption made of propellers, rudders and Pegasus thrusters (!) turn into a very complex, working under water wheelchair that not only looks amazing when in use, but raises a lot of discussion on perceptions of disability and more. I've heard on how good B-side is before, so not only do I want to go this year, I'm even more looking forward to seeing Sue's performance in it.

http://battleforthewinds.com/

Give us your wind!

"The wind reapers; they love noise. Greedily they gobble up sounds and gobble stories." -Tim Hill

More from Weymouth and to coincide with the Olympics and Paralympics, the 'Battle for the Winds' event is going to be noisy!

"Unprecedented in scale, this telling of the tale starts in May 2012 in Lyme Regis, travels throughout the South-West and ends with a climactic performance over three magnificent days in Weymouth and Portland. Will the heroic Wind Gatherers succeed in their battle to unshackle the creative breezes and release the wind in time for the Olympic sailors to harness them?" -BOTW webpage

I did mention this post was going to be eclectic didn't I? This epic battle (or you could read as performance) is going to be the culmination of a Somerset Journey collecting sounds throughout Somerset that our wind gatherers will orchestrate at Weymouth in battle with Gloucestershire, Whiltshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and the West of England to settle once and for all who is the windiest county of them all!

The journey to 'The Battle of the Winds' starts soon on May 21st at The Taunton torch Olympic Ceremony and will continue on tour until it arrives at Weymouth July 26th -28th.

Please get in touch if interested in getting involved in this event. Do you have a song, a sound or story to share? Let us know? press@somersetartworks.org.uk

Ones to watch: (so I couldn't fit in everything that's going on this year but here's some more links of events/groups to look out for..)
http://www.bhaam.org.uk/index.html - Blackdown Hills Artists and Makers
http://www.therecessionists.co.uk/ - The Recessionists
http://www.thebrewhouse.net/outdoor/1299/a-beacon-of-sound-light -Thursday 22nd March 'A beacon of sound and light' at The Brewhouse
http://www.thebrewhouse.net/main-house/1304/the-brewhouse-35th-birthday-celebrations -Celebrate 35 years of The Brewhouse Theatre
http://www.jamaicastreetartists.co.uk/ -Jamaica Street Artists, Bristol
http://bvstudios.blogspot.com/ - BV Studios, Bristol
http://www.bathartistsstudios.co.uk/ -Bath Artists' Studios

http://blog.actualcolour.com/2011/09/vhils-in-exeter-day-4.html
Well, that covers a lot of the year ahead. For those of you who can't wait and want to see something interesting and inspiring right now then look no further...

Visited Exeter this week and saw this fantastic piece of street art by a Portuguese graffiti/street artist, Vhils who was commissioned to create this work by Urban Outfitters on the side of their building. Fantastic! Why paint onto a wall when you can chisel into it! Seeing this has given me an idea of a piece of work I'd like to try and make, I'll keep you posted how that goes (or you can check out its progress in the 'Art in progress' image on the right-hand-side of this blog).

http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/bt/index.php
http://www.spacex.co.uk/p135.html

Running at Spacex in Exeter until the 19th of February is an exhibition of video/interactive media work that documents the participatory, adventurous practice of the art group known as 'Blast Theory'. I have to say, this kind of work has never really been my preference if I had a choice of exhibitions to go and see, that's probably because in order to really appreciate, understand and, in come cases, participate in the work requires more time and patience than I am capable of first thing on a Tuesday morning. That said, once I did make the effort to engage with the work some of the ideas in it were actually quite interesting. Take the piece, 'Kidnap', for example,

"In 1998 Blast Theory launched a lottery in which the winners had the chance to be kidnapped. Ten finalists around England and Wales were chosen at random and put under surveillance. Two winners were then snatched in broad daylight and taken to a secret location where they were held for 48 hours.The whole process was broadcast live onto the Internet. Online visitors were able to control the video camera inside the safe house and communicate live with the kidnappers.
During the run up to Kidnap, a 45 second video - the Kidnap Blipvert - was shown at cinemas around the UK. The Blipvert carried a freephone number, allowing people to register their interest. "

It raised ideas to do with surveillance, the concept of 'big brother', ethics, participation (well, just a few key thoughts upon seeing the work)etc. Whilst I am still fairly stubborn in my own ways of working (preferring the more representational approach like in the street mural above) seeing work like this is always a welcome eye-opener and the whole area of art as participation is an interesting field and is debatable as to whether it has been with us for a long time (in the form of performance, for example) or whether there are new ways it is becoming interactive with new technology and media. I'll think on it for a while...

Get out there!

When all the art exhibitions finally arrived...

Happy new year! The start of January was actually pretty quiet (in exhibition terms) until the end of the month when loads arrived all at once! Two exhibitions, a project in the High Street and the beginnings of several big exciting projects coming up-soon and during the Olympic torch ceremonies. 2012 has landed!

In no particular order:

Tuesday 17th - Friday 27th Get Creative @ Taunton -

Hosted by Actiontrack, Creative Carnival, Somerset Film and The Brewhouse, 'Get Creative' is a two week series of free events, workshops and debates based in Mendip House at the top of Taunton High Street.

From what I gather the point of having the building is to talk to the public/artists/performers etc. etc. [in terms of what they would want from an arts space] whilst having the opportunity to learn some new skills [film/web based] and take part in some performance pieces one of which includes a gamelan. Confused? Me too, slightly, there's quite a mix of stuff going on there although I think using the empty space, that is Mendip House for anything creative, no matter how confusing, is better than leaving it empty. Certainly I also hope that Taunton High Street can use events like this one to run further exhibitions and activities that will draw people into our High Street. All of this is of particular interest to me personally as it has a natural link to the 'Big Draw' project we held in the same place last October.

http://www.actiontrack.org.uk/news.html

These two images are from Simon Lee Dicker's exhibition, 'Show and tell' at 'The Old School Room', West Coker - 18th until 29th January

"This exhibition brings together the work of artist collective OSR projects, established by artist Simon Lee Dicker. The Old School Room has been a place of learning, meeting and gathering for over 160 years and this exhibition works with the social history of the building as a catalyst for creative exploration." -Evolver

I hadn't been to 'The Old School Room' since Somerset Art Weeks so it was great to go back and see how things have changed (the addition of a gold painted wall for example!) and what new art works waited in store. I think its a bold move that warrants a lot of credit, to bring contemporary art of the, what I would call more conceptual nature into a relatively small Somerset village. But as West Coker proves, why conform to the stereotype? Why have landscape paintings and pictures of cows when you can have tartan on the walls and on the floors!(I actually think there's a place for both!) That's not to say its eccentric for eccentrics sake, but there is always a very playful and witty side to all the work that is shown in 'The Old School Room'. Even more appropriate when you consider it was actually a school room and, for it now to act as a place of play and a place to make you think/question is highly relevant. There are a lot of very 'cool' and clever visual elements to this exhibition and if you like art that is reminiscent of the balancing sculptures of Fischli and Weiss then this is definitely for you.
http://osrprojects.wordpress.com/

14th January - 18th February Richard Pomeroy 'Landscape: Imprint', Brewhouse Theatre -

New, big and bold paintings from SAW artist, Richard Pomeroy!
"Somerset based artist Richard Pomeroy explores the link between landscape and humanity. The artist lies down in carefully prepared wet paint on primed linen. The resulting image can form either the dramatic centrepiece of the painting or can be gradually subsumed by the subsequent layers of paint. The body's clothing is clearly modern with zips and denim defining the figure as contemporary. Aspects of the landscape are then painted as an upper layer on top of the body print. This physical union between body and landscape dramatises the subject of the paintings and creates a memorable image." -Brewhouse website

Yes! A painter! I'm very pleased that a painting exhibition has come to the Brew, and its an exciting one too! I won't bore you by re-aliterating what the descriptor above states instead I will talk a little bit, from a painterly point-of-view what I thought of the show. Out of the 10/12 canvases there's a wide exploration of colour palettes and techniques that, whilst the subject matter [of rivers/landscapes] remains relatively constant the surfaces and moods of the paintings are very different. It's those different textures and layers or colour that, for me, best reflect the idea of how the landscape in Somerset is connected geographically but is also very varied from place to place. Out of all the work the more subtle, 'white/grey' pieces appeal to me the most because I like the sharpness of the detail picked up from the printed clothing on the top that I feel is detracted by the brightness in some of the more colourful pieces. Overall, I spent a lot longer in this exhibition than a lot of the more 'sculptural' Brewhouse exhibitions which is clear to say that I really enjoyed it.

Really worth a look and if you want to find out more then come along to the 'artist talk' on Wednesday 2nd February from 6pm
http://www.thebrewhouse.net/exhibitions/1163/landscape-imprint

So, phew! All of that in a week, and that's without mentioning the upcoming, 'Iluminos' project as a part of SAW's 'Maximum exposure' in which pill boxes along the Taunton stop line will be lit up with projections between, Feb 24th and 4th March. Plus there's a whole load of events happening surrounding the Olympics, all of which I'll have to fill you in on next time!

That's all for now, I'm off to hear a gamelan being played! 6.30pm tonight in the High Street, onwards. See you there!

It was a very good year.

As we say goodbye to 2011 and hello to 2012 I congratulate you for surviving another year of cliched blog post titles. Hopefully they won't have put you off reading some of my ramblings which have documented just some of the inspiring artistry that our artists from Somerset and beyond have had to offer.

It has been a very good year, and for those of you who might have missed it (why would you!?) then here is the SAW blog review of the year 2011!

January/February - 'Exhibition of the teenager' at The Brewhouse Theatre and arts Centre, Taunton

Kelly Smith, a merry band of enthusiastic college students and me participated in organising an exhibition, event and project that involved a wide range of the community. The aim of the project was to challenge and make people question/reflect on 'what is a teenager? throwing the stereotype out of the window. After weeks of collecting art work (in the form of some very creative but also darn heavy mannequins), interviewing people, recording vox pops, building an installation of a teenager's bedroom, dance floor and organising several bands to perform on the opening night, the 'Exhibition of the teenager' was born!

March - Opening of The Crescent Contemporary, Taunton

On Saturday 19th of March Taunton's new contemporary art gallery opened with an exhibition of Gordon Faulds' drawings and mixed media paintings. This marked the first of what has been many more exhibitions this year showcasing some of the best contemporary art from local artists and further afield. Look forward to seeing what this gallery space has to offer next year!

www.crescentcontemporary.co.uk

April - 'England, my England' at The Brewhouse Theatre and arts centre, Taunton

A beach indoors at the Brewhouse, what fun! Set around the time of the Queen's birthday and the royal wedding, the 'England, my England' festival was a great way to explore all things English and put my beautiful (but deadly) pinwheels all around the theatre.

May - 'Outside space' at The Brewhouse Theatre and arts centre, Taunton

Yet, another offering from the Brew! What can I say? I live in Taunton so the Brew is my most local art facility, if I wasn't involved in what they do then quite frankly then something would be wrong! 'Outside space' saw the theatre open its backstage areas to the public for the first time with a few added surprises from local artists in the form of installations, paintings and participatory works. This was a fantastic project and I remember really enjoying the work on offer.

June - 'Ad Lucem and the end of year shows at Somerset College'

No review of the year would be complete without highlighting the annual end of year degree shows from the illustrious Somerset College. Always a pleasure to see and this year was no exception. Prior to this in May was the second year, Fine Art Show in the Collar Factory in Taunton (watch this space next year!...)

May/June - My regular visits to 'The Somerset Heritage Centre' as a part of the 'Professional Development Opportunity' with SAW

What an opportunity exploring the artifacts in storage in the SHC was! The tools that I found there became the basis for a body of work I made that was to be later shown later in the year during art weeks. Not only access to the tools themselves but to the expertise and knowledge from the curator who works there. Truly inspiring stuff.

July - 'Homecoming' at The Regal Theatre, Minehead

In July I ventured out of Taunton.

After months of suspense and build up, Hannah Bishop's multi-disciplinary, art, music and theatre extravaganza 'Homecoming' finally arrived and it did not disappoint.

July - Willow Cathedral opening ceremony, Longrun Meadows, Taunton
It might have rained but we still had a good time when hundreds of people came out to celebrate the official opening of Taunton's very own willow cathedral. The Albion Horns led a procession from the Oak barn to the cathedral where the festivities continued until the rain came!
www.longrunmeadows.blogspot.com

July - 'Jamaica Street artists' Open studios, Bristol

www.jamaicastreetartists.co.uk

August - Pitt Rivers, Oxford

In August, at last, hooray! After years of speculation and failed attempts at getting to Oxford in August I finally managed to see the 'Pitt Rivers' museum! This was still part of the 'Professional development opportunity' I'd begun embarking upon earlier in the year and proved to be far better than I had ever thought it would.

Later in August I had my first solo exhibition in the Hot House Gallery in The Taunton Conference Centre.

September - 'A Night of Light', Hestercombe, Taunton

(Pictured Chloe Brooks' 'Plans for Portals')

I now realise these photos aren't exactly in chronological order, this photo was taken in September, but the 'Night of light' event happened as a part of the end of art weeks of which the photo of that is yet to come in this post. No matter. 'Night of light' (organised by SAW and Reveal)featured several film, light and sound installations from artists such as Michael Fairfax, Sue Palmer, Simon Hitchens, Tim Martin and more.

September - '10 Parishes Festival' -The Recessionists', Wiveliscombe

An exhibition in the dark, with torches! Another innovative use of an abandoned building, the Recessionists group pulled off another cracking exhibition as a part of the 10 Parishes Festival. Pictured above is one of Fork Beard Fantasy's creations.

September - Somerset Art Weeks 2011

(Pictured above, Marte Bless Liland's work at Somerset College)

This year's art weeks took the form of exhibitions and events with around 400 artists participating at around 100 venues, I did my best to visit as many as possible travelling from Porlock to Yeovilton and Wells and a significant number of places in between. SHEDS in Hemyock by Bhaam! (Blackdown hills artists and makers) was definitely one of my personal highlights. It was also the first time I'd exhibited in art weeks on my own which was a really daunting at first, but turned out to be a great experience allowing me to meet a lot of interesting people. More importantly, people who were also interested in tools!

Registration is still open for art weeks 2012, click on the link below for more details:
http://www.somersetartworks.org.uk/art_weeks_2012

September - Bath Artists' Studios, Bath

www.bathartistsstudios.co.uk

October - 'British Art Show 7', Plymouth

I missed the previous six and would have missed the seventh had the British Art Show not come to Plymouth, which it did, for the first time this October giving myself and many the opportunity to see (what could possibly be my favourite art work of the year), Christian Marclay's, 'The Clock' plus many more contemporary art offerings.October - 'The Big Draw: Street Carpets', Taunton

The weather was fantastic for this event in which I, Helena Haimes, Jo Lathwood and Neil Musson were the project artists on the 'Street Carpets' project in Taunton's High Street. This was a great learning experience for me personally as well as an opportunity to gain some creative and valuable insight into what the public would like to see on the re-development of the High Street. Please click on the video link below for a film that explains the project (filmed and edited by Dan Gale):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kooCTF7oL_g&feature=player_embedded

November/December: 'The Museum Show Part 2', Arnolfini, Bristol and 'The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman', British Museum, London

This year really has been the year of the museum and artists/curators have responded by creating fantastic shows using the Museum as a site and source of inspiration for making work.

http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/details/1170

The rest of December has been pretty quiet allowing me to focus on other things like being able to reflect on the year to write this review for example, there are many more exhibitions and events that happened this year, so many that I haven't been able to include them all in this review but have mentioned in previous posts throughout the year in this blog. With one year of my MA in Fine Art done and another to go I'm continuing to learn about art academically and in the 'real' world. A big thank you to everyone who's been following the blog, held fantastically inspiring art exhibitions, organised projects and met me for drinks this year!

I wish you a very Happy New Year, with the 2012 Olympics and a few exciting projects and exhibitions that I'm beginning to hear about in the pipeline it looks like its going to be even better than this one!

November Book Review: '100 New Artists' by Francesca Gavin

Behold! The long awaited return of the 'Art book of the Month' review. Quite frankly there was just so much happening in the last few months so a book review wasn't exactly on top of the priority list of things to write about. Now, with the sudden change of pace there is time to reflect and enjoy delving into books like this one!

Don't be fooled by the white, minimal looking front cover because inside this book is 225 pages of glorious colour images featuring the work of the 100 chosen few, contemporary artists working today. I'm always a bit skeptical as to how exactly the editors of these types of books ('Cream' being another example) choose and select a mere 100 artists out of the wealth that is contemporary art today. The author of the book, Francesca Gavin is both a writer and curator based in London and has a CV that includes writing for The Guardian online, Time Out, The Sunday Times Style plus to name a few. She writes,

'The selection of artists in this book emerged as that 'selfish capitalism' spread across the globe. The artworks featured here were made in the self-promoting era of the blog and the Facebook page.'

So we know that the artists featured in this book are 'new' but throughout the whole introduction we never really get to know 'how' the artists are selected. Should it matter? I don't know, but I find it interesting to speculate how certain artists might have been chosen over others. What makes an artist more successful, contemporary, important, new etc. than any other?Anyway, the book is at least true to its statement on the cover, 'Despite moments of clarity there is no 'ism' in this book'. Nice! So that's a no, to surrealism, impressionism, minimalism and post-modernism and others. I couldn't find any 'ism's in the book, but I suppose you could argue that the influences of all those past art movements in some cases are present in the work. What this book does show is new approaches and forward thinking in art practice today or as Gavin writes,

'This is a vital new wave of art -post conceptualism, post-minimalism, post-pop. Not only is it a snapshot of art if the moment, 100 New Artists, is the place to discover the people who will define our aesthetic future.'

What of the artists?! You ask. It has to be said that there is a healthy mix of painting, video, installation, new technologies, print-making, sculpture, photography and performance art in this selection featuring artists from across the globe. A few favourites of mine being; Steve Bishop http://stevebishop.org/work.html, Guillermo Caivano http://ibidprojects.com/guillermo-caivano/, Jompet Kuswidananto, Littlewhitehead http://www.littlewhitehead.com/, Richard Mosse http://richardmosse.com/, Anita Moure, Pim Palsgraaf http://www.pimpalsgraaf.nl/, Joao Pedro Vale http://www.joaopedrovale.com and Aleix Plademunt http://www.aleixplademunt.com/. There are 91 more that you may also find interesting. Its always good to have a parooz through books like this proving that there is still lots of new and contemporary art out there! Enjoy!

A few things to think about...

Hmmmmm......

Apologies for not having written on here in the last two weeks, my Internet is running at the speed of a snail but I have managed to upload most areas of the SAW blog for now. I will be running upstairs to do some painting in between as I wait for different pages to load up. Anyway, I thought I'd take this opportunity to fill you in on a few things:

Firstly - SAW is now on Youtube! Click on the link below to see several videos of recent SAW projects and please keep an eye on it as we will be loading more videos to it in the future.

http://www.youtube.com/user/websitesaw#p/u

You can also access this page, anytime by clicking on the youtube link on the left hand side of the SAW blog.

Secondly - Registration for Art Weeks 2012 are now open! This year is an 'Open Studios' event and runs from the 15th until the 30th of September. Deadline for entries is 31st January. Visit http://www.somersetartworks.org.uk/news/art-weeks-2012-open-studios-registration-now-open for more info

And Finally... On Thursday 8th December SAW are holding a networking event for emerging artists and/or artist led-projects at the SAW Hub in Langport 6.00-7.30pm This is an ideal opportunity for any artists who have just 'emerged' (or graduated) or artists who have ideas to develop a project for art weeks 2012 that are not necessarily intending to sell work but wish to explore their practice further and gain some experience in professional art practice. As usual click on the link below for more info:

http://www.somersetartworks.org.uk/Art_weeks_2012_event_8dec

Thank you. That's all the house-keeping done for now. I'll be back soon with some more art book reviews, gallery visits, SAW projects and more (internet speed permitting!).

The pilgrimage to London and the power of making

I have been saving writing this post all week in anticipation of my long over due visit to London. So yesterday I finally got the chance to go, I awoke at 6.30 to catch the bus then after a few tube stops and a walk later I had, at last, made it to The British Museum. Hooray!

Ironically I had made the pilgrimage to see 'The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman' exhibition by Grayson Perry which is pretty fitting to the theme of the exhibition in which a lot of the content has come from Perry's own pilgrimage on a motorcycle (which features in the exhibition) around Germany with his childhood teddy-come god Alan Measels. The exhibition itself is a combination of the personal and imaginative works (which isn't just the ceramic pots he is well known for) created by Perry alongside artefacts from the British Museum collection. I've written a bit about this before in my last post as I am a particular fan of all things art and museum related, however it was great to go and see the exhibition and what I thought was particularly clever and successful about it was the way it was sometimes difficult to tell apart the museum pieces from Perry's own work. That's not to say that Perry had tried to make his work look too deliberately 'old' the works he has made are much more about borrowing some of the craft and style from the museum artefacts. The result is that from afar they look like museum pieces but on close inspection they are made up of very contemporary themes or imagery. Those of you who have seen his pots will know what I mean. Perry himself describes, "There is also a mystical resonance to the word craftsman. He is crafty. A trickster, a sorcerer, an androgynous shaman communing with the spirit world, a member of a secretive guild holding his alchemical secrets close to his chest."

Based on my own experience of working with a museum, I found reassurance in what Perry had to say about how he selected which museum objects to put into the exhibition by choosing ones that visually appealed to him. He asserts his role as an artist and not a historian so he did not choose things which had a prestige to them because of their historical significance, as 'an expert in looking' he choose the things which had a resonance with him. I find this reassuring because I had a similar decision to make where I was learning and finding out about the people and history connected to these wonderful tools I was looking at, but I was more interested in what the tools looked like,i.e their form/shape/texture. Those qualities are what drew me to certain objects over others, I only wish I had had more conviction in asserting this reasoning in my work instead of trying to search for meaning for meanings sake. I think that what this exhibition gets across really well is that it is ok to 'just be an artist' without all the complicated conceptual tags and Duchampian waffle; that you can just do what I always thought an artist was meant to do, 'make things' and in this case make them very well. Not to say that the show is a void-less un-meaningful thing because its definitely not, its easy to make the connections between the style of the museum pieces and Perry's contemporary counterparts which are full of personal meaning and narrative to Perry's own imagination.

I'm really pleased I went to see this exhibition it has reminded me not to become carried away into research or searching for meaning in my work and should stick to what I know is more important and that's the making.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/grayson_perry.aspx

Talking of 'making', no trip to London would have been complete without a visit to the V&A and specifically to see the 'Power of Making' exhibition.
Now, if I was a design student then this exhibition would be so brilliant, so inspiring and so useful. I cannot stress how good and important it is that anyone studying in any of the design fields goes to see this exhibition. Why? This doesn't represent craft from a commercial point of view far from it, it is much more creative, personal, social and cultural in demonstrating how great design and high quality craftsmanship can have an impact on everyday things. Some of the pieces in the show are fun and seemingly ridiculous, for example a brilliantly made life size crochet model of a bear, a lamp shade made in the shape of the owner's fingerprint, a six necked guitar, to a high-heel guitar (that plays a tune when the wearer flexes their leg). The majority of the pieces in the exhibition throw the idea of 'form following function' out of the window. They are pieces of art in their own right. You don't need to know anything about fashion for example to know that Susie MacMurray's pin dress (yes, a dress made entirely out of pins) is not meant to be worn (it would be far to heavy and probably slice its wearer to pieces just trying to put it on), it's an artwork. Titled 'Window Dressmaker' there is much to be admired at the skill involved in making or winced at from merely looking at the piece, but there is also meaning to be read into what a dress entirely made of pins has to say about femininity to give one example. And that is the nature of the entire exhibition, it is full of the weird and the wonderful, familiar objects reinvented using new materials and techniques. The traditional techniques of craft are given a contemporary twist, so the materials present in the work remain largely the same as what they always were but the tools in which they are moulded have advanced, for example 'Bloom' (a ceramic) by Michael Eden is a complicated form of interlocking lines that cross over and make the form of the pot to such a density and complexity that the most accomplished ceramicist could not make it by hand using traditional methods, but with the aid of computer technology new possibilities are opened up as to what can be achieved. It's exciting! Anyone for a surfboard made from cardboard? A ceramic eye patch? Or how about an embroidered surgical implant? Its this sort of innovation and creativity that the arts, in the broadest sense of the word, are all about and I think this show really celebrates that. Craft isn't only about function or purpose; it's about skill and creativity as well. The objects on show here might not be the most 'practical' in their physical usefulness, but what they have to offer in the way of usefulness in how they make us think, question and relate to materials, people, world around us and objects is priceless. And that truly is the power of making. Plus you'd have to be an emotionless cyborg not to be impressed at the skill it takes to carve the letters of the alphabet in the lead on the tip of a pencil (as in the image below, by Dalton Ghetty).

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/power-of-making/

The Museum of Museums

In Taunton, 'The Museum of Somerset' (previously Taunton Museum) has just re-opened after a 6.93 Million re-development. In Bristol 'The Industrial museum' has been revamped into what is now called 'The M Shed' and in Bath The Holburne museum (see fifth image below) has also had a massive 13.8 million pound transformation in the form of a glass extension to added onto the original building. With all of these re-vamped and modernised re-openings of museums in the South West as well as the exhibition titled, 'The Museum Show' now open at the Arnolfini gallery in Bristol it definitely feels like museums really are 'the flavour of the month'. Two weekends ago I popped down to the Arnolfini to find out if this was the case...

Featuring the work of over 40 artists this is no small show and to my delight included some old favourites and some fantastic new ones. I was not disappointed. Susan Hiller's 'After the Freud Museum', Duchamp's 'Boite-en-Valise' (the retrospective of the artists work in a suitcase) and Peter Blake's 'A Museum for Myself' are three museum inspired pieces on show in this exhibition that I have previously seen before, however it was fantastic to see them again without having to have made the pilgrimage to London and in the context of a show of museum inspired art. What is quite unusual about an exhibition of museum inspired work is the context, i.e normally a lot of the work on show in this exhibition would be in an actual museum where as here you have almost the opposite. The element of surprise of seeing work by an artist in a museum is part of the point of using the museum as a context to make work and play with interpretation. In the Arnolfini show having all of those museum inspired art works in an 'art context' of the gallery brings the viewers attention to the work in a different way again or as the Arnolfini describes the show as, 'a museum of museums'.

The museums on offer include: 'The Museum of Failure' by Ellen Harvey, 'The Museum of Safety Gear for Small Animals by Bill Burns (which I recommend you looking at the website for
http://www.safetygearforsmallanimals.com/home.html), The Davis Museum (a.k.a the smallest contemporary art museum in the world) http://www.davismuseum.com, 'Museum of Contemporary African Art' by Meschac Gaba, 'Moon Museum' (which sees the first-and most smallest works of art to land on the moon)by Forrest Myers, 'Voting Booth Museum' by Guillaume Biji (proves you can learn so much about a countries politics from the style of their voting booths) and 'The Museum of personality testing' by Sina Najafti and Christopher Turner to name but a few! It really is a mix of the ridiculous and the sublime.

A personal highlight for me was Herbet Distel's 'The Museum of Drawers' which holds 500 miniature artworks collected during the 1960's and 70's. Yes! So we have, David Hockey, Andy Warhol, Sol Lewitt, Joesph Beuys, John Cage, Claes Oldenburg, George Rickey, Cy Twombly, Roy Lichtenstein, Larry Rivers, Jasper Johns, Jim Dine and many many more all in little 2.25" wide and 1 11/16" high spaces within 20 drawers. Looking at the collection and the list for ages all I could think was how many cool artists were there in the 60's and 70's! And on a serious note the idea of drawers and collections in art generally is something that appeals to me as a person, maybe because I naturally without trying seem to collect lots of books and strange what can only politely be described as 'bits of tat', but whatever the reasons I thought this work was great.

On a completely different tone, the 'World Agriculture Museum' shown off site as part of the Arnolfini exhibition, is a much more global and thought provoking affair. The museum, curated by Asuncion Molinios', is set in what was previously Bristol Police Station. Inside the museum feels more like a theatre or stage-set in the way it is quite dimly lit and in the empty and dusty space which is quite haunting and creepy (its a creepy old police station not a smart shiny new one) there are cases of hundreds of different seeds and information on the doomsday vault in the North Pole (supposedly that contains seeds from all plant life on Earth). Anyway, it is an interesting collection and touches upon ideas in agriculture from food production to folklore. With news stories of the world's rapidly increasing population over the last few years which is set to rise even higher; all of which will put greater pressure and need on food production and how we grow food, this whole piece feels incredibly topical as well.

Whether we have museums being used in art or having art in museums are two ways in which these artists have used the concept of 'The Museum' in their work. There are many more variations of this all throughout art history and the history of how we collect, curate and display art works, artifacts and history and anthropology. It is, however, very exciting to see how artists take the museum as an institution and use it, parody it or interpret it in different ways of which this exhibition represents that diversity of what can be done with museums in a very successful way.

This is only part one of what is a two part exhibition (the second part to come in December) so I really recommend you paying this a visit.
For more details visit: http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/

I think my own recent bias (see image above of one of my pieces of work influenced by museum collections) working with the collection of agricultural tools at The Somerset Heritage Centre could have had a distinct influence in my interest in writing this post.
But, I'm not alone in this either, Jon England (see image below) has also worked with a museum, 'The Fleet Air Arm Museum' in Yeovilton on his recent project, 'Operation Chameleon' which can be seen until December. I have written on this blog before about what I believe to be just some of the benefits of an artist working with a museum and how the presentation of that research can make certain artifacts in museums collections more accessible to the public or present new interpretations of existing collections to new audiences.

(below) The Holburne Musuem, Bath

Finally, if you are still not convinced that museums are 'where its at' then look no further than the also very recent exhibition by Grayson Perry in The British Museum, 'The tomb of the unknown craftsman' (image below) where the artist has made his distinctive styled work in the form of ceramics and tapestries and then looked to the museum collection to find pieces that are similar, or in the artists own words, 'All I could do was choose the things that fascinated and delighted me.' The result is an exhibition that combines the two old and new side by side. Perry is no stranger to working with museums and has used artifacts alongside his own collections before in the piece 'Charms of Linconshire'. I've yet to visit this exhibition and I think it goes without saying that I'm obviously going to visit it soon, but I wanted to share it with you here as it fits so well with this post. Some of Perry's observations I've read in news articles that talk about his experiences working with museums and their curators has been particularly poignant for me recalling my own experiences working with the curators in the Somerset Heritage Centre. He says, 'Curators seemed to like nothing better than showing off the treasures in their care. Their profound enthusiasm I found infectious and endearing.' So true. As you walk around these massive and often quite cold 'warehouse-like' storage spaces where all the artifacts are boxed and catalogued, there is nothing better than to be in those spaces than with someone who knows exactly where to find the thatcher's whimbrel you're looking for, or the collection of gloves maker's tools and then can tell you all about those things. It really is wonderful and that's coming from, me, someone who never studied or really liked history.

So, with lots of attention on all these newly opened museums there's a lot of opportunity to discover and re-discover some remarkable objects, people and stories. Museums don't necessarily always hold the truth, with a lot of theorists believing that history has always been a matter or interpretation and who has been doing the interpreting. This leads the way nicely for artists to make their own interpretations or accept existing ones and how we may then choose to use that knowledge in our own work or to say something about our own time.

That is where things start to get really exciting.

For more details on 'The Tomb of the unknown Craftsman' click on the link below:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/grayson_perry.aspx