Materiality, Greening the Arts and more

Snakes and Ladders (detail). Photo (above) by Dominic Weston. Photo (left) by Geoff Dunlop

I’ve been working on several projects in schools along with prep for forthcoming exhibitions and new art projects. And pleased to have just recovered from my first bout of covid!

Materiality

I’m excited to be exhibiting with 3 other women artists whose work I admire. We met during our MAs at Bath Spa Uni.  The exhibition has been a long time coming, with cancellations due to lockdown etc…

Materiality (27 April - 1 May) is the first show at Walcot Chapel, Bath since it closed for lockdown 2020.  It features 4 women artists: Fiona Campbell, Kelly O’Brien, Kate McDonnell and Nicola Turner, and celebrates the importance of materials through contemporary sculpture and installation art. Large-scale objects and interventions will interact with the architecture of the Chapel.  We are each driven by our materials and engaged with sustainability in our practices. The exhibition runs  27 April - 1 May, 12-6pm daily at Walcot Chapel, Walcot St, Bath BA1 5UG. Private View Tuesday, 26 April, 6-8pm

Special Events: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/materiality-tickets-295143270467

Salon, Thursday 28 April, 7-10pm.  Join us in the candlelit Walcot Chapel to eat, drink and share thoughts on materiality, facilitated by Professor Alf Coles. Tickets: £10.

Sculpture Workshop with me, Sunday 1 May, 11am-1pm.  Focusing on flora and fauna, you will be creating a sculpture using recycled and found materials. For ages 10+ to adult. Tickets: £12.

Artist Talks, Sunday 1 May, 2.30-3.30pm. An informal, in depth look at the works and our practices.  Clare Whistler will be performing her work reflecting on the exhibition. Tickets: FREE!

Numbers are limited so book your place now! Hope to see you there:-)

SAW Greening Art Workshop: 

I’m leading a FREE workshop specifically for Somerset Art Works members, 22nd April (Earth Day), 10am-12.30pm, Somerset Earth Science Centre, Moons Hill Quarry, Stoke St Michael, Radstock, Somerset BA3 5JU. Parking on site, free teas/coffees.

The workshop will investigate artists’ environmental responsibilities, looking at key concepts of Climate Change and the role of the arts: how we can make our practice more sustainable. There will be a presentation, discussion and practical workshop covering a range of 2d and 3d activities using homemade, recycled and found materials.  You’ll be able to create something to take away, and have permanent access to an online resource pack full of relevant information around Greening the Arts. Funded by Somerset Skills & Learning.

It’s free of charge, but £15 deposit is required to secure your place. Full-refund after you attend the event. Book:  https://somersetartworks.org.uk/2022/03/saw-greening-art-project/ Do join me if you’re a SAW member!

International Biennale ‘Transfiguration' NCTRI, Taiwan

It’s the last couple of weeks of my exhibition in Taiwan, 12 Nov-12 April ’22.  I received 2 beautiful exhibition catalogues - see below and here. A short film about my work for the exhibition will be broadcast soon..

I’m still working on ‘Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand', inspired by the plight of pangolins, trafficked and slaughtered in thousands. The installation will be part of an exhibition Together We Rise at Chichester Cathedral with Royal Society of Sculptors members, 27June-6 September, curated by Jacquiline Creswell.

Here’s a film clip about the work:

Circle of Life

Circle of Life is a school project I’m involved in via SPAEDA. I’m working with primary schoolchildren making headdresses, masks and costumes using recycled and found materials, inspired by the Lion King production, African art and ecology. These will come together in a final story/dance performance later this week.

I’m taking part in the Artists for Ukraine exhibition and silent auction, at Black Swan Arts, Frome between 1 - 24 April. Do visit and bid!

New Beginnings, donated to Artists For Ukraine

Delighted to be featured on Art From the Heart winners in March: https://www.artfromheart.co.uk/post/artists-of-the-month-winners-march-2022

Do support by visiting and purchasing from my shop.

I hope to see you at one or more of these events, and in the meantime, warm wishes to you!

Fruition

Summer is upon us!  Blasts of hot air and sunshine, after too many cold damp days in UK.  With lockdown restrictions gradually easing and hugs resuming, there also seems a to be a new energy (among humans anyway). Many of us have learnt important lessons about care.

In between projects, I’ve taken a few short courses and continue to connect with membership groups: RSS, SAW, BSA and IN:CH.  Care is an overwhelming mantra - not just caring for others, but also self-care. Through Mind the Gap with Fiona Winning (open honest sharing to find our inner resources), RSS meet-ups where we discuss fighting our inner demons while reaching for our North Star, it’s clear how necessary it is to have downtime.  I’m trying… :-)

All The Colours

The work I’ve been doing for All The Colours, part of Art First with Seed and Buses of Somerset, is soon to launch. The printed artworks are almost ready for the buses.

The design process has been complex, involving several stages, some completely new to me! Initially I created 3 chameleon paintings in different colour schemes, plus a background. After compiling all the community’s image submissions, I used software to import them into the chameleons as photo mosaics, ready for lenticular printing. Thanks to Neil Lumby (Seed designer) for his part in the process.

Lenticular prints are holographic, making images almost cinematic. As the bus moves, or viewers move past the image, the chameleon will change colour, and the eyes will rotate.

We will be launching the art on buses in early June, when you’ll be able to see the work featured in and on 30 buses across Sedgemoor, Somerset.

Thanks to all who contributed. I’m excited to see the final results! To find out more about the project visit Art First  and head to my All The Colours page.

Round Lemon Talk, Interview and Publication

Following Round Lemon’s selected ONE exhibition and winning first prize, an Interview about my work has been published on Round Lemon’s ZEST platform, and you can catch my online artist talk on their YouTube channel.  A Round Lemon ONE Exhibition publication is also available to buy.

Hope of a Tree, Inch by IN:CH

Inch by IN:CH

The tour begins! We launched Inch by IN:CH in Bath over the bank holiday weekend, and with it, a range of drawing sessions. It was a lovely way to engage visitors, while providing stimulus and more reason to linger and chat.  Drawing from Cases is an ongoing event, daily when we are open. Shirley Sharp and I also facilitated an experimental shadow drawing session, using ink, charcoal and graphite to draw shadows cast by the lit work. We’ll be running this session again at Backwell Playhouse on 7 August.

My truck conked out last week, so I am eternally grateful to Philippa Edwards for kindly coming to the rescue and transporting me and my work on installation day. With help from Jez Truelove and the amazing IN:CH team we cleared two garages and set up a coherent exhibition! My piece Hope of a Tree will be adapted for different venues. It’s a relief when work comes to fruition successfully.. 

This 1min film about the work was prompted by a short film-making course I did recently with Chris Kemp (Suited and Booted Studios) via Creativity Works.

If you haven’t yet, do try to visit our Bath venue before 13 June (The Garages, Bath Artist Studios, The Old Malthouse, Comfortable Place, Bath BA1 3AJ; open Fri, Sat, Sun, 11-5).  Take a look at our website and instagram @inchbyinch for details of all our venues, dates and events.  At our next venue (Frome Festival) I will be there each day (3-11 July), showing my work in the spiral staircase museum entrance, and running taster drop in workshops. Join me!

I’m looking forward to running a series of workshops - online and in-person.  I’ll be working with Eastover School, Bridgwater later this month via SPAEDA creating a giant octopus. And via SAW’s InspirED programme, I’m creating resources/materials for Primary School Teachers, with a focus on creative approaches to engage with Climate Change. There’s still time to book!.

I will be showing some of my earlier work: drawings, a nest and dung beetle sculptures in the Trowbridge Windows on Nature Trail, 51 Fore Street, BA14 8ES in time for World Environment Day (5 June). All work is for sale. If you’re an art/nature lover, pop along if you can!

For a list of current and forthcoming exhibitions please visit this link

Happy chilling!

Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions and Projects 2018

I am excited to be involved in the following exhibitions and projects this year: MA Walcot Chapel Residency, Bath; 12-18 February

The Cotswold Sculpture Park, The Paddock, Somerford Keynes, Cirencester GL7 6FE;  1 April – 30^thSeptember, 10.30am-5pm (closed Tues and Wed), admission £5.  http://www.elementalsculpturepark.com/

Sound Bites Talks on Beatrix Potter's 'Absidia' drawing, Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Bruton, 10 March  & 27 April, 2pm; part of 'The Land We Live in - The Land We Left Behind' exhibition.

Talk 'Art from Scrap' at The Ocean Matters, Bristol Aquarium, Bristol (organised by Bath Spa university); 4.30pm, 26 May.  Event: 26-27 May.  Exhibition will be extended for longer.  A1 mounted photographic prints of various artworks displayed to highlight the plight of our oceans. https://oceanmatters.weebly.com #oceanmatterstoartanddesign

'ABC Bath’ (Art Breeds Conscience), Walcot St and surrounds, Bath; 11 – 31 May. Initiated by MA Curatorial Practice student Beatriz Nogueira, the project aims to bring environmentally friendly art onto the streets and parks of Bath, in the hope that it will encourage its audience to question current issues – waste, factory farming, pollution of our air, land and seas. Instagram - @abcbath; Twitter - @AbcBath; Website - bathabc.wordpress.com

Continuum, FAB Festival (Fringe Arts Bath), 6 New Bond Street Place, Bath; 25 May (opening night)- 10 June;11am - 6pm daily.  Artwork by MA students from Bath Spa University. Varied practices including sculpture, painting, installation and performance.  The exhibition addresses the issue of change.  I will be working on a piece, which will grow throughout the festival period.

WE ARE ALL ... FOUR WORDS MEETS PARIS 1968, Media Wall, The Commons Building, Bath Spa University, Newton Park, Bath.  1-17 May.  500 submitted/selected slogans animated into a one-hour sequence with programmed screenings and talks  http://alandunn67.co.uk/weareall.html @MediaWallBSU

WE ARE ALL poster

The Rubbish Art Project, old HSBC Bank, Shepton Mallet, a new venture creating art with the community for the town using scrap materials.

SAW Residency working with PRU teenagers, Bridgwater and Taunton College; 19 - 27June, making artworks from reclaimed materials particularly metals.

Making headdresses with All Hallows Prep School pupils for an exhibition ‘All the Fun’, Silk Mill, Frome; 23 June

Summer Show, Atkinson Gallery, Millfield School, Street; 25 June - 3 Aug

‘Ingruttati Palermo’, Manifesta12 collateral event 5x5x5. 10 day workshop and exhibition as part of Manifesta Biennale (supported by Bath Spa University Enterprise Showcase Fund). The exhibition is in Crypt of Chiesa Parrocchiale SantaAgnese, Piazza Danisinni, 90134 Palermo, Sicily and runs throughout Manifesta12, 27 July - 4 November 2018 (by appointment)

Evolver Prize, ACE Arts, Somerton; 28 July - 25 August

Up Late, Holburne Museum - collaboration with Bath Spa University; Friday 31 August, 5-9pm

MA Show, Bath School of Art & Design, Sion Hill, Bath BA1 5SF; 22 - 26 Sept, 9am-5pm. Private View Fri 21 Sept, 6-9pm, all welcome!

Visions of Science, Andrew Brownsword Gallery, The Edge, Bath University, BA2 7PD, open 15 Sept - 13 Oct Tues-Sat, 11-5

Line and Point, Centrespace Gallery, 6 Leonard Lane, Bristol BS1 1EA; 27 Oct - 31 Oct, 10am-6pm daily.  Private View Fri 26 Oct, 6-9pm.  All welcome!

Residency and Solo Exhibiiton (title TBC), The Cells, Town Hall Arts, Trowbridge, April – May 2019

Incendiary, Landsdown Gallery and SVA, Stroud, 4-10 February 2019

Marks Hall Sculpture, Essex, 20 July – 1 September 2019

Reformation, Bishops Palace, Wells, July – October 2019

More info to follow