Castle Exhibition and re visiting the collection between projects.

It was a really nice afternoon at Nottingham Castle for the opening exhibition. I enjoyed  seeing everyone's work, we are separated between rooms from the first and second years and being so busy myself this year Id not seen much of what they were working on so It was a bit of a suprise,

Its always interesting to see how other artists approach a theme and inspiring to see possibilities realised.

Stand out works for me, Beth Hemus' Church kneeler and hood. We have quite similar interests around folklore/ women's history so I find her work really interesting.

Work by Beth Hamus

I like Odelia Bird's work with the cyanotype prints. It was mirrored trees over 4 quarters of the canvas . It looked a  really clear print and the effect was similar to the effects I used filming my last work with the mirrored trees, so this interested me. She has used a UV exposure lamp ( the screen printing one in Stoney street) to get such a clear  cyanotype print. its something to think about  for my own practice as the hit and miss with using sunlight can be frustrating

Work By Odelia Bird

I'm not sure how I feel about my exhibit.

It's alright and I think in terms of the theme of "the harvester "; the artwork I was  reacting to my outcome made sense. I made it quickly and was very reactive in that the theme was already in mind and I didn't get too hung up about it.

I like the material, the gold and especially meaning full was the wheat sheaf cordage wrapped halo. I just feel a bit of a cheat by using a pre made eye mask as a frame, it was too perfect and not something I could have easily achieved without this short cut. I usually make everything from scratch. So I worry that it looks a bit too perfect and shop brought / cheap. I'm a bit paranoid about the whole fancy dress thing comparison but peer feed back was very complimentary. A lot of peers said it had a historic, ritualistic look which is what I was going for.

My mask along side " study for the harvester" by William Shackleton 

Just had a quick walk through the castle art collection and took a few images of works I felt intuitively drawn to . As I think about my final studio project. I'm finding it difficult to decide what path to choose so I'm taking a bit of time, visiting museums and galleries for inspiration. I feel a lot of pressure for this end of year exhibition. My last project was stressful and somewhat unresolved as I took too many changes of direction. I want to have a much clearer plan this time. I also want to get the report out of the way so I can fully focus All my time on this.

Here's the works I chose,  

Love this protest lace badge!
What a wonderful memento of the workers Union and so relevant
To our current times of strikes and uncertainty.
The history can be a mirror to our present

revisiting a lot of the lace collection, I like the historic context along with the act of making and the link to cyanotype printing ( how the lace designs where catalogued and promoted to potential buyers)
Feeling drawn to blue, to willow pattern, to the domestic, historic, feminine, everyday.

The lace project was one of my favourite projects both in terms of interest and outcome. Looking at the machines and cyanotype thinking about the work I made and how I could elaborate on this. I spoke to Deborah about possible access to the lace archive and digging a little deeper. My favourite way to work is within a brief that is based around a site/ history. I'd like to continue this work and get to a point where I could approach places/ or call  outs for making this kind of work as a free lance artist.

Always I'm drawn to the pre Raphaelite.  Rossetti's stylised way of painting the female lead is always recognisable across different models.

The romance and drama of the Victorians. Like early, celebrity culture I guess.

Exhibition: "Conversations before the end of time" by Saad Qureshi @ Lakeside arts

 SAAD QURESHI: CONVERSATIONS BEFORE THE END OF TIME @ LAKESIDE ARTS.

I really enjoyed this exhibition, the themes sits perfectly between my last project "Devil music" and my current project " Grave goods" so its a really good place to begin my research and contemplate on the last project.. Here the artist is creating sculptural works based on cross cultural conversations with people about the after life. The idea of heaven , its a  fantastical exhibition and tastefully done, like a bizarre model village. I particularly liked the gates, like heaven gate's I assume, all stacked up against each other and leaning on the wall, they are very similar to the metal work doors and screen's inside the Addams building.  As I'm exploring themes of grief , the subject of the end of the world, the after life is absolutely on my radar so I feel very encouraged by his exhibition, that this is still a contemporary subject to pursue in fine art and can be done in a way that feels at ease, peaceful, contemplative ,positive and fresh.

the other part of the exhibition is a series of illustrative watercolours featuring the devil, so  sits well with my last project where I was imagining the devil as a character through song writing and visual art. here in Saads exhibition and similar to the folk tales I've refenced before, his devil also appears as a fallible character and more human than not.  the illustrations are beautiful and tactile, the paper looks handmade, there are details of gold leaf and patterned college of an eastern influence, that makes it all feel very authentic and otherworldly.