Visiting Exhibitions in London

I haven't been to see any exhibitions in London for ages. (When I helped out at the graduate exhibition a couple of weeks ago there was no time to go out). So at the risk of getting Art Overload I am catching up on what's on at the moment. My first ports of call have been Tate Modern and Tate Britain.

However it was an uncomfortably hot day and Tate Modern was really heaving with people and I think that affected my appreciation of the exhibitions somewhat. I really didn't feel as beguiled as I thought ought to be by the huge Mattisse exhibition. The story of the last years of the artists life is so familiar and through the crowds of people I think I just saw what I expected to see. No more, no less. It was interesting to see how 'hand made' the 'cut-outs look with their occasional rough edges and glue stains and the faint outlines of preliminary drawings still evident. In reproductions the colour looks completely flat (as it is meant to) when actually you can see the varying density of the paint and the brush marks of the assistants. And I must say that I have seen his stained glass windows in books and on TV many times but I found that in the flesh the organic forms combined with the colour and light were really powerful in their simplicity. I will be going again to the exhibition with a friend before it finishes, may be it'll be quieter then.

Folk Art at Tate Britain was a rather weird and a wonderful collection of extraordinary objects
created by ordinary (often unknown) makers. Folk Art is a vast subject and, as if to make the point, the first display as you entered the exhibition was of outsized objects made as shop signs. If I had brought a child with me I would have told them that someone had used the huge key to break in to the giants castle and make off with a random collection of huge shoes, kitchen implements and toys (and here was the proof of their daring).  In fact it was a 'wonder full' exhibition altogether. We will never know who decided to paint a horse’s vertebra so that it became a mini-model of Methodism’s founding father John Wesley or what prompted Irish labourers to fashion the peculiarly fetishistic “God-in-a-bottle” sculptures. The exhibition certainly succeeded in  showing that creativity and innovation have always permeated every aspect of everyday life  and can pop up in the most unexpected places. I'm thinking now that I'd really like a 4ft teapot....

Another Exhibition Over

The Synecdoche show closed on Sunday evening and was generally considered a great success. I'm pleased to report that I sold quite a few pieces. I still find it quite a challenge when someone looks at a print or a sculpture and asks me "what is your work about?"  I shall have to work out something pithy and succinct before next time.

I also did some swaps with some of the other students which is always a nice thing to do. The sculpture below right is by Marius Bremer who will be finishing his degree next year. It is now sitting on my mantlepiece.

The Rabbitmen are in Crafts magazine....

advertising the Synecdoche exhibition in London! It felt amazing opening my copy and seeing them there.

Yesterday I packed up and delivered the artwork which is going in the exhibition next week. My contrbution is all very rabbitty. Accompanying the herd of rabbitmen is the original rabbitman collagraph and the Rabbit Suit for Mr Messerschmidt. The exhibition is being organised and curated by fellow students from UWE and I'm taking my turn at invigilating next Saturday. So if you're in London next week do pop in to the Embassy Tea Rooms, Union St, SE1.

Degree Show photos by Mark Tan

Mark Tan is a really talented printmaker and had a studio space next door but one to me at university. He took loads of fantastic pictures of our degree show (including my work) which you can see by clicking on the link below...

 

UWE Drawing & Applied Arts Degree Show

It's all over...

So, the show is over and I've collected all my stuff. I can't quite believe I've finished my degree. And I really wasn't sure about the way the tutors displayed my work but I've had loads of encouraging comments and emails. Over 400 postcards of the Rabbitmen were picked up by visitors! I've even sold quite a bit.
I won't have my final results for a few weeks. Until then I think I will take some time to regroup, take stock, and make some decisions. But I have started work on a new collagraph print which may go in the Synecdoche exhibition in July. And I'd like to go to see a few exhibitions in London. And visit my aunt in Ireland. And clear out my mother's loft. And the garden really needs some attention....


Rabbitmen waiting to hear where their final positions will be in the show

The 'Story Keepers'

The tutors at uni have at last decided which pieces of mine are going to be in the degree show and how they want them displayed. A mixture of 2D and 3D work has been chosen. So I thought I'd make them next in line in the series of posts on some of the ideas and influences behind my work.

I think I will start with the Story Keepers. (There are more pictures of them on my website)

When researching for my dissertation about fairy tales and fine art I discovered that as far as anyone can tell stories of magic and mystery have always been with us. Plato called them 'old wives tales' but they were not only told to children. Long before they were ever written down as 'fairy tales' they were passed on by word of mouth. And, although there may have been a basic plot structure, the details of the stories changed with each retelling to suit the type of audience, the time and place and the motives of the storytellers (who were usually women).

I started to think about creating some sort of timeless female characters who had heard all the stories over the centuries and kept them safe until they were needed again. Originally I imagined that that they had swallowed the stories, keeping them inside a huge, smooth cone shaped body but having childrens faces. (I was looking at the work of the surrealist Leonora Carrington at the time and she often painted children in big cone shaped cloaks.) And at one stage I toyed with the idea of giving them nun-type headgear (I adapted an origami pattern to make a prototype out of paper). But eventually they developed the ear trumpets and the more bulbous patched and worn out bodies, although they still have young faces.

Here are some of the pictures from my reference/sketch book 



making a pattern for the bulbous form



'Echo' (print by Aine Scannell)

            



'ear trumpet' mould from a bicycle bell








Ten Line Tales

I have started a new page on my blog called Ten Line Tales. It's going to contain stories poetry and prose written by all sorts of people in response to some of the artworks on my website.