erm . . . .

 

Button Suit, made by Ruby Ann Kittner; Clinton, Iowa; with original photograph of Ruby and her husband Jake wearing this suit. c 1930 - 1940; dimensions: H 66". Via here. 

Sadly this is a listing from 2007 and the gallery must have sold it and removed the listing from their wesbite.I am interested in the relationship between the image form the past and the artefact sharing our present. this, plus the tea party at last Tues Tutor seminar must have influenced the piece that I can't document because my camera bust.

The film didn't work as you can't see anyhting except over my shoulder. As an artefact the one thing clothes ahve over anyhting else is that they can be worn and a person can include themselves and share the attention of the work.

I really wish I could have seen Jake wearing this.

I'm also interested in the idea of combining the inflexible with clothing, here buttons, but the first thing that comes to mind are the jade burial suit, ancient, but newly discovered when I was a child.

 

 Nam Oh Kim's Glance Back, a recreation of jade burial suits, made of electronic circuitry pieces with color-shifting lights. via http://www.vickilicious.com/2007/11/

Wish i could find an image of when they were excavated - literally deconstructed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14246476

(Monitor) Pop Goes The Easel - Ken Russell 1962

opt in studio crit

Outsider Art . . .

I find I keep contextualising my practice in terms of having a history of exhibiting as an outsider artist.

The night before this weeks presentation I read through a catalogue of major outsider art exhibition which I was in.

Part of the submission form was a box in which to add what you thought made you qualify as a marginalised artist. It wasn't made clear that this information would be included both within labels for the exhibited work in the gallery, and the catalogue. But then that wouldn't have served the 'inclusiveness that no doubt funded the enterprise, and subsequently had something to do with which artists were awarded prizes with financial awards.

I have removed the names. - See if you can pick out my statement.

It's interesting [to me] how I have chosen to censor parts. I've included so many to show how representative [and repetitive] these statements are.

I am in a psychiatric unit. I have never done art before but I enjoy it now and try to learn.

In this painting I have made something which I am very proud of and which is my own.

I am 21 years old and if I am to be honest I don't consider myself to be marginalised. Just because I have problems doesn't mean I have problems drawing or painting. art is my means of expression.

I enjoy the expressive process of using oil paint and a fascination of skin tone. Sometimes I work from life study observations and sometimes from distorting figures. I have had mental health needs for a number of years.

I am a graffitti artist and in being so, am marginalised not only by society and the community I live in but by the mainstream art community as well. I am currently serving a prison sentence for graffitti art.

My work has never been shown due to my health and marginalisation. I paint for myself and my well-being. Recently an outsider artist visited me at my home and described my work as outsider art, naive art and childlike.

I have been in drug rehabilitation for 6 months in Weston-Super-mare and will be spending time in a drug house in London. I would love to learn more and carry on painting.

I am a self-taught artist and my lack of technique allows me to create compulsively through art, music and words. My work looks like my psyche to me - childlike, disturbed, hopeful, lost alive.

 ___---- has a moderate learning disability. ________ is interested in art and goes to as many activities as she can afford. She belongs to a small group of similar artists who meet monthly to work independently.

I have been making my work for over a decade and because of my insular nature, rarely do I reach out and show it to people. I find the issue of applying terminology to so called 'disorders' controversial.

My art has always been important to me and being seen as a n artists first, not just someone with learning difficulties, or the names they used to call us.

Art acts as a a release for my mental health problems. I express through painting, words I cannot speak.

I have a language disorder, I like to express myself through my art work.

I've been for many years a long time mental health sufferer and I am so pleased to have this chance to show some of my art work to people who might somehow enjoy looking at it.

I had a breakdown.

My art work has developed, in part, as a result of severe physical and mental ill-health. It explores issues that make many people uncomfortable. For me the process of creating art is an essential part of achieving balance and staying well.

I enjoy pencil drawing having time on my hands as I look after my disabled wife and I am disabled from a road traffic accident. Pain rules my life a lot of the time and drawing is an escape for me.

I was discouraged to continue with art at school and until I started serving a four year prison sentence had not drawn or painted again. Having time alone now allows me to notice, evaluate and process what is around me.

I'm in prison, a victim of circumstance. My life, my image as represented in the painting is being pushed and pulled against my will and I am powerless to stop it, I just look on.

I am currently in prison and discovered art in here. I'm not on any of the art classes as they are full, so I paint in my cell, and there is very little natural light, my window is just 2ft x 2 ft.

I have been painting and drawing since I was a child. I confront the issue of prejudice against the mentally ill by using informative illustration and captions to raise awareness of the problems confronting them.

I enjoy painting.

_________ suffers from a severe and enduring mental illness (Schizophrenia) and was first diagnosed in his mid twenties. _________ has been a keen artist since he was a child and has produced paintings and draawings throughout his life.

__________ has experienced homelessness and is in treatment for substance misuse. He is also an ex offender. His lack of access to mainstream art schools and society in general make him a marginalised artists. __ has had mental health needs for the past fourteen years and has been painting for the last two. 

__ is currently using acrilyc paint and enjoys exploring different colour combinations within circular bands on coloured backgrounds.

I am currently serving a prison sentence at the HMP _______ 

___ is 84 and has been registered blind since 2002 and has Parkinsons diease. Her "________ ____ is based on the _____ of _______ and is her interpretation of what she remembers now.

My art is art of meditation and centemplation of the wall; it is a phase I went through while I was using. I began to see shapes and marks that at first were not obvious to all.

I am very happy to have done this painting. Using both felt tip and paint my imagination took over and this si the result.

drawing is my man way of communication with people, as people cannot always understand what I am saying. I drwa everything I see, it's my way of recording and making sense of the world around me.

____ feels he does not fit the norm due to his disability affecting the control he has over his art work. Fred has Parkinso's; a few years ago he had pioneering brain surgery to help the symptoms.

If I get moved to another prison the chances of me being able to sculpt are virtually non-existent. As I onl;y get a small prison wage the only way I can prusue my interest in art abnd reach a larger audience is when I am lucky enough to be in a good art department and this is very rare.

I enjoy working with objects and materials that I choose from things around me. I seem to naturally enjoy making patterns. I started on my own bedroom ceiling where I felt that I could try different things out.

I am a self taught artist although I have attended various art classes over the years. In 2003 I suffered a breakdown which i have since described as a 'breakthrough', it was to change the course of my life.

The ___ is from a re-cycled ____ which was gong to be ______. I chose and ____ from the ____ and arrnegd the ______to make a ________. I have had both mental health and learning needs for many years.

___ has a moderate learnign disbility. He goes to as many art activities as his finaces and physical problems allow. He also belongs to a small informal group which meets monthly.

I have been described as an outsider artist in Raw Vision magazine. Also I only have two fingers and a thumb on each hand and have some arthritis in my hand joints that make drawing difficult at times.

I feel like I invented the words 'marginalised artist'. I turned to _______ in ____, ____ years after disgrace and illness at ______ University. people haven't wanted to know me, which makes finding homes for my work very difficult.

I am a surrealist painter, due to a disability people didn't believe I could be an artist, I love painting.

It's true to say my artwork is obsessive in nature. The very act of sticking such a large number of pieces of ________ together has been seen by many to be an extreme way to make art.

I became ill after losing my job some years ago, and subsequently recieved treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder and depression. I have continued to be involved with art and currently volunteer at the ________ ____ Hospital.

I feel that I am a worthy candidate as being in prison means I am restricted from many things that an artist outside of prison has access to. I have taken up art as a way of expressing myself.

i am suffering from post war trauma syndrome, due to an experience of bombing of ________ (_________ at that time, 1___). I am fascinated with out mortality, and have impulsive strong inner need to paint.

I really enjoy doing art. I like all the colours. The cats are from my house. I like doing art.

"My work is not bad and it is important to me. I would do nothing if I didn't do my art; making art is my life."

I feel good about myself when I'm painting. I like bright colours, flowers, animals and am pleased to exhibit.

Due to health, mental health, it has been said by other artist that my work is naive and outsider art. I'm not sure how I make it, it just happens.

I used a newly learnt technique with a brush for this picture and I ma pelased witht he reult.


___ work is sometimes infulnced by his other creative interest - ____ - _____ and ______. several of his drawings are preparatory sketches for sculptures, very often featuring human forms, particularly ____.

I always struggle with this concept. Is the work of artists in these terms merely pathological specimens. Is the work more authentic if the creator is more "ill" than another ?

___'s paintings develop gradually. He returns to them again and again, loading his paintbrush with heavily diluted paint building a richly layered series of translucent marks.

I am committed to making art and would like to have my own gallery. I enjoy art very much.

I've had long term health problems since a child. I've always tried to work with traditionally recognised paths - college, exhibition, career. This has been very difficult, as things aren't set up for people with health problems.



The message of this work is not to get drunk as it will lead to unhappy times. I was influenced by Van Gogh, Richard Hamilton and Roy Lichtenstein.

I have had several serious breakdowns and suffer from Bi-polar and emotional Intensity disorder. Art is a great healer.

Art is important to me becasue it is in my heart. we used to go to ___. ___ for painting weekends and I love making paintings about __. ____.

I like using nice colours such as red, pink and mauve. I like being busy painting, it makes me feel nice and sunny. Painting makes me feel good, yes good.

I have used art as an essential part of my emotional health. My main enjoyment comes from work with coloured pencil in an abstract way.

_____ _____ has a moderate learnign disability, is in her seventies and lives in sheltered acoommadation. She is part of a small group of older people with similar disabilities who meet monthly to draw and paint.


I have Aspergers Syndrome and chronic mental health problems. Although I have studied sculpture to MA level I find that the art world itself is not a place that is easily accessible to someone with my diagnosis.

I am a disabled person and my creative is defined primarily by my response to that. The themes of my work - identity, resistance, survival and joy in life - are themes of my life.

art makes me feel perfect - makes me happy, makes me feel good. I like printing and painting. art is funny - i do crazy stuff - enjoy getting messy - I love it.

I have suffered long term depression and mental illness along with various health problems relating to poor diabetic control ( eyesight problems, neoropathy etc).

I am a patient in the psychiatric unit at HMP ______. I have been here a long time.

I ama  self- taught artist with a learnign disability. the work I do is self directed using aminly recycled materials without support from staff at the centre. I have worked with both scultpures and paintings.

I love art and drawing. i like to see my work, it makes me happy.

i am a disabled artist and such a visual art is a primary means of communication for me. I enjoy working mostly in paint and clay. I work from observation and have developed my own unique style.

I have been painting for 5 1/2 months. My work is unique. I paint what I see in my mind. I get a vision in my head and I draw it. I have experienced mental health difficulties. My painting has helped me; I work many hours a day on each painting. I am keen to get my work noticed.

I am a long term manic depressive being hospitalised for this condition at least ten times. This illness has severely affected my confidence in my creativity. I am passionate about life and expressing it through art.

I have had mental health problems since before I can recall. I have been on the peripheral [sic] of society's acceptance. through art, which nourished and watered the seed of my life, I have grown and become a friend to myself.

It took a long time, months to do it. It took a lot of courage to do it, but I am very proud of it. It makes me proud, it makes my happy thoughts.

I have a learnign disability and my art is as important to me as art is to someone who doesn't have a learnign diability. I enjoy making my art and I like expressing myself. It makes me happy.

I think I am a marginalised artist bbecause I suffer from Schizophrenia and at the moment I am undergoing rehabilitation. When I do my artwork it makes me feel relaxed and it is very therapeutic.

I suffere from a severe mental illness, diagnosed as schizoaffective disorder.

i liked art school and wished to contiue developing my art skills. I particularly like painting. One of my favourite subjects is animals. I find art is relaxing for me.

______ has suffered with mental health problems and learnign difficulties; he tells me he has severe ADHD (attention - deficit/hyperactivity disprder) and possible Asperger's Syndrome. He has been in prison for 2 1/2 years.

I have a learnign disablity with people in the community and sometimes it is difficult to communicate with these people, particularly when I want to tell them about my art work.

I have been mentally ill since 1987. I never had any art training and really don't know where I fit into (if at all), in the art world. All of my work now is using 100% recycled materials.

______  is 80 and has Parkinsons disease and lung cancer but this has not stopped him from being creative or keeping his sense of humour. His "Abstract Formation" piece is based on an imaginative journey through his mind.

I consider myself a marginalised artist because of the way I have to live my life. A lot of my time is spent in the woods and fields as well as bus shelters and walls at petrol stations etc.

I am a Doctor who has suffered from Bipolar disorder for the last 25 years. The condition has radically altered my life. One of the positive effects has been the discovery of the powerful healing porperties of art.

For seven years I have suffered severe mental health problems. I have been unable to work. I began painting through art therapy and now art is a major part of my life.

I have learning difficulties. I like being an artist because it is lovely. I like it when all the pictures are up and see them on the wall. I like mosaic and drwaing and all.

My art reflects my experience from the perspective of an adult survivor; I use my creativity as a healing tool.

I have had two strokles and suffer from depression.

___ does not speak or write about his art, he just does it. He paints and draws. ___ expresses himself through his art and people like what he does.

Heroin addict. Mulitple suicide attempts. Depressed, lonely, overwhelmed.

four years ago I started painting with a charity called MIND. Painting was something I had never considered before. These classes inspired me so much and made me realise what enjoyment can be found in painting.

My work reflects my reason for being, purity, honesty, living and loving.

I have a learning disability.

I've excluded images of the work, but I personally  was impressed at the very high quality of the work. Though of course this was after a selection process from thousands of submissions.

I don't want to get into anything more decriptive about the actual work, just that artistically straying into medical history seemed irrelevant.

"Illustrating how all creative work builds on what came before."

All it proves to me is how all figurative work is restricted by the limits of articulation of the human body.

Trying to explore the opposition of static drawing, and the represented and the representation . . . . as I don't have the time for animation . . .

Nil points . . .

Felt my presentation went badly yesterday, though wonder what my ideal one would have consisted of. My context came across as irrelevant and far too anecdotal. [The one thing 'Outsider art' has left with me with, is a disinterest in 'self - expression' - too self indulgent too self involved too subjective.] I don't do anything just becasue "I felt like it."

I even used it at the end to hold a survey of who had seen 'Coral Reef'! Of course many had already seen it.

A lot of the questions I'm asking myself, I'm just going to have to resolve on my own - is that my 'studio' practice ? My presentation partners were chosen for our conceptual similarity - I can't remember the specifics as I immediately went into shock. Me? Who's been drawing faces compulsively, every moment I can get, the only way I'm surviving at the moment, the only way I can another day of my failure at Chelsea.

I was late, not being able to sleep for all the dialectical nonsense going through my head, the very thing that I engage with materials and craft to avoid.

I've set my self another impossible task - as I try to dematerialise like mad, surrounded by the presence of old work


Met up with D, afterwards and went over pointless psychiatric self - justification. Maybe I should write all that down and put it to one side.


I presented the drawing and the video. Apart from the novelty of seeing myself,exposing myself [my dreadful skin, how I move when I draw] it was dull dull dull. Grey man grey drawing - the whole thing lost when presenting it in a cavernous white room.

On the bus home I thought of just inverting the whole thing, colour/tone male/female drawing/performance, etc ect.

Borrowed a couple of wigs on the way home, the price learning secondhand that my brother believes we hate each other. So so old.

Came home and brushed wigs . . . . then drew badly, listening to Obamas speech about 'winning,' and bed at 5.0am.

Now up and the usual trying trying to find a reason to continue.

The paper is just too smooth to accept enough of the graphite.




Plotting completely off, getting lost in detail.Time for some measured drawing.

One looks for so long, it takes a break to see how much one has missed.

"There are no markers with which I can measure."

Picked up this book when I went to bed. Excerpt below conveys an interesting example of the durational. 

"I was marched back to the back of the building where chains were attached to my ankles. I was then taken to another cell not far away. I was horrified to see that the cell I was about to enter had no light in it at all, just a door and four walls. When I peered inside, I saw that there was a metal ring attached to the wall. The guards hustled me in and proceeded to attach one of the chains on my leg to this ring. They had only left me a few inches of slack and I pointed this out to them, stupidly thinking that they had made a mistake. The guards laughed and continued, leaving the cell when they had done. The door slammed shut and everything was black.

I couldn't move any more than a few inches, my leg married to the wall in this way. There was no bed in this room, just concrete floor. I tried to lie down but my leg was in the wrong position for me to do so. I could only sit against the wall in a half-squatting position. I could think of nothing but the shape of my body and the position I was in. I could see nothing. This was imprisonment at its most absolute.

The difficulty in telling this story - my whole story, in fact -  is that there is no way for me to communicate duration of time to you. It may have taken a minute for you to have read of my position in this punishment cell, but I was in this position for a whole month. How do I convey this notion to you? There are no markers with which I can measure. The only way for you to come close to experiencing this is to read the previous paragraph, over and over, every minute of everyday, for a whole month. But nobody could do that without going mad with frustration."

page 148

The Damage Done - Twelve Years of Hell in a Bangkok Prison. Warren Fellows. 1997

REALISM

Been looking into Realism, Photo-realism, and Hyper-realism.

Has got me wondeering if life-casting is a kind of 'photograph' of form. I talked in my essay of the attraction of 'realism' to the 'outsider' or folk artist, and by that I mean any artist not a professional artist, or working within the established art education and promotion system.

I'm learning to make these distinctions as the first text I've read covers the period of realism in the 19th century, where the move was to champion the use of themes and scenes from contemporary life, as opposed to 'history painting.

I'm fascinated, as a social phonomenon, how the engagement with the medium and the demonstration of it's mastery becomes an end in itself. Perhaps as well it is the initial stage in all artists careers? [I remember one artist of particularly minimal work, being confronted with a childhood example of 'paint by numbers!]

Eventually one either has to make a choice to look deeper into the the world around, or stay with trying to impress with fidelity to what would have once been called nature. The original movement is classed as historically preceeding Symbolism.

The realism I was thinking of is the 'Photorealism' of the 1970's [I use it as it's clear it refers to the 2D] and is perhaps a strain of Pop art reaction against Abstract Expressionism and an embracing of popular culture. Was interested in reading the entry on wikipedia about how "Textures, surfaces, lighting effects, and shadows appear clearer and more distinct than the reference photo or even the actual subject itself." [Meisel, Louis K. Photorealism. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New York. 1980. p. 12. via 'Hyperrealism' Wikipedia]

'Hyperrealism' seems to be the term used to cover overtly realistic work of the present' though again artist are using "additional, often subtle, pictorial elements to create the illusion of a reality which in fact either does not exist or cannot be seen by the human eye." [Fleming, John and Honour, Hugh The Visual Arts: A History, 3rd Edition. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. New York, 1991. p. 680-710 via Hyperrealism Wilipedia]

Again and again the qualification to be defined as a photorealist or hyperrealist artist, after the photographic source material has been acknowledged, is the skill to recreate the image with sufficient skill.

Realism = the opportunity to display skill. If anything it lead to questioning of the existence of reality, or what constitutes reality. Of course, when placed next to abstract work, anything remotely representational will look as tending towards reality.

This is the text of a student, studying fine art, with a college that has design in it's title. I question everyday what is 'fine art' ?

One thing I am concious of is, an incredible technical achievement for the artist, can be invisible to the public. Work that is technically spectacular can be self-indulgent. It tends, I feel, to design, which stretches all the way to function. I don't want to be a designer. The one design that every artist and art student agrees to is the design of the gallery, with it's visual neutrality, white walls and grey or pale wooden floor. It provides the seriousness for the most playfully inompetent work. [I'm thinking here of the complete relocation of Paul McCarthy's grotesque studio to the forbidding gallery on Savile Row, with it's bank like security and location in the wealthiest part of London.]

But where does this leave sculpture ? There are installations but withouth the same definition of skill. [Wish I could think of the name of the artist who carefully copied everything in their studio in another material that was in the Tate recently.] What is the one thing most challenging to recreate with skill - the figurative ? Unless it is the human body, is it not design we are looking at ?

I want to look at the figurative, in and out of the gallery, and related to the mediums and processes involved.

Off the top of my head, there is

Lights camera action . . .

Am doing anyhting to avoid starting this new  . . . . ?

Update: It's done, now it's up to youtube to upload possibly the most boring video on there yet !

Whoops, didn't check if they're not too long . . . . .

The purpose of these films is to create both a drawing and a film to be exhibited side by side, to create a sense of something existing in two states and at two different times. The film is moving and made in the studio, at a time before exhibition. The drawing itself would be present at the same time and place as the viewer in the gallery.

Again I want to look at the subjective motive of the artist experienced during the making, and the objective existence of the work in the gallery and away from the studio, with it's processes of making hidden. [This would be more clear perhaps if I had instead designed an object with purpose, or something more deceptively realist in it's appearrance - something made to look like something else. The work can fail to have any wider value to anyone else, beyond the artist exercise of making.

The drawing itself is inspired by the realisation that the one thing the 'serious' design of the gallery cannot allow is the pushing back into it's walls. The centre is darker as it 'recedes.'

I'm amused that the radio relays talk of short films, social media, mature students, welfare reform, etc etc . . .

 Drawing #1 8:08 Mins.



Drawing Part Two 30.0 Mins

David Pye THE NATURE AND ART OF WORKMANSHIP

Trying to read this book. Pye divides craftmanship into two categories,  . . .

time to walk the dogs. . . .

Back from the park, but have to make a video now.

after the meeting re presentations on Saturday, went into the tate, and discovered a work I never knew was there, was thrilled by it, lost in it and then when I left, found it had been there for two years and is about to be removed.

Coral Reef by Mike Nelson.




fucking link won't embed,and it's taken me 10 mins  . . .

reminds me of the film that most resembles my nightmares, no zombies, vampires or any of that shit . . . . . 

omg fucked this blog up, trying to update the template,

add another skill to the list of things I don't have the time to acquire.

Shit, changed it again and now it takes about 7 steps to edit . . . .

"The thing about relics is, it's not their authenticity that matters, it's their history of veneration which is so deeply fascinating." Geoffrey Munn

How forbidding can a gallery be ?

"My work is more about being a clown than a shaman."

Paul McCarthy

New York Times 22 November 2009 [via Wikipedia]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/arts/design/22mccarthy.html

"We think we're liberating ourselves, when maybe we're just hurting ourselves."

David Hoyle. Onstage 2011

Maybe hurting oneself, in work involving the artists body, and by extension appearrance and identity, is not physical self - harm, but if taken too literally is social self sabotage.

I went to two parts of the three part exhibition of Paul McCarthy's work, "The King, The Island, The Train, The House, The Ship" 16 November 2011 – 14 January 2012. I've only been aware of McCarthy's work since a piece occupied a whole space at Tate Modern a few years ago. as with with Hauser & Wirth, there were the warnings at the entrance.



I do wonder what it says about me ? Rather than "adult," initially the work seems juvenile or disingenuous. Of course no little boy has a career of decades standing or has the means to work of such complex construction and scale.

"THE KING."

The presence of the artist is there either on camera, via a full body cast, or as with any artwork, by the selection of subject. Upside down canvases show [airbrushed ?]porn, an old Playboy cartoon, the trio of Paris Hilton , Britney and ?, with their papped privates, made me wonder at what age does the expression of sexual interest inevitably become goatish. These paintings were ringed round the huge presence of "King", described as the easel the paintings were made on, with a full body cast of McCarthy [with added body hair] sat in a blonde wig. King lear in Ophelia's hair.

"CUT UP"

Downstairs were two videos, one "Flicker King" 2011, a flickering projection of Milli-seconds of print ads, so raidly passing that seconds were enough to comprehend all that was being shown.

The second video: "Cut Up" I watched all the way through. Seeming to cover the time just after the body cast had been completed, Mccarthy shows himself making decisions about how to work with it further.



I've been asked a lot recently about casting, something that conceptually seems to be easier than constructing a modelled work built up over time with observation. There is nothing like life-casting to pick up an incredible record of surface texture, but there are many stages from initial mould to the final cast, and much is dependent on the final medium used. I was certainly hit later, when viewing 'Paula Jones' by how toxic modern synthetic materials are, something they seem to declare with their dreadful smell. Silicon was used for the cast of McCarthy, and it certainly has something like the density of living flesh, but this density is too even throughout, and when I walked in midway, McCarthy seemed to enacting a self hatred as he took an electric saw to what superficially seemed either his twin or inanimate self. It was soon clear that he was trying to remove material from joints to provide more articulation. The video was of extremely high resolution, and even though the cast was too warm coloured and almost bouncy for a corpse, it was hard to avoid feeling one had entered the morgue as the saw blade hacked through a wrinkled knee and hairy leg. But the 'flesh' inside was blandly even in tone and colour, and I was left to conclude that however disrespectful of the body McCarthy may have seemed, exhibiting a video that lingered on dismemberment, I was left musing on how the reality of death had been avoided or evaded.

The naivety of the amateur, in 'not realising' that a cast could not possibly imitate the variety of muscle, sinew and fat that lies under the skin, the study of which is the staple of the life class. The awkward actions of the cutting spoke of an impatient artistic struggle to bring the leaden object to artistic life, rather than of clinical investigation, or the murderer's attempt to annihilate the evidence of the victim.

MADHOUSE JNR

Upstairs, "Madhouse Jnr's" self reflexivity, repaid the cost of dragging myself into town. Though recently constructed, it is described as a "macquette" for a much larger version exhibited in 2008.



A spinning box stands on a tripod of pairs of hydraulic pumps, so that the box is tilted on nearly every axis. This I found mesmerising in itself, the loops and loops of black electric leads leading back to a whole board of processors etc. On walking round the piece it was clear that the box was a model of a room, inside of which was a camera,which was spinning round too, the result was projected on one of the walls not covered in neo - Georgian panelling. Sometimes the camera wasn't rotated, while the room was, and vice versa , with differences in speed so that via the projection, it was either the world outside that spun, or the just the room and sometimes both to complete chaos.

I was reminded with so many pop culture references around, of Dorothy's house in the Wizard of Oz. A room in a childhood home is the definition of a starting point, but here revealed, just as Dorothy is tipped into a chaotic and alien world by the tornado WHILE STILL IN HER OWN HOME.

Off to Savile Row, where the huge . . . . . . . . . .

"She Me"




The components of human life, death, sex , work and professionalcredibility have their idealised aspects, but also their squalid realities. Morality is the way of defining the two, and proscribing one against the other. I certainly object very strongly to Gunther von Hagens plastination exhibits, feeling too morally compromised to attend his shows, as if to justify their use of actual bodies of humans and animals for what I feel are totally failed scientific or didactic purposes.

Paul McCarthy: Animatronic Designer Jon Dawe


THE TROUBLE WITH YOUTH
by Donald Kuspit
http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/kuspit/kuspit8-17-07.asp

time wasting . . . . .

Sent: 06 January 2012 09:59
Happy New Year to you all!

There will be a studio meeting NEXT Monday 9 January at 3pm to discuss some important issues that may effect Opt-in and also to review as a group how the space is functioning.

Look forward to seeing you all then!

Best wishes

Sent: 08 January 2012 23:02
Dear All,

Following feedback I would like to re-schedule this weeks STUDIO MEETING for 3pm on Tuesday 10 January. I hope this is OK with you all?

See you then!

Best

Sent: 10 January 2012 21:07
Dear All,

As those of you who came in to the studio today will know todays Studio Meeting was postponed due to unforeseen circumstances. The meeting will take place:

TOMORROW Wednesday 11 January at 2.30pm

Apologies for the rearranging but please turn up tomorrow if you can as there are some IMPORTANT matters to discuss concerning Opt-IN

Hope to see you then.

Best

today's task

take five steps forward

stand downstage arm pressed flat as if against a pane of glass

turn head downstage

turn head up stage

turn head downstage

gaze at feet



release arm

walk across stage

and sit

bring both hands towards chest - palms out

elbows should be out in the air

look out to audience

stand and walk to the centre of stage

sit on the edge of the bed

lie on right hand

extend left arm along the side of your body

gaze up at the ceiling

flick your eys down to the bed



walk to the other side of the bed

and sit

look down

look up

close your eyes

open your eyes

stand up

life right arm straight up over head

close eyes

sway your body slowly as if to music



open your eyes

stop swaying

walk slowly along the upsatge wall trailing your finger along its surface

looking down

sit on the nearest chair

make your left hand into a fist

raise it to your chin

bring it out in front of your face about 12 inches and gaze at it

open your palm slightly

bring it up to your left eye

close your eyelids

and trace your left eyelid with your middle finger

trail it slowly down your cheek to your chin

bring it across the chin

move it along your right jaw line to your right ear

swivel head to the left

trace finger down side of neck then onto shoulder grip right shoulder




gaze up gaze down

stand

[Instructions for a performance piece]