Tag Archives: Recycled materials

Walking the City

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This blog helps me think, which is why I do it.   Reading over my last couple of posts was like viewing someone else’s problems and seeing the ******** obvious, which was obscured to me because I was right on top of it.

It helps if you just write things down.

So anyway, yes, finding the motivation to do stuff and then  getting the work out there…

I hardly ever apply for exhibitions as I usually work in group shows with people I know. So it was quite fortunate timing that I saw a local call out for an exhibition that was actually free to enter and virtually on my doorstep. What a rarity.

It wasn’t a theme I would normally choose and I really didn’t have the time to start completely new work while still working on The Sheffield piece ( which I haven’t done much to by the way as I keep getting frustratingly distracted by inane stuff)   But I managed to rework an old piece and deliver it while I was in town anyway.

6 weeks into the year and I’m finally shifting myself.

Loverpool    On til 19th February.

walk-the-city-awalk-the-city-b

 

A Hundred Miles

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              ‘A Hundred Miles’ is a kind of diary for me. Like most people, I pick up a lot of paper in my daily life and most of it is thrown away afterwards.  For this installation, I’ve kept the wrapping paper from Christmas and my Birthday, Work rotas, magazines and flyers – mostly Tate ones, so they are a personal reflection of the exhibitions I see daily.

I’ve used baby shoes as for me, they represent early stages of thought and naivety over waste.     shoes williamson 010a

I’m hoping people will stop and think about how much paper they touch and abandon.
As part of ‘De Junk Re Junk’ Williamson Art Gallery, Wirral until 7 July 2013.

Do You Understand These Rights?

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WW Do you understand 1a

The work I have in the ‘Possible Impossibilities exhibition at The Bridewell : http://www.independentsbiennial.org/2013/05/19/possible-impossibilities-new-bridewell-drawing-show-now-open/ was a culmination of several past projects.

I wanted to depict the Bridewell’s physical structure, while also adding an echo of its past use as Police cells. I thought of the words uttered when a person was arrested…. You have the Right to Remain Silent….. Do you understand….. ?  and experimented with pulling images of the Bridewell through the words.  It was a technique  I’d used before in  ‘Declaration’ and wanted to see if it would work for this piece.

I formed the shape of the Bridewell building out of the script and housed it within a found wooden frame structure.

Declaration was exhibited in ‘Speakeasy’, Basement Arts Projects, Leeds. It is the American Declaration of Independence,  printed on recycled paper. On the reverse of the paper is printed wings from my travel project, bearing the words of the song ‘King of the Road’. The wings are pulled through the Declaration as if humming a song and not really concentrating on the meaning of the words.

Dec Image 1rs

Journeys End

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JOURNEYS END 5

I’m quite a bit behind with updating this site as I only just realised that my last post was about an exhibition I had last September. More has happened since then, so I’ll try to ‘catch up’ in the next week or so.

Soooo……. The next exhibition I did for the Liverpool Independents Biennial, was ‘Journeys end’ ( November 2012) .  I decided to put three of my installations together (ships, planes and houses ) to see how they would work and interact.  As there were now over 1500 paper items, it took many hours to install. I tried to theme the objects by colour, while creating patterns and swirls within the design.

At the same time, I was in a group exhibition at Tate Liverpool, so I wanted to connect the two exhibitions, but keeping the design more simple and controlled.

Journeys at tate 003

Thus far the miles

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An installation of 600 paper planes, made from the pages of a book – LIVERPOOL Gateway   of Empire, by Tony Lane, and maps of the Wirral, Liverpool, Leeds and   Stockholm.

At first glance, this is probably an usual book to choose for an installation of planes, after all it is a book about the everyday life experiences of ship owners and seafarers, not air travel.  I felt though that it was about working together on a project that is heavily dependent on funding and collaboration.

I had recently returned from exhibiting in SUPERMARKET: the Stockholm art fair ( with the group SciBase) http://www.supermarketartfair.com/  a year long project, funded by Arts Council England, which saw a collaboration between UK and International artists, initially exhibiting in Liverpool, Leeds and Stockholm.

The project inevitably involved a lot of travelling and communication and when I picked up the book – which was gathering dust on my bookshelf, I began to see connections.

The planes filled the unit, in Liverpool’s Albert Dock, As part of Liverpool Independents Biennial.

Thus far the miles taken from Shakespeare’s Sonnet How heavy do I journey on my way

Paper Houses

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I started making these paper houses last year in response to an exhibition about housing. I had many problems with the design though and found that they travelled badly ( got crumpled easily)  So I put them away in a box and left them.

It was only when I started putting together The Cruel Sea Installation and I had to think about making the ships more sturdy and ‘people proof’, that I was able to go back to the houses and  redesign them.

The 400 + paper houses in this artwork represent a possible regeneration of the derelict terraces in Ducie Street and surrounding area in Toxteth, Liverpool.

The demolition of these buildings is highly contentious, with many residents taking the view that the houses are ‘fundamentally sound’  and that ‘renovation would be preferable and cheaper.’

With arts funding cuts greatly effecting public artworks , a question of how we can  sustain the level of art visibility – which has grown immensely due to the popularity of the Liverpool Biennials, with the regeneration of the area.

Each house in this installation is covered with a reproduction of an artwork.

The houses will be shown as part of  Liverpool Light Night : http://www.lightnightliverpool.co.uk/2012/the-spaces-between/