Exeter Contemporary Open

This is the other painting which was also selected. Title Seletar Camp 2 After Image 2010

Exeter Contemporary Open 2010

Two of my painting were selected for the Exeter Contemporary Open 2010. The selectors were Cathy Lomax (Transition Gallery) Domo Baal, Domobaal Gallery and Matt Burrows, Curator of Exeter Phoenix gallery. All the work looked great it was interesting and very fresh. The majority of the works were small paintings with 3 video pieces and a sculptural work.

Art Practice as Research

Graeme Sullivan's New Book features my weavings which I did at Huddersfield also an interview I had with him about my work. The book is edition 2 Art Practice as Research - Inquiry into the Visual Arts 2010 Sage Publications. He has also created an excellent website of the work included http://artpracticeasresearch.com.

Shelly Goldsmith

Banners of Persuasion

I had an interesting talk with the artist Shelly Goldsmith about the Tapestries in Banners of Persuasion. It was about the relationship of the artists and the tapestry makers. They were made in China by a group of women who were not named and who worked part time on the tapestries and part time at other jobs. The production of the tapestries was also very hierachical with the painters having their works translated by the tapestry makers. I also suspect that having the tapestries made in China was a lot cheaper then having them made in Europe. The organiseres boasted that the tapestry makers used traditional European methods of tapestry making with extraordinary skill. I contacted the organisers of the exhibition to see if I could contact the women tapestry makers in China but they told me I could address my questions through them because of the language difficulty. This all makes me feel very uneasy.

Gerhard Richter

Moritz 2000 Gerhard Richter. This painting is full of tenderness for the subject.

Gerhard Richter

Ella 2007 Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter

This painting by Richter is called "Secretary" 1964. It part of an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery called Gerhard Richter Portraits. I really love his work although I disagree that it is without feeling I think his work is full of sensual pleasure especially his most recent portraits of his family

Banners of Persuasion

I went to the Riflemakers Gallery off Regent Street yesterday to see the Kara Walker Tapestry plus some others that were exhibiting before they are sent off to New York. The Riflemakers is an interesting space, an old gun shop, but was totally the wrong venue for the Tapestries. Kara Walker's piece was stuck in the window which was dirty and the window panes partially obscured viewing the work. Inside the other tapestries (Peter Blake, Garry Hume, Julie Verhoeven, Franscesca Lowe) were hung ceiling to floor with no visual space around them and extremely badly lit. It made the works look shabby which is unforgivable. It was a real disappointment.

more

Another small painting

I used to live in a bungalow like this!

Painting

I have also been working on some small oil paintings on board of Seletar camp.

collage on board

This image was a photocopy of one of my collaged images. This is interesting because it retains a partial trace of the original image.

Experiment on board

This was an experiment I tried using the photocopied images from the web. I wanted to see how I could transfer or partially transfer the image. What I like about this is the flaky look to the image which echoes the idea of the decay of the old camp and time passing.

Kara Walker

This is my favourite Tapestry from the exhibition. It is by Kara Walker called A Warm Summer Evening in 1863 1.75x2.5m Wool Tapestry and hand cut felt silhouette figure, 2008. "her tapestry is based on an engraving first published in a newspaper, it shows rioters burning and looting an orpahanage for coloured children in New York" (demons,yarns & tales 2008, p18

Gavin Turk

This tapestry is by Gavin Turk called Mappa del Mundo 3.13x2m wool,silk and metalic thread tapestry, 2008

demons,yarns & tales

This is a contemporary tapestry by Fred Tomaselli called After Migrant Fruit Thugs.2.5x1.6m Wool background, silk birds with metalic thread,2008. It was made for the above exhibition with quite a few recognised artists. I would really like to know if this show is touring. The work in reproduction looks absolutely exquisite.

Painting

This is another very quick small painting done in about 20 mins. It is of Seletar airport taken from a web image of Seletar in the 1960's.

Books

I am reading 3 interesting books on memory at the moment. Mediated Memories in the Digital Age by Jose van Dijck (2007). Locating Memory ed. by Annette Kuhn and Kirsten Emiko McAllister (2006) and most enjoyable of all Memory, History,Forgetting by Philospher Paul Ricoeur (2006). I haven't come across Ricoeur before. It is a book I have been waiting for, in terms of the ideas I am working with, for at least the last 6 years. They say some books come at the right time for you to appreciate them and this one really strikes a chord. Absolutely fascinating and brilliant.

Textile Ground 2

It is interesting to see how the images compare, with and without the ground. I am not sure yet!

Textile Ground

In have added an Malay Ikat textile design to the painting. I wanted to see how they would resonate off each other and provide a dialogue between two cultural identities.

Painting

I am not sure where this is in Singapore. I got the image off the web... whether it is part of Seletar camp I don't know. It is of gun emplacements.