ART ART ART

ART!

P E T S

I made an exhibition. It's called PETS and I will probably talk more about it another day.

EAT SHIT!

Part of my museum intervention at The Museum of English Rural Life. It's on til Friday, and I'll take some more pictures of it soon. This is the colouring page which was designed to look the same as the museum's existing ones. I was interested to see how people would react to the obviously subversive tone of the work. They mainly reacted like this:

EAT YR MEAT
Museum intervention: Opinion wall and colouring page.
The work is a response to the comment wall at the end of the museum, evoked by the opinions of the public and in return provoking a response. I am interested in the way humans percieve the animals we share the planet with, and the ways in which we act out dominion. We love animals, we need animals, we hate animals, we eat animals.
To see how visitors will react to this confrontation is just as much a part of the work as the pieces themselves.

You & I are Synonymous

You & I Are Synonymous is a small exhibition I'm currently involved with, along with other members of my studio group at the UoR.

Where is the location of art? Is art inherent in the idea, the process or the final outcome – or even in the experience of it? Is the way that you create art and the way that I create art any different to one another? And if you were asked to restrict your art idea into just a sum of words, do you really think you could do it enough justice?
15 artists were asked to devise an art piece that could represent their overall practice... autonomously. Then they were asked, rather than to complete the art piece themselves, to simply restrict it to a set of instructions that would then be passed along to the next artist anonymously, who would in turn pass theirs along as well, in a chain-like fashion. It was then up to each artist to form an artwork based on the instructions that belong to another artist, and make all the secondary decisions themselves.
The aim of this exhibition and the methodology used by these artists is a simple investigation into the decision-making processes of art. Are all the decisions for an art piece made prior to the completion of it, or is there a case for the adaptation of art ideas in the process of making, which solely depend on the circumstances that may arise – or quite simple the individual’s whims! This exhibition endeavours to probe, possibly answer and still question further the incongruencies between original idea or the ‘formula’ and the final product. The space in between these two stages -the persuit of the idea - is a grey area which only the artist themselves can make sense of…

It was actually alot simpler than it sounds... the idea was to create a series of instructions for another artist to be able to make an art work, in return you got a list of instructions to make someone else's work.
I guess in many ways it was nice to be able to make a piece of work without having to think too much, but then on the otherhand it definately meant each work was based more on superficial elements, rather than really considoring the aim of the exhibition. Well, this is how I felt anyway. My instructions where as follows:

1. Use found objects from the kitchen to make a dress.
2. Take inspiration from such designers as Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen.
3. Collect spoons.
4. Make the dress out of spoons.
5. Use plastic shopping bags to make the top.
6. Find some cutlery to use as accessories for the models hair.
7. Take pictures of the model in the dress.
8. Hang the pictures in the gallery.
9. Display the dress next to the pictures.
10. Dress complete and hanged in the gallery.

OK BLEUGH. See what I mean? I was very not happy when I recieved these instructions. For me it felt like something that had been done s o o o o many times before, taking inspiration from VW and AMcQ? Obvious and unoriginal in the context (For example, even instructions asking me to make a dress out of spoons taking inspiration from Calvin Klein would have been more interesting... plastic minimilism. Or even high street shops. But christ...). I think the person also ran out of ideas pretty early on, I mean I could probably fit these instructions into 3 points. Anyway this is what I came up with...

So yeah I changed it a bit, but it had to be done.
Despite my reservations, the show itself is looking pretty good, and its nice to see my studio group producing some new work. Actually to be honest some of the work Ive seen in the exhibition has been some peoples best work... I guess considoring theyre working from instructions, this isnt exactly good news...

I should also probably show you the work made from the instructions I gave.... which was pretty much just 'Buy a massive piece of paper and some felt tip pens and draw loads of animals the end'. And this is what they did:

By EMILY SMITH.... I fucking love it!!!!

THE FUTURE OF THINGS PAST

The Show [Part One]

Here are some images from The Show, which I sort of posted about a few weeks ago.
The Show was a performative exhibition, in which the artists all played characters in a 3 hour durational performance, where the viewer was encouraged to wander freely through three rooms of installations. Each installation represented the 'home' of each character - a place where they had become stuck in time, never able to leave, never able to let go from the past. We were lucky enough to be invited to fill three large spaces in the form of empty shops within a shopping arcade. This included the use of basements, back rooms and window boxes.
In terms of my own involvment in The Show, I created an environment for a collector of animals - the taxidermist. Collecting dead pets, the dead performing animals from travelling shows and eventually the half human half animal hybrid freak show entertainers, preserving them all perfectly within his workshop.
The idea was to create an obsessive environment full of pictures of animals, animal ornaments, taxidermy and human-animal sculptures. I wanted to give the sense of preserving beauty, but in doing so actually creating a place of fear and sadness.

 

I don't know why the format of these pictures is so jangly and all over the place and I literally cant be bothered to try and fix it. I sort of like the wobbly effect though, its fun.

ACBTY

It was rad, ya.

Introducing...

This saturday 31st July 2010 6-9pm Mile End Art Pavillion, London.

COME ONE! COME ALL!

ALWAYS COMING BACK TO YOU

Always Coming Back to You

I'm lucky enough to be part of an amaaaazing one night only exhibition happening on 31st July 2010 at Mile End Pavillion, London. It starts at 6 and is free free free so if youre nearby come on down. It literally is going to be fantastic and not something to miss. I will write more about the art itself soon, and also about what I myself am doing for it. Untill then, check out the following links:

WEBSITE

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