The Longing

Linocut print, The Longing by Dean Melbourne. Just got it framed and its now up looking rather fabulous in my lounge. The print was exhibited at this years Summer Exhibition at The Royal Academy and is also in the illustrated catalogue available to purchase from the Royal Academy Website.

The Longing, Dean Melbourne, Linocut Print, 2009

The Longing was done as a limited edition run of 25 and editions were sold at The Summer Exhibition, however a good number of the prints are still available so if you are looking for a fantastic Christmas gift for someone then contact Dean for details – daytonadean@hotmail.com

Crit Group, Symposium and Emergency 4

The best cup-cake of my life courtesy of ARC crit group

On Wednesday it was my chance to present work to the ARC critique group that I have been attending at ASPEX in Portsmouth. A daunting but really valuable experience. To have the opportunity to show your work to a group of artists who haven’t seen it before and  receive honest and directive feedback is fantastic.  One of the issues that came through clearly was that of giving too much to the viewer, leaving them little freedom in direction so the piece quickly reaches a full stop. This was seen to be the case with the sewing box piece which had a number of aspects giving the same message. On reflection the embroidered fabric in this piece may well be a lot stronger on its own. The need to add more to a piece stems from a lack of confidence on my part, I believe, and this is something I have noticed myself so clearly an area to move forward in. Other issues are going to take more time to develop into such as obtaining the correct balance between materials and concept. Emotion and intimacy are key to my work but I think I need more clarity on exactly what my direction and purpose with those elements are. I was also challenged to think about the way in which I perhaps rely on my materials as well as receive inspiration from them. Objects and materials are fundamental in my practice and more often than not the natural starting point for my work, however I think on occasions (notably in the earliest stages of my work – the small box pieces) I have made use of nostalgic objects purely because their pre-existing sentimentality has made them a safe choice for me. The danger with these works is that they then may have little to offer beyond a magnification of the object’s original sentimentality. This is certainly something I hope to be more aware of and plan to question my motivations throughout the making process.

On Friday I attended the symposium organised by ARC on “selection” that followed the selection process for their Emergency 4 open. An interesting discussion in which I particularly enjoyed hearing from artist David Blandy who was one of the selectors. I had seen some of his work before and so really enjoyed hearing more about it, especially as he has such an open and relaxed approach which is really engaging. He is inspiring in that he seems both passionate about his work and to have a lot of fun with it. Great to see someone really enjoying it!

Femmy Otten - Relief, Flora en Fauna Festival 5, Quartair, the Hague, 2009

Following the symposium we attended the opening of the Emergency 4 exhibition. Some really great work, I won’t go into detail (you should just go and visit it!) but I can’t not show you an example of the work by my favourite artist there – Femmy Otten. I found her work, crafted directly onto the walls of the gallery, utterly captivating! A vibrant and compelling whimsy of dreams, iconography, personal reference, and fantasy. When I met Femmy herself she seemed the perfect match to her work – full of beauty, life and sincerity. I really hope to see more of her and her work again.

Polly Morgan

http://www.pollymorgan.co.uk/

Polly Morgan

Polly Morgan

Polly Morgan

Polly Morgan

Artists reception at ReOpen, Poole

First half of the exhibition held at The Lighthouse

One of my favourite pieces (hanging on the back wall) - shimmering and spectacular hangings made from 50,000 paperclips: beauty in the ordinary

Second half of the exhibition is showing at KUBE

My box piece

loved these images by Ozzy Yorulmaz

What If?

Last night I went to see “What If?” performed at the Nuffield theatre in Southampton. It was a performance installation created and directed by Layla Rosa, and performed by Virginia Fernandez de Gamboa, Geneva Foster Gluck and Layla Rosa. The show is Layla’s search to know her own identity, “looking through the eyes of another; inside, outside, behind and beyond the veil. Driven by the curiosities around a lost cultural identity”.

It was a fascinating performance combining arieal movement, moving image, video projection, vocals, and a unique soundscape. The show was at times (especially the first part) almost primal and wonderfully sensual, and at others tender and questioning. A really captivating performance that I’d definitely recommend.

A Great Few Days

Work by Vered Lahav from "Sleepless" exhibition

Had a great time in the Midlands since Wednesday. Vered Lahav’s show at Wolverhampton Art Gallery was beautiful, very inspiring!  I was surprised by the piece that I found the most moving – a video triptych. She had captured moments of beauty in the ordinary, things that we can choose to see and savour in our life but that could just as easily pass us by. Subtle, poignant, and magical. Also very inspiring was the wonderful catalogue collaboration that had been produced for her exhibition. Written as a fairytale it was every bit as exquisite as the works themselves.

Vered’s show is showing at the same time as Jann Haworth’s retrospective at the gallery so it was a shared private view. I enjoyed seeing Jann’s work and hearing something of the background to some of her pieces like the wonderfully huge textile charm bracelets. Her work had some similarities in feeling to Kirsty E. Smith’s who  I visited the next day. It was great to finally see Kirsty’s work in the flesh and particularly loved her pieces Bettina (recently sold to an overseas art collector!) and the fabulous Tall Legs.

Pigeons Dubrovnik, 2009

The other good news was that I was contacted by the gallery in Poole to say that one of the three pieces that I took up on Monday had made it through the second judging round and will be shown in the Reopen exhibition which opens on Saturday. The piece chosen was Pigeons Dubrovnik - which I made for my friend Deans birthday and blogged about fairly recently.   Reopen is Poole’s second open art exhibition, ”a celebration of the act of reusing, reassembling, and rethinking”. The exhibition will be held at Poole’s flagship venues, Lighthouse, Pooles Centre for the Arts, and KUBE(formerly The Study Gallery of Modern Art) and runs from Saturday 7th of November till 19th December.

Work on show and hoping to show!

I’ve been writing proposals to try and get on the road to putting on a solo exhibition. I’ve written an application for funding from the Immaterial Art Fund, a fund established in memory of Vickie Paniale to help promote the work of young artists who share her particular areas of interest. My work fits in with their requirements of being related to the theme of time and fits one of their required categories of media – installation works. They fund up to £1000 of work to include devlopment of new work and exhibiting of work.

Freezing by Yunju Hwang. Shown in Westbourne Grove Artspace.

In terms of where to exhibit I have put in an application to show at Westbourne Grove Church Artspace, a contemporary exhibition space in the heart of Notting Hill. The space looks fantastic and I think my work would sit really well in the meditative context of the building. They have told me their next review meeting to decide on the exhibitions for the later half of 2010 will be after Christmas so fingers crossed for then. Likewise The Immaterial Art Ffund say they hopefully let people know within three months.

Fingers also crossed for the 3 pieces that I took up to Poole yesterday. The three pieces I submitted to the Reopen exhibition all got through to second round of judging so yesterday I drove up with them and set them up for the viewing which I think is happening today. They said they will probably let us know tomorrow and then unselected work will have to be collected Monday. I really hope I’m not making a trip back to collect all three – even though they do good cake at the Lighthouse.

Scrimshaw, Drawing on Lace Handkerchief, 2009 by Vered Lahav

Tomorrow I’m going back to the West Midlands for a few days to catch up with my parents and friends. While there I’m going to the private view of Vered Lahav’s work Sleepless at Wolverhampton Gallery which looks amazing! Her work is right up my street. On the Thursday I’m planning on going to Solihull to see Kirsty E Smith’s show Close Encounters Of A Frillip Moolog Kind. I’ve got to know her a little over the internet after admiring her creations – check them out they are fab!

Tall Legs by Kirsty E. Smith

Angry, disappointed, and ill!

Matt Forster

Found out just yesterday that The Artworks Gallery in Newcastle, which was exhibiting work by myself and my friends Anna, Dean, & Sharon, has been closed down and all artworks have been seized by bailiffs and taken to an auction house! Matt Forster who ran the gallery, and used it to exhibit his own work, failed to pay the rent to the council and they finally sent in Bailiffs to seize assets, including exhibiting artists work, to be auctioned next week to cover Mr Forsters debts. Some artists were informed about this situation but my friends and I weren’t so just found out about this by chance. Apparently Matt Forsters work was rescued before the bailiffs came in and he has set up a new limited company “MJ Forster Gallery Limited”, just 10 days before locking the doors on the artworks premises.

link to article about Mr Forster and the gallery

Other bad news this week – just found out today that I didn’t get accepted into Artsway Open. On the back of failing to get into Emergency 09 at Aspex I’m really gutted. I know logically that both had over 600 submissions and only a few places to give out but as I submitted my best work to both its hard not to be demoralised. It can be a bit of an emotional rollercoaster this art world thing.

Finally, I had booked in and been really looking forward to a trip to London this weekend to check out Zoo art fair but the weeks of illnesses seem to be rolling on in our house and looks like I’ll still be too unwell to go.

I’m eating marshmallows and chocolate orange to ease the pain of it all.

Anonymous Drawings, Berlin

Picture sent to the Anonymous Drawings event – Kunstraum Kreuzberg/ Bethanien, Berlin.

Heaven & Earth, 2009. Indian ink and found photographs on vintage paper

“a selection of drawings by international artists will be presented anonymously at Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien. The artist’s anonymity can be lifted by means of purchasing a drawing for the symbolic unit sales price of 150 EUR. The buyer can take his drawing right off the wall and s/he is then told the name of its author. The empty space the drawing leaves behind will be marked with the artist‘s full name and country of origin.The given unit sales price should not be seen as a real market price, but as a place holder for any conceivable amount of money”

Ebony Tower Update

Dean Melbourne has just completed another painting for our Ebony Tower collaborative venture. A fantastic 6ft painting full of energy that references the emotion of the characters and the sense of elevated existence and immediacy that they are all living in whilst at Coet that seems so removed from the outside “real” world.

The Mouse and The Old Faun, Dean Melbourne