SVAF and an-collaboration projectSevenoaks Visual Arts Forum I am one of the three founder members of The Sevenoaks Visual Arts Forum (SVAF) now in it’s sixth year. We meet on the first Thursday of the month in the KCC contemporary gallery, Sevenoaks Kaleidoscope Gallery, by kind permission of The Kent Visual Arts Officer Duncan Brannan. Sevenoaks Visual Artists Forum is a group of 60+ professional Kent artists and makers. The group is non selective, friendly and comprises both successful, and emerging artists. We believe that true artists have open and inquiring minds and that we can learn something from everything and everyone. Our members are drawn from many disciplines including paint, ceramics, print, textiles, sculpture, installation, video, sound and contemporary drawing. We aim to make the Forum a vehicle for artists to meet, critically engage, share, network and develop their practice. SVAF meetings comprise of speakers, panel discussions, away days, and critiques of member’s work. SVAF in association with Duncan Brennan have an annual ‘OPEN’ exhibition. SVAF formulate interactive community projects in the Sevenoaks Kaleidoscope Gallery. SVAF actively promote and engage with collaboration projects. Following an extensive survey with current members, we will be starting in February 2015, a small group, monthly critical appraisal meeting, facilitated by an external tutor/artist practitioner. As a result of the survey this will also be located at The Sevenoaks Kaleidoscope gallery. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sevenoaks-Visual-Arts-Forum/410315532381300?ref=br_tf# ‘Works on paper:Collaboration’ AN Bursary December 2013- December 2014 Final exhibition ‘Paper works’ Collaboration Project The Hundred Years Gallery Hoxton London E2 March 2015. ‘Paper-chain Project One ‘ 21st- 27th July 2014 I continue to be an invited artist on the next project on the Campbellconnors Paper Works collaboration: Paper Chain,this is a postal exchange of work across the summer, where each work is adjusted by each artist in the chain to uncover the form it finally wishes to take. I am the first artist on chain 1 and the first object that arrived in the post was:
As requested I photographed the object. I have 1 week to work on the object in whatever way I choose, alter, add too, respond…….I spent five days mulling over the object, My thoughts were around the object in its function as an aid to human memory. It is a disposable object with no reverence. An object that is adhesive in the short term. It was only when my thoughts evolved to considering the memory encased within the actual block of adhesive paper, the self-memory of paper of being a tree. How to link -memory-tree-sticky? A gum tree? Researching I found Eucalyptus haemastoma (Latin) or common name Scribbly Gum ‘The name scribbly gum is inspired by the tunnels left by the scribbly gum moth larvae (Ogmograptis scribula) as they burrow in the bark.’ Methodology I spent a further one day working out the logistics and feasibility and one day creating the drawing.I decided to create a graph using all 100 of the sticky notes. The tree drawing would occupy only one third of the paper so that when reassembled as a block the object drawn would be difficult to ascertain and would appear as ‘scribbly’ marks (replicating the Eucalyptus haemastoma bark marking) Only apparent on some pages, the large scale drawing would revert to being only a memory.
My original intention was to stick all 100 sticky notes to the wall but the product was not adhesive enough and peeled off. I attached the notes to a table. The natural behaviour of the notes to curl made the drawing a challenge. I drew the ‘scribbly’ tree of Eucalyptus haemastoma.
The curl meant that the completed drawing was impossible to photograph so I weighted it overnight. All the images were taken standing on the table.
I reconstructed the sticky notes back into the block , then photographed and videoed to show the assembled marks/non marks/blank pages.
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After 1 week I posted the reassembled object onto Alison the next named collaborator.
‘Works on paper:Collaboration’ AN Bursary December 2013- November 2014 August 5th – 11th ‘Paper-chain Project 2′ The 2nd artist in a weekly paper-chain collaboration project, I received this in the post.
My initial thoughts revolved around rejoining the segments of the box with delicate lines extended across the voids of white mount board. Potentially using thread or fine colour pens to create a linear connection between the solid masses that would reflect the texture and colour, then remove the reconnected box from the board. The strength and volume of glue made it impossible to remove the support. My thoughts then turned to the box that had been disassembled and rendered in opposition of it’s primary function. What if I had a box that was sealed? Working with newspapers on a daily basis I decided to create a sellotaped box that held unknown to it’s viewer, the remnants of the news stories represented on its exterior. It would be a time capsule of the week that I spent on the project.
I selected to use extra wide adhesive tape partly to move my experimentation forward and also to engage with many larger scale images in the papers. The remnants left after the lifting were enclosed inside the box and the week was so overwhelming in the volume of extraordinary world events that I decided to add a brief synopsis of the weeks events from the Sunday Times……. in some ways this detracted from the mystery of the time capsule if it was ever opened.
The week coincided with the commemoration of the start of World War 1. The constant reflections of 100 years of peace in Europe jarred with the actuality of rampant war with Boka haram, Isis, Hamas, Israel and Putin all involved in major war atrocity. Britain had Boris standing for parliament, the potential separation of Scotland with the first television broadcast of Salmon v Darling and the threat of laughing gas as the new substance to abuse. Art this week was represented by Art Angels ‘Spectra’ and ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’ the 800,000 ceramic poppies installation at the Tower of London. Ebola started to spread across neighbouring African boarders. A minority ethnic group called the Yazidis were being decapitated, crucified and buried alive by Isis who had them trapped on a mountain.
The Sellotape drawings shown laid on top of the remnants of source imagery that was enclosed within the box. The two inch tape drawings were then used to completely encase and seal the box.
It was an explosive week in world news that I could not have predicted and gives the box an essence of Pandora’s box. The viewer reading of narrative on the box is distorted; some images that appear to convey sadness and distress are actually miracles of survival. A child presumed lost in the Tsunami ten years ago found thriving; child cancer suffers receiving medals for their courage. There are also truly frightening nightmare scenarios of the Ebola virus and Isis. The box has now been forwarded to the next artist on the chain. I have no knowledge how it will be read or if any artist in the chain will consider the possibility of opening it Exhibition at Bowerhouse An interim exhibition of the work created so far, at the Bowerhouse in Maidstone. See Curation Unit 2. September Collaboration with Lindsay Connors and Jo Brown. We had the problem that Jo lives in Leeds so we had to devise a way of working together other than via Skype.I have been reading ‘You’ll Never Know Drawing and Random Interference’ Jeni Walwin and Henry Krokatsis. I felt an element of chance should be incorporated and was keen to put a pin in the map between Leeds and London, devising an instant artistic collaborative reaction to an unknown destination. A game of chance referencing the randomness in the work of John Cage? ‘Chance, to be precise, is a leap, provides a leap out of the reach of one’s own grasp of oneself. Once done, forgotten- John Cage We devised a set of serial strategies and met in an unknown part of London. On 2 October 2014, Barker, Brown and Connors met at 11 am at SE13 and followed these instructions: 1st left; 2nd right; 1 left; carry on for 2 roads; turn left and walk for 10 steps; look for an alley…… Document the found space. [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/108409990[/vimeo] http://vimeo.com/108704956[/vimeo] [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/108337502[/vimeo] [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/108723606[/vimeo] [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/108819601[/vimeo] [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/108821291[/vimeo]
October Collaboration with Alison Berry We decided to Continue the theme of acknowledging the debt we owe to paper as a carrier of information and knowledge that Alison had brought from her last collaboration.This resonated with my current work focused on the set of ancient illustrated French Encyclopaedias. We elected to focus on human rights legislation both modern and The Magna Carter. Although in many cases originally written on vellum, the dissemination of information about our British legal rights has primarily and historically been through printed paper copies. Our collaboration resulted in a series of work that denied homage, as we perversely embroidered mocking graffiti on to paper copies of the Magna Carta and the Human Rights Act 1998. A laborious and oddly affectionate form of defacement, the embroidery demonstrates in a light hearted way the rights we have to freedom of speech and to challenge authority as enshrined in this legislation.
This project has been extended from December 2014, into a final collaboration of groups of four artists working up to the final show at The Hundred Year Gallery Hoxton in March 2015. Sadly I have withdrawn from this unexpected final section, owing to it impinging on my MA Drawing Unit 3. I have however been requested to consider helping with the final curation. I am still aiming to attend the collaboration critiques of the projects progress. UNIT 1 ________________________________________________________UNIT 1 ‘Works on paper:Collaboration’ AN Bursary December 2013- November 2014 December 2013 ‘Straight’ my mind has not achieved this mode of thinking since appraising the word for task 1 of our collaboration project.
Starting point as always head for a definition, as my mind latched on to images of Halloween 2009 in LA and a closed freeway choc a block with exotic transvestites all parading to multiple live bands, I don’t know my collaborators so squash the exotic and figurative (Now know it may have been a good move!) http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/3995522/0/3/desc Having started an MA in drawing at Wimbledon Center for Drawing, UAL in October I would like a cross fertilisation of my ideas and exploration of methodology between both ventures. I didn’t appreciate my initial intense drawings for ‘straight’ would have to remain in my MA portfolio as it dawned that they would move through the group to be adapted, altered and even erased as part of the collaborative project. One collaborator asked if it was OK to burn work! ‘Straighten’ Everyone comments on my tidy home while I know I am a hoarder and the cupboards bulge.
I had been reading Tim Ingold ‘Lines A Brief history’ and his discussion about if a line could ever be straight even when using a ruler had lodged in my memory. My starting point was to extend the lines in a magazine, using a ruler on the left and freehand on the right and yes the ruled lines dipped and wobbled as they left the ruler on the curve of the page. They also blotted and smeared due to my selection of a gel pen, leaving an edge of ruler print. Klee taking his line for a walk was also in my thoughts and I wanted to see how long a straight line I could draw free hand. Initially this was going to be on a 9-meter roll of paper but the curve of the page made me think a three-dimensional object may be more challenging and I selected a kitchen roll tube. My initial aim was that it should be a continuous line but I failed in the manual dexterity challenge.
Juhani Pallasmaa (2009) ‘The Thinking Hand, Essential and embodied wisdom in architecture’ . John Wileyand sons, UK.’ First Collaborative Group Meeting 17th January 2014 Twenty artists now revealed to each other for the first time. Huge agenda for the two hour meeting allowing for only a 2minute presentation by each artist of the ides behind their work and a two minute critique by the group.At the end of the evening a random pairing was established for the next activity. Working together you took the allocated work of two other artists to develop over the next month, looking for relationships, connections by either altering, responding to or deconstructing. I was allocated Karen Gardiner’s ‘Get it Straight’ Pen on paper January 30th 2014 First meeting with Ruth Payne in a coffee shop between our two homes, sadly we live quite a distance from each other. Karen’s work involved fine red lines ending in a template silhouette of the base paper, delicate and beautiful. All my thoughts revolved around RED. I have never actively selected to draw or wear this colour. It has connotations of power : Political: labour and communism, red official wax seals.Education the teachers red correction pen on school work. Religion, the authority of the church of Rome. Implications of passion and sex or love, red roses or a ‘red letter day’ The passion of anger, ‘seeing red’ So apart from the obvious red paint, ink, biro, wax crayon, pastel does it come in a more unusual format? Well yes it does so for my first meeting off I headed with my new red drawing implement and a red biro for each of us. Notes made at the meeting appeared to have significance in their strong red scrawl. Ruth has Sonia’s work which comprised three independent ideas. We both felt drawn to the three dimensional curls of cut unadorned paper. The shadows in the coffee shop were stupendous. I had felt Karen’s piece was crying out for an intervention but felt loath to alter its simplicity and elegance. I had toyed with the idea of printing two exact copies and responding on one with the intention of extending it’s beauty and the second in a hideous or jokey way while retaining the original. I feel very responsible for it as an art work and am wondering if she has concerns for it? While being told the ‘letting go’ is part of the project, I do wonder if the artists will always be able to comply, can we create an artwork knowing it is going to be altered or potentially abused? There is of course also the potential for another artist’s improvement or resolution. After an hour and a half brainstorming we are going to explore an amalgamation of the two works involving: Red media. Scale. Qualities of paper. Silhouettes, templates and shadow. Qualities of mark. Ten days to independently play before our next collaboration meeting where we plan to organise a full day to jointly create a new work, having selected an idea from our playtime. Just been told by my MA Drawing Chinese Peers that it is the year of the Horse and Red is very lucky this year! February 13th 2014 My thoughts have revolved around qualities of paper that will respond independently when cut and therefore alter any preconceived outcomes. I am also interested in amalgamating my current MA investigations into traces, shadows and absence. Red media is the only confirmed aspect of the experiments. I selected to work on baking parchment because of its texture, that it is more cloudy than tracing paper creating a vague obscurity. It has a definite engineered commitment to retain its curl and it comes on a very long roll. I cut the width into three vaguely equal portions. Two intensive days later I have ‘Culture Trace’ Red biro on baking parchment a continuous 4 metre paper work which has self selected itself to strongly resemble a Chinese parchment roll. The piece is figurative and is a collection of mixed size images partly traced and drawn from two months Sunday Times Culture magazines. The only limitations were that the size of figures fit on my 15cm wide roll and that they were full length figures. This actually limited my selection of imagery and I tried not to compose the parchment but work through each magazine in turn. They cross all cultural and interest boundaries, cartoons, book jackets and paintings feature amidst celebrities and historical imagery. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gttdbqX4SWA
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March 2014 My new collaboration partner is Katie Hayward, we are continuing to work with the outcome of my collaboration with Ruth Payne. Having worried about how I would cope with someone taking my work, I am now worried about how easy it will be to abstract and develop it in new directions. The element of peeking attracts us both, lifting, finding elements of the red drawings and found pinhole mark making within the magazine imagery. It’s the spontaneity of the act and unplanned outcome but how can you replicate this in experiments? Lifting, revealing, unwrapping and holes seem pertinent for our play. 
Having had two weeks of fun and produced some rather odd cardboard, foam and paper sculptures creating an interesting debate about how we would exhibit them. We then decided to return to our introductory premise 
