CAS Christmas Online Exhibition

Head over to the Colchester Art Societies website to check out our Christmas Online Exhibition. All works are for sale, so you might just find the perfect gift there too (for yourself, or for someone else!).

Find us here: https://www.colchesterartsociety.co.uk/

My offering this year, is 'END'.

END makes use of two of my The Road Sign Collection lino cuttings. Designed to be a wall hanging, bring the outside in with this wooden sign.

Developing a Peer Support Programme: Part Three: Online Creative Practitioner Support Programme

 I've not talked about the Creative Practitioner Support Programme on here in while so catch up with part one and part two first if you like!

Like with everything in 2020 the Creative Practitioner Support programme had to move online due to COVID. For the programme this transition was not too painful and in the end quite rewarding.

The main reason we were able to make this transition quickly was that we already had an online home, our Facebook Page, which allowed us to easily make contact with our attendee. We did not miss a session and went straight online the week of lockdown, letting our attendees know we would be there for their creative outlet needs!

There where changes to our online delivery

• We went from hosting 2 sessions a month, to a session every week
• We explored Zoom before Facebook introduced Rooms
• We were able to extend our offer to those outside of Colchester/the surrounding area

The main difficulties came from the tech (as always!), getting people onto Zoom, Zoom cutting out after 40 minutes and then once we moved to Facebook Rooms the issues of attendees not having Facebook accounts!

As we get use to the 'new normal' (sorry), the Creative Practitioner Support Programme sessions have gone back to twice a month, giving attendees time between session for their practice to grow.

One of the benefits that has comes from online offer has been the ability to grow our community, but also for our community to take more ownership of the Facebook Page. The page, unlike our in-person offer, is active 24/7 and attendees can - and do - post outside of our scheduled sessions. This is great as it allows for creatives to access advice and support whenever they need it and it also allows conversations to carry on over a longer period of time.

It will be exciting to see what happens with the Online Creative Practitioner Support Programme going forward!

If you would like to join us, give the Facebook Page a 'like'.

My Current Artist Statement

My artistic practice explores the use of text and site, examining how the context of a site can change the reading of any given text and provides the cultural frame work for the art work to exist within. The work produced is usually temporary, drawing on notions of time and place, duration and mutability. This is echoed in the use of language, as that too is affected by these factors. Language changes depending on when and where it is exists, and the meaning of words is edited and changed as time passes. Nothing is fixed and my practice focuses very much on nowness.

One of the main processes which takes place within my practice is the playing with language, I will often use synonyms and antonyms. I enjoy breaking language and pushing it to its limits; whether this means the use of repetition or removal of text until the language no longer makes sense. The text used within my work varies: some works use found text, others are created by automatic means – the silliness of Dadaism draws me in. However, in both instances they depend on our shared public language and social facts. The everyday nature of language and its accessibility to audiences appeals to me.

The notion of audience/audiencing and community/communication are important to my practice, as the work exists outside of an art gallery context. Therefore, the viewers of the work may not necessarily be looking at it intentionally. To engage this everyman audience, I strive to make text choices which comment on life, rather than art. One of the main reasons I use text within my practice is because we have temporal relations with it and thus, even if the viewer does not reach the same interpretation as my intention, they are still engaging with it on some level. Time and place come into play here too, as the same text will be read differently by the same person if the text is placed in a new site. The text used within my practice is often vague and embraced the audience’s interpretations of the text and the loss of control over it, echoing Barthes feelings on the Death of the Author.

My practice lends itself to installation work, the usual criteria for sites used within my practice are the Duchampian unchoice. These territories appeal to me due to their usually overlooked presence.

My process swings between two opposing pillars; choosing text specifically fitting to sites and putting text into sites and allowing it to resonate. These are varying processes, however I find the process of both compelling, as either way a dialogical relationship will take place between the art and the site [and the audience]. Working within different sites appeals to me as each has their own specific limitation and these limits help to establish and frame the text.

My practice takes a DIY approach, again infused with Dadaism, as such I use materials which are often inexpensive and processes that are easily accessible. Simplisticity can rule and as such the text is curated into the site carefully.

2019 Recap

As 2019 comes to an end I look back on the exhibitions, events and publications which I have featured in. This year was a bit different from the others as it was the first year that I have been out of education. The year has been spent working out how to juggle being a practising artist, with real life commitments. 

Scroll down to see what I have been up to!

58^th Essex Open Exhibition

‘This Way’

Beecroft Gallery, Southend

29/11/12 - 16/12/19

Poetry Sound Collection

‘Page Forty Three’

Poetry Sound Library Online: https://poetrysoundlibrary.weebly.com/

19/01/19 – Present

WOTISART?

‘done’

Art Magazine

February Edition

Unfamiliars: On Wonder

‘WONDER’

The Minories, Colchester

22/03/19

Secret Art Sale

‘you are here’, ‘you are here’

The Minories, Colchester

29/03/19 – 30/03/19

Harwich Shorts

‘Word-by-Word’

Harwich Festival

20/06/19 – 30/06/19

Colchester Art Society Summer Exhibition

‘Playing Cube’, ‘String Words’

The Minories

21/06/19 – 26/07/19

Unfamiliars: On Friends and Family

‘Communication Cards’

Odd One Out

28/06/19

The Travelling Sketchbook

‘turn over’

SPACE Colchester

18/07/19

Communication Cards

‘Communication Cards’

Edinburgh

10/08/19

Lowland

‘Its’, ‘Layers’

Ateliers Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Reuchlinstr. 4b

06/ 09/19

Polemical Zine

‘PLAY’, ‘FUN’

Online

01/10/19

Coastal Open

‘x’, ‘to the sea’

Jaywick Martello Tower

12/09/19 – 27/10/19

Colchester Art Society

‘Playing Cubes’

Beecroft Gallery

07/09/19 – 02/11/19

Falling Walls

‘Road Sign Postcards’

SVA Gallery / Nau Gallery

01/11/19 – 16/11/19 / 04/12/19 – 10/12/19

Museum of Human Kindness

‘Wallet’

Online

13/11/19

Folds

‘Paku-Paku’

Lewisham Project Space

20/11/19 – 01/12/19

Colchester Art Society Winter Exhibition

‘Page Forty Three’, ‘PLAY’

The Minories

07/12/19 – 31/12/19

New Emergence Art

‘Playing Cubes’

newemergenceart

16/12/19

2019 was also an exciting year for the Creative Practitioner Support Programme (Previously known as the Graduate and Creative Practitioner Support Programme).

We completed out first year of peer-to-peer feedback sessions, hosted a Collaborative Installation Residency and started our second year of peer-to-peer feedback sessions.

To find out more about the Creative Practitioner Support Programme visit our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/269213273718843/

Thank-you for your support in 2019, here is to an exciting 2020!