The undervalued, impassable land beside arterial routes which evolves a natural home for wildlife, however it has the underestimated idea of how soft estate has now changed because it is now subject of an exhibition?
Edward Chell and invited artists gaze upon this area which was once so unappealing to the eye. Although through paintings, prints, video and the use of road dust and car parts. It is 'known' to be an unappealing, bleak English landscape that somehow can now be considered to be picturesque. Is this the new style of what was a traditional landscape?
On site we had a brief synopsis with Artist Director, Bryan Briggs. He went on to explain the movement of a larger exhibition from Chell's solo project and also by what methods he used in order to create the works of contemporary landscapes.
Overall I feel that two particular elements were entirely distinctive to me, one being the 'Poker Smoker Mantle Piece', laser etched stainless steel, 2013. This is such a significant piece for me, as it drew me back to my younger days, the fun days where me and my dad would go watch cars being distorted and smashed up until it is not longer the object that it started life to be, banger racing. The work brought back the aroma of burning rubber, petrol and dirt which has just been thrown at you by a speeding car. The sound of engines roaring, well maybe not quite a roar, more a groan, I should say. Chell also puts the source into his work such as the road dust in the printing ink. What else can we put into our ink? Paint or whatever material we are using that day? How much more could this be explored?
Besides the sparks of ideas from memory by this exhibition, I do not believe it to be as strong as The 3 Am. However the exhibition did open my eye to the fact we are killing off the natural beauty given to us, and it appears that we take no care and just drive past. The area is somehow taking its own beauty which would have been seen to be unappealing.
Throughout the following semester we are due to display our work in four pop up exhibitions such as bluecoat and metal. The exhibition will display our projects and will link to space chosen and our own work.
Recently, I have been revisiting an ongoing project. Whereby I was looking into how my family could be seen to be different, and how this has changed me and made me think more about others. We have foster siblings living at home, this therefore leads me to think; is family all about blood? Is more of a bond and set of values we share with one another. My idea of this has changed somewhat. As one day I became a sister to three young children in need of a loving home, which they never had. I therefore feel in need to explore the system which they gone through and procedures taken. I intend to do this within my practice and as a expression of my feelings towards the children. In order to develop this project further I will be digging deeper in to the system such as the judicial system and the role of social workers. I intent to start at the beginning, the turning point, when someone or something is noticed, and an outside body intervenes to help. For example a child running away or noticed to be heavily bruised.
My Primary media used tends to lay within painting and drawing, as over the past years I have felt a connection with such media. For my part in the pop up exhibition I started by getting hold of primary sources and taking photos of 'runaways'. Therefore tying into my response to the 'soft estate' exhibition. Taken in the undervalued, impassable land beside arterial routes of which evolves natural a home for wildlife, this therefore tied in with children as they too are on the edge of lands, the edge of society and in some cases life. Moving onto painting from the sources with oil paint, in a way I would say I have developed over the years. The painting for the blue coat was; two characters, beneath a concrete bridge, tucked in the left hand corner making them look fragile and feeble.
Also editing the photographs in such a way that it's difficult to decipher the character, linking to the fact that 'looked after children' can not be see in the public eye due to legal issues. To begin with I was going to show both a painting and three chosen photographs work, however I felt this weakened painting as the painting had been a stand alone piece it therefore was a link to the loneliness of been alone to run. Also by choosing to display the work above the radiator as a contrast to the coldness.
Overall I felt the exhibition at the bluecoat was fairly strong for me, as there was only one other oil painting, which I believe made the work stand out as it was mostly forms of print and forms of photography. I found going round and finding out the artists starting points, methods and processes to be extremely intriguing. As I found how different I would do things in comparison to others, but I also gave me ideas for my own work, and ways to go about my practice.
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