Book work

Repeat and appropriate

So you want to be an artist?

It's that time of year again - the sun is starting to shine (she says hopefully), the birds are starting to sound chirpier and a sea of final year students are beginning to worry about what the end of their degrees will bring. 

I normally reserve this blogging space for reflection on my practice and hoarding pictures of my work, so this post is a little different to normal. Recently, my coursemates and I undertook our professional art practice (PAP) conference: two lectures a day with two guest speakers. The result: a group of rather tired people by the final Friday sessions and an atmosphere that I'd describe as 'intense responsibility avoidance'. 'Why am I here? Where will I be when I'm done being here? What do I really want to do with my life? Why do I call myself an artist? Is it too late to back out of this whole thing and do a PGCE?'; all questions asked and not really answered over that short but stressful five days.  

The fact of the matter is, it's pretty terrifying when you try and answer those questions. Especially if you're an art student. I know that this account will be a little bit subjective but it still seems to me that creative graduates often have it the hardest when it comes to knowing what lies beyond graduation. As someone about to exit a creative area of study, I can say with confidence that this uncertainty in no way undermines the value of a degree in the arts - for a start, they foster the ability to see things differently (something myself and I'm sure many potential employers would likely deem very positive). So, why such panic? Why such scared faces when asked to make a five year goal list?

I'm sure there are many places we could start and many viable answers that I could expand upon (a lot of them based on the current state of the economy and the undervaluing of creativity but annyywwayyyy...) but - in thinking about this personally - my idea is this: art degrees simply don't lead to a knowable outcome. 

Wait, what? 

As obvious or shocking as that might have sounded, it has to be noted that there isn't really a template for how a fine art graduate's life will end up looking. In fact, the lives and careers of art graduates vary so wildly that you couldn't possibly create a pattern for a typical art degree holder. If you study medicine, it's likely you'll go on to become a medical practitioner; there is a route you can follow that leads somewhere foreseeable. The realization that this structure doesn't apply within the realms of contemporary art could potentially be the reason so many young artists opt to do a PGCE and vow to send the words 'object orientated ontology' to the deepest recesses of their minds. (I honestly do have nothing but respect for people whose want is to teach - I should do, considering I was raised and taught by two of them.) Because, if there isn't a defined outcome, what you're left with is the question that started it all: what do I want to do with my life?

And that's what makes studying art so amazing. Ultimately, the question comes full circle and it's all about what you do. Yes, you. As a prelude to the conference, the host tutor invited three past graduates to talk to us about where the seven years post-graduating had led them. The first had worked with video during his time on the course; now, he runs a very well covered contemporary art event, while holding down a job in children's media production. Next up was someone who'd worked countless jobs until becoming self-employed and taking on a leading position in a growing art space - her interests now lie in art writing. My favourite talk was however delivered by Dave Green: whilst at university, he also invested much of his energy in making videos but is now a London based comedian and works at a cafe part-time. 

Quite an array of outcomes, even in such a small sample. When Dave Green's talk was praised in front of some of our tutors, every single one of them claimed that they always knew he would end up doing stand up - they said it was clear the whole way through his studies. Evidently, that's what he was good at. 

I'm pretty good at thinking sculpturally. I'm also pretty good at singing and I'd say I was pretty good at writing. (Bold statements, but sometimes I need to give myself some encouragement.) Maybe instead of making a five year plan (or as well as), us creative lot should get better at making lists of things we're good at. At the end of the day, those are the things that should help us to decide what our next steps are going to be and what we want to do. If we're aiming to find out what we enjoy and have a talent for, there really is no limit to the possibilities and things suddenly seem a whole lot less scary. 

The exciting thing is that everyone is going to have a different answer.

And none of them are wrong.

Fabricate Exhibition!

Firstly! Massive thank you time! I'm still too excited from all the Youtube videos I was watching two hours ago!

I would like to hugely commend my friends and house mates Joe Boothby and Posy Jowett - a.k.a. Power Couple Josy - for the enormous amount of time and effort and Starbucks trips they put in to enable me (and more than 20 other artists) to show our work in Sheffield's Millennium Gallery. I merely turned up with my work and my role was fulfilled - the Fabricate team made it so easy and had been working for months to plan the whole event. When all the work was up and the gallery opened on Sunday morning, the space looked pristine and remarkably professional. Thank you to Josy and the rest of the Fabricate team!

If you didn't get the chance to see the show, you should a) sort out your priorities and b) look at the pictures belooow. Unfortunately, they're really just of my work because I'm too lazy and egotistical to edit images of other people's art work. Just kiddinng. I normally try to pass other people's work off as my own. Also kiddinngg. I hardly ever do that anymore. You're thinking of Shia LaBeouf.

I am what you are too (2014) Millennium Gallery, Sheffield 

Once again, thank you to everyone who was involved in the running and organising and curating of Fabricate - it was a pleasure to be a part of the show and I send much luck and best wishes to all the artists who exhibited work. Love x

It's super hard to title things inventively after a while

Heyyyyyy I've watched too many Grace Helbig Youtube videoooss this morning so I'm excited and ignoring my adult responsibilities yaayyyy

I really need to post some photos from the Fabricate exhibition BUT I'm posting these first so that there is some slight visual background to how the work turned out. Then I'll post the others. Stop hassling me. You sound just like my mother. 

Sam is my favourite person because he never leaves the studio. Ever.

Cuties

I have so many jars now!

My space has the best light in the whole building.

I'll be back x

Artist's pick

Studio time is incredibly precious now that my previously uncomplicated timetable (uncomplicated meaning almost non-existent) has suddenly become overrun with a plethora (current favourite word) of meetings and preparatory lectures. As a side note, this term is frightening and - as one of our guest speakers recently divulged - I may or may not be bracing myself for a post-art degree mental breakdown. I can only imagine visible symptoms to be something like an inescapable urge to scrawl 'R. Mutt' on urinals, whilst holding one-sided conversations with Damien Hirst in my parents' garage. I'll deal with that as it happens. 

Regardless of this potentially impending state, I have gathered lots of nice images of my ever-changing studio space and shall share them most unselfishly with the internet. 

These are my particular favourites and have informed some of the work I used to apply for New Contemporaries, as well as a piece that is now being exhibited at Millennium Gallery, as part of the exhibition Fabricate. 

See you soon x

Fabricate is open!

All work and all play

As previously promised, here is a visual (and audible) recap of what I've been making in the last month. For the second time on this blog, this post gives thanks to Bimal Rana and contains some images of his amazing. I had the best time installing with Bimal, Chris Shaw and Sam Blackwood - their work looked fantastic and it was great riffing ideas off each other.

The work I exhibited in SIA Gallery was titled as follows:

I'm no Frida Kahlo (two glass topped plinths containing a jar, flour and a foil survival blanket)
Safety Recordings II (audio recording, approx. 20 mins, to be played through headphones)

The images I've included show the set-up of the work (and some of the guys' work as well) and how I altered my plans around what materials to use. I shall say no more - just have a look.

Oh, I also included the entire sound recording further down.

A section of Bimal Rana's installation - pretty awesome.

We turned the guys' projector around, onto my plinths. Just to see. 

Nice seeing you x

Ruth Proctor

Composition, 2009, by Ruth Proctor from Hollybush Gardens on Vimeo.

Ruth Proctor is coming to give a talk a SHU in a few weeks and - as I was researching our upcoming lectures like a good student - I found this amazing video work! 

Have a peak. 

Colour tests and shiny blankets

The start of February means the start of term two! Could someone slow this year down? I hardly even noticed January sneaking by, the cheeky thing. 

Thankfully, the start of term two also means that I'm now post-interim assessment, which has left me with nothing but self-managed time from here on out. (With the addition of boring stuff like year meetings to attend.) Hopefully this will allow for more free moments to update you on the recent past. 

These test shots were a fun pre-assessment collaboration with Bimal Rana and his absolutely amazing neon plastic. (Hopefully he won't mind me using these images shamelessly.) I'd been trying to hunt down a source for getting larger sheets of tin foil (domestic rolls are great but a bit restricting width-wise) and suddenly thought of those shiny foil 'survival' blankets that I normally associate with helicopter rescue scenes. As it turns out, they're pretty cheap to buy from Decathlon (or Amazon), so I decided to indulge. There were ones that were completely silver and others that had one silver side and one gold side (I preferred the latter, although they're both quite plasticy to the touch and don't really hold their shape in the same way tin foil does)

I love the way these materials look next to each other; on top of one another. It isn't often that I use colour in my work, so it was also just nice for some of Bimal's material to talk to some of mine. I also bought some dust sheets that haven't quite found their purpose yet. I definitely prefer working with those sheets as an alternative to cling film - it doesn't stick to itself for one thing, so I'm much more able to reshape it and move it about. To put it another way, it doesn't make me crazy. 

Just damn good lookin', dontcha' think?

I did decide to use some of these materials in my assessment exhibition (we were lucky enough to install our work in SIA Gallery - a great space that's located in one of our university buildings. I think all our jaws hit the floor when we saw the kit that they were giving us access to. Did anyone say they wanted a table vitrine worth £4000 to display in? Because they've got two!) I'll post some shots of how it all looked and the decisions I made on the way.

Happy thoughts x