Collage crisis

Settling back down into work and focusing on my collage stuff. I'm hoping to use this technique to pull a few ideas together, namely the thought maps, surrealist photography, found objects, and psychoanalytic/linguistic theory. Initially the collage work was created in response to a brief for an exhibition at Temple Works using old Kays catalogues as inspiration and material, but now the focus has shifted slightly to incorporate Freudian object theory, fetishism and the Engineering of Consent - a driving force of Capitalism. Need to do a bit more reading and research, starting with Adam Curtis' Century of the Self. See you in 3 hours...

....and relax

Been crazy busy lately as usual with solo shows, group shows, new ventures, Light Night, etc. Got a few projects ongoing but things actually feel more relaxed given that I don't have 3 deadlines in the same week! The Tate project is going well and just finished working with an artist from London, Faisal Abdu'allah, who is a fantastic photographer and has recently been commissioned by Christian Boltanski, no less! There's also plans in the pipeline to go to Tel Aviv and New York which is very exciting! Less deadlines and more space for thinking inevitably seems to lead to more ideas tho which is good but frustrating cos I want to make all of them. What I need to do is be more playful and allow more process into my work which is starting to happen a little more with my new collage pieces which I'm loving making. Pics to follow...

A case of the gonnas

I'm too excited about everything and it's making me lose focus. I'm making a lot of work and there is a kind of thread but it still feels a little disjointed. I know this isn't ostensibly a bad thing, it's just that it can make me feel a little disorientated and I start to do one thing then get distracted thinking about something else. I just need a plan..

Work, work, work

It never rains, but it pours...

Projects so far: Another solo show 'Old, New, Borrowed, Blue', opening next Friday at Back o' The Shop Gallery in York. A show at an arts conference in Tel Aviv from 13th September. 3 Person show at Temple Works in October. 'Electric Pets' project for Light Night Leeds. 'Natural Selection' @ Holy Trinity Church in October. 'Porno-graphy' (graph paper) exhibition @ Brahm Gallery, can't quite remember when (must check that). Something Bauhaus-related. Molekskine show (luckily I've already done that work). Plus workshops, more Tate projects and possible international exhibitions...

It feels like a blessing and a curse but I do it to myself so I must love it :)

Twitter-tastic

I recently joined twitter which I've been resisting mainly due to the fact that I already spend enough time in front of a screen trying to get work done. However, due to an inability to keep up to date with various events in the leeds social calendar I thought that micro blogging might provide an answer - and it has! It feels like one step away from plugging a usb stick directly into your brain, but the 140 characters of information at a time afforded to each user seem to be an effective way of communicating - as long as you're not trying to broach a particularly in depth or sensitive subject (but why would you do that on a mass media outlet anyway?) So despite the total information overload, I have already gained a lot of interesting information about local events and developments, arty tips and interesting projects such as this one: http://mysteriousletters.blogspot.com. Now I just need to figure out all these tweetisms (@reply, ff, etc) to stop me feeling like a grandma trying to work a VCR. Any offers of tutorials gratefully accepted.

Temple Works!!!

Started working with a new placement artist from Bradford College and we've worked out a plan for how we're gonna conduct the next month or so. Also just found out about a new venture from Culture Vulture called Temple Works. Need to get involved with this space and there's a couple of open days at the end of August so I'm gonna try use that to explore the space and do a bit more of my photography stuff.

Moleskine books

I'm just starting to settle in from getting back from Cyprus and thinking about all the work I need to catch up on including the Travelling Moleskine book that I need to pass on! I chose the book of bad ideas cos I thought it could produce some amusing drawings, but when it came to it, it was hard to think of anything! My mind kept wandering to more serious political ideas in history which I didn't want to focus too much on but then more trivial thoughts seemed a bit obvious and flippant. So I decided to focus on annoying, pointless or badly designed products/services and this is what I came up with. Still not sure if I like it but it's a good exercise in working to someone else's brief. You can see more artist book entries here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/travelingmoleskine/