PhD

It's all change over at Artist Book Collective HQ.

Some of you may not know but I've been accepted on a Practice-led PhD with scholarship, and I'll be specialising in artist books! This means I can continue to build on the success of the group and hopefully support and provide more regular opportunities. 

Spurred on by this news, I've set up a new email address and mailing list to help with managing exhibitions. You can sign up here for updates: http://eepurl.com/l5mY1. The collective has also been asked to contribute to the Divided We Fall city-wide art project in Leeds this August.

This has provided an excellent opportunity to relaunch the call for artists for the Bound exhibition. If you are interested in submitting work to this show, please send an image of the work that you want to include along with title, media and edition number and selling price (if applicable). 

Please include a brief statement about the work to upload onto the website when we promote the show. If you are interested in selling editions of your work as part of the show, we can manage sales of work for 30% of the selling price. Any commission taken will be reinvested into administrating the project and producing future exhibitions.

Bear in mind, that any work submitted must be available on long term loan as we have a plan to tour the show. Therefore, only extra editions of the work will be available for sale during the tour. Please see the brief below for info and don't forget to reply to artistbookcollective@gmail.com with your info and any questions.

Bound simple past tense and past participle of bind.
1. secured within a cover, as a book
2. something that limits, confines, or restrains
3. inseparably connected with, devoted or attached to
4. tied; in bonds
5. limit or boundary eg. within the bounds of reason

From exploration of experimental binding techniques to more conceptual interpretations, such as the book as a ritual object, this new exhibition will investigate the notion of 'bound' in its myriad forms. Work submitted should investigate the idea of the bound object in form and content.

Deadline for submissions: 15th June

Artist Book Collective

You may remember a little while back when I decided to curate a book show called Bound for Leeds International Artist Book Fair. It wasn't long after this that I realised that I wasn't in fact Superwoman, and needed time and a plan, as well as to finish at least 10 other tasks, so I could make a proper job of it. Well, thanks to your patience, you'll be pleased to hear that time is now.  

The Artist Book Collective has been steadily gathering momentum over the last four years, thanks to the power of social media and the generosity of all the artists who have been involved. It has also been responsible for a lot of my more major achievements and continues to shape my practice. As such, I've decided to develop a more cohesive programme which will hopefully be sustained by the critical mass of its participants, which includes the ability to generate an income. 

Things in the pipeline:

Touring Exhibition

Lots of artists submitted ideas for the original call out for the Bound show and have been beavering away creating work while the programme was being figured out. In the meantime we've been in touch with a couple of venues to develop the start of a touring schedule and am pleased to say that the show is booked in at the Centre for Fine Print Research at UWE Bristol in Dec and Jan. The tour will continue to build around that and any suggestions of venues around the UK are welcome. As the collective is international in scope, we also hope to tour abroad in future.

Online Hub 

We are currently in talks about becoming more involved with the organisation of the Leeds International Artist Book Fair and as such have decided to tackle the online promotion of book arts in Leeds and the UK, whilst integrating the collective. The vision for this is of an online hub with info about exhibitions, fairs and a digital catalogue.

Physical Archive
In addition to this, we are working with the Leeds Library to create a physical archive of artist books from the collective which can be viewed by the public. This will form the basis of a sales outlet where people can be directed to buy editions of works after viewing the physical objects. These sales will be subject to a small commission fee to cover administration of the project.

Opportunities
We are always happy to make connections with similar collectives and venues to make the project more sustainable and increase exposure for the book arts. Also by developing Bound as a touring exhibition, we have decided to open up the call for a little bit longer to enable artists another chance to submit work. For details of how to enter, please see the brief below:

Bound simple past tense and past participle of bind.

1. secured within a cover, as a book
2. something that limits, confines, or restrains
3. inseparably connected with, devoted or attached to
4. tied; in bonds
5. limit or boundary eg. within the bounds of reason

From exploration of experimental binding techniques to more conceptual interpretations, such as the book as a ritual object, this new exhibition will investigate the notion of 'bound' in its myriad forms. The exhibition will tour, to promote both the collective, and the individual works shown in the exhibition. Therefore, please do not enter work that is not available for long term loan.  

The exhibition will also promote online sales of artist books by the exhibitors so artists may wish to consider producing editions of artist books which will be sold through the collective. 

To enter send images of work and/or proposals to sianlouisegriffiths@gmail.com

Submission deadline: 15 June 2012

Image: Debra Eck, Blackwork Embroidery book, Paper and thread, 2012

http://dryadart.wordpress.com/

The Artist-Collector

I'm a self-confessed hoarder. It's directly related to the artist in me. I keep things 'just in case', but not necessarily for the intention that they were originally created. At first this doesn't seem so unusual, but the anomalies soon become apparent when discussing this with non-artists.

A case in point. During the process of installing an exhibition in an old house, I happened upon a room full of dead wasps. You might imagine that ones first instinct would be to hoover them up. However, through the eyes of an artist, a room full of dead wasps is practically an installation in itself, and being a big fan of Tessa Farmer's work, I naturally asked if anyone wanted them. A friend, unversed in the weird and wonderful ways of the creative mind, appeared amused. This was quickly superceded by increasing levels of surprise and distress however, as three other artists began to enthuse over this serendipitous find. Honestly, it was like watching the 5 stages of grief enacted over the course of a minute. 

Anyway, it seems that my hoarding instinct has now extended to collecting art. Through curating and putting together exhibitions, I've become aware of how much creative talent I'm surrounded by, as well as how affordable it is. Equally, creating my own work means that I can always do art swaps, which is great for building up a collection without breaking the bank. Currently I have works by Debi Holbrook, Bob Milner, Paul Miller and Tracey Oldham, to mention a few. 

So, maybe this blog has whet your own appetite for buying art? Or maybe you always wanted to, but thought you needed the budget of Saatchi or Zabludowicz? Well fear not. There's a ton of places to get your affordable art fix right here in Leeds. Stockists for framed works, prints, cards and other consumables in and around the city centre include Shine, Leeds Gallery, Test Space, The Craft and Design Centre Gallery and The Bowery. Where are your favourite places to buy art? 

 

Image: Debi Holbrook, Feral Kids series, Pen and Watercolour, 2011

 

University of Incidental Knowledge staff show & #tweetart

Westgate Studios, Wakefield
28th March 2012
Reception 5-9pm 
Initiated by Alice and Bob curate

A group exhibition by the University of Incidental Knowledge course leaders: 

Louise Atkinson (BA Hons Comedy & Bsc Social Media), Fundada (BA Hons Foreign Language), Vanessa Haley (BA Hons Film), Debi Holbrook (BA Hons Avant Garde), Duncan Lister (NVQ Pedantics), Bob Milner (BA Hons Cut 'n' Paste & Diploma in Artwank), and Sparrow+Castice (MPhil Mistakes).

The University of Incidental Knowledge is a collaboration based on a higher education model, incorporating self-directed and peer-to-peer learning. Incidental knowledge is acquired through chance, through the process of doing something else such as a journey, a day job, a holiday, watching a film or overhearing a conversation. It is unexpected, unintentional, extraneous, random, accidental or found, discovered in connection with, or resulting from, a primary activity. 

It's been quite a while since I've frequented the streets of Wakefield before I defected to Leeds. At that time there were stirrings of cultural activity, but perhaps too far under the radar for me to know about. I saw Leeds as the much more cosmopolitan sibling, with flocks of new student intakes arriving each year, beguiled by its Northern cheek and charm. In the intervening years, I've been happy to see the grass roots cultural takeover of Yorkshire cities, and in that respect Wakefield has been no different. However, whereas Leeds has always been able to fall back on its financial roots, former industrial cities have, by necessity, enabled more creative endeavours to develop as part of their infrastructure. 

This brings me to Westgate Studios, an unassuming block of studio units housed above a city centre nightclub, but home to a large creative peer network who regularly host exhibitions by international artists in the venue. The artist-led, non-hierarchical ethos seems to favour creativity over bureaucracy and it shows in the projects they produce. Since opening, the studios have seen the creation of a dedicated project space for new work, a number of international residencies, an art bar known as The Prince Albert*, and the formation of new collaborative groups such as the University of Incidental Knowledge, among others.

This Wednesday sees the fruits of those various labours go on show in the form of the University of Incidental Knowledge staff show, #tweetart and the launch of the A6 part 3 zine, as part of the bi-monthly Artwalk. 

*The Prince Albert has now been transformed into Peep Gallery and will be showing a selection of #tweetart at each Artwalk during 2012. For more info on submitting to the exhibitions, click here

Service Delivery Agreement

Those of you who are avid readers of my blog (thanks mum) will know that I've decided to undertake a new project. I announced it in response to an exhibition premise called #tweetart and my element was to paint the avatars of the people who follow me. That number currently stands at about 880.

'That's quite a large undertaking' remarked one tweet, followed by 'Make sure you get my good side'. It is a large undertaking, which is why I revealed it on a public forum to make me beholden to the bizarre challenges I set for myself.

Unfortunately, this is not the only project I'm working on at the moment, because I literally can't understand why I shouldn't be able to do all the things I want to, despite evidence to the contrary. However, up to this point, the time I dedicate to art making has been sadly lacking in favour of curatorial and education projects. So I'm currently spending a lot more time in the studio and getting quicker at painting with each piece of work.

This is quite fortuitous because as I write this I am working on 3 separate #tweetart paintings so I have enough work for the University of Incidental Knowledge staff show next week. Thankfully I'm course leader for (BSc) Social Media, so a series of a avatar paintings is totally relevant. You see, although I may lack focus, it seems there's an underlying ouvre that I can always rely on to bring my projects together.

By the way, here's @legalbizzle

More Tweetart

So, after deciding to commit to the #tweetart project I was very pleased that it only took me a couple of days to complete my first painting and I began the next one in earnest, with renewed enthusiasm for making art. It's usually at this point that the realisation of the task starts to dawn and motivation begins to wane ever so slightly. What seemed like an amazing idea in the first instance, gives way to the realities of actually making the work. I would feel a bit guilty about this, but I've sat in lectures with internationally renowned artists who have expressed just that sentiment. I suppose it's one of the pitfalls about valuing ideas over process; once the idea has been had, the rest is the donkey work.*

Anyway, to help me get into the flow** again, I decided to look at a few of the Twitter avatars of people who'd RT'd and/or asked to take part to see if I could get any inspiration. Apart from anything else it was great to see the reach of my part of the project and I started to find people who I'd not spoken to before who were tweeting about my venture.

This was how I happened upon @bigart_jim, whose avatar, a pixelated graphic of a man's face, seemed like a relatively simple painting to make after my initial @peepart one. Not so dear reader. Turns out that painting small squares well enough to satisfy my perfectionist streak is the hardest thing I've ever done artwise (cue dead funny joke about artists and structure). So, after two failed attempts, and a couple of minor strops, I finally completed the next edition of my #tweetart project. Ladies and gentleman, I give you @bigart_jim.


* Of course there are many things to learn and explore throughout the process of making, but I find that it rarely beats the rush of endorphins that accompany the initial idea.
** If ever you find yourself struggling to get started on things, then watch this video.

Messages Across Leeds

We've nearly  come to the end of the Messages Across Leeds project, a series of workshops and exhibitions organised and coordinated by Leeds College of Art. The idea was to visit inner city communities to collect messages on postcards which could then be displayed in city centre locations. The work created would contribute towards a public exhibition, so participants had an incentive to get involved and show off the postcards they had made in the sessions. The project gave people the chance to be creative and raise awareness of different groups in the city.

Cut to last Friday, and the exhibition opening. We'd set up another workshop to allow people the chance to make more postcards, so people who'd ventured into town for a bit of window shopping were greeted by a table full of cake and art materials. We were unsure if we'd get anyone dropping in but slowly people started to approach and share their stories.

At first I thought it would be just another showcase for an education project, but showing the work in a public space to people who hadn't been involved in making the work, revealed some interesting results. As anyone whose done any sort of teaching will know, learning and social outcomes are the staple diet of evaluating projects, but I often wonder how much impact they have in real terms. That is until, this event.

Not only did people start to respond to the ideas on the walls, but they felt a sense of empathy with the participants which in turn, made them feel valued.  Having a public focus and a way to engage with the process really made people get involved. One lady (who I just wanted to give a great big hug to) said 'When you get to my age, you feel like nobody cares any more, that's why it's great to see projects like this and thank you so much for listening.'

We often seem to focus on the big changes, but it just takes one person to tell you happy they feel because of something you did, to make you realise the value that you can't measure. And that's why I love my job.

To find out more about the project and see the exhibition timetable visit http://www.messagesacrossleeds.co.uk/