Nic Joly - 141 Days - The Somme

This week marks the 100th anniversary since the start of the battle of the Somme. During my watching of this evenings BBC The One Show there was a short piece about an artist called Nic Joly who has been making tiny, peedie soldiers standing at arms with a poppy.

These miniature sculptures are part of a campaign to highlight World War monuments in Britain. There are 141 sculptures (141 days is how long the battle of the Somme lasted) which are going to be placed on monuments across the UK in the hope of catching the publics eye to the war memorials, and get them interested in the memorials again.

 This is something which became of interest to me during my dissertation writing - how memorials in any shape or form, become part of the everyday backdrop to life and although existing, the significance and importance of why they were erected in the first instance is forgotten about. The passing of time erodes the long term purpose of a memorial - to remember those no longer here and in the instance of war memorials, to honour those who fought for our freedom.

With this temporary installation the purpose is clear - its not to alter the memorial in any way, its simply to get the focus back on the purpose of why the memorial is there.

The locations of these miniature sculptures is not disclosed, so could even possibly have reached Orkney.

Further information-
http://neverforgotten.nicjoly.co.uk/141-days-the-somme/

Katie Paterson - Hollow

I watched a documentary on BBC Four called ' What do artists do all day?' and it was all about Katie Paterson creating a piece of work called 'Hollow' and was a fascinating process which she undertook.

This work specifically is about the collection of materials, the story, the process of documenting and pulling together global species into one piece of art.

'Hollow' is made up of 10,000 wood samples from tree species sourced from around the world and also span millions of years. Painstakingly sourcing all 10,000 samples and the documentation of each piece to ensure a correct catalogue was kept of each individual piece certainly paid off in the end result. The final structure would not have looked or felt the same just using wood from any builder suppliers, the significance is in the story of the material. Each piece came from a different tree, on a different continent, at a different period of time to the piece next to it. Truly beautiful.

Further information-
http://www.katiepaterson.org/hollow/


Clip of Paterson collecting samples-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03t2j1d

Clip of when got first look around 'Hollow' upon completion -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03t7qgg

Aberdeen - Look again Festival

(Old post which had not been published at the time!) 

Art doesn't have to be confined to art galleries and after my overnight visit to Aberdeen, I certainly managed to get a lot of Art crammed in to my time!

Mirrored Pavilion - Lucy Fisher 

"Reflects the historical architecture of the area through a simple yet beautiful sculptural form" 

"Unreal Esate Schools outreach programme engaged 4 'viewfinder' artists - Aubin Stewart, Anne Marquiss, Mags Gray and Gabrielle Reith to interact with 3 schools. 

Selected groups of children from Seaton, Woodside and Holy Family were invited to travel down to the 'granite city' carrying viewfinders to help them hone in on architectural details. 

The viewfinders and additional sketchbook were taken back into the classroom to use as inspiration in the creation of a fantasy building for Aberdeen. Their drawings have been laser etched into grey board and shown as a 3-D new street. "

Loved the playfulness of it and just the imagination gone into the drawings. 

Caitlin Hynes - Esslemont and Mackitosh 

Unreal Estate was a project aimed at promoting civic pride in the city of Aberdeen by drawing attention to its granite heritage, the architecture of the past and the skills of our master masons in a celebratory way. 

A range of of interpretations and responses to Union Street were done by 10 artists, 3 schools and one designer, photographer, musician and writer. A shortlist of 10 buildings were chosen on architectural and historical merit, for the focus of the 10 artists work. 

Allan Watson The Anthenaeum 

Mark McCracken Trinity Hall 

2 pieces of artwork in one! Cleverly created that when you walk past you see wording or an image.

Andy Kennedy Aberdeen Market

This piece was the one that really caught my eye. Kennedy has took the literal meaning of the 'Granite City'  - Aberdeen is well known for its granite buildings - it was a live video piece with, what I assume was a microscopic lens?..., focused on a lump of granite which was placed on the floor, and the video was projected on the wall behind. It took this whole project back to its roots, the materials that built the buildings the focus was on.

Walk through of the Degree Show

Please note this is unedited footage

A walk through of the Degree Show both the solo fourth year along with the BA levels 1-3 selected artworks. 

https://youtu.be/KPGOdqoBWzI

Video catalogue piece

Link to video catalogue piece for my Degree Show, filmed and edited by Mark Jenkins 

https://vimeo.com/170443557/recommended

Degree Show Opening

It's been a month since my last post, but it's not for lack of content! Just been so busy with setting up for my final assessment and now the degree show opening. 

1 week until opening night and excited to let it be seen by the public now. 

I've not been living amongst it for a week now which has helped distance myself from the work, as it's been all consuming for many months now. It's more than ready to be unleashed into the public eye. 

I have sacrificed a lot during the years to pursue my studies and now the time is nearly here to see whether it has all paid off for a good graduating award. 

Poster 

Invite - which is an open invitation to everyone who would like to come