Art and Design

Distance 2 Sofia Art Exhibition

John McClenaghen et al. — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 07:20:11 PST

John McClenaghen ,one of our researchers in Fine Art who was among 40 artists chosen to represent the Visual Arts in Wales at the National Eisteddfod this year also held a joint exhibition at the Akademia Gallery, National Academy of Art, Sofia, Bulgaria, 19 September - 4 October 2011. The exhibition comprised assemblages’ prints, and installation by two UK artists John McClenaghen, Programme Leader for Fine Art at Glyndwr University and Alec Shepley, Head of School of Art and Design at the University of Lincoln. The exhibition forms a part of a much broader research project in which the two artists are investigating the presentation of the fragmented work and the ‘unfinished’ project. Aspects of dilapidation, ruin and entropy are explored and much of the work in this exhibition focuses on the notion of the ‘ruin in reverse’ - coming into being as opposed to being left to decay. The work resulting from the research project demonstrates a seemingly endless preoccupation with cutting, placing, re-cutting and re-placing, joining and un-joining, telescoping between making and un-making, and the eventual ‘dis-assembly’ or collapse of the outcome. The exhibition and the broader research project will be accompanied by a publication with foreword by artist and curator John Ploughman to be produced in collaboration with the National Academy of Art, Sofia. A joint lecture by both artists was held in the gallery to discuss the aspects of the work in more detail and provide a forum to debate the media, materials, processes and ideas involved and the contextual underpinning. As a result of this visit CIMPH at Glyndwr have been invited to take part in the DA international digital arts festival next year. We have also agreed to collaborate with the National Academy of Art, Sofia on Distance 3 which will be a research and exhibition project, pairing Bulgarian and UK based artists who share similar concerns initiating long Distance creative dialogue and resulting in an Oriel Wrecsam touring exhibition. These are some of the images from the exhibition and lecture in the Akademia Gallery on the 19^th of September 2011.

Seeing Walls Exhibition

Alec Shepley et al. — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 03:18:21 PDT

The publication documents the exhibition, nature of the collaboration and element of cultural interaction involved in the Seeing Walls project. It aims to situate the work and the exhibition as a whole within a relevant theoretical and critical framework.

The installation (exhibition) was constructed with the notion of creating ‘little visual disturbances’ within the field of vision – disturbances that mitigate against an overall unifying impression of the ‘show’. The intention of simulating a self-conscious pictorial ‘fracture’ (hence ‘seeing walls’) comes out of problem-finding in conventional artistic, studio based methodologies. The pieces in this installation consist of a loosely interlocking ‘mesh’ of especially constructed objects, wall drawings, ‘ruined texts’ and video, often with urban or domestic connotations.

Distance Exhibition

John McClenaghen et al. — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 05:32:33 PDT

Introductory text written by the exhibition officer for Avenue Gallery, Suzanne Stenning from the Avenue Gallery and used as a press release in 2009.

Avenue Gallery is pleased to present ‘Distance’, an exhibition of new work by UK artists Alec Shepley (Head of Lincoln School of Art and Design) and John McClenaghen (Head of Fine Art at Glyndwr University, North Wales). Both artists have exhibited their work nationally and internationally, last showing together in a joint exhibition in Shanghai in 2006. ‘Distance’, comprising assemblages and collages, photographs and drawings, is the result of their continuing long-distance artistic conversation.

The presentation of the fragmented work and the presence of dilapidation is tangible in much of their artistic practice. However much of this work focuses on the positive aspects of ruin – on a thing that might be coming into being as opposed to be left to decay. There is evidence of a preoccupation with cutting, placing, re-cutting and re-placing, joining and unjoining, in the collages/assemblages and one look inside either artist’s workshops would reveal an almost neurotic disruption of the ‘outcome’ – telescoping between making and un-making. Could the ‘works’ themselves be ruins – failing in a way to remain intact?

Any reading of the ‘complete picture’ is disrupted and we are afforded only partial, distanced view - the artwork/viewer/location relationship is interrupted through a provisionalised engagement - meaning and function are unstable. The pre-occupation with fragmentation and the temporary artwork; cutting and rejoining; doing and un-doing; building and un-building, are attempts to reveal ‘spaces of potential’ – perhaps to prise open and invite occupation of the ‘joins’ or gaps themselves.

Avenue Gallery is located in The University of Northampton’s Avenue Campus on St. George’s Avenue, Northampton NN2 6JD. Admission is free. For more information about the exhibition please contact the Gallery on 01604 893046 or email gallery@northampton.ac.uk.

Horizons and Timelines

Paul Haywood et al. — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 06:47:00 PDT

Referencing three artist practices that manage the concept of the landscape from the perspective of human experience.

This comparison of motive explores; perpetual memory/cultural time and space/landscape as a membrane between experiences; something/nothing, mass/absense, body/aura. Initially conceptual, the artworks explore the graphics of line/colour/form with the poetic relationship between human perception and cultural conditioning represented in the concept of the horizon.

Haywood is fascinated by environments and horizons that evidence obscured history and traces of colours, weathered by natural process and human interaction. His work represents a location, a time and an interaction with an environment, through chromatic ingredients that infuse the palette of the landscape, which he then edits to a limited key of colours. Currently, using lens based media, he selects colour on the horizon, which is then filtered to merge tone into an overall sense of colour, confused by distance and a lack of focus (Train/Window/Industrial Landscapes series). Heald elaborates timelines and choreography for the camera, transforming everyday movements into dance-like passages with the assistance of the slow-motion effects, reminiscent of Haywood’s Train series, which depict the dancing lines of the horizon. The slowing down of Heald’s film, references poetics and time, recognising Kristeva‘s writings, on time (1979) and the semiotic chora (1974). Liggett’s, paints surfaces with veils/layers and gestural brush marks. The depiction of geographical barriers including horizons, create, metaphors for weathering/ageing/movement/time/creative or psychological barriers.

Liggetts repetitive horizontal line paintings (Sea series, First/Second/Third Attempt) formulate a working method inducing a meditative inspirational state. Oblivious to time during creative insights, Liggett sees this as akin to losing track of western linear time and being lost in the horizon that is the body. In The Dream Space Heald slept in Japanese ‘capsule’ hotels/ryokans/Buddhist temples, accessing simultaneous timelines/zones, capturing the transient/surreal nature of dreams. These performances encapsulated, through colour and movement, an ‘in–between-ness’ that relates to the chora. Heald and Liggett will explore cyclical and monumental time through ideas relating to ‘eternity’ or ‘transcendence’ exploring the horizon of the body/aura through painting and film.

Within their presentation the artists will discuss, the differences/similarities between horizons/timelines within their work.

Visualising the Invisible’: Arts and Science Collaboration

Karen Heald et al. — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 08:47:26 PST

This research explores, psychoanalyst/linguist/philosopher, Julia Kristeva’s concept that female subjectivity seems linked to both cyclical time (menstruation/pregnancy/repetition) and monumental time in sense of eternity (motherhood/reproduction/genetic chain). Whilst also investigating ‘psychological resonance,’ a particular part of the creative process that conjures up the idea of movement between something experienced (object) and it’s impact on the individual (subject). Heald and Liggett are developing ideas relating to a ‘space’ an ‘in-between-ness’ and ‘cyclical time’ from an art/science perspective. Heald began exploring Kristeva’s notion of the semiotic chora as a preverbal space that relates to rhythms, colours and trace, the preverbal infant, the depressive and the psychotic. She became interested in the aspect of the unconscious/subconcious, through working with the patients, exploring maternal/cyclical/monumental time, poetics and the chora. Through ‘dream films’ she creates ambient environments, where the audience is unsure as to whether one is asleep/awake, or even in a state of ‘in-between-ness’. Liggett found ‘in-between-ness’ relates to the stage in the creative process where the artists in her research could not articulate in words exactly what they were intending in their work. The dream state described as occupying ‘in-between-ness’ could also be akin to ‘psychological resonance’, the movement between ‘sites' or 'states of being', that exists, but are intangible and difficult to articulate. Exploring Winnicott (1994) and Witkin (1974) Liggett suggests that there are three areas of related experience, the subjective, the objective and what Winnicott calls 'potential space'. This 'potential space' Liggett sees as having similarities to ‘in-between-ness’. Heald and Liggetts work at the hospital only enabled the artist’s access to patients who are on/adjusting to medication. Building upon the work being completed at the psychiatric unit and in collaboration with Dr Richard Tranter, consultant psychiatrist, Prof. Rob Poole, Professor of Mental Health and GP surgeries, Heald and Liggett are proposing new perspectives into the effects of anti-depressant medications. Scientists know that antidepressants subtly alter the way people perceive emotional stimuli around them, altering people’s social behaviour’s, on a level that people are not consciously aware of. Through arts/science research the collaborators are interested to explore if patient changes are reflected in the way people express themselves and respond to their environment, prior, during and post antidepressant medication. The collaborative arts/science practice will explore these interests through creative, patient lead, artistic expressions of change alongside conventional, reductionist measures of changing depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory) producing sophisticated fusions of art/science.

The Encyclopedia of Writing and Illustrating Children's Books: From Creating Characters to Developing Stories, a Step-by-step Guide to Making Magical Picture Books (hardcover)

Desdemona McCannon et al. — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 03:12:19 PST

A practical and theoretical guide to creating successful childrens books. Co- authored by Sue Thornton and Yadzia Williams. Publishers Description The latest in our best selling Encyclopedia of Art series now focuses on a popular topic for both writers and illustrators: how to make, craft, and sell children’s books. This practical book is a step-by-step guide to becoming a successful graphic storyteller, showing how to create exciting plots and engaging characters that will delight young readers. Topics feature a wide range of genres, from fantasy and fairy tales to action-packed adventure, and offers guidance on how to tailor work to suit different age groups. The Encyclopedia of Writing and Illustrating Children’s Books also features a special section on the commercial realities of the children’s publishing industry, with tips on presenting and promoting work, and includes a gallery of inspirational examples from renowned children’s writers and illustrators.

Drawn Out: Comics in the classroom

Dan Berry — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 07:35:46 PDT

Illustration staff at the North Wales School of Art & Design were approached in November of 2008 by Frances Jones of the North East Wales Schools Library Service to run a series of practical workshops in local schools. The project was funded by the Basic Skills Agency and was designed to encourage reluctant male readers aged 12 - 14 to engage with the library services available and become interested in reading through graphic novels. The project was a partnership between Wrexham, Denbighshire and Flint County Councils, The North Wales Schools Library Service, The Basic Skills Agency and The North Wales School of Art & Design, part of Glyndŵr University.

From folk culture to modern British

Desdemona McCannon — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 06:18:09 PDT

A Folk Art revival is quietly inspiring artists and illustrators, but as De s McCannon discovers, Folk Art means more than drawing owls or men with beards. It has nothing to do with extreme right wing politics. The illustrators currently inspired by Folk Art are not only reshaping their idea of illustration, they are rethinking ideas of nation

Moving beyond the limits of language: autobiographical narrative in animation shorts

Yvonne Eckersley — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 04:19:01 PDT

The paper examines five animated shorts by different artists which explore autobiographical themes. The main areas under analysis are the themes themselves, narrative structures, visualisation and the motivation for each artist in making their film. A particular concern is whether therapeutic benefit has resulted for the artist both in terms of the animation production process and in the potential of the films to communicate a personal truth.