26/05/2012

#tweetart May


This month's submission for Westgate Studio's #tweetart 
Curated by my Twitter pen pal Bob Milner and on show in Studio A6 at Westgate Studios
The Wakefield Art Walk is on Wednesday 30th of May and Westgate Studios will be open for visitors, for more information and maps check the Wakefield Art Walk page.




To be nostalgic for an era in which you have not lived is a mistake.



Midsummer Watch Workshop - Facial Friday

I spent the whole day working to finish my green man's head as far as possible.
I recycled camping sleeping mat and used it to build out the features,  give the face more texture and add a little visual interest. 

I was stood looking at the moodboard we had, and liked the green men with tongues/ tendrils coming out of their open mouths; quite a recurrent theme in traditional green men.


So I gave him a tongue.

I looked at his tongue and the curlicues that I'd added to his cheeks, and thought it made him look a little bit like he was performing a Maori Haka, so gave him some eyebrows too. Quite fun


Once happy with the extra bits , I had to latex and paper over them, at length.


I then repainted a base coat, and started adding different tones of green.




Behind the Scenes

I’ve been behind the scenes of the installation of two very important exhibitions this week.
Tuesday found me at my internship at Manchester Art Gallery, where I have been working with the curator Natasha Howes on their upcoming exhibition of West African art, We Face Forward.
Meshac Gaba, Ensemble, 2012

I helped to take 15 of Pascale Marthine Tayou’s Poupées Pascale out of their beautifully constructed crates and lay them out for condition checking and then helped to begin the process of condition checking the works. The amount of paperwork that goes along with each individual object that comes into and out of the gallery is mind boggling. Marthine Tayou alone has these 15 small and two 6 foot tall sculptures in the exhibition; each with its own tree-worth of paperwork. 

Later on, I took documentary photographs of the poupées and printed them for the collections management team, I really enjoyed the chance to get up close and personal with the works.

I also got chance to watch the technicians erecting Barthélémy Toguo’s giant chairs, which I will be helping the artist complete next week. They are massive.

Thursday found me in my part-time tutor position at Manchester Metropolitan University, where the Interactive Arts 2012 degree show was being installed. I met Jane, the third year tutor, who was in the unenviable position of curating the show and we walked round the Holden Gallery to see what stage the students were at. 

  A pair of students had were doing a research project on a tapestry that used to hang in the Holden, which is now in the special collection. They had arranged for the a wall hiding the giant picture frame which used to house the tapestry to be taken down, and were planning a Big Reveal of this on the opening night of the show. The gallery space was abuzz with technicians, staff and students as the covering panel was in the process of removal. 

The technicians were really struggling with taking the panel in front of the frame down, decided that it was too dangerous to do and stopped. Much to the dismay of the two students whose project it was. Jane got on the case and I reassured the boys that it would get done, that Interactive Arts always find a way.
Within an hour, the panel was down and the frame revealed. Brilliant. 


I spent the rest of the day helping students and calming them down, I noticed that one of them had taken an idea we discussed in a tutorial and really ran with it; which was really great to see. 

The last few hours I helped Jane with the last bits of curating , with the diversity of the works on show it is a really big job to work out were the pieces will go so they don’t clash, get in the way or overshadow each other.




The degree show runs Saturday 16 June – Wednesday 20 June, the Interactive arts show is in the Holden Gallery, Holden Cafe and the dark rooms off the Holden Gallery.  




23/05/2012

Midsummer Watch Workshop - A Long Weekend


Sunday 20th May 

In todays workshop, we began by varnishing over the parts of the puppets that we had repaired in the previous session. Then Russell let down one of the poles on which the puppets get hung and attached the dragon to it. He then raised it back up to a height at which I would be comfortable painting the underside, I did this so that the latex and paper I had put on previously would be safe from becoming brittle. The dragon was put onto a pole that had two giant fish hung on it, so I met them when we were hanging it back up. They were scary-toothy. 

Once the fixed puppets were away I set about making a head of one of the new green men puppets. Starting with a cruciform of bamboo cane, double width along the upright, I put a tin can about half way up double cane; this would later hold the neck cane. I then built withy circles around the cross to form a sphere.

 As I was completing my sphere, Russell discussed the idea of moving eyes with Ron for his head. He asked me if I wanted to have moving eyes too, but I thought it might be nice to have a different articulated feature and suggested waggly ears. I had to then install two circles of wire onto the frame to allow for the movement and protect the paper shell of the head. 

Once this was done I needed to cover the entire sphere in the double-weight tea bag paper and latex.

Then I set about constructing my man’s facial features, starting with his lower jaw. I had a bit of trouble getting my head around what order to put things on in, but got the hang of it eventually. I left him with eyebrows, top and bottom jaw/ lip and jowls. 



Monday 21st May 

I’d decided to stay over in Chester on Sunday night, staying at the bunkroom hostel. I thought it would be more sensible than trying to get through monday rush hour traffic. The place was pretty much empty, I had a 6 bed dorm to myself and managed to get a good night’s sleep in. When I arrived, Russell was covering balloons with brown gummed tape; apparently a fast and effective way of doing papier mache. Vicki and I joined in, we made one balloon each; they were to make the heads of three allegorical figures on horseback that Russell was working on.Following that, we got to work on out green man heads, Vicki set about finishing the one Russell had started on Sunday and I continued with mine. 

I covered more of the structure with latex and tea bag paper before adding his nose. I spent a while working out the shape of the nose and whether or not to add nostrils as I wanted his features to be quite squashy looking. Eventually I put nostrils on, I think I will build his nose up more with foam later on. 

After the nose was stuck down, I put his eyes on.

Once the features were finished, I put a base-coat of green paint all over the head making sure to get into all the nooks. 

I decided later that I wanted to make the green man into a hazel as there is an historical folklore connection with the tree and it produces catkins, which would look nice in his hair. I had a look at the shape of the leaves and started to sketch out leaf shapes, slightly simplified. Russell showed me how he had made the leaves for his green man; using a stencil with 3 leaf shapes cut out, in order than you can make a number of leaves at once. 

To make the leaves the stencil is placed on paper and green painted over, repeated until the desired number have been painted. 
I started making a stencil for this. Once Vicki had finished painting her base-coat onto her head, we made a start on building the backpacks onto which the puppets will be mounted. Using bamboo canes, gaffer tape, cable ties and infuriating sack ties we made lightweight carriers. 


It was really satisfying to make a structure that held together and was sturdy. it was also really great to just wing it with the materials, not really paying attention to how it looked as long as it worked as the structure wouldn’t be visible in the end. I finished mine with lots of padding and tried it on, it was awkward but comfortable. 

19/05/2012

Midsummer Watch Workshop - In the Belly of a Dragon

Yesterday, I had my first full workshop day at the nerve-center of the Midsummer Watch Parade in Chester.  I was introduced to Ron, the other assistant artist working on the project and found Vicky already at work in the studio when I got there.
Russell showed us how to use double-weight tea bag paper and latex to begin fleshing out the basic withy structure of our birds; made at our interview. I eventually got the hang of it, but I hadn't really thought about how I would cover the structure when I was making the frame, so found the wings a little bit awkward to cover.

covered bird

We are going to be constructing three green men, and had all brought bits of research; visual, literary and historical, which were pinned to a board.
My visual research is also available online, I've not had chance to do any sketching. 
I told Russell about my epiphany with center cane, and suggested it might be useful for getting some lovely organic vine-like shapes.

Russell had already made a start on a green man, this head blinks its eyes.

Once the birds were finished, we started work repairing existing puppets. Ron took the red dragon built onto a pram, I took the green-hobby-horse-style-dragon and Vicky took a crow on a stick.


I had to remove the dragon's head and adjust the direction of his neck a little

Using gaffer, i patched up the holes I found and then covered those with latex and tea bag paper


The underside of the dragon hadn't been painted, and so the latex had become brittle and discoloured, it needed re-covering and painting to stop this from happening again.

Some of the internal structure needed strengthening with cable ties, and so I spent a good while inside the belly of a dragon. Once the structure was solid and all of the holes were patched, I set about painting over the patches; bringing to the fore my complete incapacity in mixing paint.
In the end it looked fine




Week in Pictures

a busy week it's been too.
last Sunday I visited MAS camp to help the Nexus Art Cafe crue in building things for their Manchester Day Parade float.
I'm good friends with Hannah Mosley, Nexus's charity manager, and she mentioned the floats they were building used the same withy-frame technique as the ones on Midsummer Watch; she suggested i come and give a hand and after getting completely lost near Granada Studios that is exactly what I did.


this will be a giant teapot

Eilidh, the assistant artist, introduced me to the rats heads that the group were making, and I got stuck in.


centre cane gives really beautiful curvilinear shapes between the withy structure

I left it at this point, but vowed to return to finish later in the week

On Tuesday I was at Manchester Art Gallery; I'm working with Natasha Howes, Exhibitions curator, on the We Face Forward exhibition. This will be a showcase of new work by 33 artists from 11 different West African countries.

I have been putting together welcome packs for the artists who will be visiting over the opening weekend. 

This week I scrapped the #tweetart pieces I had made as they looked pants, and started again. 

this is a poodle doing a shit


more when it's finished....

On Wednesday I went to finish my rat head off


Looks alright doesn't it?