The Institute for Imagined Futures and Unknown Lands...

Fern Thomas - When the Moon Fell Out of Orbit

The current exhibition at Mission Gallery in Swansea is When the Moon Fell Out of Orbit by Fern Thomas. Following her recent MA studies at Oxford Brookes University in Social Sculpture, Fern has established the Institute for Imagined Futures and Unknown Lands. Through her research she is exploring intuitive thoughts and visions brought through dreams, imaginative ideas and images to ask questions of our current condition in the world and what our future might hold. The artworks use texts, objects, structures, performances and actions to set a kind of transformative process into being through which she and her audience engage in an ongoing exploration of the resulting imagined material.

There has been a series of weekly performances during the show in which Fern relates a series of dreamed/imagined narratives full of poetic and symbolic triggers, through repeating these sequences she hopes to come to a greater understanding of their significance, these are active interventions into the collective imagination which is manifested through and around the exhibition.

The works are also beautifully imagined within the gallery space and make direct reference to the history of the architecture of Mission Gallery. 

The exhibition runs until 15 July 2012.

Homage: New works by Roger Cecil

Roger Cecil - Untitled 2011

We are delighted at Oriel Myrddin Gallery to have opened our current exhibition of paintings by Abertillary artist Roger Cecil. We were very lucky to have a show of Roger's work at the gallery called Cariad in 2006, and now, 5 years later a completely new body of work has been created especially to show in the gallery. 

The progression in Roger's work in those 5 years is self evident in this cohesive collection of works, more minimal and less 'worked' than previous paintings, the artist often allows the board on which he works to become part of the composition. These are resolved and confident works from one of Wales' best painters working in the mature years of his career. It is inspiring to find an artist continuing to push his practice and develop his work at this stage of his life when it might be quite easy to rest on one's laurels.

Roger was at the opening on Saturday 25 June, but with customary modesty left the building when Meg Anthony, the Gallery Manager spoke about him and his working processes, he is a down-to-earth man who finds superlatives uncomfortable.

We are very proud that this show is being exclusively shown in the gallery, it continues until 27 August. If you are at all interested in contemporary painting, don't miss this exceptional show!

Neti & Hugo

Hugo Colville - Yet-another-day - Seen here

I went with Meg and Mary from Oriel Myrddin and our graphic designer, Heidi Baker, on a studio visit today to meet an artist couple who live in the hills above Newport in North Pembrokeshire. Neti and Hugo - Annette de Mestre and Hugo Colville. Heidi drove us out to where they live. Once you have negotiated a wild 1/2 mile track through beautiful countryside, past a  duck pond/lake with a wee rowing boat, you see their little blue traditional cottage; but they don't live in there, they have a studio/home/shop in a utilitarian, corrugated structure nearby. You enter first of all into a small shop area selling their cards and bound books, prints and paintings which nestle alongside their collections of beautiful old objects, bottles, pots, old glass baubles. You are invited to examine Hugo's Button Museum - a beautiful, theatrical set of old wooden draws full of delightful vintage buttons, shell, textile, glass, ceramic...

Annette de Mestre - Blissful - Seen here

Beyond this entrance is their living and working space; a covetable old plan chest, a little kitchen area looking across the garden, an old wooden table and mis matched chairs, iron chandeliers full of cobwebs. Neti and Hugo strike you as a mythical couple, they are the living embodiment of the stories and books they make together, it is a miracle that they found each other and made this life together, it struck me that it could not have been any other way, they would have found each other across oceans. It made me feel deeply happy to know that they just work away there every day, finding the beauty in little objects and thinking about it, writing about it, drawing it - living cheek-by-jowl with their work. I feel very privileged to have been introduced to them, and look forward to finding out more about their extraordinary life and work.

Jessica Holmes

Jessica Holmes - A Hole into which to Retire for Protection - seen here

Jessica Holmes - The Lesson is: Fallout Shelter is Needed Everywhere
- seen here

After yesterday's post on the new show at London's  Transition Gallery, I went off to have a look at the work of one of the contributors, Jessica Holmes. I like her recent paintings on wallpaper; the still lives and the dog images - beautiful.

Nam June Paik at Tate Liverpool

Nam June Paik - Buddha - seen here

I went to Liverpool this week for the first time, I've been meaning to go there for such a long time. What a beautiful city. The reason for my visit was the Nam June Paik show at Tate Liverpool and FACT. 

This retrospective show of the Korean/American artist, who died in 2006, is large and comprehensive, showing key works from his career along side documentation, photographs and film. Paik was a member of the Fluxus movement of artists, having met the influential artist John Cage in 1958 (he called the period before this meeting BC - Before Cage). A classically trained pianist, Paik studied at The University of Tokyo and wrote his thesis on the composer Arnold Shoenberg. Later, whilst studying in Germany he met Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Joseph Beuys.

The show includes many of Paik's television based pieces, he understood very early in his career the potential influence of television on culture and is credited with being the first video artist and a pre-curser to the MTV generation. Experimental, funny, ridiculous and pioneering, he plays with the medium and its possibilities. Music is central to his work, and his collaborations with cellist and muse Charlotte Moorman are pure Fluxus madness.

Paik's agenda throughout his career was to humanise technology, make parallels between TV, music, performance and human physiognomy. He was interested in the the conversation between technology and nature and the human spirit. My favourite works in the show were a room of his Buddha television pieces. I felt these pieces had a depth and relevance that held true, they lightly parody the TV generation.  Buddha figures stare contemplatively at CCTV of themselves or empty TV shells sometimes lit with a candle, sometimes meditative, sometimes laughing.

Fluxus is still exerting its influence on current art practice, we are beginning to contextualise its impact more thoroughly. This show raises all sorts of uncomfortable thoughts. It is very hard to encounter the works as anything other than archaic, although their original manifestations were as cutting edge works using the new technology of the era; it is almost impossible not to overlay the sense of the museum on the work. The necessary curation of the work in the Tate space brings a quite sad element to the experience. Most of the pieces were made to be performed, to be part of a happening and definitely not made to be on plinths and under Perspex preserved for our scrutiny. The Fluxus manifesto is diametrically opposed to this show, and in this sense it points to the failure of the revolution it was meant to embody. It doesn't come much more corporate than Tate, and the gallery shop with its Paik merchandise is its testament. I made my own little unintentional 'action' at the till whilst paying for a postcard by managing to knock a box of Tate badges flying scattershot across the floor...embarrassing, but somehow right.

Fluxus Manifesto - seen here

Tacita Dean at Tate Modern

Tacita Dean - From Prisoner Pair - seen here

I'm really excited that Tacita Dean has been chosen as the next artist for the Unilever series in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, the work will be installed this October.

David Nash - Force of Nature

David Nash - seen here

If you haven't caught it yet, do take an hour to watch this beautiful documentary, Force of Nature about North Wales sculptor David Nash screened on BBC Four this week (only available to view until Wednesday 2 March) . The work of Culture Colony's Pete Telfer, the documentary is the result of the long working relationship Pete has had with Nash, and the lovely direction of the piece reflects that deep affinity and knowledge of the processes, the work and the man himself.

David Nash - Oculus - Image Courtesy of YSP - photographer Jonty Wilde

© Jonty Wilde

Nash's work has such authority, such enviable focus and continuity. There is nothing artificial, nothing pretentious about it. Straightforward and poetic, the curator of work for his current show at The Yorkshire Sculpture Park talks about the monumental piece Oculus as 'calligraphic', Zen-like in it's way of being, and I feel that is a feature of so much of Nash's work. It is - it is meant to be - it could not be anything other than that which it is.

Paul Villinski

Paul Villinski - Consonance - seen here

I have recently discovered the work of American artist Paul Villinski. He has a particular focus on the reclaimed and recycled in his practice. The pieces he has made using found gloves are particularly captivating. The artist finds lost work gloves on the streets and uses hand sewing, gilding or drawing to bring them into a new existence as art. The wing pieces (mostly from the early to mid 1990's) are incredibly striking, but I actually like the quietness and profundity of those with gilded finger tips.

Paul Villinski - Lift - seen here

Antonia Dewhurst - Drawings

Antonia Dewhurst - Gimmeshelter - seen here

I posted recently about a body of work by Antonia Dewhurst, Gimmeshelter which looks at vernacular corrugated iron shelters in north Wales. Here are a collection of lovely ball point pen drawings which accompany the series.

Antonia Dewhusrt - Gimmeshelter - seen here

Antonia Dewhusrt - Gimmeshelter - seen here

Antonia Dewhusrt - Gimmeshelter - seen here

Avi Allen: Always A Little Anxious

Avi Allen - Always A Little Anxious

I went to Theatr Mwldan Gallery in Cardigan last night to the opening of a show by Avi Allen, Always A Little Anxious. The first time I saw Avi's work was in the National Eisteddfod a couple of years back, a lovely set of drawings of animal paws; really sensitive and tender. Avi's use of space, isolating her drawings in an expanse of white accentuates the feeling of tenderness and focus. Drawing is at the heart of her practice, she sees it as a vehicle and a space for conversation. 

Avi Allen - seen on Facebook

For this show, the artist has taken a theme of animal trophies as her subject, she says: "I am interested in the complex relationship between humans and animals and am currently exploring the phenomenon of displaying dead trophy animals. Can trophy displays memorialise the beauty of nature? Or is it a process which serves to promote, maintain and normalise the objectification and normalisation of animal as other?"

As well as using drawing and collage, the artist also includes two video pieces which further explore the subject matter. I found the content quite disturbing, I am personally very sensitive to the suffering of animals. I found it a challenging show on that level. I do like Avi's technique however, her use of drawing is refreshing and distinctive.

Paul Emmanuel - Fleece Painting

Paul Emmanuel - Cefn Coed Isaf - Photo: Paul Emmanuel

The new show at Oriel Myrddin Gallery, Paul Emmanuel -  Fleece painting opened last Friday evening. Paul was with us to hang the show and it has been a pleasure to talk with him and watch the show unfold in the gallery space.

All the works are made using raw sheep fleeces gathered locally to the artist's home and studio in the Brecon Beacons. Each piece is treated with a process involving oil paints and other media along with human hairstyling products and techniques, and then named after the farm from which it was sourced. The catalogue essay for the show has been written by Karen MacKinnon, Exhibitions Officer at The Glynn Vivian Gallery in Swansea who has watched the working process of the series develop.

Paul Emmanuel - Fleece Paintings (waiting to be hung)

Although I had seen some of the fleece works in the flesh as part of Oriel Mostyn's post refurbishment show, We have the mirrors, we have the plans... , I had mostly encountered them through photographs and had developed a particular expectation of the finished pieces which was very much confounded by the actual objects. I have been working on publicity with the lead image for the show Cefn Coed Isaf, a particularly powerful image. There are overtones of blood, violence, sex in this piece that are not necessarily typical. I was surprised that generally, I found the work light and funny alongside its many other conceptual layers.

Perhaps the first interpretation of this body of work addresses Emmanuel's role as an artist in a farming community, and specifically in Wales with its ever-present sheep farming stereotypes and jokes. Beyond that and an initial association with landscape and place there are complex issues at play. An investigation around 'nature versus culture', where do these two states and their particular languages meet, where do they cross over? Personally, I am reminded again of the philosopher John Gray's book, Straw Dogs: On humans and other animals. In a post-Darwinian age of evolutionary theories and genetic mapping, what distinguishes human and animal? What claim can human beings have to a unique position in the world?

Emmanuel's past work has questioned the idea of the 'painter' and the business of painting and that is also an important element in the work, he is playing with the boundaries of the discipline. The identifying dyes and markings which farmers apply to the fleece are still visible in some of the pieces and that is also part on the conversation. Bringing these works out from the studio, away from their natural environment and into a white space gallery demands another layer of conceptual interpretation, Paul mentioned that even the journey to bring the pieces into the gallery had been part of his ongoing dialogue with the work.

With its references to the human body and allusions to pubic hair there is an unsettling psychological aspect to the work, it challenges ideas about our sexuality and the overlays of romance and refinement we bring to it.

I'm looking forward to having the works in the gallery for the next six weeks and continuing to think about what they might mean and how they effect me.

The show continues until 26 February.

Don Van Vliet

Don Van Vliet - Ghost Red Wire 1967 - seen here

I am sad that Don Van Vliet a.k.a. Captian Beefheart died today. He painted throughout his life as well as making extraordinary music. Ghost Red Wire is my favourite painting, and here is Captain Beefheart's 10 commandments of guitar playing:

1. Listen to the birds. That's where all the music comes from. Birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from. And watch hummingbirds. They fly really fast, but a lot of times they aren't going anywhere.

2. Your guitar is not really a guitar. Your guitar is a divining rod. Use it to find spirits in the other world and bring them over. A guitar is also a fishing rod. If you're good, you'll land a big one.

3. Practice in front of a bush. Wait until the moon is out, then go outside, eat a multi-grained bread and play your guitar to a bush. If the bush dosen't shake, eat another piece of bread.

4. Walk with the devil. Old Delta blues players referred to guitar amplifiers as the "devil box." And they were right. You have to be an equal opportunity employer in terms of who you're bringing over from the other side. Electricity attracts devils and demons. Other instruments attract other spirits. An acoustic guitar attracts Casper. A mandolin attracts Wendy. But an electric guitar attracts Beelzebub.

5. If you're guilty of thinking, you're out. If your brain is part of the process, you're missing it. You should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. If you can trap that feeling, then you have something that is fur bearing.

6. Never point your guitar at anyone. Your instrument has more clout than lightning. Just hit a big chord then run outside to hear it. But make sure you are not standing in an open field.

7. Always carry a church key. That's your key-man clause. Like One String Sam. He's one. He was a Detroit street musician who played in the fifties on a homemade instrument. His song "I Need a Hundred Dollars" is warm pie. Another key to the church is Hubert Sumlin, Howlin' Wolf's guitar player. He just stands there like the Statue of Liberty-making you want to look up her dress the whole time to see how he's doing it.

8. Don't wipe the sweat off your instrument. You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music.

9. Keep your guitar in a dark place. When you're not playing your guitar, cover it and keep it in a dark place. If you don't play your guitar for more than a day, be sure you put a saucer of water in with it.

10. You gotta have a hood for your engine. Keep that hat on. A hat is a pressure cooker. If you have a roof on your house, the hot air can't escape. Even a lima bean has to have a piece of wet paper around it to make it grow. 

Seen here

Louise Bourgeois: The Fabric Works

Louise Bourgeios -  Untitled 2005 - seen here

Hauser & Wirth have opened a new gallery in Saville Row, London. I went along to visit the current show before it ends on 18 December.

Louise Bourgeois: The Fabric Works is a beautiful show, spread over the two spaces which make up the gallery footprint. Framed fabric 'sketches' use the textiles Bourgeois collected throughout her life, sewn, woven and patchwork-ed into abstract designs. Many of the works reference her abiding interest with the spider; web-like, geometric patchworks. There is also one of her metal spider sculptures in the gallery; I'm a little ambivalent about these pieces - the first time I saw one in the flesh in the Serpentine Gallery, it was spectacular. It crouched, perfectly scaled and claustrophobic in the space, but the pieces I've seen since have often seemed out of sorts with their surroundings. I was more excited to see two of her room enclosures. 

Louise Bourgeois - Bullet Hole 1992 - seen here

There's a fantastic catalogue that accompanies the show; all I can do is covet it for now at £65 - one for the Christmas list...

Shadow Catchers: Camera-less Photography

Floris Neusüss - Shadow Catchers - installation shot - seen here

The V&A has been on my list to visit, there were two things in particular that I wanted to see, Shadow Catchers: Camera-less Photography and Mat Collishaw's Magic Lantern zoetrope installation in the crown cupola of the museum's architecture. I timed my visit to make sure I was there after dark and got the most from the installation, billed as '...hauntingly beautiful...a beacon of light brought to life by fluttering moths...', I was disappointed. If I had not already read about the piece, I am not sure I would have noticed it, and if I had, I think I just might have assumed there was a strobe light on the roof. There was also a smaller piece installed in the garden to compliment the work, but I was informed that it was not working today.

Moving swiftly on, Shadow Catchers was an enchanting exhibition, focusing on the experiments of five artists, Floris Neusüss, Pierre Cordier, Susan Derges, Garry Fabian Miller and Adam Fuss in making images on photographic paper without the use of a camera. Various techniques had been used which manipulated light or used chemical processes to capture people, objects, abstract patterns and textures. 

It is interesting that these techniques seemed to lead the artists to muse on spiritual and philosophic questions about the nature and matter of the universe. Maybe the techniques themselves and the quasi-scientific element to the processes influenced the contexts. The often ghostly, ethereal quality of the finished works certainly hint at the more meta-physical aspects of humanity. 

Pierre Cordier - Chemigram 8/2/61 I, 8 février 1961 - seen here

I particularly enjoyed Chemigram 8//2/61 1, 8 fevrier 1961 by Pierre Cordier, it suggested to me the other-worldly presences of the ancestors seen in the palimpsest rock paintings of aboriginal Australia. 

Susan Derges - Vessel No. 3 (1) - seen here

I liked Susan Derges tadpole series, with all the memories it brought of childhood wonder at the process of transformation. Floris Neusüss' photogram Homage to Talbot: The Latticed Window, Lacock Abbey 2010 was absolutely beautiful. Adam Fuss' Shaker ladder was exceptional, and for me brought a little humour to the otherwise quite serious content of the show. 

Adam Fuss - seen here

Antonia Dewhurst

Antionia Dewhurst - Gimme Shelter series - seen here

I have recently been intrigued by the work of artist, Antonia Dewhurst, currently studying at Coleg Menai in Bangor. I am particularly interested in her Gimme Shelter - Tŷ unnos series of models, actions and performances. The term Tŷ unnos means One night house in English. It is an old Welsh tradition; if one could build a house in a night on common land and have a fire smoking in the chimney by morning, the land could be claimed - this feat having been accomplished, one could then claim the land around the house as far as an axe could be thrown from each corner of the house.

The artist has made a series of models for shelters using photographs she has taken of local shelters and buildings. I wanted to find out a little more about her ideas and she kindly agreed to answer a few questions.

KC: I really like your 'Gimme Shelter' series of models. Could you tell me a little bit about how you came to work with this concept. 

AD: I've been concerned for some time with questions of where or what home may be, this comes from my own rather ambivalent feelings about where constitutes home. During the summer I did a lot of running in the hills around Llanfairfechan and the Tŷ unnos idea came to me fully formed, it was simply something I felt I needed to do whether or not it constituted "art". 

KC: I really like the technique of physically making the models from photographs - kind of hybrids I guess. Are the models things in themselves or maquettes for larger structures? 

AD: The model-making arose from the need to explore the concept as fully as I could. Initially I considered chopping up dolls houses, then, while researching architectural model supplies on the web, I came across cardboard models for model railways. Neither of these options were quite right, but it occurred to me that I've been photographing doors, windows and corrugated iron for years and I could print these onto card and make my own, uncompromised, designs.

The models aren't maquettes, they are structures in their own right, though they do explore the aesthetic of how the Tŷ unnos may look. It was important to me that they are made from photographic material collected from the local area so the aesthetic is specifically a North Wales one.

Antonia Dewhurst - Gimme Shelter series - seen here

KC: Where do you think the project is going? I saw the images of the work in Estate Agent windows - what's the idea with that? It seems very pertinent in the current climate...

Antonia Dewhurst - Accent Properties - seen here

AD: The project is very much based around actually building a Tŷ unnos on March 19th 2011, and this is likely to represent a peak of activity and energy though it may not actually be the most important element of the project as a whole; I remain open-minded about that. 

At the moment I am exploring other aspects of the project such as the estate agency angle. One of the characteristics of the original Tŷ unnos is absent from my project and that is the idea of encroachment. The originals were squats in order to annex a pocket of land. I have permission for my Tŷ unnos so I am exploring other ways to encroach, one of which is to introduce the models and photographs of the finished Tŷ unnos into estate agencies. I'm hoping this will impart a certain gravity to the project; the models tip-toe around the edge of the rather romantic and sentimental aspects of home, I would like the project also to be concerned with darker themes like ownership, encroachment and the universal need for shelter.

I have been extending the video element of the project, building minimal shelters in two different locations in the village using deliberately inferior materials.

Antonia Dewhust - Woodland Shelter 2 - seen here

I'm looking forward to see the outcomes of the project, thanks to Antonia for her time.