Don’t be afraid of Pink

Stephen Collington has an exhibition called don’t be afraid of pink on at the Edinburgh City Art Centre 

Sara Barker -‘Change the Setting ‘

Sara Barker has an exhibitor ion on at the Fruit Market Gallery in Edinburgh 

I enjoyed this exhibition very much , it was a sunny day and the building added all sorts of reflections , shadows and shapes to the work. 

I made notes when I listened to the video that accompanied the exhibit 

‘How objects change one another – old objects new objects sculpture making something new 

Sculptural forms that behaved in a way that is – human vulnerable visceral  or flat and 3D 

She uses a palette based on colours from her home the Isle of Man – she makes big gestural marks -transcluscent 

Suggestion of space 

Edit 

Cutting up and reinforcement 

Thinking through making 

Large painted surfaces

Metal out crops 

Sculpture painter architect 

Mechanisms of deconstruction visible 

Not trying to hide 

Not a craftsmen 

Forms project through 

Hybrid 

Liminal space 

Move see different things 

Reflect 

Veil 

See through 

Layers 

Device 

Create an environment 

Tell a story 

Tone setter 

Multidimensional 

Advertisement

Digital manipulation using IPhone Apps

Reflection and Image blender 

I make digital layers using the  Reflection and Image blender apps . 

Hint : You have to keep saving images as you manipulate them and then reopening the Apps to sart working on the new image 

Below is the sort of process I follow to make patterns and then develope the images further 

1) Metal work on a boat 

2) Open image in reflection App – choose reflection along the horizontal mirror , save image. 

3)  Open app choose above image and reflect using vertical the mirror save image 

One of my my favourite things to do is to make tile patterns 

These can be used to add interesting textures to other images

For example in Image Blender 

I am Art Journalling aspects of self

I have been having great fun recently using art journal therapy to explore aspects of self. I am following Shelkey Klamners 100 days of art therapy Journalling and one of the prompts suggests making collages that represents parts of your character for example inner child. I am having a whale of a time. 

1. The tell tale – this relates to the part of me that exaggerates and tells stories,white lies and writes fairytales. I love sience fiction and fantasy 

The inner child – I am not 100% sure why she is different skin tones and genders – I find it interesting that the boy has no face – my love of stories is reflected here too. 

The fine artist – I like to think that their is a fine artist in there somewhere – in this case borrowing from John Piper 

As the title says – the addictive part of me that is unable to stop eating chocolate when I start- insatiable for other things to like shopping or when I am so MA mission to find something – sometimes only to be disappointed when I do. 

The stroppy child – the teenager, the spiteful bit that knows the worst most spiteful thing to say at any given moment.

The doodler – insatiable again , always neededibg to be doing or making something , in the past it was painting plates and large oil pastels at the moment doodling 

This is my most recent one – my migraines are plaguing me and I can’t bear the over stimulation , particularly the visual . It probably should have said stimuli overload – it is also the he state I get my self in before I get a migraine – I ought to be more aware – now I have made the card and written it down, witnessing – I hope I will 

The trigger happy  part – this borders on manic me – when I first visit a new place and can’t stop looking and seeing new things. Sometimes I am overwhelmed but other so just want to be left alone to collect images and enjoy the experience 

The Pathos of distance -Sarah Pierce

The Irish National Gallery -Print Room 

The exhibition is about the migration of people from Ireland – the art works range from 1813- 1912 – the exhibition also includes quotes and descriptions printed on fabric panels . The images were prints presented in the original dimensions arranged on furniture 

From 20th and 21st century mainly teak from the 1960’s and 1970’s 

 

When I visited the exhibition , I was the only one in there at 10.07 am on a Friday in April . It was haunting and moving seeing all the furniture from my childhood and teenage years – I felt stuck in a time warp as I read about diaspora 
 The images and the concepts of the exhibition were secondary to the furniture ‘culled’ ( Pierce 2016) from Dublin second hand shops. I Was blown away by the number and layers of memories that flooded me . I was expecting to spend hours looking around the whole art gallery – I went to chill and digest what I was experiencing in the nearly empty cafe  

I have been travelling regularly since making a new home in Edinburgh . I am English 54 white middle class. I lived in Oxfordshire for 25 yrs. I didn’t travel out side Europe before I was 40. Living in Scotland sometimes feels like I have migrated to a different country. 
My parents divorced when I was 5 yrs old 

My Dad married an southern Irish woman when I was 7 and she had a daughter . I had the feeling of being surrounded by ‘their ‘ accents , since arriving in Ireland the evening before. 

After he met my step mother my Dad seemed almost itinerant – He was a civil engineer and travelled with work to Holland, Jakarta , Tehran , Egypt . They lived in a succession of houses – Oxford , Reading , Croydon, The Hague, a little village in the Dutch countryside, Dublin, Oxford city, Stadhampton, Watlington, in the middle of a field ,Southampton, Wimbourne Minster, and Dungarven Ireland. 

. 

During the Pathos of Distance , I am struck by the furniture and how my Dad and my step mum seemed to take their stuff with them – a white shag pile carpet, white units that could be used as tables or storage for book and artefacts all very different from the teak in the exhibition –

There seem to be so many layers here . I have visited Ireland a few times – the last time 11 years ago when my father had a stroke and subsequently passed away. 
A visit at Christmas when I was 19 seems at the forefront – A family party where everybody had to sing ,a pink fluffy jumper , burnt curry and a pretty flat. 
A pantomime where one of the chorus girls had darned hole in her fishnet tights 
Not being able to find a pay phone that worked to phone Hone and say happy Christmas 

if you talked about teak furniture to my immediate family they would be reminded of my Stepdad – he brought some with him from his first marriage – a dark teak table , chairs and a side board – 

 

In the literature about the exhibition Pierce says that the furniture is innocuous to me it is any thing but – the art in the form of prints displayed in their original formats – is small and made insignificant by the placing on the furniture which is used in a sculptural way 
There is an almost alien disruption in the positioning – which may be supported by the whole concept of diaspora? 
In one section the furniture is grouped with the images like a stage set – smaller black and white prints on tables and chairs in front of a large coloured print . This created a depth and interaction that I didn’t feel any where else in the room
The furniture also reminds me of visiting friends houses and digs that I stayed in during the 1980’s.