nowhere island

http://nowhereisland.org/

another great Artists Taking the Lead project that I have just heard about. For the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad Arts Council England funded project this time for the West of England.

National Portrait Gallery - Private Tour Road to 2012

I was delighted to meet the curator Anne Braybon, Commissions Manager for the Road to 2012 project at the National Portrait Gallery. Anne delighted myself and fellow BT Storytellers as she gave us a private tour of the photography exhibition.

Emma Hardy, whom I met at the weekend and Finlay Mackay's work is  hung separately but against the the strong colours of the gallery walls, the vibrancy of which was matched only by Anne's sartorial splendour. Contrasting in both style and technique, Hardy uses available 'ambient' light to capture the serene, relaxed and static poses of the men and women a who have shaped the London 2012 games, whereas Mackay's often artificially lit subjects are dynamic and captured 'in action'. Often larger format photographs, Mackay takes several shots at the location and later seamlessly combines the images into one large photograph. Hardy uses film and no manipulation of the image post processing.

I preferred the more subtle, quiet approach of the latter - more atmospheric but it was great to see the images in contrast with each other. A most enjoyable evening.

G.O.D. 10/09/11

The Great Out Doors - a DIY art event. Great fun if a little wet!

more pics here

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.1949918067095.2096591.1216897336&l=e335362b59&type=1


My effort M'ART DOOR a great map for the great outdoors. I discovered afterwards that the door actually came from Devon!! Too strange...

TextileTales - Jess Plant

I happened upon this project and the artist on The Greenway at the Olympic Park, Stratford.

as the MA Art & Design student from Brighton, Jess Plant would sew a button onto a fabric printed map of the London Borough of Newham representing where the person lived. Jess explained that this was to get people's attention. The main project is here

http://textiletalearchive.tumblr.com/rosettaartscentre

A community art project collecting textiles that tell the tale of Newham. Brilliant.

Emma Hardy Road to 2012 Photography Workshop

In my role as BT Storyteller I was invited to attend Emma Hardy's Road to 2012 Photography Workshop at The View Tube, The Greenway in the London 2012 Olympic Park, Stratford E15.

Road to 2012 is a National Portrait Gallery project capturing the journey towards the Games and Emma Hardy was commissioned to photograph portraits of the men and women who have shaped London 2012 from Seb Coe to Sue Barker and the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

Emma Hardy at the Olympic Park, Stratford

http://www.emmahardy.com/


Sent out into the park to put into practice the tips and advice she gave here are some pics I took and a photo opportunity with Emma.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49784922@N05/sets/72157627537838395/

I learnt; always use the available light (no flash), the morning or evening light is most effective but not when the sun is at its highest, don't be in a hurry to take the shot, trust with your 'sitter' is everything, photograph where the sitter is most comfortable in familiar surroundings, composition is key, be honest with you sitter about how you will use the photo and what you want to portray.

I am looking forward to a private tour with the NPG Road to 2012 curator on Thursday to see the portraits from Emma and the other commissioned photographers in the gallery.

Interesting things that have happened to me this week...

sourced a door, loaded the door, unloaded the door cut the door into five pieces used a circular saw cleared up the mess met Ben he told me about his Thames Estuary project, told him about the dig and sow project  had a meeting in a graveyard under a dead tree that looked like the strong winds would bring it down any moment met an elderly gentleman named Arthur who spent the best part of twenty minutes telling me his medical history and life story then took my name and said he would pray for me. I thanked him. The Rector made jokes about digging holes in the graveyard and I went on my way. Met James "Cunning" Murrell the "white witch" of Hadleigh I was adopted by the Hadleigh & Thundersley Community Archive awarded a pin badge lined up for an Echo photo opportunity grinning and holding a laptop loaded and unloaded door which by now is getting heavier by the journey went to the Olympic Park met a  guy called Andy whom I had never met before but through the power of the internet we greeted each other like old acquaintances met Sarah, Sean - a clown who works for BT - no he really is a clown and he works for BT. I didn't say anything. Met Mat (who also works for BT and may or may not be a clown), Rizwan, Jean-Jacques and Nina fellow tellers of tales of the BT kind chatted to and had my photograph taken with Emma Hardy National Portrait Gallery Road to 2012 commissioned photographer drawn to this other young ladyTextile Tales, Jess Plant literally on the road to 2012, well the The Greenway through the Olympic Park carried the door to the beach drank beer got soaked in the pouring rain watched a rainbow followed by a beautiful sunset looking for Jess Plant's website I accidentally stumbled upon the Newham Story website realising the Olympic Park is built where my family roots run deep and now I'm hooked like I don't have enough to do already...

Socially Engaged Practice

What is socially engaged practice? Littoral art. A whole section in the dissertation on this one.
I have come across this artist collaboration pairing which may go some way towards explaining

Cornford and Cross  http://www.cornfordandcross.com/

and this forum

Variant http://www.variant.org.uk/events/event1.html

as well as

Littoral art described by Wikipedia:
Littoral art is a term used by Canadian artist and writer Bruce Barber to describe art occurring outside of the institutions of the artworld.^[1] It is a manifestation of Nicolas Bourriaud'srelational aesthetics and is public and community-based, emphasizing the interaction between artists and spectators.^[1] The idea derives from Habermas's concept of communicative action.

and brings me full circle to a conversation I had recently at an artist's forum meeting about APG Artists Placement Group - set to feature in my dissertation too

http://www.tate.org.uk/learning/artistsinfocus/apg/

Today I am reading...

What is art?

The big question - Creature Comforts answer -

http://youtu.be/pDo_vs3Aip4