BALTIC Gateshead | Pester & Rossi

Infinity Pitch by Pester and Rossi [link]

This exhibition was also on during the visit, by collaborating artists Ruby Pester and Nadia Rossi. It was an installation, art exhibition, and collaborative workshop all in one.

Visitors were encouraged to get involved and cover the space in artwork using the provided materials, coloured tapes, scissors, paper, and stickers.

The result by the end of the three weeks was a room filled with 'murals' made by everyone that visited, children and adults alike.

Similarly with the Sofia Stevi exhibition, the chance to become involved with the artwork and the space is exciting as galleries are usually very distant and sterile spaces.

I've started to develop an interest in exhibitions and the potential of art shows. An artist that is both a maker and curator is an interesting cross-over of roles to me, and this occurs when exhibitions are set up and this level of creative freedom is allowed. It's a sort of editing process, which also ties in with my interest in publications too.

My small contribution pictured on the BALTIC website ☆

BALTIC Gateshead | Sofia Stevi

turning forty winks into a decade by Sofia Stevi [link]

While I was home for Easter I visited the BALTIC and saw this exhibition by artist Sofia Stevi. It was of interest to me because not only did it fit with traditional ideas of fine art / art in a gallery setting, there was also an illustrative feeling to her paintings which I hadn't seen before in somewhere like this.

Her exhibition included canvas paintings, paintings on cotton sheets, as well as a room dedicated to her own 'artist books' made of cuttings of these sheets, sewn by hand. They were displayed on a large table with gloves for visitors to sit and read them.

This participatory element set this show apart from others I have seen at this gallery. People could sit and get involved with the work aside from just looking at it on a wall.

It also fitted with my interest in publications and artist books. These books became artworks in their own right. 

The work resonated with me because of its diy ethos (she painted on cotton sheets because it was cheaper and easier to get a hold of than canvas) and the experimental approach that she seemed to take on.

Independent Presses & Publishers

*Not necessarily a risograph printing studio or service. More on the side of artist books, zines, independent publishing, small presses.

UK

A6 Books, London
Bronze Age Editions
Counter-Print Books, West Sussex
Foolscap Editions, ???
Four Corners Books, London
Friends in the Dungeon, London
Fulgur, Somerset
Henry Press, Manchester
Kiosk Editions, London
Meanwhile Press, Newcastle
Newbridge Books, Newcastle
Otto Press, London
Snoar Press, London
Studio Operative, London
Unit Editions, London

International

Bananafish Books, Shanghai
Colorama Print, Berlin
De Press, U.S.
Draw Down Books, U.S.
Heavytime Books, Melbourne, Australia
Knowledge Editions / Tim Coghlan
Megapress, U.S.
Nieves Books, Switzerland
No One Special / Nowhere Special, Australia
Perfectly Acceptable Press, U.S.
Perimeter Editions, Australia
Platform Editions, U.S.
Sometimes Publishing, U.S.
We Make It, Berlin
Youth in Decline, U.S.

Solo Exhibition

As mentioned on my studio practice blog, I've contacted a number of local venues hoping to hold an exhibition of my own. Old Red Bus Station got back to me, and yesterday I went to talk with the events organisers.

Set-up

• Some frames are available, but pins and wall hooks would be better

• A mixture of sizes for artwork would be easier to display (like a collage layout)

• Would be best if I set up on the day before, preferably through the day time

Dates

• May 23rd is the preliminary date

• It will also be featured on the itinerary for Come Find Us on 1st June

Selling

• If I am wanting to sell original works, ORBS take 20% commission, and I would need to provide a clear list of prices (e.g. on a spreadsheet)

• A space will be available to put out zines and smaller products for me to sell. Commission wasn't mentioned for these

Promotion

• Posters, flyers, social media. I will have to create these and send them over

• Labels for walls required (e.g. names of pieces, my name, medium, etc)

• I could also create a banner for the space

• ORBS will take care of creating events pages and circulating posters, etc

Launch

• A launch party is an option, and if possible, live music/DJ would be preffered

Website Progress

So far, I've tried out a few different website platforms including cargo, wordpress, and wix.
Out of all of them wix has been the easiest to use and has a lot of customisable options.

Although my website isn't live yet, I plan on getting it to where I want it to be before I publish and connect to a domain name.

I wanted a website that was quite straight-forward and free of too many widgets and design flourishes. I think the work should speak for itself and it should act as more of an online portfolio.

Homepage

This is the first real setup of the homepage. The images will be displayed in a grid format, pages are displayed clearly, and the header is professional yet maintains the messy character of my work.

Links and pages

Images can go from simply being a grid-based gallery to clickable links. This allows me to go into more detail about the contexts of my projects, as well as displaying more images to show the breadth of the work.

I've also decided to keep a tumblr page for sketchbook work and process images. I'll see how this goes, as I think it could be a way of showing all of the work I do that may not be finished or 'website-worthy'.

Temporary link:  https://brontleroy.wixsite.com/brontleroy

How to do DIY | Emma Coffield

A piece by Emma Coffield for Convention, Habit or Custom newspaper by Andrew Wilson and Tody Lloyd. Referencing Jasper Joffe's video (see last post) on how to do DIY

page 26 [link]

-

"It goes a bit like this: empowering yourself and doing anything you like is good. Lots of publicity is god. Artworks as publicity stunts are bad. Fabricating DIY's rough-and-ready aesthetic is bad."

"Let's think of 'DIY' as a label, a series of claims even...

There are action-based claims, often used to highlight the physical labour involved in setting up 'DIY' art spaces and projects; for example the (re) building, endless wall painting and fundraising - a literal 'we did this ourselves'.

Then there are approach-based claims, highlighting a proactive ethos to artistic production and display i.e. Jasper urges his audience to 'do anything [they] like' without waiting to 'be asked'...

This second claim is a way of being, and a powerful one, as artists take on the roles and responsibilities traditionally associated with the museum or gallery curator, the dealer, the technician and the invigilator."

"In both claims...DIY arts activity draws upon the core values of a broader 'DIY culture' (Perdue et all 1997), namely collective organisation, rebellion, amateurism and anti-commercialism (the labour involved is almost always voluntary)."

"To put it another way, there are certain methods, values and approaches that are legitimately 'DIY', and adopting these legitimate methods allows so-called 'DIY' art spaces and practices to be recognised as such; they become familiar."

"DIY is not inherently 'bad' - but it is not inherently 'good' either. All systems have strengths and weaknesses, results and implications, and need to be interrogated."

"What does it mean to be involved in 'DIY' arts activities? What actions are behaviours are perceived as 'good'? What forms of rule breaking are surprising, or unacceptable?"

"Do some artists feel compelled to behave in certain ways to gain admittance? What attitudes to artists involved in 'DIY' have towards money, reputation, careers - and what might these attitudes result in?"

"DIY arts practice isn't new. To call an art activity or space 'DIY' does not automatically make it a valuable gesture of resistance and camaraderie."

"Can artists re-examine this path, and find fresh routes to as yet unknown destinations?...but first, you need to find a way to do, and think, for yourself."

DIY as Artistic Practice, not Aesthetic

• Talk about doing it yourself, how you can set up a show, how you can set up anything from an art fair, to a magazine, to your own Tate Modern

• 24 Paintings in 24 Hours (first show out of RCA)

• Artistic practice as DIY - idea of communicating the urgency you get in the studio

• Find ways of getting through to people, breaking down the barrier between a bunch of dull paintings in a gallery, and actually feeling something

• Led up to this idea that you can do pretty much anything you want

• It's not DIY like, I like B&Q, to knock up a bit of woodwork, its DIY as the idea of empowering yourself to be able to do anything you like

• A lot of friends and students say "I want to do a show" "how do I do a show?" "how do I get my work out there?" - who do you want to show the work to? what do you want to achieve?

• You can choose to do it yourself - thinking outside of galleries, someone's got to give me a show

Free Art Fair

• Set up my own art fair. What's the most diametrically opposed thing to the Frieze Art Fair? Which is all about sales figures, giving away the art at the end.

• It mostly consisted of phoning people up and saying "this is my idea, do you want to help out?" and people respond out of kindness, or because they like your idea

Joffe's run-down of DIY

1. Idea (talk to people, do they respond). Listen to their feedback.
2. Artists (don't ask don't get)
3. Venue (pound shop or Barbican)
4. Press Release (keep it simple and descriptive)
5. Tell people (website, social media, local media, national media, think big, think small) What do you want to happen? Selling or writing or people seeing or what? Keep approaching PR from different angles
6. The show's the thing. Do is because it's worth doing. Leave some energy for the hang.
7. What next? Repeat yourself ad infinitum or do something different

• The most important thing is art. There's no point in all of this unless you make some decent art

Collaborations and Commissions

• Other people have good ideas, and you learn stuff from them

• Giving up some of the control by working with others can make good outcomes

• The more stuff you do, the more you come up with ideas and new ways of working

• Publicity is good because people find out about what you're doing, but it shouldn't be solely designed for that