ARTISTS TALKING

# 11 [12 September 2011]

Our collaborative project has a green light as we have contacted an interested artist from the Royal Standard.Full steam ahead.  I did a preliminary web-trawl for Liverpool connections to some of the interests represented through my own practice. I was initially interested in the textile trade and later the devastating damage sustained during the Blitz. But two aspects immediately caught my eye. 1. the docks - construction, use, demise and remodelling. 2. the off-shore WW2 forts. With the forts, it was the architectural forms, wartime use and the gradual degradation or destruction of them. The Army needed Forts to break up heavy bomber formations using the Thames as a navigation aid to London's Docklands. In the North of England, Liverpool was also seen as a target by the enemy. The Mersey Bay off Liverpool were to get 3 sets of Heavy Anti-Aircraft (AA) Army Forts constructed by the Cleeveden Bridge Company. A detailed site on many of the forts along our coast is:

http://www.bobleroi.co.uk/ScrapBook/CityReunion/FortFanatics.html 

However, I can just imagine the tricky logistics if we wanted at some future point to do a physical tour of structures way out at sea that may or may not  still be there. An easier physical tour would be of land sited defences. There do seem to still be pill-box defences and the like surrounding Liverpool, but research so far has not revealed any still in Liverpool centre itself. Further research required. Dominique Rey

# 12 [15 September 2011]

My digital prints for Satellite Portfolio were ordered yesterday and arrived hot off the press this lunchtime. Impressive service. Now to number and label all 37. 

The image Aid & Abet chose of mine is the bunker shot from Happisburgh beach.  I returned to that spot last month and the bunker is more submerged, (impossible to get inside now, certainly on the day I went). The cliff is more crumbled, receded and lined with temporary homes, mobile homes, caravans. There is a push to clean the beach of fallen debris and mangled structure from the destroyed lifeboat slipway.

Somewhere there is a photo of me taking the photo on a very cold winter afternoon.

Dominique Rey

# 13 [20 September 2011]

In stark contrast to Dominique, my Satellite Portfolio images have been a bit longer in coming. Time spent over several days hand drawing with pen and ink an image of traditional engineering machinery has on balance been an enjoyable experience. Made much more so now the smallest light-box in the world has been replaced by wonderful A3 light-box which never gets hot - it was a worthwhile purchase.

When i did my Foundation at Shelly Park in Bournemouth a tutor Eddie made me a ink pen with an old partly melted Biro and a nib, i improvised in a similar way for this project, buying a lovely new nib and attaching to a fast disappearing favorite pencil.

The two have been made some 20 years apart.  

I'm a great fan of home made tools which do jobs really well - there is a great book i have my eye on Vladimir Arkhipov's book Home Made: Contemporary Russian Folk Artefact's, great images of inventions made by necessity out of odds and ends now rather ironically sold out and selling second hand for £125 !

http://www.fuel-design.com/index.php?menu=3&pic=26...

Nicola Naismith

# 14 [22 September 2011]

Dominique and I delivered the Portfolio Editions to Aid and Abet today. Its been a fair bit of work co-ordinating the project but as we spent an hour or so making up portfolio packs for sale and for the Satellite members it was very enjoyable. To have the time and space to work systematically and without distraction was good, very good. There is one more portflio work to arrive at the gallery, Annie who runs the back gallery has full instructions on what to do so we will leave it in her capable hands.

Each participating Satellite artist has produced the edition with their own money and resources which while obviously not ideal it has been worth it. There is a new logo on the block that can be used when no other funding mark can be appied because the work has been produced under unfunded conditions.

http://www.unfundedlogo.net/

The portflio work looks great, not that we are bias in anyway of course - will post each artist's image and accompanying text next week, projects opens on the 30th September 2011 at Aid and Abet, Cambridge.

http://aidandabet.co.uk/projects/

Nicola Naismith

# 15 [25 September 2011]

Whilst compiling the portfolios we had a chance to debate the pros and cons of getting stickers with the Satellite logo printed. In seeing and handling the finished portfolio with its DIY ethos and aesthetic, we finally decided the sticker would not 'over egg' the simplicity of the object.  We can just squeeze the cost from our slimline budget. I made some alterations to the text on a pretty unwieldy, quick-printing website, with Ikea-like routes to the check-out, but finaly managed to order 20 for the portfolios. They will look good though...

Dominique Rey

# 16 [26 September 2011]

When we proposed a project for Aid and Abet's Space Exchange we wanted an artist from somewhere else in the UK to set us a research task that we could undertake in the Eastern Region somewhere. Artist Dave Evans from Royal Standard took up our offer and in an email we received last Thursday he put forward some areas of interest. He has been researching UFO sightings over East Anglia (the fact there have been any is news to me). He names two incidents in particular, 'Operation Charlie' in 1947 and the '1996 East Anglia UFO Flap' which has intrigued Dominique and I, and already ideas are forming as to how we will approach the task of being research assistants to an artist we have never met.

So equipped as UFO incident investigators, we will search for traces of real or unverified UFO incidents, gathering as yet unidentified evidence that might include photographs, objects, sound and conversations. We will send the research material to the Aid and Abet gallery during the exhibition to form an evolving body of corroboration. At a later date the research material will be delivered to Evans in Liverpool.

Coming home tonight our research journey has already begun quite by chance something unusual in the sky whilst the fans at Carrow Road were cheering (final score Norwich 2 Sunderland 1).

Nicola Naismith

# 17 [27 September 2011]

Satellite Portflio 2011

Selected by Aid and Abet

On sale at Aid and Abet from 30th September 2011 http://aidandabet.co.uk/

Participating members featured in the first Satellite Portfolio are Dominic Allen, Jo Chapman, Polly Cruse, Nicola Naismith, Kate Parrott, Dominique Rey.

Dominic Allan:

The Irresistable Lure of Fatty Gingo

A3 Laser Jet on Paper

My work is about coming from Britain’s crappest town, Luton, but wanting to come from somewhere else. The artwork over the last 12 years ranges from the performative to the hand stitched, from customising dodgem cars (touring archetypal British seaside resorts in costume) to market trader tourette style banners. Lighbox’s advertising the everyman and no-one. A ‘Wankers’ list. LU1 to E1 (Kenilworth Road to Whitechapel Road). Where Britishness is explored then thrown away, pissed on then thrown back up as art. But forever autobiographical. Forever ‘Dominic From Luton.’

2006 and to now. Nothing. No texts. Silence. Chris. Chris to me. Endearment. Grown-up love. Friendship. Unfriendship. Foe. Why? Over a bike. Valuation. ‘YOUR MATES STUPID”. Look at the website and give me a call. For her, not me. A girls bike. Stolen. Lost, left, unloved. Brown wrapping. A big fuck-off bow. Gathering dust. Too big for a one-bed. Too big for a fatty. For her. Not me. Try again. Voicemail. Place of work. Site of worship. Growth. Try again. Text. Try again. Through friends. Why? ‘I DON”T WANT HIM TO DO TO DOM WHAT HE”S DONE TO ALL HIS OTHER FRIENDS’. To her. Silence. Silence. Ignorance is bliss. Cockroaches. Stick insects. Boilers you shouldn’t use. Dirty sleeping-bags. A library to die for. Buddha hair-do’s and naughty pictures of Nicky. A beautiful man. Jasper, Friday nights and gorgeous Gary. Diamond life.

# 18 [28 September 2011]

Satellite Portflio 2011

Selected by Aid and Abet

On sale at Aid and Abet from 30th September 2011 http://aidandabet.co.uk/

Participating members featured in the first Satellite Portfolio are Dominic Allen, Jo Chapman, Polly Cruse, Nicola Naismith, Kate Parrott, Dominique Rey.

Jo Chapman:

Lost + Found

A3 monoprint on paper

Jo Chapman is a visual artist who works primarily within the public domain on projects that include public commissions, residencies, collaborative projects, temporary installations and exhibitions. Jo has undertaken public commissions for both external and internal sites, the common denominator in her work is a relevance to the site either physically or contextually and use of use of imagery that explores the effects of time and abandonment.  She is interested in the unexpected, the findings on a walk and the discovery of beauty within in the ordinary and the commonplace.

The monoprint drawing is taken from a series of sketches of scenes around the port area of Great Yarmouth. The drawings formed part of the research for a public commission that Jo was undertaking for Brett’s warehouse, a center for young homeless people in Great Yarmouth. The commission was a response to the maritime history of Great Yarmouth which was once a wealthy and thriving port. The drawings explore the theme of loss, a prevalent experience of the time when there were many shipwrecks and sailors going away for a long time maybe never to return.

# 19 [28 September 2011]

Satellite Portflio 2011

Selected by Aid and Abet

On sale at Aid and Abet from 30th September 2011 http://aidandabet.co.uk/

Participating members featured in the first Satellite Portfolio are Dominic Allen, Jo Chapman, Polly Cruse, Nicola Naismith, Kate Parrott, Dominique Rey.

Polly Cruse:

Dusk Chorus

A3 laser prints of photograph

Polly Cruse articulates the relief of escaping the banality of everyday life through fantasy and daydream. She employs everyday items as a substitute for personal identity, re-constructing and re-contextualising objects and ornaments into hybrid forms. Her photographs capture their moment of dreamt freedom. Cruse references child hood fiction and fantasy for her constructions and her photographs are akin to family snapshots of memorable moments. They use humour to communicate and engage with the imagination of the viewer.

I placed my assembled black music stands in a wide expanse of the Norfolk  landscape to photograph their moment of liberty. When placed in a wide rural setting, devoid of people and in the half light of dusk, the stands and their music became crow like, sinister and noisy. The stillness of the evening became menacing. It was at that point that I was told by the land owner that the land was reputed to be inhabited by witches. The resulting image is a curious one which aims to raise questions for the viewer to consider and indulge their fantastical thoughts.

# 20 [28 September 2011]

Satellite Portflio 2011

Selected by Aid and Abet

On sale at Aid and Abet from 30th September 2011 http://aidandabet.co.uk/

Participating members featured in the first Satellite Portfolio are Dominic Allen, Jo Chapman, Polly Cruse, Nicola Naismith, Kate Parrott, Dominique Rey.

Nicola Naismith:

Old Mill

A3 hand drawn ink on graph paper

Explorations of hand and digital modes of production, work and manufacturing repeatedly feature in the work of Nicola Naismith as she presents ideas about the changing nature of making and working lives. Most recently she completed a residency at Hethel Engineering Centre where she explored and mapped some of the changes and developments in contemporary engineering from an artist perspective. Naismith views process as practice and integrates contextual research into her projects, she works to commission and self initiated projects.

In this edition Naismith has taken time to reproduce an image thirty seven times by hand using the inconsistencies of pen and ink. Presented on graph paper the work makes reference to precision, only here it is of the hand drawn kind. The Old Miill is an image from the Hethel residency, the machine is situated in the workshop and shares a space with a Computer Numerically Controlled mill which is designed to eliminate human error and the occurrence of variability.