ARTISTS TALKING

# 98 [23 May 2013]

We are excited that our second selected residency starts tomorrow, with a conversation between artist Amelia Crouch and scientist / writer Hugh Aldersey-Williams. The basis of the residency is Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica, commonly Vulgar Errors and I have been reading the text today in preparation. We are big Thomas Browne fans here at the Project Space, so it will be very interesting to hear the conversation between these two and also to see Amelia's interpretation of the text through her own practice and interests.

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/pseudodoxia/pseudodox...

I swept the Project Space floor, polished the wine glasses and everything.

Dominique Rey

# 97 [17 May 2013]

# 96 [15 May 2013]

Vulgar Errors residency in progress

My residency at the Queen of Hungary Project Space is getting closer. I am really looking forward to this and also starting to worry...what am I going to do? How does my work actually relate to Thomas Browne? Will it make sense to anyone? What about the practicalities of working somewhere different for a week, what tools and materials do I need to take?

Of course they are not really big worries, they are exciting questions. The great thing about doing a residency in a project space is that allows time and space for experiment. I have been collecting fragments of text from Thomas Browne and newspaper headlines; some of them are starting to coalesce into little (possibly meaningful) groupings. They initially started out quite separate but now the two are talking to one another which is exciting but a little bit unknown. I am beginning to form visual and design ideas about how I might display the texts in the project space.

Unusually I will be doing a talk with Hugh Aldersey-Williams at the start of my week, rather than once I have been making work in the project space (this to do with practical reasons of the timing of the Aylesham festival). So I think I am going to turn up with some print outs of some of the texts I have been collecting and a couple of short video sketches. Then I will spend the week exploring how to display the text pieces in the project space and also developing making some more video works. I am going to hold a drop in open studio on my final day in residence Wednesday 29th May from 2-6.30pm.

Amelia Crouch

# 95 [14 May 2013]

Vulgar Errors residency in progress

I have been working on some text pieces for my upcoming residency. These pair quotes form Thomas Browne with contemporary newspaper headlines or political quotes about working or worklessness.

A short video sketch 'F is for work' stands alone with nothing really to do with Thomas Browne, but as my ideas are progressing Browne and the headlines are mingling more. Possibly I am moving away from considering work as such and towards the work resonating with the more general contemporary environment/ideas about working, Britishness, migrants, disability...a rhetoric of people needing to contribute. One text from Browne keeps coming into my head. He gives the phrase 'Not to harbour swallows in our houses' as an example of a metaphor (from the writings of Pythagoras) that has at times been taken as a literal truth. The metaphor is to do with not taking people in who will take advantage of you. This seems to resonate, for me, with contemporary rhetoric by papers such as the Daily Mail talking about migrants 'swarming' or 'flocking' to the UK.

Hugh and I have been talking a bit about metaphor in language and literal truth. Also about the difference between words and images. Hugh suggests that at Browne's time: "There seems to have been a sense in which pictures were given more credence than what people said or even wrote. This was in a time when most of the painted images people saw represented biblical events etc. And Browne writes about griffins, the phoenix etc, and how people believed they were true creatures because depicted in Egyptian hieroglyphics."  
 
Another text piece I am working on pairs the words "Err to speak" with "Eyes nor sight." This is from two Thomas Browne quotes:
1) "Error, to speak largely, is a false judgment of things"
2)"...that they have eyes, but no sight, some neither eyes nor sight"

In one of Browne's chapters that Hugh has pointed me towards, Browne writes about depicting Adam and whether he should have a navel. 

Hugh writes:

"I've been ploughing through some obscurer passages of the Pseudodoxia, with Browne wrestling with whether pictures show truth, mainly to do with religious imagery of course, paintings showing Adam with a navel, for example – a paradox that doesn't really arise until you start showing pictures of him rather than just describing him in text. He wonders why Jesus has long hair, although not why his ethnicity is not Middle Eastern in Italian or northern European art."
He wonders what similar pictograms we have today that we take too unquestioningly, suggesting that possibly the 'truth' we are shown in nature documentaries is one fertile area. So now I am also starting to look at nature documentaries and maybe bringing in some images to pair with my texts. 
Amelia Crouch

# 94 [7 May 2013]

A Selection Process:

We are launching ourselves into organising the Landscape Show, amongst other events.  The response to our open call out for submissions was fantastic, but it did result in many, many hours of selection proces. We applied an initial or pre-selection filter and scoring system, in order to get the numbers down to a manageable size for our two guest selectors, Eliza Gluckman and Paul Fieldsen-Danks. Otherwise, it really would have been taking unacceptable advantage of their time.

Their selection resulted in a core of artists that they both agreed on and several that they did not! The QH then completed the selection process by debating for more hours the merits or not of these artists, in order to get the final list. Further discussion followed as to which work from each artist and how they may or may not fit together, also considerations of size, media, type etc. We ended up with a hot list of artworks and  several queries and negotiations to contend with.

The Belling was dragged out to keep coffee and croissants warm to fortify us, but we somehow managed to steam the croissants and then stick them to the hotplate. 

So, here I am as the sun is tipping up over the rooftop opposite, thinking about organisation and spreadsheets and exhibition administration tasks.

# 93 [2 May 2013]

Our 2013 selected artist-in-residence Amelia Crouch has been regularly conversing with Hugh Aldersey-Williams in preparation for their talk on 24th May. Here is the mail-out about for it:

HUGH ALDERSEY-WILLIAMS in conversation with AMELIA CROUCH

FRIDAY 24TH MAY 5.00 - 6.30pm / £5.00 on the door

Over the past few weeks artist Amelia Crouch has been exchanging ideas with writer Hugh Aldersey-Williams about the writings of 17th century Norfolk philosopher Thomas Browne, whose statue dominates the Haymarket in Norwich. Their conversations on contemporary and historical fibs, falsifications and fancies will form the subject matter for Amelia's work in the Project Space over the Festival period. Using animated video, drawing and digital print, Amelia will be making experimental text works based on recent newspaper headlines and political speeches.

There will be a bus provided by Aylsham Care Trust to transport you to The Queen of Hungary, leaving the Market Place at 4.45pm and returning after the talk.

OPEN STUDIO: WEDNESDAY 29TH MAY 2.00 - 6.30PM / FREE

www.queenofhungary.co.uk/ bushey place / aylsham / norfolk nr11 6hf / 0044 7900 330 032

Directions - leaving the A140 from Norwich go through the centre of Aylsham taking the old Cromer road towards Ingworth. 200m on your right you will see a sign saying the Meadows. Just after the speed limit end signs turn left up the track, and after 100m left through the gate into the parking area. The Project Space is fully wheelchair accessible and there is parking at the front of the space. Toilet 100m distance

About the Queen of Hungary Project Space: Organisers Dominique Rey, Chloe Mandy & Stephanie Douet. Between 2001/4 Stephanie Douet and Dominique Rey ran the Queen of Hungary gallery in Norwich, showing experimental site-specific work by over 70 national and regional artists. The Queen of Hungary Project Space builds on their experience; it will provide an artist-led space that caters for the needs of regional artists to network. to upgrade their skills, to have a place in which they can try new work in a supportive environment, while maintaining the uncompromising ambitions of the previous gallery.

For further information visit www.queenofhungary.co.uk / www.ameliacrouch.com / www.hughalderseywilliams.com 

# 92 [22 April 2013]

Mark Wilsher' One Night Biographical Retrospectve.

We had a warm and intriguing evening on Saturday accompanying Mark on a tour around the Project Space as he discussed life and artwork and areas in-between. More of a journey really from Melody Maker 1990 to visualising and constructing Kant. The crowd was lively but not dangerous and food and wine was consumed afterwards as the Project Space was transformed into a candle-lit bistro. The Belling worked well and the electricity didn't blow. I call that a good evening.

Dominique Rey

# 91 [19 April 2013]

Vulgar Errors residency in progress

At the moment there are two things that I am starting to think about that possibly relate to Browne, or for which his work might bring an interesting perspective.

1) I might compare how Browne thought of people with how we think of people today (job units). I am initially struck by Browne’s sense of people as inherently infirm and, characteristic of the time he was writing, that this is derived from a relationship to God. As I read more I am interested to see the relationship between religion and reason in his work. Does his reasoning support or complicate a religious view of the world? Today is an economic view is presented as the logical, reasoned view? I am also struck by how, in the first couple of chapters, Browne highlights and discredits some errors through looking at the language of scripture. I wonder whether exploring how he close-reads language will help me with how I use the articles I am collecting.

2) I have been thinking about my process of artistic research and how, if it was measured by the criteria of scientific or social scientific research, it would be bad research. I am being fairly arbitrary in choosing to read newspapers between now and May, simply because that’s the time I have available. I am also mostly reading the newspapers that are available in my local library and sometimes I miss a day or just miss a relevant article because I don’t notice it. Besides, I am deciding what is a relevant article as I go along! 

The techniques that I imagine that I might use in my work of quoting or editing bits of text from newspaper articles and bits of text from Browne and juxtaposing them in different ways, will suffer the problems of erroneous suggestion and inaccuracy that I would be critical of in newspaper reporting. But I will be using them in a poetic or metaphorical way, rather than the ‘factual’ way newspapers do. So I don’t know where it’s heading but I guess I am interested in exploring the difference between things that may be taken as fact or used as metaphor.

Last week Hugh also sent me a copy of a book he wrote with Simon Briscoe called Panicology, so I have been reading this. I was interested in the intro to ‘Panicology’ how they write that “Numbers are the ‘fact’ generator in today’s society.” There are sections in the book on ‘The Workplace’ (No Work or Low Pay) and ‘Migrant Invasion’ which are relevant to my theme.

http://www.ameliacrouch.com/news/vulgar-errors

Amelia Crouch

# 90 [16 April 2013]

Our next event is Mark Wilsher's 'One Night Biographical Retrospective" exhibition / talk / tour and it sounds stimulating and absorbing. Mark says:

"I want to talk about how various experiences I've had over the years have led me to get interested in issues of the audience, publicness and now the social sphere. Also how personal circumstances like family and health can effect what you do as an artist. So I would mix together some artworks from the last 10 years or so, plus documents, books and other ephemera. 

"My plan is, instead of sitting talking to an audience in front of a projection, to do a standing, walking around the gallery type of talk where the audience can have a good look at the works, flick through books, read leaflets etc while I talk. I hope that this will make the whole process come alive, and people can really engage with the creative processes I have been working through."

Mark Wilsher has exhibited at the Henry Moore Institute, the ICA, Chelsea Space, Outpost and at EAST International. He also writes regularly for Art Monthly magazine and has worked as a curator at various public spaces in London. This talk will be illustrated with a one-night biographical retrospective exhibition.

Saturday 20 April 7.00pm onwards 

JOIN THE ARTIST AND QUEEN OF HUNGARY FOR VEGETARIAN STUDIO SUPPER / £5.00 per person  TALK ONLY: DONATIONS £3.00 / BOOKING from stephdouet@gmail.com

http://www.markwilsher.com

www.queenofhungary.co.uk 

Stephanie will be cooking, for those who stay behind, a vat of mix-up veggie curry in the studio on the Belling hob-top (normally used for instant noodles and more poisonous concotions). 

Dominique Rey

# 89 [11 April 2013]

Vulgar Errors residency in progress

My starting point for the residency at the Queen of Hungary project space (where I will be resident for a week in May) is to read Thomas Browne’s book ‘Pseudodoxia Epidemica’ or ‘Vulgar Errors’ alongside collecting contemporary news headlines and political rhetoric about work; exploring how work is foregrounded as the primary way to value people today. People are – to quote a suggestion from Hugh Aldersley-Williams – seen as ‘job units.’ I am thinking of this as being a contemporary ‘vulgar error’ and considering whether Browne has any tools to help dispel this.

In the build up to the residency I am conversing with Hugh via e-mail and posting the content/research I gather on my blog: http://www.ameliacrouch.com/news/vulgar-errors

I initially found reading Browne’s book quite hard. His language is sometimes difficult to understand…but I am starting to get used to it. Hugh suggested that I first read some of his chapters on animals, and it turned out to be a good tip. A lot of them are very funny! My favourite beliefs thus far, that Browne dispels, are that Swans sing more sweetly before their deaths, Peacocks are ashamed of their legs and that Storks are to be found, and will only live in Republics or free States.

Browne appeals, in different instances, to Authority, Sense, Reason and Experience to disprove – or at least query – the beliefs. In most cases he has more than one argument against the belief. For example he cannot totally disprove swans singing more sweetly before death but reasons that himself and other quoted authors have never heard a swan making a pleasant noise. Also he suggests that the shape of their wind-pipe provides no reason why it should be true.

“When therefore we consider the dissention of Authors, the falsity of relations, the indisposition of the Organs, and the immusical note of all we ever beheld or heard of; if generally taken and comprehending all Swans, or of all places, we cannot assent thereto.”  (Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Book III, Chapter XXVII)

I feel like I have really only just begun the process and so far am collecting newspaper articles and reading Brown in parallel. I am not worrying too much yet about how Browne relates to the contemporary content that I am collecting. Time will tell how the two will influence or inform one another.

Amelia Crouch