Plot 39

Rhubarb donated by another plot holder on our allotment is in. 2 crowns.

Early seed potatoes are also in.

Lots of sowing of seeds this weekend just gone which is very exciting. They all sound so glossy on the packet; swiss chard, chinese cabbage, fennel…. Will they battle the English weather, pigeons who are poised to attack and the heavy clay soil of Herefordshire?

On the art front, I got two of my drawings into the Drawn exhibition at the RWA in Bristol which runs from now till June 2nd.

http://www.rwa.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/2013/02…

It was quite an interesting experience. I had never submitted my work to an open before so had no idea what to expect. I entered two drawings that I had made of prison hulks. One is a tiny image on a large piece of paper of an historic prison hulk called Endeavour. The other was a single hulk in profile drawn using carbon powder.

I drove to Bristol and parked near to the venue. After walking up a hill for 10 mins which seemed to get harder as I went on with one of my drawings flapping around in the wind, I arrived at the entrance to the RWA and found a hive of activity. People were parking at the small entrance to drop off their work. There were a wide range of artists delivering work. You had to go down to a basement area, lay your work on a table and unwrap it like it was a baby having it’s nappy changed, then triumphantly (or not in my case) reveal the drawing to the staff checking in. That was the strangest part. I clutched mine close to me, with the image facing my body. Other more confident artists were psyching out the opposition by thrusting their drawings outwardly facing, to the staff on the check- in desk. One poor woman was even manhandling this huge wire sculpture down the stairs.

I then had to go back to the car which had an hour’s time limit and collect drawing no.2 and scuttle back up the hill at Clifton avoiding pensioners with shopping trollies and students in gaggles.

I then rushed back to the car with about a minute over my time but thankfully Bristol was kind to me that day. I got in the car and drove down to Spike Island where I had a delicious lunch in their very funky cafe before seeing two shows there, Becky Beasley and Uriel Orlow. It was absolute heaven to sit in the darkened space and watch Orlow’s double projected films.

Set in Northern Armenia amongst a redundant Communist concrete housing estate that was never completed, the film slowly tracks human activity with a magnificent backdrop of a mountainous landscape.

It was so refreshing after the oddness of the morning.

Beasley’s work was interesting too. Extremely meticulous and purposeful photographs and sculptures which involved strange shaped cucumbers (back to the allotment). I thought the work was beautifully curated and elegant.

I haven’t seen my work at Drawn yet as the private view took place on the night of the snow but I am going on the 30th to see it and to meet Karen Wallis, the artist in residence to talk about drawing. Looking forward to it.

Many events have happened recently, mainly positive. I visited Downstairs Gallery at Great Brampton House in Herefordshire to see Matt Brown’s exhibition, Force Quit. The work was beautifully produced and quite complex, visually. There were a number of pieces there which I found mesmerising including some handcrafted needlepoints depicting Photoshop pages from early software. The artist had apparently spent many hours, stitching these himself. Much of the work was well made and it was no surprise to learn that Brown is a technician for Gavin Turk. Early work from his RCA graduate show of blossom and radiant flowers were manipulated using Photoshop until they ceased to be authentic. Mounted onto aluminium, the images reminded me of an old card game I had as a child called Flower Pairs where the flower images were ridiculously saturated and thus became slightly unbelievable. At points I did find the work became almost lost to the technical prowess. A video piece was the less successful element, in my opinion, whereas Brown seemed to be best when playing with materials. The show is finished now but it is worth viewing the website for future and past shows. http://downstairsgallery.co.uk/wp/

Plot 39 lays fairly dormant still shrouded in black plastic. We did peel back a small section and sow 2 rows of parsnips. It felt quite significant – our first planting of seeds in the plot. We continue to sow seeds indoors with aubergines, parsley and broad beans being the latest ones to emerge from their seed packets. Something lovely about handling the seeds and to think it is going to generate food.

My studio practice continues to develop in a positive way. I had a fantastic week last week with a studio visit from Deborah Robinson of the New Art Gallery, Walsall and then an interview for a residency at the same gallery in association with Eastside Projects.

The visit went very well. I have more development to do with my work but there is potential there for a collective body of work for a good exhibition. I was introduced to the work of Naiza Khan by Deborah too which has similar sensibilities to my work. I particularly love her drawings. They linger in my subconcious.

I went for an interview for the Group Occupation II residencies at the New Art Gallery, Walsall on Friday. Despite going to the wrong venue and being an hour late for the interview because I had to track over to Walsall from Birmingham, I had a good interview and was successful. I am very excited by the prospect of the residency as I will be with 3 other artists. There are also 2 other residencies filled by 6 other artists so it is going to be incredibly useful to observe and have discussions along the way. It is also supported by regular meetings with the curator Zoe Lippett and ESP staff, Elinor Morgan and Ruth Claxton. I really cannot believe I have been selected. It is just right for me at my present point in my practice. I do feel daunted by it and it will challenge my boundaries; thank goodness!

Ikon Gallery are running a workshop on Tues 12th Feb to find out more about the R4 and Artangel £1 million opportunity for artists. Find out more at the link. It’s a free event and you just need to reserve a place.

http://www.ikon-gallery.co.uk/programme/current/ev…

This is an exciting opportunity but I can’t help feeling that those artists at the top of the tree will be favoured, due to their level of experience and development. It would be nice to think that the panel will consider other, lesser known artists. I’m going a long to the event so I will ask the question about the possibility of lesser known artists applying and being successful.

Allotment update – Sweet pea seedlings are romping away with Ailsa Craig onions following. No sign of any tomato seeds germinating yet. Peter has taken them to a warm spot on the fridge and is even talking to them! They are his ‘boys’. Snow on the real plot 39 means no work there which is a relief as there is plenty to do elsewhere.

II’ve completed 9 line drawings and 9 accompanying texts for the Estuary Eulogy series. I laid out the drawings in a group and likewise laid out the texts in a group. I placed the two groups of work side by side. I like the connection but also the disparate nature of this process. They could be seen together or as two individual bodies of work. Earlier drawings are a little bit more tender and smaller. I find the drawing I made of an old mattress is full of emotion and it creates a sadness in me when I look at the drawing. I used a different pencil in later drawings and also decided to work with a bolder line because it was hard to pick up the drawings on the scanner for copies. I have decided to maybe redraw some of these later ones to match the earlier drawings.

As the texts are word processed and printed onto tracing paper it has given me the opportunity to explore layering a number of pages of texts up. As the text is in red it is quite apparent underneath and shows through a few layers. I love the submerged feeling of pages deeper down. It is like looking into a shallow lake where the water softens the outlines of objects on the lake bed.