Does it really matter whether women are elected into Downing street? This question was part of the discussion at ICA’s ‘Women should be in charge’ event curated by Bob&Roberta Smith on Friday, 20th. Challenging the male dominance in arts, Smith suggested the equal representation of gender, ethnicity and abilities in the parliament. We were asked to support 'Esther's Law' which was born out of Bob's vision...
Great quote, great performance! More on Joanna http://www.joneary.co.uk/news.html
Bob Smith did a marvelous job by curating this event and I hope there will be more to enjoy in the future!
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Recently, we've had a visit by Graham Rawle, a London based collage artist/illustrator. He is probably best known for his long-running 'Consonants' series in the Guardian. His reinterpretation of The Wizard of Oz won Book of the Year prize in 2009. He presented some of his work from 'The Diary of an Amateur Photographer' - a novel created almost entirely from fragments of text and image.
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We are currently thinking hard what ideas to include in our book project. We've recently visited the National Art Library seeking inspiration. They have a large collection of hand-made books.
The sunset Strip by Ed Ruscha was my favourite. It's a concertina of every building on Sunset Strip in LA.
None of us had much to say about Sky Never Stops by Liliane Lijn. This object aka 'book' is covered with typography relating to outer space and time. Once spinning, the typography becomes unreadable.
Another interesting book design by Barbara Fahrner. We all agreed that the minimalist approach to illustration and type worked well surrounded by vast negative space.
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Letterpress at Camberwell
Camberwell has superb letterpress facilities. One day workshop with James Edgar was hands on and we loved every minute of it.
My metalic plate
Some pics from around the studio
My creation
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What is socially engaged art? This question was a topic of discussion at one of our recent MA lectures. David Cross spoke of his cross-disciplinary practice with Matthew Cornford, Deborah Curtis of House of Fairy Tales gave somewhat confusing account of their activities, Lottie Child spoke of 'street training' and Anouchka Grose kept her psychoanalytical views at bay. The outcome of the debate was clear. Future is social. The contemporary art made through collaboration and participation is not only necessary in current political climate but networks artists, performers from different fields creating new opportunities for design practice. But is participation over autonomy always the right choice? From a student's point of view, I'd say - no. In the recent years I've seen students examined and judged by 'good' and 'bad' models of collaboration and the amount of team work they seemingly did or did not do. Forcing team work often leads to less creative outcome and neglect of aesthetic impact. The participation model is also used by businesses as a tool for improving efficiency and it's spreading widely in the mass media in form of reality television. It's also used by our government to create the impression of social inclusion. Social participation has certainly it's prons but artists need to consider all implications before assuming collaboration inevitable.
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'Cecilia Wee, Sonia Boyce, Ana Lopez and other influential women artists/professionals took part in the discussions. It was suggested that women might not take driving seats in ‘high’ politics but they do drive the politics of communities – so called grassroot activism. But why do women strive in top management positions in Scandinavia? In Sweeden 10 out of 22 members of parliament are women, there is no shortage of ‘female touch’ in Arts&Design. Why do other countries struggle to develop welfare systems to equally balance work and family life of both sexes? The model of gender equality needs years of improvement in most of Europe. Could it be the Freudian ‘Kastrationangst’ theory that is proving true?
But away from ‘academic’ discussion, ‘Women should be charge’ was packed with cheeky humour, spoken word, performance and rock music! We watched Oriana Fox pulling ‘icons’ of feminism out of her ‘beaver’ in Impenetrable Power and listened to Joanna Neary’s hilarious take on Henry Moore….
Joanna then left us with
“Women are like tea bags. They work in hot water and get stronger.”
Great quote, great performance! More on Joanna http://www.joneary.co.uk/news.html
Bob Smith did a marvelous job by curating this event and I hope there will be more to enjoy in the future!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recently, we've had a visit by Graham Rawle, a London based collage artist/illustrator. He is probably best known for his long-running 'Consonants' series in the Guardian. His reinterpretation of The Wizard of Oz won Book of the Year prize in 2009. He presented some of his work from 'The Diary of an Amateur Photographer' - a novel created almost entirely from fragments of text and image.
I read 'The Diary of an Amateur Photographer'' a while back and couldn't help giggle aloud. The protagonist of the story (who is slightly delusional) discovers a photo of a dead man in a second hand camera he purchased and attempts to solve the murder mystery. While the story gets a little bit predictable, the visual aspects of the book are highly entertaining!
Admitting to creating most of his work by scissors, Rawle's reputation as a Godfather of Photoshop is obviously a myth.
The lecture was well-prepared and entertaining with some great visuals shown.
Graham Rawle has recently published another novel, Woman's World, which has fantastic reviews. Can't wait to get my hands on it!
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Book Binding workshop by Jocelyn Cumming
All of us had a go but no-one could match Ti Ti's genial needle work.
We are currently thinking hard what ideas to include in our book project. We've recently visited the National Art Library seeking inspiration. They have a large collection of hand-made books.
The sunset Strip by Ed Ruscha was my favourite. It's a concertina of every building on Sunset Strip in LA.
None of us had much to say about Sky Never Stops by Liliane Lijn. This object aka 'book' is covered with typography relating to outer space and time. Once spinning, the typography becomes unreadable.
Another interesting book design by Barbara Fahrner. We all agreed that the minimalist approach to illustration and type worked well surrounded by vast negative space.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Letterpress at Camberwell
Camberwell has superb letterpress facilities. One day workshop with James Edgar was hands on and we loved every minute of it.
After a short induction and talk on Johannes Gutenberg, we received a typographic glossary to understand properties of letterform.
Some pics from around the studio
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is socially engaged art? This question was a topic of discussion at one of our recent MA lectures. David Cross spoke of his cross-disciplinary practice with Matthew Cornford, Deborah Curtis of House of Fairy Tales gave somewhat confusing account of their activities, Lottie Child spoke of 'street training' and Anouchka Grose kept her psychoanalytical views at bay. The outcome of the debate was clear. Future is social. The contemporary art made through collaboration and participation is not only necessary in current political climate but networks artists, performers from different fields creating new opportunities for design practice. But is participation over autonomy always the right choice? From a student's point of view, I'd say - no. In the recent years I've seen students examined and judged by 'good' and 'bad' models of collaboration and the amount of team work they seemingly did or did not do. Forcing team work often leads to less creative outcome and neglect of aesthetic impact. The participation model is also used by businesses as a tool for improving efficiency and it's spreading widely in the mass media in form of reality television. It's also used by our government to create the impression of social inclusion. Social participation has certainly it's prons but artists need to consider all implications before assuming collaboration inevitable.
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