The moon, the moon!

Beyond the Moon, my solo show in Aberystwyth, finished last month, but I was compelled to make one final print, of the moon itself. Originally I was inspired by Ariosto’s epic poem “Orlando Furioso” from 1516, where the moon is portrayed as a place where all things wasted on earth are kept and treasured: unnoticed emotions, unredeemable time and money, broken promises and unanswered prayers.

The moon thus symbolises hope and forgiveness, and allows potential realities to take form. I wanted to make a moon that shines with a soft light, and that gives off an atmosphere of ambiguity.

I work in a cross disciplinary way, so the image started as a linocut, which I photographed and manipulated in photoshop. From these I made multiple separations which were printed digitally and made into screens. One of the advantages of screenprinting for me is the ease of layering translucent colour. I always make more colour separations than I need, and often spend a huge amount of time colour trial proofing all the combinations like a mad scientist, invariably til 2 or 3 in the morning.

I don’t have enough computer knowledge to be able to plan the print on the computer, but anyway even if I did know how, I don’t think it would be as fun as getting messy in the print room. As a result, most of my silkscreen prints take shape during the colour trial stage. This time round, there were proofs that resembled aging cheese, some semi-fluorescent greenish moons, and pinkish moons that really looked like the sun. Finally the classic colours of navy blue, black and a kind of shimmery pearlescent lilac won the day.

It’s a 3 colour silkscreen on somerset satin paper and measures 50 x 75.5 cm. I’m hoping to take it with me to Portland Oregon for the summer, as I have been invited to take part in a new collaborative residency with the Lan Su Chinese classical garden, with a show opening there in August!

 

9th Berlin International Director’s Lounge

My stop-frame animation, Costanza , with music by Baron Mordant, has been selected for the 9th Berlin International Director’s Lounge, and will be screened on Monday 11th Feb at 8.30 pm. I wish I could go, as the programme looks full of exciting short films. Click on the following link to view the animation on youtube.

 

Closing event: Beyond the Moon

 

Feb 2nd, 12-2 pm

 

Closing event

You are cordially invited to join me for the closing event for Beyond the Moon show in the School of Art Gallery and Museum, Aberystwyth, on Saturday 2nd Feb from 12-2pm.

I’ll be signing a special exhibition copy of the catalogue, and there will be new music composed in response to the prints, which will be playing without human intervention on the grand piano in the centre of the room.

For more information or to RSVP please contact the curator, Neil Holland, on neh@aber.ac.uk

Would be wonderful if you could make it!

 

Upcoming Shows

I’ve got a few things lined up for the first months of this year…

• Firstly, my solo show, Beyond the Moon in Aberystwyth School of Art Gallery is still on; it will close on the 8th February. This is aptly the date of the new moon which signals Chinese New Year!

Andrew McPherson, the inventor of the magnetic resonator piano, is planning to create more sounds that respond to the work on the wall, and we shall have a closing event on the 1st and 2nd of February. There will also be new beautiful limited edition 32 page catalogue available to purchase for £10 (please contact me if you would like a copy of your own).

• Next up, in London, I have a print from the shadow dance series in the 75th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Wood Engravers at the Bankside Gallery, 48 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JH, from 29th January – 10th February. I shall be giving a demonstration of Japanese woodblock on the afternoon of 10th February.

• Further up north, I am an invited artist for Impressit curated by Pete Clarke, Tracy Hill and Magda Stawarska Bevan at The Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Market Square, Preston PR1 2PP from the 23rd February – 29th April. I have been invited to display 16 of the dancing dresses, and shall reprint them in pairs for this show, as well as installing the animation in the space. The private view is scheduled for 1st March, and I shall be there, enjoying all that Preston has to offer! I am also teaching a workshop on printmaking that day.

• In March I shall visit Belgium for the 9th International Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Prints in Liege, in the Salles Saint-George, Beaux Arts de Liege, where they have bravely accepted all 40 of the dancing dresses and the animation. I shall give a demonstration of my techniques at the Liege academy while I am there.

• And finally, back to Wales it will be in late March for another show, Between Spaces, which will be at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre from 23rd March to 11 May. For this one, I think I might be making something new…

 

Happy Holidays!

Well this year is drawing to a wet and muddy close, but we are all still alive and very much looking forward to the new one! Hopefully the snake will bring wisdom and fearlessness to our decisions… Happy Holidays to you all!

 

Photos and videos of Beyond the Moon

One day, when they’ve made a teletransporter that doesn’t scramble you into a million pieces when you get reassembled, I’ll be able to invite everyone to visit my show, even if they live a million miles away… In the meantime, here’s some photos and a video. The weird cracking noise on the video is my knee- too much jumping around on concrete I think! I absolutely love the sound of the piano which transformed the space into a performance venue and changed the viewing of the work into a piece of drama.

 

Click on this picture below to view a video we made of the show, with the piano playing on its own.

And here’s a picture of me looking pleased!

 

Huge Forests

Well, I thought it would be nice to make some prints that capture the feeling of a magical forest, much like parts of the glorious forest in Oregon that I’ve visited. For me these forests are always warm with dappled light; fronds and branches gently swaying; bark exuding a delicious resiny scent and crystals of sap that sparkle like diamonds.

So for my upcoming show, Beyond the Moon, in Aberystwyth, I thought I’d make work that conveys the atmosphere of this unending forest. Seeing as the gallery is large, I thought I’d make some ginormous prints! Each print is 2metres by 1.5 metres, and silkscreened by hand in  four sections onto Fabriano paper. The trees fit together but the mirrored trees feel more enchanted… I’m planning to silkscreen these also onto window film and install it on the doors to the gallery space.

Last week I met Andrew McPherson, the magnetic resonator piano guy, who is truly a master of amazing sound. His device makes a normal grand piano sound like a cross between something like a piano, organ and flute, with cyclical reverberations, and notes that hum from deep darkness. He’s keen to come to the gallery and respond to the prints during the installation process. This will be fed into the various devices attached to the piano, to make a customised loop of sound. I’m really looking forward to hearing more.

Show opens next Friday 23rd November at 7.30 pm. We’ll give a talk about the work on the Thursday night. For more information please contact the curator, Neil Holland, on neh@aber.ac.uk

Will post more pictures and hopefully a video here soon!

 

Swallow Span

“Swallow Span” is a long narrative book made of 20 linocut monoprints arranged as a concertina, within a book cover that measures 180 cm when fully open. To turn the pages the viewer has to use the full sweep of their arm span, echoing the title of the book.

The story is about a girl’s dream. From her sleeping figure spills a strange nighttime sequence, where birds inhabit indoor spaces, and shadowy figures float and meet each other in a dark garden. The perspective lurches and tilts matching a bird’s swooping gaze. The imagery and storyline in the book becomes folded into pages, and we realise that it is a book within a book, with the creative process including ink, notes and sketches depicted at the end.

 

Investigating Flight

I’ve been enjoying remaking Muybridges’ “Animal and Human Locomotion” by putting together this sequence of photos taken by photographer Paul Weaver, “Investigating Flight”.  If I could fly, this is what I’d do, wave my arms around in a vertical sort of butterfly motion…