Tatton Park Biennial

Last weekend I went to Tatton park for the 2010 biennial which was an absolute treat. There were about 25 pieces spread out across the gardens and house; it was so exciting to see the pieces so out of context, it was really strange to see contemporary installations and sculptures inside a stately home or elaborate garden and that really added charm to the exhibition. My favourite piece by far was the feather sculpture/installation 'Evacuate' by Kate MccGwire which was a huge piece spilling out of a range, made of feathers of birds that would have once been cooked on the giant stove.

Picture taken from www.tattonparkbiennial.org

I also loved Marcia Farquhar's giant rocking horse sculpture:


Jem Finer's 'Spiegelei' a giant silver ball on top of a wooden shed which was actually a camera obscura projecting the upside-down shadow of the Japanese gardens around the inside of the ball.

and Helen Marten's 'Coveting Keratin' and 'Milk on white', a huge truncated sculpture of a lion and a billboard.

photo also taken from www.tattonparkbiennial.org

A lot of the pieces had links and themes relating back to Lord Egerton and his family, the last of the Egerton family who owned Tatton Hall. I was really impressed by the range of pieces and the intriguing layout of the exhibition.

The Surreal House

This week I went to London to visit ContainerPlus (post to come on illustration blog) while I was in London with my mum we decided to visit the Surreal House exhibition at the Barbican. I've never been to the Barbican before and I was quite surprised by the area and the building itself as they were all pretty ugly, very 1970s, tall blocks of flats. However the inside of the Barbican was lovely and there was a giant courtyard with fountains/lots of water and giant reeds and plants which would be a great thing to look out onto!

The exhibition itself was fantastic, there were so many pieces by artists that I've been looking at or influenced by during my final year so it was quite a thrill to see the pieces up close, in particular the boxes by Joseph Cornell and a small sample of his collection of photographs and images etc which made up his extensive studio. I managed to watch the whole of Jan Swankmajer's 'The Jabberwocky' which was fascinating, I had only seen a fraction of it when I'd researched him in the past and the full film is amazing, there is so much detail, I was in awe of it all. I also watched a film by Maya Deren called 'Meshes of the Afternoon' which was really unusual but very enjoyable following a sort of surrealist dream of a woman repeating the same action of entering her home after chasing a mirror-faced figure, each time she looked around her home objects had moved or were changing in front of her eyes. Some of my favourite pieces were ceramic sculptures by Rachel Kneebone which were a mass of objects and figures all merged into 1 glossy white web, they were so detailed and beautiful I would have liked longer to have studied them properly as there was so much to see.

Rachel Kneebone sculpture 'In the midst of quietness, branched thoughts murmur' image from theindenpendent.co.uk



Jan Swankmajer 'The Jabberwocky' from youtube

'Seasons' - Yuri Norstein

Another fantastic animation on Sky Arts, 'Seasons' by Yuri Norstein was made in 1969, it's a stop frame animation made using Russian lace and toys showing 2 figures moving through different seasons to Tchaikovsky's music. It's a really beautiful piece, the figures move very gracefully through the landscape and the landscape itself looks as though it is made up of delicate glass and jewels. The toys switch from being completely motion less to moving in quite a human way which is quite eerie looking but adds to the beauty of it being like a dream world. I love the layering of the setting, the rows of trees and houses and the other figures all motionless in the streets of the little world.

Seasons | Viral/Other | SPIKE.com

Video from Spike.com

Lotte Reiniger - 'The Magic Horse'

Today I watched a beautiful animation from 1954 called 'The Magic Horse' by Lotte Reiniger; the animation was all black and white made using silhouettes which was the way that Lotte Reiniger made the majority of her animations. I loved the title as it was so delicate and the shapes, text and music were perfect for setting the scene of the story. I thought the backgrounds of each scene were fantastic, they were really simple pale grey painted buildings and trees but the silhouettes stood out really well overlaid onto them. This was a lovely piece to watch and really inspiring, I've always been interested in using silhouettes as I've seen them used in plays and other projects (some by Containerplus for Topshop) and I think they look amazing because they're so delicate and fragile looking.


The magic horse LOTTE REINIGER
Uploaded by BFIfilms. - Arts and animation videos.

courtesy of Dailymotion.com

Methane Studios

I've just been looking at some gorgeous work by Methane Studios, I found a link to their work on a Total Film email and I love it, they're an illustration/design studio that mainly produces posters and t shirts. All of the designs are very distinctive, a lot are quite similar in style to some of the posters from the Post(er) exhibition (earlier post) - they have a 60s/70s feel to them in the colours and some of the text which is something that I really like. All of the posters and prints are screen printed which I'm so jealous of as I really want to use screen print more but I'm pretty convinced I'd have trouble producing anything more complex than one colour; I think this is definitely something that I need to practise before I leave, I just wish I had more time.

Primary fun! Part 2

So last Thursday Emily and I went down to the primary school in Whalley Range again, we were in for the whole day for this session and we finally got to do some creative work with the kids. We had the task of making papier mache (I am now a pro, see illustration blog) animals which are to be used during a classroom party in May as decoration. Luckily Emily and I decided to construct the basic shapes of the animals first using balloons and newspaper, I can't even imagine how long it would have taken otherwise. It was really fun though and the kids really loved the messy part with all the glue and newspaper strips although I'm a bit concerned about my communication skills as some of them still didn't understand what to do after several demonstrations..all in all though it was a very successful day and the animals look really good, I just can't wait to see what they look like after this Thursday when we're helping them paint them. I also tried to do some basic printing using sponges and potatoes to create some patterned paper to use for more decoration however this proved to be a more difficult task and wasn't quite as much of a success. I really loved working with the children though, they're enthusiasm and imagination is really inspiring.

Primary fun!

Over the next few weeks I'm doing some work with Creative Partnerships in a primary school in Whalley Range. I'm working with an artist/illustrator Anthony Smith who does all of the illustrations at Chester Zoo and with my flatmate Emily (from Interactive Arts). The project is helping the children to illustrate some stories about animals. Today was the first day, we just had a bit of chat with the children and looked at their basic drawing skills and discussed plans for the next 2 weeks. I had such a funny time, children have the most amazing imaginations! One of the stories was a version of 'Confessions of a Shopaholic' but with Pinky the flamingo as the main character fighting it out with a crocodile over a pair of pink high heeled shoes; the story ends with a hippo (I think) flying around in a helicopter dropping money everywhere. I'm really excited about working with these children and their stories and they all seem so enthusiastic which is excellent. Emily and I are doing some papier mache animals with them next week and then the week after we're painting the animals, making masks and making decorations for an animal themed party in May. I think it's going to be such a great experience having to actually be responsible for something other than myself and having to instruct and manage the children to work to such a short deadline.

Hopefully next week I'll get some photos of the work! I'm desperate for the picture of a penguin with a bob that one child drew, just fantastic.