I have chosen to curate a series of photographs by Abbas Hashemi for the next instalment in the ‘Window Room’ to be installed on thursday. I initially chose Abbas because i quite simply wanted to know more about his working ways and background. He had also mentioned to me before about his love of graphics and photography and had said he had never shown them before, so what a great opportunity. As we discussed these images i realised there was a strong narrative and recuring visual motif that almost force you to link these images together. A lot of the images have a double meaning, I am looking forward, as a curator, how and if we link these images together. We have chosen 9 very different images in terms of Abbas’s varied approaches from the graphic to the more straight forward photographs.

Simon  

I have chosen to curate a series of photographs by Abbas Hashemi for the next instalment in the ‘Window Room’ to be installed on thursday. I initially chose Abbas because i quite simply wanted to know more about his working ways and background. He had also mentioned to me before about his love of graphics and photography and had said he had never shown them before, so what a great opportunity. As we discussed these images i realised there was a strong narrative and recuring visual motif that almost force you to link these images together. A lot of the images have a double meaning, I am looking forward, as a curator, how and if we link these images together. We have chosen 9 very different images in terms of Abbas’s varied approaches from the graphic to the more straight forward photographs.

Simon  

Over the past few years I have been taking pictures of single ‘lost’ gloves wherever I ‘find’ them using my mobile phone camera.

I now want to open up this endeavour to a wider network and would like to invite you to join in the search……………..

Please visit my website for futher information about how to get involved:

http://www.davidkefford.com/home

At the moment there is no prescribed outcome for the project, but eventually, after the photos have been accumlated I might produce a book.

In the meantime you can see some of the images of the gloves sent in from other people here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24958812@N07/sets/72157604226526814/

I look forward to receiving your pictures

The window room at Wysing Arts Centre has been invaded by a series of fragile paper sculptures. These tiny paper constructions are animated by their placement; hiding, creeping, nesting, camouflaged in the corners and nooks and crannies that fill the room. They are not crying out for your attention rather going about their own business.

For my part I particularly enjoy the most discreet of these interventions; the long thin paper shards emerging from the screw holes left in the walls from previous exhibitions (which are so subtle due to the white on white that it is only a light shadow that makes you alive to their presence), the black fringe of teeth or nails creeping in through the gaps of the window, a tiny nest tucked into the corner of a high window ledge.

click on the image below to see more images in Flickr

When I entered the window room this morning I had to search for Simon’s work at first. For a moment I thought I was in the wrong room, but when I discovered various locations I felt I was flying over a Lilliputian cityscape.

To appreciate the work, I knelt down so that my viewpoint was at the same level as the sculptures, and it was at this moment that I felt every sculpture scaled up to a massive size - it was my turn to be a Lilliputian!

The most effective aspect of these pieces were the dynamic shadows created by deep folds and grooves in every one of them. The sensation took me back to when I used to read Asimov and Arthur C Clarke. I found it amazing how much space could be created in such a small area only by positioning the sculptures at a proportionate distance from each other. Once I was in that world, not only the sculptures, but the arrangement, too, began to play a light and almost mischievous music in my ears.

If you don’t fight it, you’ll find you can travel from a minute world of an electron microscope to a cosmic space in no time at all

Abbas

When I entered the window room this morning I had to search for Simon’s work at first. For a moment I thought I was in the wrong room, but when I discovered various locations I felt I was flying over a Lilliputian cityscape.

To appreciate the work, I knelt down so that my viewpoint was at the same level as the sculptures, and it was at this moment that I felt every sculpture scaled up to a massive size - it was my turn to be a Lilliputian!

The most effective aspect of these pieces were the dynamic shadows created by deep folds and grooves in every one of them. The sensation took me back to when I used to read Asimov and Arthur C Clarke. I found it amazing how much space could be created in such a small area only by positioning the sculptures at a proportionate distance from each other. Once I was in that world, not only the sculptures, but the arrangement, too, began to play a light and almost mischievous music in my ears.

If you don’t fight it, you’ll find you can travel from a minute world of an electron microscope to a cosmic space in no time at all

Abbas

Simon Woolham and I have just finished installing the next exhibition in the Window Room series.

Here is a sneak preview:simon-woolham.JPG

Together we have created a subtle intervention in the space using bags full of various paper sculptures gathered from his studio and the existing architecture. The thing I like about Simon’s work is it’s unmonumentality, it is quiet and unassuming and imbeds itself within a given space as if it has been there forever. His sculptures are certainly animated and there is a feeling that the room is ‘alive’ with a strange tension. Another aspect of his work which I admire is the way that it forces us (as the viewer) either passively or consciously to re-discover our everyday ‘familiar’ environment with fresh eyes. Those overlooked and marginal spaces are given reference for a tiny moment . There is a serious playfulness to Simon’s approach and I thank him for allowing me to be a part of that process for an afternoon. I enjoyed the freedom of “seeing what the possibilities are”…………………….

For the next instalment in the series I have invited Simon Woolham to collaborate on a ’subtle intervention’ in the space. However, due to its possible delicate and fragile nature we have decided to postpone the install day until Tuesday next week (after friday nights activities).

At the moment comments on posts are limited to registered users of the site - the artists and the Wysing staff.

For me, looking at David’s drawings is like having a dream during which one wakes up a number of times, and each time only for a fraction of a second. As the eyes move from one drawing to another, the previous image lingers, not wanting to leave the scene. The image cannot keep still, and the burst of energy that radiates from it permeates one’s mind only to stay trapped, fermenting until it reaches the point of eruption. David’s drawings stimulate one’s imagination to its full stretch and throw a flood of light onto secret thoughts which otherwise would remain shrouded. You don’t look at these drawings to discover what they are, but to discover what they do to you. I would like to add that David’s drawings are like open doors through which one can approach his sculpture.

Abbas