I am on another trip to the south coast this week (leaving on weds morning) for a new project to create a temporary site specific sculpture in Eastbourne during Airbourne, International Air Show 14-17 August.  The sculpture will be made from discarded airplane parts, sourced locally (to wysing) from Duxford, and other re-claimed materials in Eastbourne and has been commissioned by Towner Offsite.

Extract from press release:

This year, visitors to Eastbourne seafront airshow, Airbourne, will be able to do more than just watch planes dazzle in the skies overhead. Airshow fans are being invited to do their bit for the environment during the four day event and instead of binning their used cans, water bottles and cardboard; they can drop their rubbish off at the art sculpture point on the Wish Tower Slopes to provide materials to build the recycled sculpture.

 Eastbourne Borough Council Spokesperson for Tourism, Cllr Steve Wallis said “I am very excited about this unusual art project taking place at Airbourne. It is something completely different and totally new for the airshow and with David building the sculpture over all four days; visitors will literally see the transformation before their eyes. Judging by some of David’s previous recycled projects, the change promises to be pretty spectacular.”

 From cardboard boxes to drink cans, from bubble wrap to water bottles, leaflets and cartons, David will work with just about any materials. With his starting base, David employs a unique and lively technique to build the sculpture and has previously transformed a saloon car and traditional black cab.

From 14-17 August 2008, David will work on his most ambitious challenge yet – transforming a plane tail unit. With a team of volunteers, a hands-on approach will use packaging tape, cable ties and cord to bind the objects together as the plane unit becomes virtually unrecognisable by the end of the four days.

Also, to remind you, if you are down that way about the group show, One Thing Against Another, which is currently showing at Aspex and other off-sites in Portsmouth.  For more info go to:  http://www.aspex.org.uk/

See  some video footage of Amphis in the Cambridge Evening news Friday 8 August :

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_video/displayarticle.asp?id=338191

Our family workshop went really well - people came and spent a great day out of the house away from the Tv and out of the continuous rain - we made models and buildings like fantasy buildings taking our ideas from the new giant house taking shape at wysing - like Amphis we used recyled materials to make our houses and models - old packets and packaging that is often thrown away - like our recyled building materials that together are making a new building and not going to land fill instead !

Freddie, Callum, Amy, Jan Gregor and Clara all had fun !

Last night a good group of people joined us as we screened The Making of Utopia (2006) by Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen which portrays four utopian communities in Australia: Bodhi Farm, Dharmananda, Equilibrium and Moora Moora and explores utopian vision and communal reality. This was followed by an informal discussion about Amphis, Wysing’s communal structure currently under construction and made entirely from discarded and found materials.  The evening was introduced by our new Curator Lotte Juul Petersen who joins us from Denmark. 

check out this website:  http://www.ubu.com/

Just a quick ‘Blog’ reminder that I will be in Portsmouth this week installing my work at the Natural History Museum, Butterfly House and the gallery space at Aspex for the forthcoming sculpture show One Thing Against Another.

If you fancy a trip to the south coast for the opening event this Saturday it would be great to see you!  Please visit the Aspex website to find out more information.  www.aspex.org.uk  There is also a v.good offer to go by coach from London (leaving outside the London Eye).  Booking in advance recommended.  All details on their website.

Both Katherine Hymers and Sarah Evans took the risk of presenting and then talking about their work in a semi - public setting - one artist had created a piece in a short space of time and in a completely new space - Wysing’s window room project space - the other artist had edited and reedited a piece but felt unsure about presenting it as a finalized work to a public or semi-public audience.  To undertake that scrutiny and potential critique of an audience is extremely brave and i hope it felt as rewarding as it did for that said audience.  The evening was among friends but it still felt a rigorous enough process for the artists to feel justified and proud of themselves for taking those steps.

 I enjoyed every minute of the films that were presented and really enjoyed the fact that people new to Wysing felt they too could contribute to a discussion and say just how they felt in reaction to a piece or a presentation.   As a space too i felt the window room had enough informality to be friendly and unintimidating but enough challenge as both a space for art and as a serious place to present and host a discussion on their practice. 

I will keep the vision of the falling snow and the gently swinging figure - in a secret forest somewhere - with me despite the current summer sun.

The Wysing evenings whether organised informally or formally are going from strength to strength and a real testament to the developing community of artists who are not only prepared to share their work but also to step out of their comfort zone and both organise things for themselves but also to host and present themselves to a wider audience - something not all artists are prepared to do.  The more the merrier.

Thank you.

Katherine Hymers has taken it upon herself to organise a social evening at Wysing for on site artists, our newest residents Folke & Martin - our AMPHIS volunteers and of course our guests and supporters.  As Sarah Evans is exhibiting in the Window Room - the artists newest project space Katherine also invited Sarah to talk a little about her work so this is now taking place over the civilised time of 430pm with tea - also in our Window Room space.  After tea Katherine will present her short films and Wysing staff and artists will prepare a BBQ as a welcome to Folke & martin and to bring people on site together as the Summer begins in earnest - we also have two new staff members Lotte  and Annie to welcome and make feel at home !

Dont forget to bring your bbq contribution - bring a dish - a bit like the Dinnerluck and LunchLuck we held very successfully in Wysing’s Mill Road space in Romsey Town last Summer in Cambridge.

As a way of introducing Sarah’s new work, ‘Northern Light’, which is now showing in the window room, I would like to share some thoughts that arose during some of the conversations we’ve had over the past few months….

Firstly, I suppose I was interested in how Sarah might use the space to make as well as show work. I was aware that Sarah had spent a number of days in the Margaret Harvey Gallery in Hertfordshire, creating an installation, for her solo show, making the work in situ…..Sitting in her studio I recall talking about the difficulties that come with this approach…making private work in a public space. The differences between losing oneself in the process of making that occurs in the studio, following an idea and an aesthetic for the pleasure of doing so, but also the danger of becoming too precious about the work before it is even seen. Also, the difficulty in carving out a chunk of time in the week to give oneself the time and space to focus, to make, to spend time with the work.

Maybe working outside the studio enables one to step outside of a comfort zone, to commit to a timeframe, to respond immediately to a space in a given timescale?….But also giving consideration to how the window room operates. Primarily it’s a social space, a shared space. I think it is fair to say that Sarah expressed an interest in using the space not only to make and show work, but also as an opportunity to consider the importance of contextualising the work.  The conversations and discussions that have come about through the use of the window room have never had a formal structure, yet these openings allow a chance to begin to articulate something of the work, for both artist and viewer, to find affinities and differences across practices.

So, having asked Sarah to ‘use’ the window room, I didn’t want to curate her work as such, but rather try to facilitate in a way that would be helpful to her being able to use the space…to be around if she needed a pair of hands, or in setting up a more formal way of us as a group of artists discussing her work in the window room, and her approach to the space. Therefore, ‘Northern Light’ is now showing in the window room, and we will have an informal get together, to which everyone is welcome, on Thursday 24 July at about 16:30pm. 

This pile of wood that has been in the gallery space for some weeks now is soon to be moved only a few yards away onto the top field at wysing and from waste made into a functioning usueable new space for our community and for the visiting public - an amphitheatre is taking shape - watch out for new images as they are posted up each week…