Also visit Donna Lynas, Wysing’s Director Curatorial Advisor page for Shezad Dawood on AXIS :
http://www.axisweb.org/ofSARF.aspx?SELECTIONID=19405

   

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.

I dashed up to Leeds last week to catch the glittering UK launch of FEATURE at Leeds Met Gallery.  My old stomping ground i caught up with a few familiar faces and was joined by Nigel Walsh from Leeds City Art Gallery who was in turn joined by Phil Sayers and Rikki Lundgreen - who had just completed a video installation at the Gallery.  It was great to see the completed Dawood western film and to revisit a project that Wysing had commissioned just 12 months ago on our 11 acre rural site.  It was great to see all the sets on screen that at Wysing we had lived with for some weeks and to meet the curators involved in taking the Tour of the show - Feature - Archaeology from Manchester to Birmingham.

I also picked up a copy fo the Book by Bookworks which was amazing to see it all documented in its entirety and to remind myself of the behind the scenes moments we lived through last Summer at Wysing.

To visit details about the Leeds Met show visit :

http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/arts/index.htm

To view details about the publication visit Bookworks site and details at:

http://www.bookworks.org.uk/asp/detail.asp?uid=book_817F5FBC-C58F-4131-897A-5284684BFC5A&sub=new