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Karen

I have a passion for materials, and am drawn to finding new ways to use paint, found objects and other media to create sculptural elements in my work. So I am totally in love with this installation created in collaboration by Sven Jonke, Christoph Katzler and Nikola Radeljković. This this two-metre high structure made entirely of packing tape extends over Fed Square in Melbourne. And it totally blows my tiny mind. Amazing stuff.

All work can be viewed at http://www.numen.eu/installations/tape-melbourne

I have been thinking lately about the direction I am taking my work in for my next exhibition. I am doing an exhibition alongside photographer Keith Ramsey and am allowing myself to be influenced by the photographs he takes. I have been creating some landscape paintings, and am finding myself drawn to ideas of topography and maps as visual inspiration. During my research, I found lots of art that uses topography, but I was completely blown away by the work of Noriko Ambe, who creates the most beautiful sculptural pieces by cutting into layer upon layer of paper.

Simply beautiful.

© Noriko Ambe 2008

Yesterday I visited the autumn exhibition programme at the RWA in Bristol. The gallery had managed to attract a series of high profile artists in this show, featuring the work of Tracey Emin, Louise Bourgeois, Bridget Riley, Michael Kidner and Damien Hirst. I was most struck by the joint venture ‘Do not abandon me’, collaboration between Emin and Bourgeouis. The project began with Bourgeouis creating a series of paintings of male and female torsos in profile and simplistic in style.  She then passed these onto Emin, who worked on top of images, creating figures that interacted with the torsos, and writing on them to bring new meanings to the pieces.

Walking into the section of the gallery where the paintings were hung the atmosphere immediately changed. Gone was the brightness and whiteness of the space housing the work by Riley and Kidner, which made me eyes hurt a little. The black curtain you passed through masked the odd noises coming from the prototype of Luke Jerram’s ‘Aeolus’, and suddenly the space felt much more intimate. I’m not entirely sure I liked all the work, in fact, some of the pieces had a puerile quality to them. Others worked beautifully though and drew me in with the way they looked and the feelings they evoked in me.

Despite the fact that I am still making my mind up about the exhibition, I was most struck by the actual concept of one artist creating a piece, and then another working on it to turn it into something else. With my own work, if I work on top of something and I don’t like it, or it doesn’t work, then I only have myself to blame and I can either destroy it or keep work over it, often obliterating the original image entirely. With this collaboration, the pressure had to be there to make the work ‘better’ and to not ‘ruin’ it. No wonder it took Tracey Emin a couple of years to pluck up the courage to make a mark on the work!

I am currently about to begin a collaboration of my own, an exhibition with Keith Ramsey, a photographer who lives in my home town. I won’t be drawing on someone else’s work (thankfully!), but I am going to let myself be led by the work he is making. I want to take inspiration from other sources that do not normally influence me, and see where my work goes. I want to use his photos as a starting point for my work. I’m excited by the prospect of this joint venture!

This weekend just gone, Boomfest took place in Clarence Park, Weston-super-Mare. The festival, organised by youth  co-operative group Boomsatsuma had so much amazing stuff going on, but the most memorable thing to see for me an enormous installation called ‘Colourscape’. This series of interconnecting chambers which were lit with vibrant colours provokes many feelings. The child in me was amazed and awe inspired and a little bit freaked out by some of the red. The mother in me was delighted at the look of wonder on my two year olds face. The artist in me wanted to be completely on my own in there, walking slowly and taking in the mesmerizing, space age landscape, or taking time to curl up in the chambers which felt the most cozy and welcoming.

A visual feast that left me feeling hugely inspired. When me daughter woke up the next day and I asked her if she had had any dreams, she simply replied “I dreamed about the colours….”

I met up a month or so ago with a group of interesting women at the Old Town Quarry in Weston-super-Mare to make some fingerbobs, decorate them and then leave them dotted around the town to celebrate North Somerset Arts Week. All bar one were people I had met on Twitter, which just goes to show that social networking can be just that, rather than isolating people from each other as the popular press might have you believe. But I digress…..
It was a really fun and amusing little project to do, and I enjoyed the company of the others while we created. But I have to say, the quest to leave them in interesting places all over town was by far the best part of the experience for me.

To see the full set of photos, including those made by the other people from the group, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/62637672@N06/

Nowhereisland – Alex Hartley from Claire Doherty on Vimeo.

At the regional Turning Point South West meeting held recently at The Brewhouse Taunton, Claire Doherty from Situations spoke about an exciting new art project that is going to be taking place in the summer of 2012.

In 2004, the project had its beginnings when artist Alex Hartley was on an expedition with the Cape Farewell project to the Arctic. There he discovered a an island which had been revealed from the melting ice of a retreating glacier in the High Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. As the first man to ever stand on the island, he staked a claim to it. It was named, and can now be found on new maps and charts of the region. He is returning to the island this year and will retrieve a portion of the island, which he will sail into international waters, where it will become a micronation – Nowhereisland. In 2012, he will then ‘sail’ this island around the South West coast.

I’m really taken by the concept of this project, not just because the island sculpture will be visiting my native south west of England. It has an air of the deliciously ridiculous, but will encourage people to think and engage with what it would mean to be a citizen of a new world. Perhaps you might wish to enter the competition to design the ‘Nowhereisland’ Flag. Or you might want to think about the rules and new constitutions you could contribute to. If you were to start a new nation, what would you change? INowhere Islandmagine the freedom of being able to start from scratch….

With the prospect of being able to become a citizen of a brand new county, what is not to get excited about?! I am already a citizen. Are you?

I have heard rumours there is some sort of big wedding happening this bank holiday. YAWN! For something far more exiting to do on the day of the royal wedding, get yourself down to Studio Upstairs, the artists community on the Bristol harbourside where I used to volunteer.

Each year, Studio Upstairs transforms itself from a working studio to a fabulous gallery space, where works from members, manages and volunteers are all exhibited alongside each other. I always loved watching the transformation of the space unfolding, but the amount of effort it takes to do this is huge.  But the quality of the work keeps on getting better and better, making all the effort worth it.

I urge you to go and see the exhibition if you can. It runs from the 30^th of April to the 2^nd of May, open daily from 11am – 5pm, with a  free admission, and there is a preview on the 29^th April 6-8pm, to which all are very welcome.

For more information, see http://bristol.studioupstairs.org.uk/

Welcome to the new website for Karenart.co.uk. Hopefully this website should be much easier to navigate round than the old format, and generally look a lot better.  Please click on the ‘Contact’ button if you wish to get in touch, or be added to my mailing list.

Keep checking in regularly for news on forthcoming exhibitions, collaborations, or just to see who has tickled my fancy in the creative art world of late!