Wish I was there, I think.

Tonight is the opening of KAUNAS TEXTILE BIENNIAL '11 in Lithuania. My work is travelling further afield and my longing to be out there with it getting ever stronger. I asked for my Changelings to be presented laid out on a surface and am keen to know how it was done. Andrea Milde, one of the exhibitors, promised to take a few snaps for me, can't wait to see them, but am also apprehensive. My diminutive Changelings will have quite a task of standing up (while lying down, we share that!) for themselves, and for this artist. It is such a big event, with a European Textile Network-conference, themed exhibitions, performances, presentations, showcasing artists from all over the world, many of whom are in the middle of a successful career. Oh, I want to see it all. But how do I fit in there? Just think: Yinka Shonibare is one of the UK-artists invited for a different part of the exhibition. I feel like a tiny, if aged fledling, cheeping panic-stricken on the edge of a nest. Will my wings work? Part of me is so proud to have my work selected, but another part, rather more noisy just now, can't quite believe it and is waiting for notification that a mistake was made. Even writing this feels presumptuous. Looks like I need to grow to keep up with my art.
If all goes well (knock on wood!) my pieces will hold their own in the exhibition titled REWIND PERSONAL STORY, which explores narrative art, set beside a piece of writing by each artist. My story has my memory of my cousin Edith/Edith's shoes as its starting point; if you'd like to know where it leads me click on my name under the above link.

My work is at KAUNAS TEXTILE BIENNIAL '11!
The exhibition is open until 10 December 2011.

I'm not there, but my work is...

Tonight is the private view at PSL and I'll be projecting myself there in spirit, as for reasons of ill-health I'm presently unable to travel up to Leeds. I would have loved to meet the other artists, to see their work, and for that matter mine with theirs, but it will have to wait. In the mean-time my art will have to represent me. I confess I'm almost jealous of my pieces, out in the world to start their conversations, to form or refuse relationships, make new stories.

PEERING SIDEWAYS
Three group shows by artists from London, Manchester and
members of the Art House in Wakefield

10 September - 10 December 2011
PRIVATE VIEW Friday 9 September 2011, 6-8pm

Open Wed-Sat 12-5pm or by appointment
Free entry

PSL [Project Space Leeds]
Whitehall Waterfront
2 Riverside Way
Leeds LS1 4EH

Hair, hair, hair

Come and see my Five perfect maidens and other hair-selves at HAIR, a new exhibition at PORTICO Gallery in West Norwood, London. All being well I'll be there for the opening.

Private View
Saturday 10th September 6pm – 9pm.

With
Anna Gartsu Nova, Cath Dupuy, Charlotte E Padgham, Christopher Clack, Claire Briggs, Clare Misselbrook, Emma Bagley, Emma Fenelon, Ewa Obrochta, Georgina Moir, Harriet Muller, Ingrid Andrew, Jackie Brown, James Marshall, Kelly Averis, Marion Michell, Michael Wilson CBE, Sue Cox.

The exhibition is open from 10th September – 26th September
Thursdays 12 – 8pm. Saturday 10am – 5pm.
Or by arrangement (call 0208 761 7612)

PORTICO Gallery
23a Knights Hill
West Norwood
London
SE27 0HS

Regression blues

This is a little thing with a big name. Just now only time and energy for little things as I've been busy packing up work to send off to exhibitions. Needed to learn about 'proper' packing actually, important, it's not like I'm sending a piece or two, more six or seven, a small body of work, and they are going further afield, which makes me anxious until I know the pieces have arrived safely. Five pieces are in Brighton now, next my Changelings will go off to Lithuania for the Kaunas Biennial TEXTILE 11: REWIND-PLAY-FORWARD, and a couple of other things are in the pipeline which need attending to in tiny energetic bouts. I'm esp. sad that I can't go to Lithuania myself, meet other artists, see the work, attend the conference, am half-tempted to fall into the cardboard box and send myself of too. No money coming in, I never sell, alas; loads going out, for boxes, couriers, etc. My mom chipping in, bless her. Social life (incl. blogging), small as it is, shrinking towards 0, but needs must, I'm trying to build myself a professional future and while I'm lying on the floor my art flies into the world, a bit like a glorious kite, to which I'm the tail that trails along merrily.
Materials: crocheted from cotton thread. Dimensions: 25 cm x 37 cm

TWISTED - exhibition

A fresh encounter with contemporary craft

The exhibition at Phoenix Brighton 'focuses on work by seven artists who employ the traditional materials and techniques of textiles and ceramics, but manipulate and twist them into different forms, altered meanings and new directions. Wriggling out of the traditional domain of ‘craft’, these objects escape the plinth, shelf and glass cabinet, occupying the gallery as unconventional wall pieces and installations that you can walk through.'

With Kay Aplin, Rosalind Davies, Rosie James, Marion Michell,
Karin Schosser, Isobel Smith, Alice Walton

July 23 – August 21, 2011
Wed - Sun 11am - 5pm
PREVIEW: Friday 22 July, 5 - 7 pm

Address:
North Gallery
PHOENIX BRIGHTON
10–14 Waterloo Place
Brighton BN2 9NB
East Sussex

Every day we tried to be good

Sometimes, when I finish a piece of work, put it aside for a bit and suddenly come across it again - I see it as if for the first time. If I'm lucky, and then I know I've got something right, I fill up with pleasure at what I've made. An idea which used to live in my head and in a tiny drawing on a scrap of paper - has become real! It's almost like feeling a kind of tenderness, what a weird idea, and there's a sense of recognition, by which I mean, I find some of what I wanted to express. I can see its faults too, but that's o.k. Christian Boltanski, whose work fascinates and moves me, said somewhere that he wants his audience not to discover but to reconnect. Less modest than you think at first. Good enough for me.

Materials: crocheted from Jaggerspun Zephyr Wool-Silk
Dimensions: 35 cm x 35 cm and 34 cm x 35 cm

Talk to me! (1)

While I unravel a piece that hasn’t worked out and of which only the title remains (Keeping seven sisters warm – hope to return to it in winter) I ponder questions posed by an an art professional I hold in high esteem: "What is your gift to the audience? What would you want to happen to them?" It’s something I haven’t much thought about before – I do not commune with an imaginary viewer while I crochet away, but try to make work that pleases and challenges me first of all, hoping it will ultimately be able to stand up for itself in the world. My art practice is mostly a solipsistic pursuit – after all I make my work on the living room floor and direct contact and conversations with other artists are still rare. So what better place than talking here, with you?
The first thing I would say is that I want my art to move. My work is not about big statements, even if its underlying theme, exploring notions of otherness, is an important one. I hope to affect the skip of a heart-beat, a jolt, a pierce, a sudden mini mind-stumble, when at second glance the viewer realises things are not as simple as they seem. And in that little side-step a different form of engagement might be possible, a drawing close, a connection. Maybe to people’s childhood memories, to how they felt when they were small. Maybe to other instances of vulnerability, of uncertainty - or of judgement. And when they try to imagine what kind of body might inhabit one of my outfits maybe they'd ask themselves questions about perfect and imperfect bodies, about what we phantasise and project when faced with the mystery of otherness, in ourselves, in those we know, in those we don’t know.
More to think about: abjection, the psyche, form, medium, beauty, but too tired just now. What's on your mind?