Performance event photos

These are some photos of the displayed books and sculptural works from the Performance Event. More photos and Video footage of the event will be up soon.

Performance event continued...

Me and a group of art students recently held a performance/ screening event. At the event there were books and sculptures displayed and there were readings, performances and film screenings. The event was held at LS6 (Clock cafe) on Hyde Park corner in Leeds. Many of the people involved were keen on the event taking place in a café environment rather than a gallery space or artist’s studio. This was due to numerous issues such as the type of work that people were making, issues with catering, refreshments and health and safety and also the fact that it was organised as an event and not an exhibition. The event was a success and thoroughly enjoyable to be a part of. The space we used was a room situated above the cafe itself, which is designed to be used for exhibitions and evening classes. This was an ideal space for us to use as it had the facilities we needed and it was a relatively blank space for us to occupy and transform into the desired setting for the event. As it was an event which was accessible to the public and not presented as an exhibition or art event, it appealed to those who would not normally engage with this sort of work. Although the event was organised and thought out, it still had an impromptu feel about it, which made it a more relaxed environment. The event was filmed and lots of photographs were taken. The event footage will be up on the blog soon...so look out for that.  

Pulp Fiction reading...

In February of this year, I got involved with a student led art, performance and music event called Mothstep, organised by a fellow art student. I helped out at the event, along with other students and performed one of my readings with another artist. The piece was called 'Pulp Fiction? Pulp Fiction.', which was a reading of two of my books containing all the questions and answers from the dialogue of the movie Pulp Fiction. Due to the process used to select the material for the two books, the end result was very different to how I had expected. The material was taken from the dialogue of the written movie script. The questions were obviously every sentence that had a question mark at the end, but I classed any sentence that came after a question that wasn’t another question as an answers. This made it so some of the questions and responses didn’t match up, so at some points the text would make little sense. Pulp Fiction is a fairly well-known movie, but at the same time it maintains its cult classic status. It is renowned for its great dialogue, and because of this I felt it would be an appropriate source to create a reading from. It was a good experience to read the work aloud in front of an audience. I have tried to take as many opportunities to perform readings throughout the year. I wanted the piece to be a way to engage with an audience and entertain them as well as using it as a medium to utilise my books and present my found material. I feel that it is a strong piece of work, due to its numerous different elements. It began as an extraction of information, which I used to produce two books that could be presented as art objects or used for performative readings. This particular work fits well into the sort of improvised performative environment, but I don't feel that it would be the right way to present it at my end of year degree show. I want to present the work in a way which will allow people to engage with it on a more personal level; perhaps individually rather than collectively.   

I have put the link to the Bitter Orange website below, which has more information on the Mothstep event. There is also a live video clip of the reading being performed at the event. 

Bitter Orange Website

'Launch on the Lawn'

Below is a link to the 'book launch' that I mentioned in my previous posts about the Leeds International Book Fair. This is footage of people launching the books that they had either produced themselves or purchased at the fair.

'Launch on the Lawn'

Saturday at the book fair...

Saturday is the main day of the Leeds international book fair (details on previous post); it’s busy and buzzing with energy. Collectors, book makers, families, people from Galleries and everyone in between; buying and chatting and ‘talking books’. The day before I had been helping out on one of the stalls, but this time I was on the other side of the table. My boyfriend was with me for the weekend, and we had invited his parents to come to Leeds for the event. They drove up in the morning and we went down together. We were a little worried it would be a bit pretentious for them, but they loved it. They thoroughly enjoyed the event and bought some lovely things. I’d stopped myself from looking round the day before, to make to make it even more special for when I had more time to soak it all in. We went round the whole fair, looked around the University Gallery and went to the Home from Home exhibition (details on previous post), which was up the road from the fair. It was a great day and to top it off, I sold four of my books. As they were the only copies, I now need to replace them for my end of year degree show and assessment, but that’s OK because I love book making. The book fair has been a huge inspiration for my work and it is a great opportunity for those love books in all shapes and forms to come together. I will definitely attend the Leeds international book fair after I graduate, as I wouldn’t want to miss out. I would recommend it to all!

One Book Fair, One book launch, Two openings and Free Wine

So I read books, I make books, I discuss books and I love books! And because of this, I decided to volunteer to help out on the Leeds School of Fine Art table at the 14^th International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair (The Parkinson Building, Leeds University). It was a great morning, spent drinking earl grey and chatting to fellow art students, lecturers and passers-by about the wonders of books and book making. I had a selection of my own artist’s book for sale on the table, for the first time in my three years spent at the University. The idea of them selling seemed to be absurd, but people were picking them up and flicking through and asking me about them, which was a fantastic experience. 

In the afternoon I went along to the book launch for Alex Lightman’s novel Twenty-Four by Thirty, published by The Wild Pansy Press. I’d previously seen his literal book launching on the Wild Pansy Press website (link below), but for this event, another catapult was constructed with a seat attached and people were invited to launch their own books. This was going on at the same time as the first day of the book fair, so people were bringing books they had just bought and launching them. Although I didn’t join in as I didn’t have a book to launch and I was a bit scared of the giant catapult, it was a fantastic sight, to see all those books flying through the air. I don’t have any footage of this event, but when it’s available on the internet I’ll post the link on here, so look out for that. 

In the evening it was the opening night of an exhibition called Thirty Years of the New Arcadian Journal and Broadsheets, 1981-2011 at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery (Leeds University). There was a selection of book works in display cases and framed pieces on the walls. It was one interpretation of a literary based exhibition. The works were treated more like artefacts, due to their age and preciousness; quite a contrast to the contemporary book fair which had been going that day, less than 10 yards away. My boyfriend Dan was visiting for the weekend and had just arrived that night, so the experience was even better, as I got to spend the evening with him looking at art and books and drinking free wine. However, this was only a short stop, before going onto the next place. 

 

We went on to the Home from Home exhibition opening night, which was held at 153 Woodhouse Lane, an old Victorian house owned by The University of Leeds,  a mere five minute walk away from the book fair. I would say it was good, but that would be an understatement because it blew me away. Artists’ Books displayed on Welsh dressers, tables and other beautiful wooden furniture; framed pieced, sculptures, installations and interactive works. It was three floors of great work which fit into the space perfectly. And of course there was more free wine.

Twenty-Four by Thirty book launch: http://www.wildpansypress.com/index.php?/project/twenty-four-by-thirty/

S&A. Burton Gallery website: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/gallery/exhibitions.htm

More info on Home from Home: http://abcarchive.blogspot.com/

Performance,sound and film screening event

I recently had the pleasure of meeting a man called Richard Price. He is a poet and novelist, working for the British Library. We discussed his and my own work and my plans for the rest of my BA. He was a very interesting man and was extremely helpful. One thing that he brought to my attention was the fact that a number of artists and students within certain institutions, who are involved in performance, take part in what he referred to as 'performance practice events'. The events are designed to allow artists to run through performances in an informal setting. Alarm bells rang in my head when I heard this and I immediately decided that it would be a great idea to propose to my peers. Me and a group of fellow Fine Art students have now come together and formed am initial plan; the first step is complete. The proposed event will be a performance, sound and film screening event, where people can show their work in a comfortable environment and discuss art and ideas with others. So far the group is made of artist book makers, performers, sound artists, film makers, poets, sculptors and story tellers. The next meeting will be all about the formalities. Dates, times and locations etc. I am thoroughly excited to have such a good opportunity and now I can watch it all unfold as well as getting stuck in. More info to come...