i dont want to be an artist

i want to be an ice cream man

dreggin' me down

A load of what ifs. What if I were to make a decent piece of art? What if I were to get over myself for a second and think of my work as more than a joke, a respectable piece of artwork that has good concepts and is visually interesting and was worthy of presenting? What if I decided I was so good that people must buy me, I will change your life and make all your wildest dreams come true, blow up my bastard pieces to mega sizes and sell them as abstract decorative pieces that someone with a nice fancy house and delusions of grandeur needs to display in their drawing room to show how cultured and interesting they really are. 

Well, this is what it would look like. Not too unrealistic, I mean for a second I reckon I could pull of presenting them as abstract pieces. I did think of this before I got pissed off and cut them all up. Perhaps instead of hiding the flaws I could embrace them, that’s what that would mean if I was going to do that. Nah, I don’t think I can ever go back now, it’s just not as fun. Back to the bin for me....

WHITE: Four Artists With Absolutely Nothing In Common Except For Lack Of Colour

Another opening! This time at the Hope Gallery called White: Four Artists Whose Work Has Absolutely Nothing In Common Except For The Lack Of Colour on the 10th March 2009. I really like this name for the exhibition, a bit cheeky and spelling out pretty much what we were going to get, reminded me of some of the names for Martin Creeds work i've been looking at recently, e.g Blu-tack kneaded, rolled into a ball and depressed against a wall. We didn’t have a clue where the place was so we got a taxi, the driver wasn’t very helpful either and we’d given up hope when we came across this tiny gallery tucked away down a side street in the outskirts of Leeds. It seems like they didn’t want to be found either, the instructions on the leaflets they were given away weren’t exactly descriptive!

So, yes, White exhibition. We walked in to see a couple of groups standing around chatting, a very small turnout as can be expected considering its location. There were loads of milk bottles on the floor and some cow biscuits on the side, this was a piece by Alice Brooke – Smith who was clearly going for the old relational aesthetics business, the audience were encouraged to pick the bottles up, drink them, throw them away, although we wouldn’t have got this if we didn’t see everyone else doing it, I think sometimes with these relational things you need to be led by example and it turns people into sheep. On the leaflet it says she’s interested in, amongst various other things, disobedience. So this implies the artist would have liked it if we did something a bit daring with the milk, but what exactly would have happened if we started throwing it around or something, I don’t think the gallery owners and other artists would have been best pleased.

In the middle of the gallery were forms created by Leen Horsford, I never really get too interested in sculptures to be honest, the work was about processes to create forms and the physicality of materials which I guess I should be doing for this brief at the moment if I was good. They were presented from the ceiling to accentuate weight and height and draw attention to the architecture of the space. The forms were hung on metal hooks, like big bits of meat or something, so being clean and white contrasted this, I don’t know if the artist took this into consideration, perhaps a hook was just the best way to hang the material.
There were some 2D pieces on the wall, some attached to the wall using pins, displayed in an orderly manner, didn’t find these of that much interest really I was too excited about free milk. We spoke to the gallery owner for a bit, they were quite keen to give us some information towards how we can go about getting an exhibition and such, it was run by Music and Arts Production (MAP) who are supported by the National Lottery, I read into them and found they are a Leeds based arts organisation that provides alternative education for young people, providing a holistic approach in an arts environment. The work exhibited Hope Gallery ranges from community arts projects to professional exhibition from well respected artists. Yeah, seems really accessible to get an exhibition here, I liked the space and the fact that it was near impossible to find, a good way to filter out the weak and feeble ones from the audience. Good night anyway, we scored loads of free milk which we accidently left in the fridge at Carpe later on. Its alright though, we went back the next day and they still had it nicely chilled for us, thanks Carpe.

Marianne Springham Exhibition

We went to the Marianne Springham opening on 5^th March 2009, arrived quite late so there wasn’t much wine left which was a bit of a shame, there were grapes and some other weird nibbly things available which is always a winner. This was a lot different from the last exhibition, the audience was a lot more community and family orientated, there were lots of children running around and lego put out for them. Also, being an Artsmix thing the staff were very friendly and chatted with us about who they are and what they do, they let us know about some more events they’re hosting which was nice.

Marianne Springham was the winner of the 2007 Artsmix emerging artist award, I think having her own exhibition was part of the prize. Her work is a lot different to the stuff I usually look at, it was quite refreshing to see someone who clearly just has a passion for creating, with the sole intention to make people smile. Since I started this course I have been exposed to so much heavily conceptual, deep and meaningful and confusing art that makes my brain hurt, I have become accustomed to trying to overanalyse everything and put everything into consideration, I think in conceptual art there is a need to put reason and meaning behind everything. Marianne’s work is really personal; she draws whatever pops into her head so it is quirky and eclectic. She creates strange paraphernalia such as soft sculptures of peculiar characters which she takes out and about, placing them in different situations for her own amusement, found objects which she changes and incorporates her designs upon, screen prints and wall pieces.

The exhibition was pretty much set out like one of those posh arty shops, as her work is highly commercial, the wall pieces would be something decorative to put in your bedroom and could be made into posters or greetings cards, the soft sculptures could be something to give to someone as a gift, so I think they set it out like this to encourage people to buy the pieces I don’t think they considered the placements of the works, just what fits where and if it looks alright without looking too cluttered. There were some pieces in cases, some of her “found objects” which she has printed her designs on, but others were simply placed on the sides. I’m not sure why they had done this maybe to make it look more like an exhibition and not just a posh arty shop?