gifts and occupations

manual/mechanical

2011-09-21T09:49:00.000+02:00

Objects in Orbit

2011-08-19T15:07:00.001+02:00

'Objects in Orbit'.
An exhibition by Andrew Rae and Chrissie Macdonald.
Detroit Gallery, Stockholm.
2 – 4 September 2011

And what will all of this become if not you?

2011-08-11T11:59:00.007+02:00

Recently worked on a piece for Detroit's Summer Show.

The embroidery is a mixture of translating snippets of reference images straight from sketchbooks as well as using thread in a more loose, mark making way. I became kind of caught between these two ways of thinking and in the end the whole thing became a bit too tight and more visual/illustrative,- half way through the process I just wanted to stick the needle in and out in a more unthoughtful manner.

There is something about stitch and fabric in reality that I really enjoy; seeing the back thread on the underside,how the fabric behaves when it's slightly pulled, but with this piece at the back of my mind I had the concern that I wanted it to reproduce well as an image.
So, I will go back to the idea of using stitch more like drawing and see what happens.

inspiration overdose

2011-08-08T12:01:00.008+02:00

Recently visited the Ethnographic Museum in Kraków.

Community Futures

2011-06-14T11:02:00.002+02:00

Some new illustrations for the ever-inspiring Viewpoint magazine.

investigations into repeat patterns

2011-05-10T17:42:00.003+02:00

Choosing and laying out small, non-descript objects, playing with them as repeatable motifs in 2 and 3 dimensions. I produced an edition of double sided posters for Book on the Fritz#2. I was interested in the idea of a repeat pattern itself being an editioned piece of work, as the original elements are reproduced within the image, and ultimately, will be repeated infinitely. Editions of editions. Available for sale if you would like one.

elements

2011-05-10T17:23:00.003+02:00

Book on the Fritz #02

2011-04-15T11:01:00.007+02:00

I've been invited to be part of this in a couple of weeks....thinking about self publishing and editioned work.
And Time vs Process. Time = Process. Need to play and produce within the limitations of both. I've got just over a week. And some plasticine.

Book on the Fritz
“The very idea of collecting, exhibiting and distributing self-published work really makes us happy! Book on the Fritz is an exhibition format dealing with self-publishing in all different shapes and variations. We started the project because we wanted to create an output for self-published projects coming from people whose work we find interesting.

Considering the event itself to be a kind of periodical, one of our aims is to organize it as many times as we can with as many different participants as achievable. In the end Book on the Fritz is a social gathering where we can all meet up.”

Participants: Siri Ahmed Backström, Burning Hell, Byggstudio, Lisa Carlsson, Medium Rare, Eller med a, Alexandra Falagara, Åsa Frölander, Maja Hammarén, Lars Hedelin, Kim Hiorthøy, Conny Karlsson, Sonja Nilsson, Samuel Nyholm, Marie O’Connor, Jeff Olsson, Pol Perez, Plaquette, PWR PAPER, Jalmar Staaf, Anders Stockman & Robert Ågren (Varv), Kajsa Sundin & Matilda Roos, Nille Svensson, Toey Toeytoey

April 29 – May 1, 2011
Gallery Steinsland Berliner, Stockholm

Northern Skies

2011-04-12T13:46:00.002+02:00

Was asked to create some artwork for an album by Natalie Gardiner recently.
Spent some time playing around like this. More of which to come later.

Final design. Northern Skies, 2-colour screen print, limited edition. Loved a day in the print room. Need to go back there soon.

MAKE_SHAPE

2011-04-10T23:00:00.014+02:00

I created this interactive installation for the event Does it fit? at Norrköpings Konstmuseum in Sweden.
With Make_Shape I wanted to encourage the public to test and try these objects on their body; some shapes were more obvious in how they could be applied than others.

It was interesting to see how people reacted to the idea and also how, in many cases, they approached something made in wood or papier-mâché as they might a dress or a necklace - did it suit them/their personality etc. There was a definite desire to create 'a look'.

I was much more into how these shapes could abstract, confine or manipulate the body and limbs. To overtake and dictate some kind of stance or posture. Boys seemed to like to become make shift superheroes.

I also like the idea of documenting the permutations of any given combination. And creating some sort of object/sculpture/background/foreground/body/clothing combo.

The installation itself was ever changing with shapes being worn and then placed in new positions constantly.
Will re-visit all of this again soon.

sculpture / dance

2011-03-31T15:24:00.001+02:00

The Bloomberg Commission: Claire Barclay: Shadow Spans

saturday 26th march

2011-03-28T11:52:00.001+02:00

more to follow

the new niave

2011-03-16T13:38:00.000+01:00

That's me alright. A little feature in Viewpoint #27.

triadic ballet

2011-03-10T17:49:00.007+01:00

I'm working on an interactive installation to be part of a show at the end of the month at Norrköpings Konstmuseum.
Inspiration, as ever from these

tests

2011-02-21T18:36:00.005+01:00

Some studies for fabric applique ideas

Zimmermann & de Perrot

2011-02-20T13:19:00.007+01:00

I went to see this last night

The Constructed Body: Part 2

2011-02-17T12:30:00.005+01:00

In the second session at the Hockney Gallery, Royal College of Art, we began playing on a bigger scale.
The reference for this was costume for theatre; Bauhaus, Dada, Leger etc and Ballet Russes.

To kick off, I asked the pupils to select some paper at random that we had worked with in the previous session. They then had to quickly form some kind of body using only these papers. 'Where is the head?' 'Are there legs?' etc. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, this was something I thought about doing at the last minute, but they really enjoyed the limitations of the task.

We then made some drawings of patterns directed by instructions given by me. It was really interesting to see their interpretation of what was being asked. 'Draw lines', 'draw stripes'. 'A line is a rectangle'. 'A spot is a circle'. We created lots of patterned papers to play around with. These weren't utilised in the way I had predicted but it was a nice exercise in itself.

The final exercise involved creating surprising body shapes and working into these silhouettes with their pre-drawn papers and various mixed media.

Ideally at some stage I wanted to build on the body, but time was an issue as well as being conscious of not switching ideas too much. I decided to let them get on with the large scale drawings which made for a cracking exhibition. The little ones were so clever and cute and talented and receptive in equal measure. The whole thing was an absolute treat to be part of.

Paper, Scissors, Draw was shown at the Hockney Gallery, formed by the results of my workshop and those led by the brilliant Sarah Bridgland and Silas Money.

The Constructed Body: Part 1 continued cont.

2011-02-15T18:30:00.006+01:00

We spent time developing similar ideas in small 3D forms, working from a very basic kit of plastercine, rubber bands, lollipop sticks, tape etc and photocopied bodies once again. It was a bit of a stretch to see the connection between the earlier exercises and this one, which in hindsight I would re-think. They did well to resist the obvious inclination to make faces and heads with hair, and produced some great stuff again. Love the use of plastercine as a fixing device.

The Constructed Body: Part 1 continued

2011-02-15T14:24:00.008+01:00

Bad photography apart, this was such good fun. Working on top of photocopies of each other, the pupils created collaged body shapes. They really took on board the idea of using shapes within their found imagery to be applied to the body in quick, absurd ways.

It was pushed further with a longer exercise of the same nature.
Working on top of their own bodies it was interesting to see little personalities or alter-egos being realised.

The Constructed Body: Part 1

2011-02-15T10:52:00.022+01:00

Ok, I feel a few epic posts coming up.
On the subject of costume, a short while ago I was invited by ReachOutRCA to work with amazing primary school pupils as part of a series of workshops and subsequent exhibition Paper, Scissors, Draw.
There were two days of making, each split into various tasks.

Firstly, in the school gym hall, I spoke a little about my practice and showed some inspiration.
We discussed the idea of abstracting body forms or the disguising of the body entirely, body parts rearranged to cause distortion or flattened to create a hybrid of shape and image.

The ubiquitous blog-stars Sonia Delaunay, Alexander Girard, Picasso, Phyllis Galembo.

The pupils then picked some reference images and set about identifying and isolating shapes and colours to work with.

Gunta Stölzl, Ruth Hollós-Consemüller, Weiner Werkstätte, Bamileke elephant mask, Ettore Sottsass, Peter Shire, Kente and Ewe fabric.

A major part of the premise for this whole project was to be allowed and encouraged to investigate my own working methods and see how they could be translated into some kind of teaching excercise. Something about re-interpreting a designed object/image that already exists, using your eyes to be selective and extract areas of interest, making decisions quickly and forcing your own hand without too much questioning.

Costume Build

2011-02-14T16:16:00.010+01:00

Been teaching for the last two weeks in London. Was back at my old stomping ground Camberwell and had the pleasure of working with Riitta Ikonen on a costume workshop with the BA Illustration students. A small selection of work in progress...

fabric + ink + screen + tape

2011-01-17T12:57:00.002+01:00

must buy this

2011-01-17T12:32:00.002+01:00

wobble

2011-01-17T11:50:00.003+01:00

zoom

2011-01-17T11:39:00.007+01:00

more moiré

2011-01-10T15:57:00.004+01:00

2 layers of organza

moiré prints

2011-01-10T14:00:00.009+01:00

I wanted to make the new pattern, the 'fault' if you like, permanent.

3 colour digital print on silk.

Another version of moiré, but looking more at using a gradient to achieve the distorted effect. Much eye-bleeding ensued.

Digital print on cotton.

Moiré

2011-01-10T12:05:00.019+01:00

Taken one day when I and 2 colleagues turned up to work in a very similar uniform. Was interesting to see how the stripes changed when I uploaded it from my phone to computer screen. This led to a project investigating moiré patterns.

As part of the research, I came across lots of advice on what to/not to wear on TV, considering pattern, contrast etc and how to avoid wobbly lines on your tie and so on. (I also learned that 'you shouldn't have a moustache if you plan on doing a lot of TV', and that 'if you are smeared, smile and shake your head').

The Countdown rule-breakers.

Playing around on-screen with a stripey vest. I guess the thing I like with this is that the stripes/screen relationship produces other stripes of various proportions, distortion and checks.

And then, taking the vest and rotating it 360degrees to see the slight variations and breaks in the stripes.

various old

2010-11-02T11:58:00.003+01:00

various nice

2010-10-21T17:00:00.014+02:00

Rugs by Josef Frank.

Wiener Werkstätte

Checkland Kindleysides

2010-10-20T18:45:00.000+02:00

I made this series of illustrations and film for the design consultants Checkland Kindleysides.
Each illustrated an aspect of their expertise for the Creative Knowledge section of their website.
Thanks to Rasmus Norlander for his photographic magic.

Creative Knowledge film. Animation Pete Mellor

with Chrissie

2010-10-18T10:47:00.002+02:00

Before IYC, Chrissie and I had worked on a couple of things before. This was for an exhibition with Peepshow quite a while ago now. One part of my work was displaying some of my collected ephemera. Chrissie created large scale versions.

Another - Hallowe'en fashion story in Complex magazine.

Photography John Short

new friends

2010-10-13T16:09:00.030+02:00

Our final line up.

The way I approached it was not to have an idea of a 'body' but more about making nice combinations of the materials we found. Some were simple, some more complex. Floating shapes within the entire composition and areas of detail.

I was really interested in walking the line between figuration and abstraction - to keep things semi-recognisable while not giving in to the point when it 'becomes' something else.
We had an idea that they would be viewed from all sides, so when construction started, it was interesting to work on one area, and then walk around it to see what happened with the decisions you just made on the other side. I don't think my set are particularly 3dimensional in this respect - they are all quite flat on all sides.

Although i wanted to refrain from anything too figurative, i couldn't resist with this one.
Again, the placement of features/bodily bits move around so that there is never one definitive reading. If the triangle is a hat, then the circles are eyes, but it the triangle is a head then the circles are breasts etc.

A snippet of our catalogue contribution featured on It's Nice That.

IYC WIP

2010-10-13T16:02:00.011+02:00

Chrissie and I both wanted to develop our already tried and tested ways of working. Our practice does overlap here and there and we both find that there is a common interest in creating objects but also the need to photograph them, and thinking in turn about what the actual outcome is - the thing or the image?
To move things on we spent some time gathering as much scrap material as possible from friend's workshop bins. The idea was to work in a similar way to our smaller kit of parts, but this time play on a bigger scale.

The nicest thing was to come to these pieces as an outsider given they already had a bit of a history - a joint that had gone wrong, an offcut from a more important shape. A bit like a puzzle to be made sense of in material terms alone.

Although we decided we wanted to create structures/figures, I instinctively wanted to arrange the pieces according to material, colour, shape etc. It would become something else to have gone down that route in this context, but something to explore another time.

IYC - wooden rod, rubber bands, foam balls

2010-10-13T14:19:00.031+02:00

I was invited by Chrissie MacDonald to work with her on the project If You Could : Collaborate last year. It was fun to start from scratch and use the opportunity to re-visit old ideas and research that had not been yet realised.

We set up camp in the Peepshow studio and started by pooling a 'kit of parts' - wooden rods, pulp balls, lollipop sticks, pegs etc - and began making little studies of these materials. Some became figures, some remained ambiguous. The vague idea was to create patterns,objects, constructions and to see where our experiments would take us.

Some figures and material investigations.

more heads in bodies

2010-10-12T12:58:00.000+02:00

Flicking through a knitting book. At first glance, I thought it was a jumper with a man's bearded face. On a second look, I realised it wasn't. Shame.

japanese toys

2010-10-11T20:20:00.007+02:00

2010-10-07T17:17:00.000+02:00

drawn thread work

2010-10-05T15:58:00.062+02:00

Started by making these sketches for a line up. It's a typical technique for me - using a cut out body template which is laid over images, drawings, objects etc, but on this occasion there was more thought with the initial placement; the first outfit is determined by placing the tattooed face where a real face would be.
The rest of the pattern falls onto the shoulders and torso.

The next and subsequent outfits are enlargements of the face and it's placement moves around the wearer's body.

The idea is that as the image grows, so will the textile treatment.
For starters, a fine-line screen print, then other techniques exploring different qualities of line.

Modelling clay applique (although it looks very much like cake icing). Liked this technique a lot - worked the clay into 'snakes' and then manipulated it into the shapes. It was a lot like drawing but quite difficult to translate the original layout of the line exactly. So the 'hand' is quite evident in all of this, like it is in the original.

Appliqué - fabric cut up into strips, then torn in half, giving one cut edge, one torn edge to each. The process of stitching took 3 weeks, on and off.
A really enjoyable process, again like drawing with a 3D line. It was also nice that there was a definitive end point. The challenges and satisfaction came in controlling the line when turning a corner.

As well as a different treatment, the garments construction grew in complexity. The drawing itself dictated the shapes within each outfit, so the neck falling below the hips became pockets. The face also took on different forms as it was abstracted. Above a detail of the carved wooden mask/necklace.

Layers of towelling used as edging. Again, the shape of the outfit is determined by the drawing;this being the nose area translated as an open jacket piece with layered top underneath.
The final garment in the series needs a bit of revision, so will post it when I've had a re-think and a re-make.

book find

2010-10-01T18:56:00.000+02:00

This book is brilliant. Are Clothes Modern? An essay on contemporary apparel, published in 1947 has become a constant source of inspiration. Written by critic, architect and designer Bernard Rudofsky the name of the book was first used as the name of the exhibition he curated and designed at MoMA in 1944.

It feels very contemporary - the design, critique underlined in sarcastic tones, range of reference and links built between them ...Typical of the content is a study by the author of how a woman's body would have been shaped if it had literally fitted the clothes of four periods in fashion: bustled silhouette of 1875 forms a lady-centaur, the 'mono-bosom' of 1904, the vase-like figure of 1913 which would result in one leg under the tight-fitting skirt and the 1920's concave flapper.

In another study of what informs what and the absurdity of the adopted norm, Rudofsky says this:
"The ultimate triumph of contemporary clothing is the symmetrical shoe, our deepest regret is our inability to develop a symmetrical foot. With infinite patience we try all our lives to reshape our feet to an ideal established by shoe manufacturers in the form of the "last". If the human foot were shaped like the shoe designed for it today, it would have the big toe in the middle."

To get back on topic, the book also has this image of a sketch for a tattoo made by a native of Easter Island.
It's the starting point for my exhibition Drawn Thread Work at Detroit Stockholm as part of Modevandring.

Fashion Play

2010-09-30T12:41:00.000+02:00

Recently, I was invited by Fashionplay to take part in Stockholm's Modevandring 2010.
Translated as Fashion Walk, the event is a platform for "creators who work in the borderlands between fashion and art".
More images and explanation of work produced for it soon, but first a note about the context in which this event exists.

Fashionplay's agenda is to create and actively promote some kind of visible presence and seek critical discourse for fashion in Sweden. This was the main aim of the seminar Fashion Art New Roads, where I was invited as a guest speaker along with Helle Mardahl, Lars Holmberg and Ingrid Giertz Mårtenson.
Some really interesting discussion came out of the talks and as a newcomer to Stockholm, it gave me a good insight into how people feel about the limitations of labels, lack of knowledge or understanding in the press, the academic theory that's missing at education level and very little financial support or initiatives for practitioners who work in a much broader framework than within what is understood to be 'fashion' at this time. (The exhibition Swedish Fashion: Exploring a New Identity dealt with all of this too but I'll save that for another time).

History Repeats Itself

2010-09-22T12:36:00.000+02:00

I often think about child's play and playing, whether it's being completely inspired by what kids can make, aesthetic-wise, or adopting an approach to making work that is about reacting purely to materials, messing around with processes or making things up as you go along.

Last summer Europa organised a series of talks in conjunction with Winchester School of Art, and Peter Nencini and I presented our Shared History of Play. I got terrible stage fright, but managed to mumble something about these images.

Bruno Munari

Valie Export

Janfamily

Clark Kent / Superman

Bas Jan Ader

to explain

2010-09-20T17:21:00.000+02:00

A long time ago, I saw the exhibition Only Make-Believe:Ways of Playing at Compton Verney. Curated by Marina Warner, her essay in the catalogue turned me on to Johan Huizinga's Homo Ludens, D.W Winnicott and other historians and thinkers who were concerned with the notion of play/reality, environment/object relations and so on. I was also re-introduced to the ideas of radical educationalist and Kindergarten originator Friedrich Froebel.

Gifts and Occupations are teaching tools devised by Froebel. A series of playthings, Gifts begin with a set of coloured balls covered in knitted fabric, and grow in complexity thereafter - wooden spheres and cubes, beads and grids, coloured paper shapes etc. These are progressively sequenced towards a gradual shift from the concrete idea of solid forms to the abstract idea of "spatial patterns." The objects are introduced to the child and relate in material, weight, shape to what has gone before and what will come after. The incremental stages allow for understanding of forms but also investigative imaginative play and self directed activity.

Working in tandem alongside these Gifts he developed the idea of Occupations, graded similarly according to difficulty and required dexterity, but focusing on a skill. This included paper folding and cutting, weaving, wood carving etc.

Image from old but nice article here

More about kindergarten from collector Norman Brosterman and the exhibition he co-curated at the IFF

The thing that I find most interesting with this kind of approach to creating is the limits and conditions in which the work is produced. A system, a kit of parts, to play in and with. Also, the parallels drawn between making an 'image' and making an 'object', moving from flatness to form.