For Freedoms - Billboard Project

The largest public art initiative in U.S. history will place billboards in all 50 states ahead of the 2018 elections.

For Freedoms, which was founded by the artists Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman in early 2016, is spearheading the ambitious $1.5 million countrywide initiative. The organization will also partner with more than 200 local partners to stage free public programming ahead the November midterm elections, aiming to promote civic engagement rather than push one party or agenda. The crux of the political action committee’s mission is the 50 State Initiative, which will erect 52 artist-designed billboards in every state as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, all funded through 52 separate Kickstarter campaigns aiming to raise $3,000 each. “We are hoping to bring art to the center of public life in the lead-up to the midterms, which is where we think art should belong,” Gottesman told the New York Times.

Artists who will contribute billboards include Sam Durant, Theaster Gates, Marilyn Minter, Tania Bruguera, Trevor Paglen and Carrie Mae Weems. And while For Freedoms states that it wants to promote discourse rather than a single ideology, billboards in the past have rankled supporters of the current administration. One giant sign that was erected in Pearl, Mississippi, placed the Trump campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” atop a famous image of peaceful black protesters in Selma, Alabama, who stare down a line of police. It drew the ire of the state’s governor, and was later exhibited at MoMA PS1. 

And a billboard designed by Zoë Buckman that was installed in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in October 2016 referenced the Access Hollywood tape, which captured audio of the President bragging about groping women, reading, in gigantic letters, “Grab ‘em by the ballots.”

https://www.artsy.net/news/artsy-editorial-largest-public-art-initiative-history-will-place-billboards-50-states-ahead-2018-elections

Current KAWS exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

It is a tradition that when I visit my parents in Yorkshire, I pay a visit to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Last weekend was no different.

As I walked through the grounds in glorious sunshine, I discovered the latest open air sculptures by New York based artist and designer, KAWS.

These giant forms are reminiscent of characters from popular culture and comic books. Despite their dominating presence, I could not help but feel sorry for these rather disappointed looking figures.

http://www.ysp.co.uk/whats-on/this-season

Chronicle Live take a look at the new artworks that have arrived among the trees at Kielder

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on/arts-culture-news/w-take-look-new-artworks-11667292

Chronicle Live take a look at the new artworks that have arrived among the trees at Kielder

16:00, 29 JUL 2016
BY DAVID WHETSTONE

London-based artist Fiona Curran found a dark side to Kielder after being commissioned to make a new piece of art



Fiona Curran with her artwork 'The grass seemed darker than ever'


Glimpsed through the trees near Kielder Castle, a flash of kingfisher blue. You blink and blink again, but it’s still there, more distinct now among the muddy and purplish brown of the trunks.

Like much of the art at Kielder, it can take you by surprise – but this piece is quite surprising even when you know it’s there.

Artist Fiona Curran and Peter Sharpe, who has overseen the art and architecture programme at Kielder Water & Forest Park for many years, are leading a tour around some of the latest additions to this renowned outdoor ‘gallery’.

We follow the woodland path, occasionally stepping over branches and other moss-covered obstructions, and marvel at the natural beauty and tranquillity of the place.

It’s dry and the sun is shining – which helps.

Fiona, who grew up and studied in Manchester but now lives in London, has been visiting Northumberland every couple of months for the past year, having won a commission to create a new piece of work here.

Describing the experience at Kielder Castle before we headed off on an art trail, her eyes really did seem to shine.

For five or six days at a time, she had explored the landscape and talked to the people who lived and worked there.

She recalled being awe-struck by the vastness of the countryside viewed from the vantage point of Deadwater Fell and “the way the landscape constantly shifts as you change perspective”.

Being Here by JJ Lloyd

The weather, it seemed, had been kinder than might have been expected. Fiona enthused about “the blue of the sky which really hits you as you emerge from the darkness of the forest”.

Now she has added this flash of blue to that very darkness with a piece called The Grass Seemed Darker than Ever.

It was inspired partly by the English poet John Clare (1793-1864), who wrote about nature and rued the enclosure of common land.

She picked up on his reference to the only sense of containment in the landscape being the “encircling sky” – and she found out about the so-called Black Act of 1723.

“It came out of the Enclosure Acts which meant people who had previously had common access to the land suddenly couldn’t get access to something they had taken for granted for years.

“It meant that anyone found with a blackened face (the night-time disguise of the poacher) could be sentenced to death.”

A landowner’s poaching, of course, was a peasant’s means of feeding his family – a growing challenge as Clare’s beloved England was carved up and claimed by the well-heeled for personal enrichment.

So we come to Fiona’s addition to the Kielder art portfolio, an enclosure of blue-painted stakes with the forest floor within painted black.

It is, as the descriptive board explains, a piece of art “designed to keep you out”.

It is certainly a reminder to the many people who now travel to Kielder for recreational purposes – walking, cycling, art viewing – that there is a darker history to this place of beauty and tranquillity.

Kielder, as Fiona reminds me, is not just a place you escape to from urban life but a working forest. “Plantations can be there one year and then gone the next – and the landscape changes.”

A Long Wait by Mirela Bistran

The same goes for the art. Peter Sharpe, Kielder curator, points out a group of budgies perched high in a tree.

They’re not real budgies, of course. They are the survivors of Andrea Wilkinson’s 1997 Kielder artwork, Flock.

It used to consist of 72 of the little birds, but is now down to just 13. “We found out people had been taking them,” says Peter with a laugh.

You’d be hard pressed to reach this remaining baker’s dozen – or even to find them amid Kielder’s vast expanse – but if they go, they go.

Peter says much of the Kielder art was intended to be ephemeral, there for as long as nature – or people – allow.

He takes us on a tour of new work created by Newcastle University fine art students as part of a collaborative project called Onsite/Offsite. “Most of the work you see at Kielder is by professional artists who are well into their careers and respected,” he says.

“But this was an opportunity for people learning to be professionals to get some experience. There is work here by first, second, third or even fourth year students.”

Displayed along the Duchess Trail leading from Kielder Castle, these student artworks are made of various materials and invite different responses.

While Anthony Hensman’s Pyramidal Edifice looks as if could be there forever, others already seem to be bowing out. Eve Kossmann’s Forest Clock, a mushroom ring of unfired clay, has a thoroughly realistic air of crumbling decay.

Forest Clock by Eve Kossmann

Some of the students used abundantly available natural materials while others opted for the man-made. It makes for an interesting contrast. Not far from chairs made of tree stumps (Mirela Bistran’s A Long Wait), you’ll find suspended traffic lights (Stop When Light Shows Red by Oliver Hoffmeister and Harry Pickup).

Simon Court tells us the idea for his floating sculpture, Waveform, began on Waiheke Island off the coast of New Zealand. On the other hand, JJ Loyd’s Being Here, a literal 3D representation of the spot indicating its location on the map, references only itself.

Finally, who could resist Rochus Braun’s Hansel and Gretel Trail which leads to a vending machine dispensing miniature gingerbread sculptures?

These and other established works of art and architecture are one good reason for visiting Kielder over the summer.

Products of Kielder Water & Forest Part Development Trust’s art and architecture programme, all were made possible thanks to support from the Foresty Commission, Northumbrian Water and Arts Council England.

Find details on www.kielderartandarchitecture.com

Rednile projects

On Wednesday Suzanne Hutton gave an artist talk as part of the Fine Art Visiting Speakers Programme.

Suzanne studied Fine Art at Duncan of Jordanstone, Dundee. She has worked as a freelance artist and curator for 10 years and is currently in post as Cultural Development Officer for Northumberland County Council. In 2004, along with Manchester-based artists Michael Branthwaite Janine Goldsworthy she co-founded rednile Projects, a not for profit company which initiates collaborative arts projects with artists, specialists, business and communities often in temporary, non art settings. rednile create and commission artworks that respond to site and aim to leave a lasting legacy within the fabric of a place. 

Suzanne talked about rednile’s approach to art in the public realm including how their artistic interests drive its programme, and went on to discuss a range of specific projects that rednile has initiated or been involved in, such as Final Frontier at Gateshead Riverside Park and Factory Nights.

rednile’s portfolio has developed from initiating artist residencies and exhibitions in businesses to the delivery of satellite projects in education and the private sector and long term projects in creative consultation which has fed into public design and regeneration strategies.

Over the past 8 years rednile has coordinated 17 major projects throughout the UK all in temporary venues. rednile has contracted over 150 creative individuals in in the form of residencies, exhibitions, new commissions and temporary public art commissions, workshops and provided work placements, studio space, mentorships and opportunities to writers, photographers, designers and students.

rednile projects engage with communities and businesses and believe that through this process, the exploration and enjoyment of contemporary Art can be promoted at a grass roots level and challenge people’s perceptions. rednile has often been called unique as it is able to balance an artistic, exploratory approach with a firm understanding of how to cultivate meaningful involvement from the public, other creatives and project partners.

‘The transformation of everyday life, rednile’s practice suggests, begins with transforming attitudes to both art and work (let alone artworks) by intensifying the attention we pay to the world.’ - Mark Robinson, Thinking Practice.


Final Frontier at Gateshead Riverside Park

with artwork by Suzanne Hutton, Janine Goldsworthy, Michael Branthwaite, Jo Ray, David Thomas, Sarah Bayliss and Sophie Lisa Beresford











High Vis by Rednile


Factory Nights

Factory Nights is a series of inspiring working sessions for ANY visual artists, photographers, writers, poets, musicians, filmmakers and any other creatives!

Factory Nights is not a discussion event, seminar or workshop.

Factory Nights are free sessions that simply provide an opportunity for creative people to come together in an interesting venue and supportive environment to make work or initiate ideas.
For more information about rednile Projects please visit

http://www.rednile.org

Soaking in the atmosphere of the Lit and Phil

I will be taking part in a 3-person exhibition at the Literature and Philosophical Society (Lit and Phil) in March, and I am eager to get a sense of the place, how it is used and who uses it. I spent the afternoon soaking up the atmosphere and talking to people in the Lit and Phil.

On arrival I headed straight to the oval table towards the back of the main library room. The table is positioned in close proximity to a coffee machine, biscuit tin and 'the hatch', one of the features that distinguishes this building from other libraries. The hatch is run by volunteers who take it in turns to serve tea and coffee and biscuits. When the hatch is not manned, there is a tea and coffee machine and a biscuit tin that people can help themselves to.

As I sat at the table eating my packed lunch (yes, eating in the library is permitted!), I soon realised that there was no way that I could concentrate on reading the book that I had picked up as there were interesting conversations taking place around me.

Over the next few hours, a steady stream of people, ranging from a 3-year old to a 93-year old came and sat at the table. When asked what his favourite thing about the Lit and Phil is, Peter, the 3 year old boy, answered 'biscuits!' The importance of biscuits became clear as every person who came to sit at the table brought with them a packet of biscuits of some shape or form, and shared these. I was fortunate enough to meet Paul, the current Chair of the board of governors, who gave me a potted history of the Lit and Phil, from its conception in 1793 through the centuries to today.

Throughout our conversation other members sat at the table would interject and give their own anecdotes and offer other information to add to my understanding of what is obviously an important society to many people. There are not many places of this kind where one is given such a genuine and personal welcome, be offered food, partake in interesting conversation and be given a tour of the building by one of the members. This place is unique.

Over the past 15 years the society has experienced severe financial difficulties and at one point its existence was on tenterhooks. It is apparent that its survival relies on the passion and determination of the members and this drive ensures that the society retains its core functions - as a 'conversation club' and library.

The two functions exist simultaneously, although not always without tensions. In the most recent comments books, an abundance of glowingly positive remarks are punctuated by expressions of frustrations at the lack of silence in the library. Mike, (a current member) spoke about he regards the society as a social space, somewhere to talk about issues and ideas. In the 25 years that he has been a member, he has only borrowed 3 books. For him, the library aspect is not what attracts him, but the homely and comfortable atmosphere.

The society organises an impressive events programme, including musical events, lectures and art events. For example, in 2013 Dawn Felicia Knox, along with Irene Brown, Sally Madge, Iris Priest, Isabel Lima, Stephen Livingstone, Katy Cole and Benjamin Lawson were involved in Returning to the Philosophers’ Table, an integrated arts project that featured art exhibitions at the Lit & Phil and the Gallery of Wonder: Great North Museum along with cross-disciplinary collaborations and events.

For more information about Returning to the Philosophers’ Table, visit http://philosopherstable.org

I asked some of the members for their thoughts on some of the previous art exhibitions and installations that have taken place in the Lit and Phil. Positive comments were made in relation to Returning to the Philosophers’ Table. I get the impression the members I met were pretty open and are keen to attract new people. Tony mentioned that he would like to see a tandoori kitchen installed downstairs!

As much as I am excited about the space, I am also a little daunted by the challenge ahead. I feel, rightly or wrongly, a sense of responsibility to the members who regard the place as home. The context is already so loaded and full, and the atmosphere is very unique, and I want to use this to its full potential. How I will do this is unknown...

Watch this space!

Art Lending Library on tour

Today I took part in the launch of the Art Lending Library in Peterlee, East Durham.

The Art Lending Library is a project by 
Market Gallery and Walker & Bromwich.

The ambitious commission by Zoë Walker and Neil Bromwich takes the form of an experimental library and public procession. Originally conceived and curated by Market Gallery for Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2012, it provides the unique opportunity for the people of the town or city in which it is exhibited to borrow works of art and enjoy them within their homes, work places and community centres.

The Art Lending Library brings together over 50 works by a diverse range of artists working across the broad spectrum of formats available within contemporary visual arts practice. The project has been made possible through the generosity of participating artists in gifting their works into the care of the library, to be made available to loan for the duration of the exhibition.

The library structure is made up of multi-functional wooden crates. Each crate houses an artwork and is detachable and ready for transport to people's homes. On returning to the library the crate is re-attached to the body of the library and again operates as a display case. This modular design creates a constantly changing sculptural form that maps the user's borrowing. As people borrow or return an artwork they will also physically shape the library, becoming a part of an on going social sculpture.

The project stands in resistance to the tide of narrowing access to the arts and education by creating an egalitarian space where art can be borrowed and enjoyed by all sectors of society. Art Lending Library follows the model of a public lending library which members of the public can join free of charge.

Following its success in Glasgow, the Art Lending Library is going on tour, and today it was launched in as part of the inaugural East Durham Creates Festival. Here are the details:

Peterlee
Peterlee Memorial Methodist Church 29 Oct – 1 Nov 2014

Thornley
Thornley Village Centre 7 – 10 Nov 2014

South Hetton
Robin Todd Centre, South Hetton 13 – 16 Nov 2014

Artworks from artists based in Durham have been chosen for the Art Lending Library in this venue.

Artists that have been exhibited in Art Lending Library include Penkiln Burn, Graham Fagen, Joanne Tatham and Tom O'Sullivan, Mark Vernon, Ellie Harrison, Katie Cuddon, Henna Rikka Halonen, Oliver Braid, Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva, Mark McGowan, Karen Guthrie and Nina Pope, James McLardy, Stephen Hurrel, Alec Finlay, Laura Eldret, Calum Stirling, Andrew Burton, Laura Aldridge, David Sherry, Chris Biddlecombe, Stuart Murray, David Faithfull, Yu-Chen Wang, Jonathan Owen, Nick Fox, Andros Semieko, Kate V Robertson, Peter Evans, Beagles and Ramsay, Jemima Brown, Ally Wallace, Dean Hughes, Fernando Arias, Salome Oggenfuss, Roos Dijkhuizen, Kevin Hunt, Clara Ursitti, Tessa Lynch, Helen De Main, Sandy Grant, Jasmina Cibic, Pilvi Takala, Razan Akermay, Rachel Maclean, Pester & Rossi, James Stephen Wright, Romany Dear, Jacqueline Donachie and Roddy Buchanan, Tim Savage, Ciara Phillips, Catrin Jeans, Chris Mackenzie, Ross Frew, Ewan Manson, Rachel Barron, Sarah Laing, John Vella, Tom Nolan, Kate Murphy, Deborah Kelly, Michael Needham, Ashley McCormick, Annie O'Donnell, Dryden Goodwin, Gayle Chong Kwan, Iacopo Seri, Juan Pablo Echeverri, Margaret Harrison, Nick Kennedy, Nicky Peacock, Kraig Wilson

Designers Sophie Dyer & Sebastian Gorton Kalvik continue to deliver the design work for Art Lending Library.

The project is accompanied by a programme of free participatory events that are open to everyone.

 

Being involved in the parade was a really positive, fun and moving experience. A group of students from the Fine Art department at Newcastle University volunteered, and we were kitted out with librarian and art-handler outfits. The procession took us from the Methodist Church where the library is based, along the High Street and through the local shopping centre, leading back to the church.

 

Some of us were carrying flags, there was an art handler carrying an artwork which was then handed over to a librarian, other librarians were using the crates as drums, and we were handing out the Art Lending Library cards. An excellent brass band brought up the rear of the parade and added a crucial tuneful element to the memorable event.

Having seen the Art Lending Library in Glasgow, back in 2012, I was very keen to be involved in it here, and the experience truly enhanced my appreciation of this wonderful participatory artwork.

Walking down the grim, grey High Street lined by shops to let, value shops and bookies could have been a rather depressing experience, but the Art Lending Library brought a cheer to the streets and it was amazing to witness the light that people had in their eyes when we passed.

I gave a couple of lads some library cards, and a moment later they were helping hand out a bundle of these cards to others as they walked with us to the church.

Already there have been 4 items loaned out of the library, hopefully a sign of things to come.

At the briefing we were given some rather startling figures about the lack of arts and culture provision in this area, and I really hope that having such high quality artwork in Peterlee gives the community a sense of what contemporary art is and can be, and helps create a curiosity and desire for more.

For more information please visit
http://www.artlendinglibrary.org.uk/about/east-durham/

http://eastdurhamcreates.co.ukhttp://

www.walkerandbromwich.org.uk/home.html

In Conversation: Daniel Buren and Tim Marlow at BALTIC

In a previous blog post I wrote about one of the current exhibitions at BATIC, namely Catch as catch can: works in situ by Daniel Buren.

I was pleased to be able to get the opportunity to hear him speak in general about his work, and more specifically about the current exhibition at an In Conversation event at BALTIC last night.

The exhibition has been running from July to October, and although I have only been in Newcastle for a few weeks, and therefore have not witnessed more drastic changes in the artwork over the seasons, I have been able to see how viewing the work at different times during the day has an impact on the artwork.

Tim Marlow spoke about how the two different site-specific artworks relate to an audience in different light conditions.



In Summer, the light shines into the upstairs gallery from outside, and the work inside is illuminated and activated. In Autumn, when it is dark outside, the light from inside the gallery radiates and the coloured window panels of the building are illuminated, allowing an audience outside of the gallery to enjoy the work.

Buren was asked about what made him choose to use a diamond pattern for his work on the facade of the building; 20 Diamonds for the Façade: work in situ. He wanted to reference the strength and structure of the mill building. As much as I like stripes, I am pleased that Buren has widened his work to include other patterns as it becomes less predictable and repetitive. I feel that the non-linear striped works often seem more playful and pleasurable.

This is certainly the case for the work Buren installed for Monumenta 2012 in Paris's Grand Palais.




http://www.designboom.com/art/daniel-buren-monumenta-2012-excentriques/

In his article for the Guardian, Adrian Searle writes about Buren's work and enjoyment:

"The 2012 Monumenta site-specific commission in the vast, airy nave of Paris's Grand Palais is like being plunged into a pool of coloured light. Daniel Buren is the fifth artist to take on the annual Monumenta project in the belle epoch Grand Palais, originally built for the 1900 World Fair. It is a far more daunting site than Tate Modern's Turbine Hall. If the scale doesn't get to you, the architecture does.

A canopy of hundreds of horizontal circles, each touching the next, some larger, some smaller, some a little higher, some lower, fill the space. Each open steel O is stretched with a membrane of translucent plastic film, either in blue, yellow, orange or green. These are supported by black and white vertical posts, so many that they become a forest, half-drowned in colour and shadow.

Buren's colour choices are determined by the fact that these are the only colours the film comes in, and the order of his colours is dependent on the alphabetical order of their names. He works with the given. Even the height of the canopy is determined by the minimum ceiling heights of Paris apartments.

The building arches above, visible through and between the abutting circles, which veil the sky beyond. Being here has a submarine quality. You feel in the depths, shoaling and drifting with fellow visitors beneath the huge volume of contained light and space above. I'm like a fish down here, gulping coloured air.

Rather than "contesting" the architecture or "challenging" the viewer, to use the banal phraseology of museum types, Buren's work is at the mercy of the light from the Paris sky, the scudding clouds, the slanting sunlight as it enters the building.

At night, the space will be swept by roving spotlights, and. all the while, rotating audio speakers send sound roaming through the nave; voices in many languages counting and running through the alphabet, to the odd snatch of tinkly music. The sound is fairly unobtrusive, but I'd be happier without it.

The overall effect is quite magical, but does Buren do more than decorate the space? It is all very ambient, and very pretty (not a word I often use in a positive way) but, the longer one stays, the more the visual complications of his project multiply. The posts take on the colours of the light, which sings along their vertical edges. When the sun is out, the world is reflected upside down above us, and the circles of light projected on to the floor come into disconcertingly sharp focus.

Beneath the building's central dome, Buren has made a clearing, where little circular mirrored podiums reflect the roof and sky beyond. You can stand on these dusty mirrors and examine the pattern of blue film he's fixed to the top of the dome. You can also catch a view of your own crotch.

For some, such inadvertent pleasures may provide the main attraction. But let's not underestimate pleasure. It is at the heart of Buren's benign art. He's had dinghies with striped sails racing on Grasmere, made art from bunting and awnings, and turned buildings inside out with visual conundrums. There's logic in his method and eccentricity in his choices. That said, his practical, pragmatic approach makes other artists' aesthetic choices and decision-making appear somehow arbitrary by comparison.

Buren's art always makes me feel he truly enjoys what he does and gets a great deal from pitting himself against limits and constraints.

The architecture almost always consumes whatever is in here, whether that's exhibitions, art and trade fairs, planes or train locomotives. Last year, Anish Kapoor inserted a gobsmacking behemoth, looking much like a daunting sex toy.

But it isn't so much the building that is a challenge, as what the previous four artists have accomplished here, all of whom have been highly established male artists. The best has been Richard Serra's 2008 Promenade, a work that still lives in my head.

Next time, Monumenta has to be given to a woman. Nevertheless, Buren's project makes you very aware of the act of looking. It is not at all monumental in the way some previous projects have been. It is a work dedicated to visual and corporeal pleasure – the not-so-simple pleasure of being here. It almost had me dancing for a minute, except the song in my head was The Windmills of Your Mind, a deeply eccentric song which, I recall, was composed by a Frenchman."

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/may/09/daniel-buren-excentriques-grand-palais/print


Back to the in conversation event, Buren was very clear to state that to create beauty and harmony is not his main goal, but in the work for the BALTIC, he did try to balance the colours. There is a rationale behind the order of the colours on the ceiling, namely them being arranged alphabetically.

He has a definite opinion about the role of the photograph, and clearly distinguishes between the artwork and the photograph as a souvenir. His approach to photography is that his photographs are never exhibited or sold as artworks, and when photographs are used, they are framed as documentation or act as mementos or souvenirs such as postcards and posters.

The final question to him was whether he has a real desire to produce a piece of work in a specific location, and if so, where. His simple answer was no, but then went on to explain that he feels it is dangerous to develop ideas for a specific location when permission has not been granted because it places the artist in a tricky condition if they have got their hopes up so much and fought so hard to get the site, but then to be told they would need to make compromises to the work. Buren explained that if he was offered a commission and was given restrictions that he couldn't meet, then he could turn down the commission, but if he had approached the site asking for permission and which they granted, only then to be given restrictions, this would be more difficult to decline, or it would be totally devastating for the artist.

The making of the Barrowland Park album pathway

I've just found a fascinating article about how Jim Lambie's 'Album Pathway' was made.
I'm drawn to the photos of the casts and see similarities between how the colours mix in this piece with my casting process for 'BRIMMING'.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2014/july/barrowlands-album-pathway-jim-lambie















Jim Lambie, Untitled 2014, coloured concrete, 103m x 3m. Public Artwork in Barrowland Park, Glasgow. Courtesy of the Artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow. Commissioned as part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme. Photo: Stephen Hosey

Arranged like records on a shelf, artist Jim Lambie's 'album pathway' in Glasgow lists the names and dates of thousands of bands that have played the city's famous Barrowlands venue since 1983. Russ Coleman, the sculptor who worked on the Comedy Carpet in Blackpool, tells us how he turned his hand to coloured concrete...

Unveiled in the new Barrowland Park, a 'temporary urban greenspace' opposite the venue, Lambie's 100 metre long walkway cites 2,000 appearances by a range of international musicians. The artist has described the work as a homage to the famous venue and the nearby Barras market where he would often scour for records.

Commissioned as part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme, the pathway was developed by The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd with Lambie and landscape designer, Greg White (LOCI Design).



Jim Lambie, Untitled 2014, coloured concrete, 103m x 3m. Public Artwork in Barrowland Park, Glasgow. Courtesy of the Artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow. Photo: Stephen Hosey

Made from coloured concrete, the path – as with Gordon Young and Why Not Associates' expansive Comedy Carpet – contains thousands of individually made glyphs created by Coleman in his North Shields workshop. For the Barrowland Park project, Coleman worked with graphic designer and art director Kirk Teasdale to realise Lambie's original idea – their part of the process taking just twenty weeks to complete, in time for the Commonwealth Games.

Coleman has an interesting back story. Originally a 'monumental' mason and hand letter-carver, he trained in bricklaying and construction, later enrolling at art school to study sculpture. His approach to type involves thinking of it "in the wild – as physical objects," he says, and his recent work has combined these more traditional methods with new technologies; from water jet-cutting machines to digital software.



Jim Lambie, Untitled 2014, coloured concrete, 103m x 3m. Public Artwork in Barrowland Park, Glasgow. Courtesy of the Artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow. Photo: Stephen Hosey

"The Comedy Carpet was the culminaton of a year's work with Gordon and Why Not Associates," says Coleman, "and I developed techniques on that which afterwards I'd thought would be end of the road, really, with granite and concrete type. With the Carpet, this was type as solid objects that needed arranging in a particular way – the water-cutting maching unleashed a whole new world."

In 2013, Greg White, the landscape designer working on the Barrowland Park project was describing the pathway project to a friend who then directed him to the Comedy Carpet. White tracked down Coleman as a potential fabricator for the new pathway in Glasgow and Lambie's art production company Voidoid then contacted him about the idea – with one aspect of the proposal standing out in particular.

"What interested me was the colour," says Coleman, "because I have this long-term thing called the Concrete Foundation where its mission is to alter people's perceptions of concrete – to see it as ultimately flexible, as there are a thousand ways of using it. So this was a 'polychrome' approach to concrete. I'd Googled Jim's work and thought, 'that'd be great to work on'."



Jim Lambie, Untitled 2014, coloured concrete, 103m x 3m. Public Artwork in Barrowland Park, Glasgow. Courtesy of the Artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow. Photo: Stephen Hosey

The practicalities of working in coloured concrete, however, are a little more complicated. Coleman explains: "Using colour and concrete had obvious parameters: it's cement-based and alkaline; [the pathway] would be outdoors so would have to be UV stable as well. And there are only certain kinds of pigments [you can use] such as metal oxides – that's excluding organic and chemical pigments.

"Most of the coloured parts in the work are oxides of cobalt, titanium, iron and so on. Some of the colours, like the lilac and the turquoise, are very new colours that have only been developed in the last two years." These particular colours are also very expensive to produce. Ordinary pigments are around the £2 or £3 a kilo mark, while the turquoise, says Coleman, might come in at £60 or £70 for the same amount.



Coleman also cast many of the fonts used in the pathway, as opposed to cutting them out with the water jet (the latter allows more flexibility in that the fonts to be cut at any size). "There was some old traditional stuff in casting certain fonts such as Bryant, which has a rounded edge without any serifs and is easy to do," he says. "Whereas Optima or Baskerville are difficult to cast, you can't remould them as easily, they're too delicate to handle, particularly as there's a brittleness to concrete. Locked into the surrounding concrete though they're very strong."

The project used used nine fonts in 14 colours which made for a total of 126 possible combinations – and a mammoth twenty-two thousand separate glyphs.

"Normally, you might design something on the computer, then someone cuts it out," says Coleman. "But here, from start to finish, there were around 50 different processes, lots of checks and balances. For one, you have to arrange the letters upside-down and back-to-front and then cover them in concrete. It goes from 2D to 3D, then back to 2D again. It's almost like creating chaos."





Teasdale says the team made templates of the path as though it had been flipped over in the workshop. "We used tape to stick the letterforms on the templates wrong way round," he says, "and then poured coloured concrete over them, which made the stripes."

"It was about designing processes and procedures to achieve what the artist wanted, their vision," says Coleman. "It needed to look like the spines of records; like you were walking along a collection."

Coleman, who talks animatedly about the properties of concrete, points out that it was in the process of turning a PDF of type into physical lettering that then allowed other elements to come out. "In the workshop it becomes something else, it's not the precious thing on paper – but the 'process' dictates another thing. And that's the hit of the real type that’s bigger than on the page. It has its own life."

Even when put in place and cleaned of all the dust, the path was transformed once again. "We used a clear crystal quartz as an aggregate," says Coleman, "so when you cut through – they act like mini prisms."

Barrowland Park

Over the past couple of weeks, the city of Glasgow has been buzzing even more than usual due to being the host of the Commonwealth Games 2014.
Unsurprisingly, in true Glasgow spirit, the people of Glasgow rose to the occasion and welcomed visitors with open arms.

I was delighted to see the improvements that were made to the roads and public spaces around the city, none more obvious that by Glasgow Green.

The other night I was walking back from my studio to my flat when i noticed that the hoardings had been removed from an area of land that had been out-of-bounds wasteland for a few years. The area had been cleared, landscaped and a colourful path had been installed running through the centre. 

Album Pathway is a new artwork by Jim Lambie, commissioned as part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme, working alongside the Glasgow 2014 XX Commonwealth Games.



The stripy path was, at first, a pleasure to the eye, yet on closer inspection it became more significant. Lambie's piece draws on the history of the famous gig venue, The Barrowlands, which is located a short distance along the Gallowgate. Created by setting caste granite letters into pigmented concrete, the one hundred meters-long and three metres-wide path features the names of nearly every act that has played at the Barrowland since 1983, and includes the date they performed.



Lambie said the pathway resembles “the side view of a vinyl record collection, placed on a shelf at home.”

Perhaps that is one of the reasons why it is so popular - it is a sight so recognisable in many a home. Strolling along the pathway, it is difficult to think of anyone who is not familiar withat least a few of the bands, from Simple Minds & Blondie to Motorhead, and Foals. It has been wonderful to see a real mixture of people engaging and spending time with the work.
This makes it all the more disappointing to read that the Barrowland Park is a 'temporary urban greenspace'. I find it difficult to understand why such a place would be temporary, and hope that the public response encourages the council to reconsider its status and make it a permanent feature.


Links

http://www.velocityglasgow.org.uk/newsandopportunities/Pages/Barrowlands-Park.aspx

http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/live-and-public-art/art487877-Legendary-gig-venue-Glasgow-Barrowland-inpsires-major-public-artwork-for-Glasgow-2014

https://www.a-n.co.uk/news/glasgow-commonwealth-games-an-art-pathway

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2014/july/barrowlands-album-pathway-jim-lambie

Verity is given a makeover!

Following my recent blog posts about the intervention in Glasgow Green, my friend Gary sent me a link to another public intervention, this time in North Devon.

"The controversial 60 ft bronze sculpture, Verity by Damien Hirst has stood at the harbour mouth of Ilfracombe in North Devon, England since 2012. But unusually, at dawn this April Fools Day 1 April 2014, she was revealed to be sporting a giant pair of striped legwarmers.

The knitted garments mysteriously appeared overnight and although rumours abound amongst locals as to who is responsible, no one has yet owned up to the prank. Some believe Hirst himself to be behind it, while others think that the mariners aboard a warship that was docked nearby at the time must be involved. The woollen garments remained in place for 24 hours, being removed by the harbour master the next day, but the council and locals alike took the event in good humour and shops in the town reported that business had picked up.

Tonia Sears, owner of The Periwinkle knitting shop and cafe which opened in Ilfracombe November 2013 denies any affiliation, but comments that she finds it ‘brilliant that people are exploring artwork with yarn and the community are getting involved’. Her venue hosts craft workshops and clubs and she has been spreading the yarn art knowledge, recently teaching 45 members of the ‘Combe Crumpets’ (Ilfracombe’s Womens Institute group), the art of Tunisian Crochet.


The covert yarnbombing craze continues to spread, with comical positivity in its wake."



http://cover-magazine.com/news/verity-yarnbombed-on-april-fools-day/

Pidgin Perfect

My previous blog post prompted a number of kind people to get in touch with me and reveal who created the beautiful cable tie intervention in Glasgow Green - Pidgin Perfect.

"Pidgin Perfect is an award winning multi-disciplinary creative studio based in Glasgow. We bring together people, clients and place to help build better communities for everyone.

Pidgin Perfect have a unique multi skilled approach combining participation, research and design that places the community at the heart of our projects.

We believe that meaningful participation, strategic research and socially driven design are interdependent, the best results are achieved when these three elements combine and having fun is a serious part of this process.

Through collaboration, storytelling and a unique understanding of context Pidgin Perfect deliver socially rich outcomes. From installing a temporary cinema in The Barras Market; to developing visual briefs for key projects; designing a theatrical banquet in Venice; or landscaping public green space in Pollokshaws and delivering permanent public realm works; Pidgin Perfect create architecture that truly allows for engaging experiences, building lasting relationships, bringing communities together."

'Speedworks' with PEEK Projects

Through ‘Speed works’ a group of young adults from PEEK Projects designed and created an intervention within the public realm using cable ties; a simple, everyday object.

PEEK works with children and young people aged 5-25 living in the East End of Glasgow and North of Glasgow – giving them the motivation, self-confidence and skills they need to change their lives.

In collaboration with Pidgin Perfect, the group made changes to a small area of the Barras Market, creating an intervention that makes people stop and think during their daily journeys.

The intervention links into the proposal currently being developed by an artist for the nearby Greendyke Square site on London Road which explores similar themes of play, route, context and pace.

This collaboration with PEEK Projects was made possible through the Velocity: ABC Commission. 

For more information please visit http://pidginperfect.tumblr.com

Learn To Dream, Aprende A Sonar

	John BaldessariLearn To Dream, Aprende A Soñar

Produced by ForYourArt, the public art component of Arts Matter, kicked off by Barbara Kruger in October, continues with the work of artist John Baldessari. His project titled Learn To Dream, Aprende A Soñar appears on twelve buses, along with 48 other media assets including billboards, bus shelters, and other types of outdoor media throughout Los Angeles for the next four weeks.

Learn To Dream, Aprende A Soñar is the second flight of original works of art by world-renowned artists produced by ForYourArt for Arts Matter, a first of its kind, citywide public art exhibition and fundraising campaign to support arts and creativity in the nation's second largest public school system.

Dominoes in Helsinki

Dominoes in Helsinki video

On Thursday 23 August, Dominoes appeared in Helsinki with more than 20,000 people in the streets, 10,000 blocks, 250 volunteers and a feeling of joy and celebration.

Starting on an island of Helsinki's archipelago, the blocks reached the beach of Meri Rastela, going through the suburbs, took the metro to go through Kallio and its famous traditional Sauna. Then made its way through a musican's flat and fell into the gigantic tunnels that exist under all of Helsinki. It continued in the streets of the centre and finished on Senat Square.  

Palatre & Leclere Architectes brighten up École Maternelle Pajol

Palatre & Leclere Architectes were given the task of transforming a rundown pre-school in Paris’s 18th arrondissement.

Mission accomplished - rainbow colours wash through the building, from its exterior and into the classrooms, whilst playground games are seamlessly integrated into the bold public art of its façade.

It is a great example of what can be achieved with imagination. Lets hope that it leads to many other commissions of this type. After all, a 2009 study at the University of Essex showed that memory, mental agility, reaction times and even physical strength improved when exposed to sunflowers, rainbows and other what-nots.