Catherine Yass Artist talk

The visiting artist at Newcastle University this week was Catherine Yass, the London-based artist. Abandoned urban spaces and sites in a process of construction or deconstruction are of interest to Yass, and often feature in her work. People are usually absent from her work, but this is not the case in High Wire (2008), a multi-screen film and video installation.

High Wire (2008) was filmed at the Red Road housing estate in North Glasgow. When it was built in the early 1960s, Red Road was the highest social housing in Europe, a major achievement for the city planners who sought to rebuild the city. Yet in 2008 it was due to be demolished.

Akin to the utopian principles that were in place at the time that the Red Road housing estate was built, Yass wanted to make a work about "walking in the air, out of nothing." She advertised for a tightrope walker to walk between two of the high rise buildings at Red Road.

Yass worked with French high-wire artist Didier Pasquette. In the talk Yass spoke about her unease when Pasquette told her that he did not want to wear a safety harness. Her terror increased as Pasquette began the tightrope walk and it became clear that the weather conditions were much worse than had been forecast, and Pasquette would need to turn round. He edged his way back to the starting platform.



Yass spoke about how she considered not exhibiting the work as the intention of Pasquette walking from one building to the other had not been fulfilled. However, she began to see this as a strength of the work. I believe that it echoes the situation at the Red Road housing estate; grand ideas of what would exist turned out to be unachievable, and this adds another layer to the work.

Fine Art Visiting Speakers Programme at Newcastle University

The Fine Art department at Newcastle University presents a public weekly programme of research lectures and seminars from some of the most interesting and original artists, critics, curators, historians and art professionals working today. 

Speakers are invited whose work relates to topical research and teaching themes being explored by staff, undergraduate students, postgraduate students and researchers in Fine Art, and is a significant element of Fine Art’s unique commitment to research that tests established boundaries and methodologies. T‌he Lecture programme is intended to transcend traditional discussion boundaries.

The lectures take place every Tuesday evening at 5:15pm, and tend to finish around 6:30pm. They are held in the Fine Art Lecture Theatre. I fully recommend attending the talks - they are open to members of the public as well as students.

The term 1 programme has been organised by Uta Kogelsberger, and is as follows:

Tuesday 10 October
Lise Autogena

Tuesday 17 October
Joy Gerrard

Tuesday 24 October
Jane and Louise Wilson

Tuesday 31 October
Clara Ursitti

Tuesday 7 November
Catherine Yass

Tuesday 14 November
Jeremy Millar

Tuesday 21 November
Dave O'Brien

Artist talk by Yelena Popova

The visiting lecture this week was from Yelena Popova. She is currently exhibiting in the group exhibition, UNsensed at the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle.

I enjoy the playful positioning of the wooden 'props' and the way that the paintings are balanced on these. At times, Popova has props paintings against chairs, moving the work in more of a sculptural realm.The arrangement of these elements resemble how they may exist in the studio, and thus hints at the role of process within the work. 

Prior to exhibiting work, Popova sets it up in the studio and takes a photograph of the arrangement.

In the recent work, Popova's use of colour is limited, choosing to use white ink on naturally coloured linen. 

The linen alone is a beautiful surface. In earlier work Popova has used coloured pigments, preferring to limit the number of colours and tones within each painting. Other work used brighter colours, giving the work a different energy. 

It is clear that Popova is very good at making work for a specific context, be it in a gallery, a stately home, or as in the work above, specifically for a collector. Her awareness that collectors need to transport their work wherever they travel, and that sometimes this limits the way work is seen, prompted her to create a series of works that would be made specifically for transporting in a flight case, and therefore would be viewed in the way she intended. When folded out, the paintings have a sculptural presence.

"Popova’s practice encompasses painting, video and installation, and all her work is tied together by an interest in exploring the concept of balance, whether in politics, representation, or in our relationship with machines. 

With their transparent, softened geometric forms, Yelena Popova’s paintings recall the graphics and aesthetics of both Russian Constructivism and Minimalism, and open up conversations about the materiality of painting today. 

“I’m not interested in making single objects, but in creating a complex network of facts, fictions, emotions, gestures, materials and images, which could relate to the world outside it,” the artist explains. 

For a recent project she made paintings and video inspired by the metaphor of the discus thrower; the elliptical curves and repeated, rhythmic shapes on her linen canvases articulate the kind of balance, external and internal, expressed through fixed rotation. Popova’s films, which deal with overt imbalances such as Cold War topics and radioactivity, seem the perfect counterpoint to her 2D work, the flipside of the same theme. 

Balance of Probability is a multi-part installation of paintings on linen that plays with similar ideas. The canvases in a range of sizes combine graphic pattern and unpredictable shapes with a delicacy of touch and thin gradients of pale colour that sometimes even show the grain of their linen surfaces. Precariously arranged on each other or held in place with makeshift pallet supports and even a doorknob, the paintings convey a sense both of dangerous asymmetry and of harmonious interconnectedness."

Lupe Nùñez-Fernández

http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/yelena_popova.htm?section_name=new_art_from_russia

http://www.yelenapopova.co.uk

Jez Riley French

A couple of weeks ago, sound artist Jez Riley French gave an artist talk at Newcastle University. He spoke very honestly and openly about his approach to making work and shared his working methods with us. He brought along a number of different microphones that he uses to record his work.

I found it remarkable to listen to the sounds of structures such as bridges, particularly so as he does not edit the footage in any way.

Following his teaching at the University, Jez contacted me asking whether he could provide a link to my work.

Here is a link to his post which includes a little mention of my artwork!

http://treasure-hiding.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/newcastle-visit-further.html

Jez' website is

http://jezrileyfrench.co.uk

and his blog can be seen at

http://jezrileyfrench.blogspot.co.uk

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