It's all part of the process

As I was waiting for one of my layers of plaster to set, I had a much needed sort out of the space under the table in the casting workshop where I have been storing all my moulds and materials for the past few months.

I dismantled all of my old moulds, and began to sort out the moulds that were suitable for re-using, and those that were destined for the skip. 

As I glanced at the two piles of melamine boards stacked on top of each other, I was attracted to the traces of coloured plaster that remained on the sides of the sheets. The trace of the form that was contained within the mould is present on the edges of the mould.

Such unexpected discoveries are exciting and rather than throwing the moulds into the skip, I have now gathered them together and will be exploring ways that I can use these remnants in an installation.

The Big Reveal

Over the past month I have been working on a couple of casts that have tested my mould making and mathematical skills, not to mention plaster mixing.

After adding the last few layers to the T-shaped tetris mould, I was ready to reveal what was contained within the melamine walls.

Collages by Andre Yi

These collages by Los Angeles based artist Andre Yi are made from paper, paint, pencil shavings & hot pink tape. 

I really like the mixture of textures and the flashes of bright colour amongst the natural browns.

http://www.thejealouscurator.com/blog/2015/02/03/andre-yi/

The Means and the Instruments - Michael Mulvihill - Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland

Last week artist Michael Mulvihill gave an artist talk and spoke about his current exhibition, The Means and the Instruments at Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland. At the weekend I visited the exhibition.



"Mulvihill is fascinated by the Cold War, and tells the story of when he was growing up as a child in the Eighties, running home from school to see whether he could beat the 'four minute' attack warning that would signal nuclear annihilation. He failed, it took him 6 minutes. This biographical anecdote is used to focus his attentions on broader geopolitical narratives of that era. 

The exhibition features a number of delicate pencil drawings based on the Vulcan XL319 aircraft                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

By appropriating the iconography of the Vulcan aircraft and reframing it through his typically delicate pencil drawings, Mulvihill conflates global histories with a more personal tenor."



Although I had seen good quality images of Michael's work through his artist talk, the intricate details on Michael's postage stamp sized works cannot be viewed properly unless you are looking at the work first hand.



I am curious about how Michael's decided to position the individual drawings over two walls. They were fairly evenly spaced, with no dense or sparse areas or direction to the flow of images. There did not appear to be any guidelines determining the positioning of the images. Sometimes highly detailed images were at the top of the walls, preventing the viewer from admiring the drawing.



http://www.ngca.co.uk/exhibs/default.asp?id=216&prnt=18

Layer by layer

Nearly reached the top!

Ball pool for adults opens in London

Because being an adult is rubbish and all anyone really wants to do is thrash around in a soft play area, a bunch of heroes have opened a pop-up ball pit in Hammersmith.

The pit is free to visit and contains 81,000 balls, which can entertain up to 30 people at one time.

It is the brainchild of creative agency Pearlfisher, who will donate £1 to the charity Right to Play for every person that visits.

 

 

 

They've shunned the traditional multi-coloured balls, instead going for a nice calming, utopian white.

The installation follows a similar one from Turner prize-winning artist Martin Creed last year, who filled a room with white balloons.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ball-pit-for-adults-opens-in-london-10010207.html?cmpid=facebook-post#

Adding more layers - lime - medium blue - lime

More layers in the bedrock sequence

I continue to follow the order of the geology of the Cheeseburn as indicated on a bedrock map. The colours of each layer of plaster relates to the colour of the rock as per the key on bedrock geology maps.

Critique of SEMI at BALTIC 39

This morning we met up with the Northumbria University MFA students at BALTIC 39. 

On Thursday evening I had attended the preview of their exhibition; SEMI, and today we participated in a group critique of the work in the exhibition. 

The work is varied in form and content, including sound work, performance, video work and painting by the following students

David Bilbrough / Alex Brunt / Jamie Ellis-Clark / Tim Croft / Rachel Errington / Alex Harmon / Alexandra Hughes / Joanna Hutton / Ricky James / Gethin Wyn Jones / Phil Larry / David Longwill / Dan May / Lily Mellor / Markos Sotiriou / James Watts

I look forward to meeting the group again, this time at Newcastle University, for a critique of our forthcoming exhibition in February.

Colour layer 3

Coloured layer 2

First pour in the angular mould

With this cast I am going to use the colours depicting the different rock types from the bedrock geology of the Cheeseburn area.

Rather than simply pouring the plaster in straight layers, I am going to alter the angle of the mould with each pour. My reason for doing so is to prevent the sculpture from being too predictable.

Time for the layers of colour

After a couple of weeks spent making the moulds, and preparing the outside surfaces of the sculpture, it was finally the time to add the initial layers of coloured plaster into the mould.

My choice of colours is being determined by the colours used to depict the different layers of rock in bedrock geology.

I have investigated the geology of the Cheeseburn Grange region, and will follow this pattern for these casts.

Coloured layer 1