EU Campaign - Wolfgang Tillmans

Artist Wolfgang Tillmans has designed a set of 25 posters to encourage people to register to vote and to vote for the UK to remain in the EU. He states the "official ‘Remain’ campaign feels lame and is lacking in passion".

Tillmans is particularly keen to encourage young people to register to vote.

Here are some of the posters











































































More information can be found on Tillmans' website:

http://tillmans.co.uk/campaign-eu

Drone ensemble

Last night at Drone Ensemble we set out the full range of scaffolding tubular instruments starting with  the instrument producing the lowest note and ending with the instrument that produces the highest note.

We had to fix a few handles and sort out some that were not playing very well e.g. applying rosin to alter the friction between wheel and pad.

We also used one of the friction drums, a Hurdy Gurdy and some pipes.



We kept it very simple, starting quietly with the scaffolding tubular instruments, introducing the occasional pipe, and then involving the Hurdy Gurdy and friction drum.



We all agreed that this basic arrangement sounded good, and that we could have a number of 20 minute sections that each used a limited range of equipment.



Joe then demonstrated the effects of vibrating speakers - definitely something to be explored further.

Kielder OFFSITE exhibition install

These images show the progression of our work for the Kielder OFFSITE exhibition in the X Libris Gallery.

After masking out the basic shapes of the design, we began to use the tape to block in areas

We had tested the high-vis paint on a bit of wood. Initially it did not look very fluorescent, but once it had dried, it became much more vibrant and like we had imagined.

We hoped that this would be the same for when we used it to paint sections of the wall.

We were surprised and disappointed that the paint was so dark, dull and patchy. We left it to dry, hoping that this would change how it appeared.

We also tried painting a smaller section in the same paint, but this time used a roller to apply it rather than a brush.

Unfortunately it did not make any difference, and the paint was not as we had hoped.

We therefore changed our design and covered the paint with blocked areas of tape.

Tidying up the edges and removing some of the grubby marks from the wall were the finishing touches before the preview of the exhibition that evening.

                         

KIELDER: OFF SITE EXHIBITION PREVIEW THURSDAY 12TH MAY - XL GALLERY 6-8PM

KEILDER: ON SITE / OFF SITE

EXHIBITION PREVIEW – THURSDAY 12TH MAY, 6-8PM,

XL GALLERY, KING EDWARD VII BUILDING

EXHIBITION OPEN DAILY 13/05 - 23/05

KEILDER: ON SITE / OFF SITE is a collaborative project initiated by Newcastle University’s Fine Art Department and The Keilder Partnership, which commenced in summer 2015. The ambitious year-long project set out with the aim of practically exploring the opportunities of the unique environment of Kielder Forest for visual art. The project will culminate in the creation of a group of semi-temporary works created by staff and students to be sited in the forest and Keilder Observatory (launching 17/06/16).

OFF SITE is an exhibition of work created by participants of the project which will be housed in the Ex-Libris Gallery opening a month before ON SITE launches in Keilder Forrest and Water Park. The exhibition will provide an insight into the working methodologies of the artists involved and will serve as a space to critically question the notion and importance of location, scale and collaboration whilst working both in and outside the conventional gallery setting. The exhibition will contain a variety of works spanning from different stages of the project, from conceptual and technical drawings right through to finished works yet to be installed on location. A temporary and short exhibition run has lent itself to creating works on site which suggest at the possible outcomes of some of the projects involved.

Please join us for the preview of OFF SITE on Thursday 12th May at 6pm at the Ex-Libris Gallery in King Edward VII building (Newcastle Fine Art Department) for some drinks and more information about the project at large. An accompanying publication about the project will be distributed in the near future, and will be available from various locations in both greater Newcastle and Keilder.

Participating Artists:

Mirela Bistran / Rochus Braun / Simon Court / Sarah Grundy / Anthony Hensman / Oliver Hoffmeister & Harry Pickup / Eve Kossmann / JJ Lloyd / Helen Shaddock and Pipi-Lovell Smith / Leina Taylor

 KEILDER: ONSITE / OFFSITE is funded by The Bartlett Fine Art Endowment, and supported by The Forestry Commission, Northumbrian Water and Keilder Art and Architecture.

Fluorescent tape has arrived!

After carefully planning the design of our artwork for the Kielder exhibition in the XL Gallery, we calculated how much tape we were likely to need, and did a mammoth order of different thicknesses of tape.

The order has arrived and now we can start the process of installing in the gallery.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Ideas for Kielder Project exhibition in the XL Gallery

The artists who are participating in the Kielder project have been given the opportunity to hold an exhibition in the XL Gallery at Newcastle University next week. The exhibition in the XL Gallery should relate to the work that is going to be located at Kielder, but it does not need to be a version of the work that will be displayed in Kielder.

Pipi and I want to use the exhibition to present a work that exists separately from TRIGGER, our audio installation that will be sited at Kielder this Summer. We are producing TRIGGER especially for the site, and do not think it would be appropriate to locate it in the gallery. 

The structure in which the audio will be played from is going to be patterned using fluorescent paint and hi-vis tape. We thought that the exhibition in the XL Gallery could be used to test out patterns with the paint and tape.

We created a number of designs, and rather than choosing one of them, we incorporated the different aspects we liked from each design to form a final design. 

Artists takeover the Laing

The Laing Art Gallery invited artists to takeover the gallery and encourage people to vote for this to happen on a bigger and more ambitious scale later in the year. 

The Laing has been chosen as one of three venues which could win artist Marcus Coates to host a unique Museums at Night event in October. 



Artist Marcus Coates promises a night of ritual that will see performances, images and objects made, not as artworks but as answers in themselves, as responses to these questions. The questions can be about anything – the politics of the town, global issues or personal problems, as long as the answers are not known and cannot be looked up.

You can vote from 11am on Friday 29 April to 9pm Saturday 14th May.

The Laing Takeover involved live painting, performance art, dance, print making and much more.

It definitely encouraged me to vote for this to happen again.

TRIGGER Model

With the help of wood workshop technician Joe Sallis, Pipi and I have used CAD to transform our various drawings of the TRIGGER structure into an accurate plan for our structure.

In order to work through any practical problems with the assembly of our artwork we made a scale model of the structure.  In doing so, we were able to establish the order in which we will need to install each piece of the structure, and make some decisions regarding the design.

Kielder Site visit

Although we had previously visited Kielder Forest and scoped out some possible sites for our work, the majority of the artists involved in the Kielder Forest project had not chosen their sites. We went as a group to decide on the location of each of our artworks.

Most of the artworks are to be sited along the Duchess Trail, but Pipi and I had already ascertained that this would not be a suitable location for our artwork. This is because the path goes through fairly dense forest, blocking out the sunlight. We need sunlight in order to charge the solar panel which is powering the speaker.

We had proposed that we position the artwork near to the Observatory, but needed to test out the various sites around there. We were told that we would need to ensure that the sound from our speaker would not disturb the visitors to the observatory, and so had loaned some battery powered equipment to allow us to find out how close we could go to the observatory without being able to hear the sound playing at the kind of volume that we would like.

We looked at a couple of potential places just off the road on the way to the observatory.

The ground at this site was uneven and would be difficult to embed our structure into. The trees blocked some of the light coming from the south. There was not a good view over the landscape, and the patch of land seemed like a passing place for cars.

This track was about 25metres long and had no apparent destination. It receded off the main road to the observatory, and was shielded by the trees, so the structure would not be easily visible to an audience. The view was of the surrounding trees and the road, so did not provide the overview of the Kielder landscape that we are aiming for.

This little area of land was connected to the main road to the observatory by a small bridge. The land across the bridge was shielded by the trees, but we wondered whether the structure could be positioned on the logs of the bridge. This would be very close to the road and so not ideal.

As we reached the observatory carpark our eyes lit up as we were reminded of the excellent views over Kielder from this site. There is a large expanse of land that is totally open without any shielding from trees. It would be ideal for powering the solar panel (all we would need is the sun to shine!). The land is fairly soft and so we could dig the legs of the structure into the ground.

The structure would be positioned behind the observatory.

Using the battery powered speaker we played the sound file that we have been editing. We angled the speaker downward, creating a shower of sound. As Pipi held the speaker with the audio playing at the volume desired, I walked towards the observatory and found the place where i could no longer hear the audio. I had not reached the observatory, so fingers crossed that the observatory staff will be happy for us to locate our artwork in their back garden!