Blanton Museum of Art presents Converging Lines: Eva Hesse and Sol LeWitt

Converging Lines: Eva Hesse and Sol LeWittFebruary 23–May 18, 2014

Blanton Museum of ArtMLK and Congress
Austin, Texas

www.blantonmuseum.org

Eva Hesse, "Untitled," 1968. Gouache, watercolor, 
silver paint and pencil on paper, 22 1/8 x 15 1/4 
inches. Private collection. © The Eva Hesse Estate. 
Courtesy Hauser & Wirth.

Curator: Veronica Roberts Converging Lines: Eva Hesse and Sol LeWitt celebrates the close friendship between two of the most significant American artists of the post-war era: Eva Hesse (1936–1970) and Sol LeWitt (1928–2007). While their practices diverged in innumerable, seemingly antithetical ways—LeWitt's art is associated with ideas and system-based conceptual art and Hesse's is associated with the body and her own hand—this exhibition of approximately 40 works will highlight the crucial impact that their decade-long friendship had on both their lives and work. In 1970, immediately upon learning of Hesse's premature death at the age of 34, LeWitt created a wall drawing filled with "not straight" lines as a way of paying homage to the organic contours that were a hallmark of Hesse's art. Organized by the Blanton, the exhibition will take this wall drawing, Wall Drawing #46, as its point of departure, while also revealing the way Hesse's approach to making art had vast-reaching implications on LeWitt's work. Included are wall drawings, sculpture, painting, drawings, prints, and correspondence between the artists.

On being challenged

“People don’t mind being challenged to do better if they know the request is coming from a caring heart.”
— Ken Blanchard

A thought about criticism

At the core of criticism, there should always be an intent to assist.

http://explorecreaterepeat.com/articles/purpose-of-criticism?utm_source=swissmiss&utm_campaign=26bfedff69-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2660ad4d17-26bfedff69-329261062

Window

On play

When reading about the Atelier Public event to be held at GoMA, I came across some interesting notes 'on play'.

playful curiosity
joyful reconstruction
play absorbs
PLAY SATURATES – a volatility in what play does that means it can be an escape from the norm

pure play has no rules
play transcends boundaries only to engender new ones

Proliferation of meaning of play renders play to mean nothing…can we work with play and no fixed meaning to work constantly int he present so that meaning is continually constructed?

Play is considered truthful
play to develop the self in social form
play guarantees modern values and attitudes
Play puts us in contact with the world
Play as aesthetic regulation and presentation

The destructive act – is it play or a reaction against repression?

Play is the ‘precondition’ for meaningful work

play implies freedom
curation implies constraint – crafted to give a rich and meaningful experience

play / institution as a site or production – cultural production is that what we are doing

play – an intervention of irrational thought into the layout of the norm

play forgets all moves that came before and destroys to begin again

If we look at play can we evolve a new way of experiencing art & translate the experience of art beyond the spectatorship of art?

Play as failures within the institution

Lessons of the camp in play…. Joy Division…. with the understanding that play is not necessarily something good

Learn to play love games… ie: operate in the space between love and existence and offer everything that is different…more eperiential and affects existence

‘Art is breaking rules – if you don’t break rules you don’t make art’

Make new rules

There are rules that hold the games and rules that transgress the game

PLAY creating conditions for unruliness and overstepping of boundaries

Institutions create the meaningful space for play to happen.

All museums are playful – they work with the space between the viewer and the object

Conditions for Play – conditions for questions – a moment in time…

Our use of play can be seen a colonial or patronising… do we seek t o claim it for a more grown up or serious canon… can we every just leave play to the children/experts

Play – openness and incompleteness& desire not to be finished

For more, visit http://atelierpublic.wordpress.com

ATELIER PUBLIC#2

As the launch of Glasgow International (Gi) Visual Art Festival draws closer, one exhibition that is part of the Gi programme is about to open. 

ATELIER PUBLIC#2

GoMA
20 FEBRUARY – 27 MAY 2014

ATELIER PUBLIC#2 is a re-presentation of a 2011 exhibition at GoMA where members of the public were invited to make artworks using materials available in the gallery. In the spirit of ATELIER PUBLIC, visitors are invited to use the materials to make new work, which will be installed in the gallery for other visitors to see. These materials may change over the course of the 13 weeks the exhibition is open, and the works may be used by others as part of their creative and playful practice in the studio. As in 2011, some artists  have been invited to work within the parameters of the framework of ATELIER PUBLIC#2 and develop the installation.

There are a number of events scheduled for the duration of the exhibition, and more information can be seen at: http://atelierpublic.wordpress.com/how-to-participate/events/

The hashtag for Twitter, Vine, Instagram, and You Tube is #ATELIERPUBLIC, and you can follow us @GlasgowGoMA

I look forward to seeing the changing elements and creations throughout this exhibition, and am interested to see how the public interact with the work and embrace the invitation to contribute to the exhibition.

Completely coloured cast

Thanks to everyone who sent me colours and types of line for the stripes to my cast, and thanks to Nicola for helping me cover the cast in colour. 

Here's how these turned out on the cast

And here's how it looks like on paper

Apologies to Julie - dogtooth pattern was not possible as the cast is very difficult to draw onto

The Culture Show: Lego - The Building Blocks of Architecture

In the week running up to the launch of the new LEGO movie, this episode of The Culture Show investigates the phenomenon that is lego, the children's toy that can easily be enjoyed by adults just as much.

The programme features interviews with creatives who have been inspired by lego, be that through architecture or art.

Colouring up my cast

Thanks to everyone who has suggested colours and types of line for my cast. I have followed the suggestions in the order that they were suggested.

It is proving quite difficult to do intricate designs, and the pens react differently to the various fabrics that the cast is made from.

I will continue with more of your suggestions tomorrow.

Having a different plaster experience!

So, my love of plaster has gone a little too far... Wearing it 24 hours a day is a bit extreme!

Somehow I managed to fracture my foot. Sounds odd, but I don't even know how. Anyway, here is the blank canvas:

Mapping the Brimming Units

I am delighted that I have sold some of the individual units from my Brimming installation. I will never exhibit the installation in a different context as it was made specifically for 1 Royal Terrace, but I do feel happy to let the work live on in a different way, as individual units.

I have kept a detailed log of the work, and am mapping where each of the units ends up. 

I have requested that anyone who owns a unit, sends me two photographs. One photograph of the owner with their unit, and another photograph of the unit in its new home.

It is going to be very interesting to see where each of them go to, and I look forward to receiving the photos.

If you are interested in owning a unit, please email me
helen.shaddock@yahoo.co.uk

My aim is to rehouse each of the 49 units and track where each and every one gets to!

Better late than never...BRIMMING Preview in The Herald

So, I know that my BRIMMING exhibition at 1 Royal Terrace has been and gone, but I've only just managed to get my hands on a copy of the Preview that was printed in The Herald (Scottish newspaper) the Saturday before my exhibition opening on 12th January.

ArtsHub 2013/14 Salary Survey Report

The inaugural artsHub 2013/14 Salary Survey Report is the definitive online guide to UK arts industry salaries, career drivers, job satisfaction, funding and future outlook perceptions.

http://www.artshub.co.uk/news-article/feature/all-arts/uk-arts-salary-survey-2013-14-197894

The report analyses results from an online survey conducted in October 2013 which was distributed to the arts sector and garnered 448 valid responses.

The survey found the profile of a typical person participating in the arts sector is a female, aged 34.5 who lives in London, is highly educated with a minimum of a undergraduate degree, and probably a post-graduate degree.

She most likely works for a privately owned small business involved in the Performing Arts or Education, usually from an office in an Administration position as a Specialist or Manager. She earns on average £19,876.00 per annum and believes her earnings capacity will be the same this year as it was last year and will continue to be the same in 2014. She will tend to have more than one job but no more than two. The majority of her income will come from the arts industry and she is not supported financially by another person.

Her average job tenure is 3.75 years and has had 5 jobs in the past 10 years, all of which have been in the arts industry. Every week she works on average 36.5 hours. She is motivated not by money but by her passion for the arts and overall enjoys good job satisfaction.

Wrapped and moved

Today was the final day of destall of BRIMMING at 1 Royal Terrace. All the casts were wrapped in bubble wrap and transported out of the gallery, into my friend's car and then driven to my studio. We then loaded the casts into a number of shopping trolleys and wheeled them into the studio. 

Unfortunately, the lift that connects the ground floor with the main lift is not operating at the moment, meaning that I had to transfer the casts from one trolley, up a few stairs and into another trolley.

With over 100 bricks being moved, it was rather a time-consuming and laborious task, but I am pleased to report that all work arrived safely without any breakages.






















As I was filling and emptying the trolleys, I was reminded of a performance I did called Helter Skelter (video documentation can be seen on my website http://www.helenshaddock.co.uk/portfolio/index.php?sub=performance&link=helter-skelter) in which a similar cyclical process was followed, this time it being one of creation and destruction.



I was also reminded of a work by the artist Liz West in which she filled shopping trolleys with products of the same colour.

http://www.liz-west.com/index.aspx?sectionid=1206216