I have been looking at works that have been suspended from the ceilings of their exhibition spaces as a kind of research for the new installation I will be creating for the Stairwell Gallery in Durham City later this month and I can’t believe I’ve only just discovered this installation by Swiss artists Gerda Steiner and Jorg Lenzlinger.

It looks like a beautiful meditative piece. As you can see from the images above, visitors were encouraged to lay on the bed in the middle of the garden and view the garden ‘falling’ upon them. Apparently it was exhibited a couple of years ago now as part of the 50th Venice Bienniale 2003 so I guess I’ve missed my chance to experience it for myself.

It’s composed of a huge variety of materials from across the globe including plastic berries (India), cow pads (Jura), waste paper (Venice), baobab seeds (Australia), beech, elder and magnolia branches (Uster), thorns (Almeria), nylon blossoms (one-dollar-shop), pigs’ teeth (Indonesia), seaweed (Seoul), orange peel (Migros shop), fertilizer crystals (home grown), pigeons’ bones (San Staë), silk buds (Stockholm), cattail (Ettiswil), cats’ tails (China), celery roots (Montreal), virility rind (Caribbean), wild bore quills (zoo), banana leaves (Murten), rubber snakes (Cincinnati)…

As a graduate of the MA Fine Art programme at Cardiff School of Art & Design I was very kindly invited to contribute to the ‘Emerging Artists’ exhibition at the Wales Millennium Centre which opens this month.

The private view will take place on Wednesday 8 September 2010 from 6-8pm.

The exhibition will continue until the 26 September 2010.

The exhibition will feature a new drawing by myself alongside work by both current students and recent graduates.

The current MA Fine Art exhibition will be opening two days following this on Friday 10 September 2010 at the Howard Gardens Gallery, Cardiff. Visit www.csad.uwic.ac.uk for further information.

“A gentle and reasonable being can be transformed into a maniac or a savage beast. One is always inclined to lay the blame on external circumstances, but nothing could explode in us if it had not been there.”

- Carl Jung

Roxanne Jackson’s work is a result of an ongoing dialogue with the grotesque. She has interest in human psychology and her work engages some of our more primitive emotions.

She makes use of materials for the symbolism that their qualities possess to draw our attention to the themes and concepts she is exploring. Solid, resilient materials such as clay and foam are combined with more temporal media and perishable substances like rose petals and powdered pigments allude to the fleeting nature of the ego and the flesh.

www.roxannejackson.com

Swedish artist Henrik Isaksson is both a sculptor and a photographer. He doesn’t simply take pictures of the world around us but instead creates his own world to photograph. The objects that he creates exude grotesque, and sometimes surreal, qualities as a result of his combining organic and man-made technical items.

www.henrikisaksson.se

I do love these pieces by Gabriel Dubois. He is a Canadian painter who references some of he traditions of painting whilst taking on board influences from contemporary urban art. For the most part Dubois appears to work on a traditional two dimensional whether that’s on a mounted piece of board or a more interventional ‘graffiti’-esque work.

It was the three dimensionality of these works that grabbed my attention. I’m slowly approaching the completion of my latest large scale installation (you can see one of the initial maquettes here) and so my mind is already starting to wander to pastures new as I seek out ideas for new work. I hadn’t really considered using board, or woos, for that matter, to create surfaces to work with, and this work by Dubois sparked something in the back of my mind.

You can fine out a little more about Dubois and his work on the Stolen Space Gallery website: www.stolenspace.com

I’m absolutely elated that my recent proposal to install a new piece of work in the Stairwell Gallery at Emptyshops HQ in Durham was accepted. You can see a number of the images that I provided them with as a part of my proposal above. The work is still as yet untitled.

I will be installing the work towards the end of September with a private view on the 2 October 2010 to coincide with their fund-raising art auction which will take place on the same evening.

The installation will be on display for three months so you all have plenty of time to get yourselves up to Durham to see it.

I also suggest you check out www.emptyshop.org/hq/ to find out a little more about my hosts. They are an unfunded arts collective and still looking for artists to contribute works to their fund-raising auction in October. So if you’re an artist and you’re reading this then please get in touch with them and help a good cause!

After my visit to Jodrell Bank (above) last month I’ve been thinking about re-engaging with the sciences for the first time in many years. I hadn’t visited the radio telescope for what is probably the best part of twenty years. It seems to have reignited that fascination with the stars, science and space, that I had when I was little boy. My trip up North was followed by my discovery of this absolutely incredible video thanks to one of my Twitterati:

I’ve been reading up on Quantum Physics following my trip to Jodrell Bank, and, in particular, Quantum Realities, which seems cover some simlar theoretical ground to to my own thinking that feeds into my art practice.

Otswald wrote in 1895 that “the task of science is to discern relations among realities… it is not a search for forces we cannot measure, acting between atoms we cannot observe”. As an artist however, I am not bound by such limitations. I am free to speculate, theorise and think in the most abstract and absurd ways I can imagine.

I feel there may be changes afoot within my practice although they may be a long way off yet.

It seems taxidermy art is all the rage at the moment with artists like Angela Stringer, Cassandra Smith and Polly Morgan all making use of preserved animals within their work.

I do like this work by Lisa Black though. She takes broken taxidermied animals and ‘fixes’ them with mechanical parts which have a Steampunk aesthetic. I don’t think that they are as macabre as they might first appear. Rather than defacing these beasts Black reinvigorates them rescuing from the depths to which they have fallen and broken.

I would like to see Black push the boundaries further though. I think there’s a lot of potential in this work to create something really exciting and challenging.

If taxidermy art is your thing you can see Polly Morgan’s work at the Haunch of Venison Gallery, London, until 25 September 2010.

Following a call for artworks that I came across I was invited to exhibit my work as a part of a local exhibition a couple of weeks ago. I received an clearly written, and relatively articulate, email at 16:25 on a Sunday afternoon notifying me of my selection which stated that I needed to respond by midnight, meet at the exhibition space at 2.00pm the following day and be ready to hang my work on the Tuesday.

I had been off , taking some time out, enjoying some hedonistic adventures across the river over the weekend in question and I arrived home at about 11:00pm on the Sunday; just in time to respond to the exhibition organisers email. In my reply I stated that the 2:00pm meeting was somewhat problematic for me as I already had meetings scheduled and asked if there was any other time, earlier or later, that I could come and meet them to have a look at the space. The following text is the response I received copied in it’s entirety:

“3 o’clock at the very latest – it closes quite early and I have to be at a meeting later on.”

I replied and reiterated the problem I had with the small window of opportunity that was to be given to look at the space at such short notice. Again I have copied the organisers response in it’s entirety without any cropping or editing:

“? You need to come see your space, bring your work 2moro”

It was at this point I felt it was in my best interest to withdraw myself from any further involvement in this exhibition. I did so with a clearly written email and wished the organiser all the best with the project.

Now I have no problem getting myself into gear for such projects at short notice like this, but I would have expected more flexibility from those involved, especially when considering that the organisers acknowledged some the difficulties with their demands in the initial email they sent. However, it is clear from the first reply I received (above) that they were not willing to show the same flexibility that they were requesting from the artists that they had invited to exhibit. What’s even more frustrating about this whole situation is that I had emailed them a week or so earlier and asked them for some further information about the project. I didn’t receive a reply.

It was this lack of communication and professional conduct that led me to withdraw from the project. Having resisted the urge to write an angry ranting blog post in the hours following this situation I have had the time to reflect upon events. I can appreciate that the intentions in organising this exhibition were all good. However, I do not want to involve myself in projects that I feel may have a detrimental affect on my reputation as an artist. If the levels of professionalism that were displayed in these initial correspondences were an indication of the way in which this project was to be executed then it was clear that it was not the sort of project that I wanted to be involved with. I’m not of the opinion that any opportunity to exhibit my work is a good opportunity.

Unfortunately this approach to organising local exhibitions seems to be becoming more common place. At least that is my experience of the situation. Many of these exhibitions appear to be organised by young artists/recent graduates and so I am a little uncomfortable in criticising their efforts as their enthusiasm is admirable.

To any passionate young artists/curators who stumble across this grumbling little post can I just ask that you conduct yourself in a professional manner, take the time to step back from your plans, just for a moment, to ensure that you’re executing the project to the highest possible standard. High professional standards, or lack thereof, will be reflected in the final outcomes of your projects. Ultimately they will reflect upon you, and those artists participating in your exhibitions and the impact could be lasting.