Van Gogh's painting (one of my favourites) Starry Night (De Sterrennacht) has been compared to an astronomical photograph of a star named V838 Monocerotis, taken by the Hubble in 2004. I'm not sure which I prefer anymore <3

Vertical light - Horizontal darkness

Top: Forgotten Angle - Ancient 200 x 100 cm - this one really spoke to me. It made me catch my breath with sadness. Unforgiving burnt oranges and deep blues.

Below: Invisible Filter - Illusion 112 x 284 cm - conversely, this lit up the room, as its impressive scale dominated one wall at the end of the gallery. It glowed and radiated freshness and joy.


The Falle Fine Art Gallery, Jersey recently hosted an exhibition of the British Post-war Abstract painter Paul John Kilshaw.

my opinion.
Following the celebration of perspective in traditional realism of the >16th century, Modernism rejected perspective and progressed to flatten images into basic compositions across two dimensions, for example in the work of Mondrian's De Stijl and Matisse's abstracts and collage. Gaining experience from the post-war anxiety and cultural liberation of American Abstract Expressionism and British Expressionists such as Bacon, British abstract painters began to regain a more painterly fashion in order to eradicate the restrictions of pretentiously clinical avant-garde of the early 20th century.

And now, as a new dawn of British Abstraction draws, perspective is making an unexpected return to our anarchist abstract. Seen in Kilshaw's work, the abstract curves of Picasso and Hepworth slide past one another like transparent filters - creating a new dimension that can be reached into. Explored. This is new abstract. Where Classicism and Modernism collide. Juxtaposing rigidity with weightlessness; expressive marks with solid objectivity. Nothing, and everything, makes sense. Every element of Kilshaw's work is informed, and refined. This is the true British Abstract of the Postmodern age.

Worldwide Environmental Exchange IV

Top: Africa and Europe - Day One of my time-based biodegradable sculpture
Below: Destroyed Africa after a night of storms :(

Worldwide Environmental Exhange III

A mock-up for my time-based biodegradable sculpture

Worldwide Environmental Exchange II

RECEIVED VIDEOS
Norcross, GA, United States
Baradero, Argentina
Łeba, Poland
Bangkok, Thailand

FILMED VIDEOS
London, England
Jersey, Channel Islands
New South Wales, Australia
São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, Brazil
New York City, New York

POSSIBLE VIDEOS
Denmark
Edinburgh, Scotland
India
Canada
Philippines

Worldwide Environmental Exchange I

On Thursday 11th November 2010 I decided to contact people from all over the world and ask them to record a one minute video of their environment.

My plan was to then exchange these videos through the wonder of the internet so that each participating cinematographer would receive a video of a contrasting environment.

More than being about people seeing the videos, it was about each environment 'viewing' another - a concept of transportation, transposition, connection, social networking and technology.

I hope to achieve: clarity of contrast by direct aesthetic and aural juxtaposition

Chinese Buddhist Temple UPDATE PART 2

A warm summer had left my Chinese Buddhist Temple piece sagging, as it was very delicately made of paper.

So I decided to interfere so as to not let it crumble away unnoticed and insignificantly.

Utilising the properties of the paper, rather than defying them as before, I littered the delicate structure with violent and spontaneous illustrations. Words such as West, East, Slaves, Destroy and Tower Block defaced the icon of traditional Eastern culture, as the Union Flag was splashed on its surface and decorative gold was scrawled randomly across its pristine details.

Then the burning began.

I managed to capture a poignant shot of the word 'Buddhism' slowly burning away, as I played a discordant manipulation of Chinese music.

This Is Not Fashion II

Inspiration has come; and so have my materials.

These include:

One umbrella
10m of wire mesh
100 mirrored tiles
15 mirrored stickers
2 cans of metallic spray paint (gold and silver)
Cardboard
5 litres of white paint
and
a large roll of thick paper

There is little that excites me more at this time than a big roll of (free!) paper.

This Is Not Fashion

What makes the the designs of Jum Nakao and Hussein Chalayan art

And the designs of 'Haus of Gaga', Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen fashion?

Are the latter merely pop-culture fashion extremists, or postmodern cultural icons of fine art?

When do the likes of Lady Gaga, Marilyn Manson and Leigh Bowery stop being pop stars and start being performance artists?

This is what I plan to explore in my next project: This Is Not Fashion, as well as exploring innovative and exciting materials in fashion and sculpture; not to mention a heavy emphasis on video, poetry and music. Not much then.

Chinese Sculptures ReCap

Whilst two of my Su Blackwell-inspired sculptures are being proudly displayed for the public in Falle Fine Art Gallery, my 15-hour finale-piece: the Buddhist Temple, is suffering a worse fate.

The heat is starting to cause the paper to sag and the adhesive to break and what the Chinese managed to engineer to last thousands of years - I have single handedly managed to insult and deface.

At the moment the piece looks like a powerful statement on the downfall of traditional Chinese culture and religion. I only wish I believed this was true in order to justify my own accidental work. Quite the contrary I have experienced first-hand that the culture is still alive and well in comparison to many Western equivalents.

I shall nevertheless record the sculptural occurrences and work onto the paper sculpture - illustrating, writing, defacing and commentating the piece with black lines upon the crisp, white surface until finally burning the remains. From art, to art.

From the ashes... and all that.

Alright, Treacle?

I attended my first ever piece of Performance Art last week.

Treacle, by Robert J. Anderson, performed at St James - a performance space that was once a church, owned by the Jersey Arts Centre.

In one sense it was everything and nothing I expected from the genre. It was closer to a piece of abstract theatre that I would have studied in Performance Studies than a piece of live art that I would have investigated in Fine Art - but the cross-genre postmodernism of the piece was warmly accepted by myself and (a majority of) the audience. The OAP's beside me disagreed.

At a memorable climax of Avant Gardism, I found myself watching a naked man standing on a step ladder being painted by four members of the audience in treacle whilst a young man (also from the audience) recorded the process with a disposable camera. Church-like music played as four more members of the audience were invited to wipe the performer clean whilst a man shouted crude remarks. Admittedly, the man was not part of the performance, which added to the spontaneity of the genre.

In short, I was left moved by the piece. The bellowing vocals of the artist as he attacked his piano in a way that crossed Patti Smith (I must broaden my music knowledge) with Henry Cowell and Florence 'and the Machine' Wells was deeply emotive, whilst the image of him straining to push the piano across the space as he played proved both comedic and powerful. In hindsight, there was a careful balance of lightheartedness (when Anderson stripped on an elevated stage to pop music, dollar bills thrusted into his underwear and socks) and more enigmatic content that could have been mistaken for pretentiousness.

The religious imagery of the cleansing was sufficiently mirrored by the performance space, which still had church pillars, arched windows and an altar clearly visible behind the stage lighting and stripped-down vacuum of performance space. The religious connotations also reminded me of a recorded dance piece I viewed entitled Flesh and Blood, choreographed by Lea Anderson.

This is a very brief evaluation of the piece, and I would go further into detail if I felt that anybody would enjoy reading it at all.

I want something new...

I want to try my hand at performance art, or rather, recorded performance art. It is interesting to consider whether this is possible, as performance art since the 1960's has strongly relied on the audience to create the art - most notably in the work of Yoko Ono. However I am interested in blending installation, video, performance, dance and text into one big THING - heavily inspired by DV8 Physical Theatre - a performance group who do sort of mix all these together.

For now, anyway, I'm trawling through Youtube Videos of performance art (most of which are in European languages), slowly munching away at a book named simply: 'Performance Art' and scrawling down any ideas that the likes of Patti Smith, Jum Nakao and Lady Gaga bring to me.

More black tea please.

Paper Sculptures

Hey there. It's been a long time.

But I have been very busy cutting tiny shapes out of paper and sticking my fingers together. So, in response to a previous post about artist Su Blackwell, in which I said 'I'll def be giving these a try' (or something along those lines) Here we are: My Chinese Buddhist Temple. Made from 6 sheets of A1 paper, a roll of double sided tape and a dab of glue; in 15 hours.


This is my latest, so when I get photographs of the rest there will be more to come!

NEW HDRs

Finally got myself a tripod so these are the cleaner results than previous HDR's. No ghosting on the rocks ect.

Taken 11th April 2010, late evening

CHINA

I have to apologise... I haven't been the best blogger recently. In fact, I have been neglecting my responsibilities of making you laugh, gape in awe at amazing artists, introduce you to new music and induce mild interest in my own work.

But that's going to change. If you give me a chance. I've just been busy recently. I've taken, and now i feel that I'm ready to give again.

So, without outa the way :-) I'm off to China!

I'll be back on the 20th ready to share all my wonderful and exciting adventures :D

Until then take a look at this purely inspirational artist: Su Blackwell

www.sublackwell.co.uk

I'm definitely going to have a go!!

Until the 20th; Chow xx

3

'3'
Oil on Canvas
20 inches x 30 inches

After 15 hours over 3 days I completed '3' - a deceiving representation of the body as the 'front' skin, an inner biological makeup and a plain background. It is the Third layer that is the real subject of this painting.

Shadow Puppets

Old Man :-)

Rock On

'Rock On', Jekyll

Dad's Boat Watercolour

Probably my second watercolour EVER. Never really liked watercolours much.

Karen Le Roy Harris

Ontop
The costume I made with Karen - Futility of Flesh

Bottom
'Madonna', Karen Le Roy Harris

Today's artist of the day is somebody who, through my school, I had the pleasure of being able to learn from and work with: Karen Le Roy Harris.

Most recently working with fabrics, Karen creates sculptural costumes that address the issues and aesthetics of the human body and flesh - in turn commenting on the human condition and sexual politics in a way not dissimilar to Francis Bacon, with aesthetics reminiscent of Helen Chadwick - who has had a direct influence on Karen's material choices.

Tracking her work backwards, chalk drawings have stayed close to Karen's heart and she continues to wield them masterfully, creating breathtakingly vast drawings often seen draped from the walls of cultural centres around the island.

for more information, www.karenleroyharris.com