Saturday, 13 October 2012
Collage Magazine- first issue!
Here is the first issue of Collage Magazine, my newest project. It's an on-line magazine for women who are interested in politic and art. have a flick through and I hope you like it!
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
Collage
I'm contributing to a new on-line magazine for women in the arts called 'Collage'. The first issue will be published in October and it's theme is self-portraits. Below is my own little collage of women artists from the sublime (ahh, Marlene Dumas) to the ridiculous (at the bottom is an image from a chocolate ad of what those guys in the advertising world think women artists look like!)
Details coming soon on how to receive your issue of Collage straight to your in-box.
Monday, 3 September 2012
Empress's new clothes?
I finally took a trip to Margate the other day to visit the Turner Contemporary and see the Tracey Emin exhibition that's on there until the end of the month.
Entitled 'She lay down deep beneath the sea' it's a collection of gouache, embroidery, monoprint and bronze sculptures. I love the ideas in this exhibition - it's deeply resonant of that aspect of womanhood which seems to be linked, atavistically, to water. The Lady of the Lake, selkies, mermaids and sirens are all brought to mind by this work which also provides the visceral gut punch of Emins' destroyed, nude,questioning woman, spilling her fear, love and secretions across the paper.
The initial impression is beautiful but, like many a lovely person, unsatisfying.
In terms of confessional art, I can't see how we can go much further than Emin. She puts herself firmly at the centre of her work, confronting us with everything about her, like the high culture version of Kerry Katona. I find it fascinating and powerful but ultimately a dead end. After this exhibition I felt as though the only thing I'd had my eyes opened to was more of Tracey Emin's emotional journey through life. And her journey through life has been very different to mine, so although I have an interest (in the same way I do about Katona or Kardashian - or anyone else who's name begins with K) it's fairly fleeting. If this gut spilling were 'the personal is political' and functioned as the way in to learning more about life, history, politics, to having my preconceptions challenged and my mind blown by fabulous philosophical concepts, then I would be all in favour of yet another blue gouache scribble. But I, along with probably everyone in the gallery that day, have thrown away thousands of little scribbles precisely because they have so little meaning. Emins' suggestion (made in relation to her 'Unmade Bed' installation) was that it's art because she's an artist and she made it. But the world has turned and I feel that's no longer good - or interesting - enough.
Finally, the physical quality of the work is so questionable - her embroideries (which I'm guessing are made with the help of 'fabricators', those Dobby house elves of the art world) are machine made. I embroider by hand and I was accompanied to this show by an artist who hand crochets giant female sculptures and we found this very disappointing. It felt cheap and corporate, like being in one of those restaurants where the accountants have measured out how many olives go on the pizza.
I want to know - who is Emin's viewer? Who still finds this interesting? Her investigation into being herself would only keep us coming back if she radically reinvented herself, developing intellectually or, at the very least, becoming a Scientologist. Meanwhile, her investigations into being a woman are so trite that they wouldn't stand up to night down the pub with girls. I feel that, far from being a poster girl for women, she's parading all this fanny art for the boys. It's the 'look at me, I'm a bit mad, I am' act that a certain type of kooky girl thinks men will find cute. In reality all women live with abortions, miscarriages, still births, rapes, infertility, unequal pay, ugly men pawing at them and the horror that is Grazia magazine. We don't need a scribbly Emin to reveal that to us.
If all this sounds a little harsh it's because I am disappointed. I wanted better from her, she is so obviously capable. In many ways the work is attractive and charming. But then so is that painting of the Highlands on a tin of shortbread. I'm about the same age as Emin and I wanted her to be my artist, to be the one who speaks for me and my kind. But conceptual art is only as fabulous as the concept and Emin is no philosopher. If you have nothing to say then please paint better.
Entitled 'She lay down deep beneath the sea' it's a collection of gouache, embroidery, monoprint and bronze sculptures. I love the ideas in this exhibition - it's deeply resonant of that aspect of womanhood which seems to be linked, atavistically, to water. The Lady of the Lake, selkies, mermaids and sirens are all brought to mind by this work which also provides the visceral gut punch of Emins' destroyed, nude,questioning woman, spilling her fear, love and secretions across the paper.
The initial impression is beautiful but, like many a lovely person, unsatisfying.
In terms of confessional art, I can't see how we can go much further than Emin. She puts herself firmly at the centre of her work, confronting us with everything about her, like the high culture version of Kerry Katona. I find it fascinating and powerful but ultimately a dead end. After this exhibition I felt as though the only thing I'd had my eyes opened to was more of Tracey Emin's emotional journey through life. And her journey through life has been very different to mine, so although I have an interest (in the same way I do about Katona or Kardashian - or anyone else who's name begins with K) it's fairly fleeting. If this gut spilling were 'the personal is political' and functioned as the way in to learning more about life, history, politics, to having my preconceptions challenged and my mind blown by fabulous philosophical concepts, then I would be all in favour of yet another blue gouache scribble. But I, along with probably everyone in the gallery that day, have thrown away thousands of little scribbles precisely because they have so little meaning. Emins' suggestion (made in relation to her 'Unmade Bed' installation) was that it's art because she's an artist and she made it. But the world has turned and I feel that's no longer good - or interesting - enough.
Finally, the physical quality of the work is so questionable - her embroideries (which I'm guessing are made with the help of 'fabricators', those Dobby house elves of the art world) are machine made. I embroider by hand and I was accompanied to this show by an artist who hand crochets giant female sculptures and we found this very disappointing. It felt cheap and corporate, like being in one of those restaurants where the accountants have measured out how many olives go on the pizza.
I want to know - who is Emin's viewer? Who still finds this interesting? Her investigation into being herself would only keep us coming back if she radically reinvented herself, developing intellectually or, at the very least, becoming a Scientologist. Meanwhile, her investigations into being a woman are so trite that they wouldn't stand up to night down the pub with girls. I feel that, far from being a poster girl for women, she's parading all this fanny art for the boys. It's the 'look at me, I'm a bit mad, I am' act that a certain type of kooky girl thinks men will find cute. In reality all women live with abortions, miscarriages, still births, rapes, infertility, unequal pay, ugly men pawing at them and the horror that is Grazia magazine. We don't need a scribbly Emin to reveal that to us.
If all this sounds a little harsh it's because I am disappointed. I wanted better from her, she is so obviously capable. In many ways the work is attractive and charming. But then so is that painting of the Highlands on a tin of shortbread. I'm about the same age as Emin and I wanted her to be my artist, to be the one who speaks for me and my kind. But conceptual art is only as fabulous as the concept and Emin is no philosopher. If you have nothing to say then please paint better.
 |
| Rodin's 'The Kiss' was also on show at the Turner Contemporary. |
Friday, 31 August 2012
Athenais and the Golden Trunk
Athenais and the Golden Trunk
Sunday, 1 July 2012
Medway Open Studios at the Nucleus Arts Centre
Next weekend (7th and 9th July) many of the artists at the Nucleus arts centre are opening their studios to the public as part of the new Medway Open Studios Festival (Medway Open Studios). For anyone interested the process of making art (or perhaps buying some....!) it will be a fascinating opportunity to see how artists work.Nucleus Arts centre is at 272 Chatham High Street and most of the studios are open between 10am to 6pm.
Hope to see you there!
Here's my painting that was chosen by the homewares and lifestyle blog Forages (Forages ) as one of the featured artists' work.
Monday, 25 June 2012
ipad therefore I draw
Recently I acquired a lovely, shiny totally unnecessary iPad. After seeing Hockneys iPad drawings at the RA exhibition I persuaded myself that no right-thinking artist should be without one and eventually scrimped together enough money to drive my husband to the shop where he bought it for me. Ah, the commercial exchanges of married life....
Anyway, I truly am in love with this bit of gadgetry. I won't rhapsodise over the ability to obsessively check emails and Facebook wherever I go, or how easy it was to find and download every episode of the Camomile Lawn (felt a frenzy of need to see it after reading Caitlin Moran's 'How to be a Woman', in which she pays tribute to Jennifer Ehle's breasts floating in a bubble bath). However, I will upload the sketches I have done on it.
I've not used the computer much for art and so the whole idea of layers came as a bit of a shock but I'm getting used to them. I'm using Procreate at the moment which seems to suit the way I work but if anyone else has any suggestions I'd be pleased to hear them. I also treated myself to a Bamboo stylus as I hated the way fingertips leave greasy smears across the exquisite, glossy surface. Apart from that, I'm just mentally welded to the idea of a pencil in my hand so using it seems far more natural.
There's lots of development to do using my new beloved (fantasy dinner party - just me and iPad at the moment) but here are my early experiments..
Anyway, I truly am in love with this bit of gadgetry. I won't rhapsodise over the ability to obsessively check emails and Facebook wherever I go, or how easy it was to find and download every episode of the Camomile Lawn (felt a frenzy of need to see it after reading Caitlin Moran's 'How to be a Woman', in which she pays tribute to Jennifer Ehle's breasts floating in a bubble bath). However, I will upload the sketches I have done on it.
I've not used the computer much for art and so the whole idea of layers came as a bit of a shock but I'm getting used to them. I'm using Procreate at the moment which seems to suit the way I work but if anyone else has any suggestions I'd be pleased to hear them. I also treated myself to a Bamboo stylus as I hated the way fingertips leave greasy smears across the exquisite, glossy surface. Apart from that, I'm just mentally welded to the idea of a pencil in my hand so using it seems far more natural.
There's lots of development to do using my new beloved (fantasy dinner party - just me and iPad at the moment) but here are my early experiments..
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