Songs of Salt

Cave People, the collective I make work with had a week by the sea earlier in July, exhibiting as part of the Whitstable Biennale Satellite Programme. Our show, Songs of Salt was an installation in a beach hut which was based on sea shanties and other traditional folk songs about the sea.

Working in collaboraton with Whitstable-based folk groups Dead Horse Morris and the Shipwright Shanty Crew, we were interested in conveying a sense of the experiences of men and women whose lives were determined by working on the sea. The installation was a meditative experience which implied both the isolation of being at sea with the communal aspect of shanties, which were sung collectively as working songs.

Dead Horse Morris gave us a uproarious performance as the sun went down over Whitstable on the Saturday night, swilled down by lashings of Kent Cider, who most kindly sponsored the exhibition.

Photos by Tim Smith.

 

 

Anticipating a terrifying swing to the right…

The image of the Tory Wife has long been a fascination for me, with the figures below from the hey day of Tory Wifedom in the 1980s and 1990s being of particular interest. Although they are now politically obsolete, they represent a media fixation with class, expectation, moral judgement and gender obsession which continues to reverberate through British public life.

These limited edition screen prints will be available for sale soon.

The marbles

Mixed media on ply wood, including marbled acrylic paint and ink, paper, vinyl, thread. March 2010.

Level 4 magazine illustrations

These illustrations feature in the next issue of Level 4 magazine, accompanying an article on Human Computer Interaction.

Desert landscape

I’ve been working on a landscape commission over the last couple of weeks. I’ve allowed the materials and techniques I like to work with to dictate what emerges. I often create compositions by playing around, introducing objects that I’ve either collected or made in a different context, doodles that I’ve had lying around the studio for a while, or even elements intended for other compositions that didn’t work out.

Dark Night artwork and other news…

Last week three of my pieces featured in RCA Secret 2009. I had, naughtily and rather unsecretly, already uploaded images of them to le blog some time ago,  but if you would like to recap, check ’em out here. Here! And… HERE!! It’s always good to get feedback from folk outside the usual studio and crit circles, so I was very pleased to overhear other visitors’ enthusiastic comments about my work (eg. “I like number 1215”, etc, haha).

Also last week, I spent some time at the Henry Moore Institute library in Leeds. What an amazing resource. To have the opportunity to be immersed in books on sculpture, performance, art theory and history for a whole afternoon was a rare pleasure, and opened up 10,000 different paths to follow with my research. It makes me incredulous about how readily I used to fall asleep in the library when I was studying at UCL – one of those exquisite, old libraries that smell wise and beeswaxy and has books about absolutely everything you could ever possibly be interested in, ever. What an undeserving wastrel I was back then…

Anyway, returning to the here and now, the eagerly awaited second single from Bearcraft, Dark Night is out on Monday, with accompanying artwork by my good self – see below.

Bearcraft has also asked me to help make another video along with textile artist Isabel Vince and director of the Werewolf video, Chris King.

Out 30 November 2009 on Hottwerk

Lady Marble

Pyramid landscape

Dressing up

I added more layers to this piece, Shrunken Victorian (2009) since I first featured it.

Ceremonial Suffragette (2009)

Suffragettes were possibly the first people who were tracked by photographic surveillance in this country. This suffragette is both disguised and celebrated with a head dress.

Shrunken Head (2009)

This piece was inspired by the South American shrunken heads in the archives of The British Museum.

Kino Cafe window installation

I put up my window installation at Kino Cafe in Bristol last weekend. Run as a cooperative, the cafe sells very tasty and fairly priced veggie and vegan food, and have regular art shows and other events. It was quite hard to take pics due to the reflection on the glass, but here are a few!

 

Bearcraft, The Werewolf single cover

Out today – Bearcraft’s debut single, The Werewolf. You can get a digital download of The Werewolf from iTunes.

My cover design may look familiar… I wanted to conjure a totemic, ritualistic feeling using my favourite materials which I’ve been obsessed with for the last four years – veneer (laminated paper this time) and neon papers. It’s hand collaged, using paper weaving, assembled doodles of eyes taken from many notebooks, sewn paper and envelope insides.

Studio shots

Some works in progress in a frenetic studio…

Bearcraft: The Werewolf art direction

Here are some lightbox animals I made for the debut Bearcraft single, The Werewolf.

The photograph above was taken by Director Chris King.

And here are some masks…

Here are some images of the fun making process, which Chris took in my studio in Dalston.

Ben, who co-directed and filmed the video putting backing onto a lightbox…

Dicky sewing the moon…

Some of the props in situ on the first day of the shoot…

Dicky smouldering in his crown.

River and Cloth

Interactive map showing the area of Merton where Liberty and William Morris had their factories, and other elements of Merton’s rich textile history. To see the full Flash animation visit Merton Council’s River and Cloth project.

Commissioned by Merton Council, 2009.

Calling Wild Creatures

Cardboard, acrylic paint, 2009.

The Devil and the Feathery Wife

Illustration of the traditional English folk song The Devil and the Feathery Wife, about a man who bargains with the devil. His wife ends up rolling around in feathers and dung to stop the devil taking her husband to Hell. Full narrative, as arranged by Martin Carthy found here.

Maple burr veneer, acrylic paint, cardboard, 2009.

JFHA

Self portrait as mousquetaire.

Felt tip and white crayon on neon green paper, 2008.

Landscape

Cardboard, veneer, cotton and collaged papers, 2008.

Wolf terrorists (detail)

Acrylic, waterbased ink and newsprint, 2005.

Nano figurehead