Portfolio 2021 John Barry - kuglopress@outlook.com
John Barry’s work explores memory and working class culture; location, sound, change and language permeates the work. John’s art practice concerns the human using the simple principles mediated by observation, communication, often collaborative aiming to be emotive about belonging and collective memory; a practice shaped by working and living with often stigmatised communities.
Other voices other rooms John Barry, Spring/Summer 2021
Other voices other rooms investigates the role of an artist working within the community of West Princes Street, Glasgow. Using field recordings, workshops, interviews and sound constructions (Soundwerkz) other voices other rooms captures a core essence of a diverse, dynamic community that has been wounded. Important themes that emerged during the artist’s practice were healing/spirituality, seasonal change/ritual and creative celebration. Other voices other rooms used low scale community driven interventions to bolster shared memory and experiences. Using a range of research strategies, including those instigated by the community - mapping of historical events, derives, psychogeography and Goethe’s principle of exploring the realm of the organic; the artist creates imagined realities, located on West Princes Street, that intend to maintain community memory and understanding of dynamic change in a framework of continuity.
Other voices other rooms installation poster (2 sided) A4
Mayday celebration Millenium Park
Woodlands Community Garden vigil
Woodlands Community Garden memorial
Developing layers of community interaction: Pen and Ink 10x14cm
Developing layers of community interaction: Pen and Ink 10x14cm
Midsummer visualisation St John’s Imagination: Pen drawing 10x18cm
Midsummer visualisation St John’s Imagination
Community study: Pen and ink 59x84cm
Community study: Pen and ink 42x59cm
Community study: Pen and ink 42x59cm
Community study: Pen and ink 42x59cm
Community led Steiner workshop
Artist led community memory workshop
erb list compilation ‘Actions to relate to each other’: Graphite on paper 59x84cm
To gather: Mixed media on paper 59x42cm
Water nurture heal nature connect light: Mixed media on paper 59x42cm
To gather 2: Mixed media on paper 59x42cm
Water nurture heal nature connect light 2: Mixed media on paper 59x42cm
Water nurture heal nature connect: Mixed media on paper Detail 59x42cm
Sew gather celebrate weave light: Plan for neon lightwork mixed media on paper 59x42cm
Broken landscape: photographic studies
Community Art Group
Other voices other rooms: Hunger strike at Barlinnie Soundwerkz 5:30
https://vimeo.com/586373328
Other voices other rooms: Postcard revenge Soundwerkz 2:50
https://vimeo.com/586373156
Sangatte poster
Untitled-1 1
15/07/2021 08:59
Other voices other rooms: Sangatte Memory Soundwerkz 3:41
https://vimeo.com/586223136
Other voices other rooms: West Princes Street Derive Soundwerkz 4:49
https://vimeo.com/586223380
Other voices other rooms: Creative/celebration soundpod 14:33
https://vimeo.com/586372756
Other voices other rooms: Healing/spirituality soundpod 23:42
https://vimeo.com/586223444
Other voices other rooms: Seasonal rites and change soundpod 22:39
https://vimeo.com/586372033
19 Other voices other rooms installation Woodlands Community Gardens 7/8/21
https://vimeo.com/586691560
Lockdown with feathers John Barry, 2021
Lockdown with feathers was borne of necessity despite physical barriers in cold winter and stringent covid restrictions; unable to meet people and limited outdoor exercise. I had intended to make a body of work based on short poems written whilst grieving the loss of my wife but decided against this due to potential magnification of such raw subjective emotions during lockdown isolation. Lockdown with feathers is a whole body of work celebrating the centenary of ‘The Lucky Dog’ the first appearance of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy on film together, archival sound, original musical composition, recorded interviews, writing, drawing and installation. The work is a multilayered attempt to express complex ideas of memory, absence from a range of psychological perspectives and what this means to individuals, communities and Scotland in a post Brexit world.
Greet (saudade): Film with original musical composition on Scottish small pipes by Brighede Chaimbeul 02:08s
https://vimeo.com/542074969
January 2021
You betrayed me: Oil cloth print and mixed media 90x125cm
January 2021
Right carry on: 84x60cm
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February 2021
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THE LUCKY DOG 1921 - LOCKDOWN WITH FEATHERS 2021
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THE LUCKY DOG 1921 - LOCKDOWN WITH FEATHERS 2021
Absence without longing within: Mixed media on paper 84x60cm
March 2021
Touching the void diptych: Mixed media on paper 152x304cm
March 2021
Absence matter 1: Mixed media on paper 84x60cm
April 2021
I’d do anything: Film 01:50s
March 2021
https://vimeo.com/542075232
Upside down: Mixed media on paper 60x84cm
April 2021
Conflicted designs V, VI, VII: 2D and 3D print
May 2021
Notes of love and longing: Film 01:32s
March 2021
https://vimeo.com/542075476
Clashmaclaiver (memory): Film 02:16s
March 2021
https://vimeo.com/542075610
Eyes Shut: Wool mixed media sampler in collaboration with Katya Seaton 40x68cm
April 2021
Psychodrama Shadowplay: Mixed media installation (edited for assessment purposes) 01:33s
https://vimeo.com/543156680
April 2021
Seawards the Great….: Photograph in collaboration with Brian Sweeney 110x152cm
April 2021
The living room John Barry, 2020
The living room reflected a period of intense longing and confusion at been relocated, at points roofless staying in atrophying B&Bs in a city with new culture, language and history. Feeling noise, dust, confusion, change. Being outside, an observer, without direction a period of upheaval magnified by forced distancing due to covid. I found through research that this renewal was matched by the dynamic changing nature of Glasgow’s communities typified by the Bruce Report and exemplified by City Council building projects such as the Basil Spence designed Hutchenstown B. The living room is imagined as an interactive performance space and installation.
Faded glory I & II
Faded glory
https://vimeo.com/596543399
Blowdown: A3 poster
Blowdown
https://vimeo.com/596610774
Lament: A3 poster
Lament
https://vimeo.com/519048490
Prophecy: A3 poster
Prophecy
https://vimeo.com/596610935
Transformation: A3 poster
Transformation
https://vimeo.com/596610997
John Barry - kuglopress@outlook.com