Conversations from the collection

CONVERSATIONS FROM THE COLLECTION 2016 LUCY BERGMAN

JOANNA LAWSON

LARA ROSE

CHRISTINE HINCHCLIFFE

C O N V ERS AT I O NS FRO M T HE C O L L EC T I O N 2016

Conversations from the Collection 2016 Dear Nigel, We are a group of 5 artists currently studying on an Advanced Professional Diploma in Art & Design at Leeds Beckett University.

As a group we have been discussing external collaborations and we would like to engage with Leeds Art Gallery Collection and the building itself during its temporary closure for refurbishments this year.

We would very much like to have an opportunity to explore some of the Gallery’s collection and use the works as a starting point for creating a collaborative art work and/or publication.

For our main dialogue and starting point for collaboration, we would like to work with you, understanding you have a huge amount of knowledge and experience knowing the Collection both in terms of its catalogue but also associated stories and references.

We see this as an opportunity to not only create new work in a collaborative, site specific way, but also for creating new dialogues and connections; between emerging artists and gallery staff, between one another and between art works.

Our proposal for the project schedule is as follows: Invite you to come to our studios and meet us. We will give a brief presentation about our personal artistic aims, previous/current work and interests. (No more than 2 hours) 2. Using the information gathered during the presentation, you would then have time to identify certain pieces from the Collection that you could ‘partner’ us each individually with...and one main piece in particular that all five students would respond to as a group.

3. We would then hope to meet with you at Leeds City Art Gallery for a briefing and possible tour of the building and archive...and then have the opportunity to meet with you individually to find out which art works or artists he recommends for us to look at and use for inspiration.

4. Our group would then potentially have a certain amount of access to the building and chosen art works to begin researching and developing work.

5. The outcome could be a small group exhibition with possibly an accompanying publication.

1.

01

IN T RO D U C T I O N

Between the trees

NIGEL TEXT

29 June 2016

Rectotatium exerum di vitae provita si quis sollam ut et fugit od maio tem erum re si omnia niet eaturepe nis etureprorem voloria niat velent fugiam lam eatquis cillici dendem solut archicid mos autam quis sit eum reris et quo tem eiur as ma volorectae est audam volore conserspe nonsend ipsandi ulparum fuga. Namusam endebis atenden iendictatur?

The APD students are nervous about meeting Nigel.

They have set up an array of twenty objects, links and artifacts for him to see in the corner area of B206 studio. On the Wednesday morning, our MA Art & Design students start to arrive and pass the APD group a glance as they work on their own final submissions. Nigel arrives and we slowly start to get to know each other, circumnavigate these objects and talk about things in the first person.

Twenty-four hours earlier, the students and I meet in the studio and start rummaging and acquisitioning display devices for these objects. The plinth, the low table, the two iMacs and the perspex box. We begin that process of trying things out, talking, placing objects, having ideas, responding to other moves, composing and leaving room for those objects still to arrive. Such as The Cake. Each student has been asked to bring in five objects that in essence enables them to talk, to Nigel, about themselves, their creative activity and their background: an object, piece of music, text, video and audio clip.

These are postgraduate students talking about other things made by other people and it is a joy to have, in the same small space in the centre of Leeds, Ivor Cutler, photographs from WWII, Grace Jones, cake, Billie Holiday singing Strange Fruit, rust, a purple guitar, a Spanish wire birdcage, MacArthur Park, the Shipping Forecast and Jake Thackray

Te optaquid que eation res in cum re non endam sam autem dipsusandant veliqui beatis undebis doluptate volupta spitasit haris videndiae laboritiost, exerum non et praes voluptatis esendae volupit, si aut hil ma susdae dollor ad que optate nusandae re officim quisqua meniaecum et arion repedita num fuga. Nequam, sumquam hitia veni dolorib usapeles aperum aut lias accaepedit, estio. Ita et fugitiores sinisci antota vere alitiae asi ipsa velesequiate parum eaquodit occae ilicilit estions equam, occatum volo veligen imilla voluptiur ressi officipsae aut aspitatur reptate pero cores eum fugit, sam fuga. Ernatet eossum endus.

Officillupta doluptae nus molorpo repratis et deremporitis et venda quam solecer iaeritatur a vendipis doluptas re, consequae volupta assim consect atquae plignata que voluptat aped maionseque sim si di aut id quidit plaut officidis quatur aut arum sum quistem. Cea aut essum qui sandio in nate inis et et harchil moditint.

Unbeknownst to us, the day ends up being about trees of all things. In Ivor Cutler and Helen Oxenbury’s Meal One, a mother and son plant a plum stone under the floorboards and have their kitchen over-run by roots and branches. David Diop’s poem Africa My Africa includes the lines “That tree over there, Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers, That is your Africa springing up anew.” Christine brings in some branches and watch the palm trees bend in Grace Jones’s Slave to the Rhythm (official video reworked) with Leeds’ real trees in the background.

We recognise this simple motif, the links between us all and Nigel starts to reel off items from the Leeds Art Gallery collection. All nerves are gone. We continue to walk round the space and have cake and invite the MA students in to join us. There is serenity but alertness. The APD students say goodbye to Nigel and will soon meet with him in the Leeds Art Gallery store to look at some of the original artworks he feels will now carry on this invisible conversation. We don’t really talk about the tree again but this day stays in the memory, having hugely clarified for us how we can talk about issues through others and the importance of remaining aware of the spaces between people and things as well as the things in themselves.

02

C O N V ERS AT I O NS FRO M T HE C O L L EC T I O N 2016

BIRDCAGE

What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Make Things ‘self’ without digging into psychological I start my APD study with the intention theory. I write what follows one night of making work that is altogether less personal than anything I have previously whilst trying to make sense of this ‘imposter’. produced. After making that decision I flail around for a couple of months, This idea of posing as someone else not doing much of anything and not is nothing new for me. I remember feeling motivated. The realisation clearly pretending to be anything but quickly hits that exploring my personal myself most of the time when I am experience is ok, acceptable - perhaps young. I spend a lot of time alone as even interesting - and I decide to go a child. My remembrance of myself is with the idea that potentially the only that everything I do is premeditated reason I make art is to understand and affected. I am an actor. But it is myself. And that doesn’t have to be subtle. I am not an extrovert. I rehearse narcissistic or myopic. As is often the andplay out conversations in the mirror. case with these things I don’t really I think a lot about how I look, how I realise that I have already begun to sound and how others might expect me identify a theme. It takes my tutor to to be. I live in a fantasy world as most point out what I am too close to. I have children do and my fantasy is all about been obsessed with real self versus being whatever anyone else wants me false self, striving to be authentic to be, in order that I am always wanted, as opposed to posing. The theory of desired and loved, but not abandoned.

Imposter Syndrome starts to pop up If I am ever praised, it is for being in my research and conversations. The pretty or quiet or good, not for being idea that I am an imposter in my place brave or clever or funny. There is no of work, friendships, artistic circles doubt that I have changed massively and relationship is something that has in the past ten years. I have become gradually come to wear me down in more honest and relaxed, yet the falling recent years and heightens when my away of my ‘beauty act’ has left open son is about nine-months old. I always wounds that are having a detrimental doubt my abilities and struggle to feel effect on my psyche. I am left in a state equal to my peers and colleagues. of exposure that systematically shaves and whittles me as I try and reveal Things are becoming unmanageable. I the truth. This serves to constantly make a decision on the APD to turn question my authenticity, qualification this oppressive and destructive ‘voice’ and capability for everything linked to into something constructive, to begin my professional and creative life. For an enquiry into the nature of creativity and the perhaps necessary tension, the an artist this whittling would generally be the propellor for producing work. push/pull of self-doubt and self-belief, However more often for me, it is an without which perhaps one could not overwhelming candle snuffer for my create. I immediately begin to think of artistic action. I feel that I am battling ideas that are incredibly personal to some animal instinct to excel at all the point of self-analysis and haven’t things sickeningly, stereotypically yet seen a way to explore this idea of 03

female i.e. domesticity, the acquisition of material objects, appearance - and my higher ideals have nothing left to fuel them, no drive, no time, no belief, no tenacious dedication. I have to ‘talk the talk’ to maintain the ‘me’ people have come to expect.

Another aspect of my artistic process that worries me is how removed I have become from hands-on making. My work has become almost exclusively digital, specifically filming with digital cameras and editing using digital software. I am making music and writing but this seems in a different category to my practice somehow. I start using my Super 8 camera again and learn how to process the film by hand. The film doesn’t lead to a particular piece of work but it encourages me to take a different path. My exploration of the different versions of myself and the idea of seeking authenticity start a train of thought rooted in producing distorted or ‘fake’ copies of my head and face. I speak with my lecturing colleagues and learn about digital processes for creating 3D portraits and also learn about programmes such as Second Life where users are able to create a persona within a virtual world that can actually live out or indeed test out the life you would prefer. I am also interested in the theory of Uncanny Valley which describes the point at which a digitally generated human is aesthetically unsettling as it sits somewhere between human and inhuman. This seems to relate quite closely to how the ‘imposter’ version of me could look. I begin thinking about how to illustrate the feeling of constantly wearing a ‘Lucy suit’, a

B IRD C AG E

costume which I look out through, yet also find a way to communicate all that the mask hides. I also start to feel concerned about how my work will be received, in the sense of it being selfindulgent or vain, and I begin to note how much this idea bothers me.

There is a seam running through me like coal, almost a commandment that Thou Shalt Not Be A Show Off…I realise that this idea has compounded itself more and more over the years to the point where I find it difficult to create anything.

Despite this inner struggle I motor forward and begin capturing 3D photographs of my head and then a series of plaster cast and vacuum form faces.

I enjoy the process of making the plaster casts that are very satisfying to produce as multiples and then I begin intentionally dropping them to see how they would shatter and distort. I realise that there is even some kind of performance in this act, as if I am telling people “this is how little I care about myself and the way I look, see?…I’m prepared to smash my face in” like that would somehow make up for the fact that I’m considered attractive, which is a source of shame for me and somehow communicates that I don’t have to try to be anything other than nice to look at.

These thought processes lead me to revisit the work of Cindy Sherman. In her work I am again struck by how the ideal and the monstrous are shown to be mutually dependent on each other.

Each image seems to hold space for innocence and sleaze, vulnerability

and empowerment. There is something his Real & False Self theories, Cooley’s undefinable about her work, something Looking Glass Self and Heinz Kohut’s inexplicable, I don’t know quite how ideas around ‘Mirror Transference’. I I understand and relate to it but I feel that these and other Psychology instinctively do and I find this very of Self theories will be excellent inspiring. I know that it is possible to starting points for future work and create work that can make people feel the clarification of my research profile. and think about themselves without “Probably the best account of the origins having to overtly explain what is going of selfhood is that the self comes into on. The technical aspects of Sherman’s being at the interface between inner work have also been influential. Her biological processes of the human body uncompromising attention to detail and the sociocultural network to which in terms of costume, make-up and the person belongs” (Baumeister & props coupled with her understanding Bushman “The Self” Social Psychology of lighting and camera techniques and Human Nature). has refreshed my desire to create a carefully planned scaffolding around my ideas so that there is room for spontaneity within the work itself.

Other works I’ve found particularly interesting and inspiring during the APD have been Mary Kelly’s Post-Partum Document, La Artefacta a film about artist Nicola Constantino and The Body Extended: Sculpture & Aesthetics, an exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute.

All of these artists and works spark creatives ideas and more philosophical thought about the idea of ‘self’, imperfection, what it is to be a creative human and the sheer physical effort and mental dedication it can take to engage in a creative process. Studying for the APD has set a lot of ideas into motion for development; ideas rooted in exposing my internal dialogue and struggles with how to function in domestic, artistic and professional settings and how this is perhaps dependent on having a ‘false’ self to maintain and protect my ‘real’ self. I have started to research into the work of psychologists such as Winnicott and 04

C O N V ERS AT I O NS FRO M T HE C O L L EC T I O N 2016

05

B IRD C AG E

06

C O N V ERS AT I O NS FRO M T HE C O L L EC T I O N 2016

Conversations from the Collection The five things presented to Nigel Walsh, curator at Leeds Art Gallery:

Based on my presentation, Nigel chooses a list of twenty-two items from the Leeds Art gallery collection for me to respond to. The works that sparked the most ideas are not what I would have expected. There are two small paintings of rather unremarkable domestic interiors. One is Little Girl Reading In Bed by Ernest Procter, one an anonymous painting of a drawing room and finally a set of Bronte/Haworth themed photographs by Annalies Strba. All three works focus on domestic settings and capture a stillness and space within which a story can be told. The works either feature a figure that is aesthetically equal in presence to their surrounding or suggest human inhabitation by their very absence.

La Dee Dah, a song by Jake Thackray about the performance one must endure when meeting your partner’s parents for the first time.

An old handmade wire birdcage bought from a farmer at a flea market in Spain Meal One, a book for children written

by Ivor Cutler and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, in which a mother and son plant a plum stone under the floorboards to see what will happen.

The works make me think about how my own home, The opening sequence of Mayak (The particularly my kitchen, has become a part of my physical Lighthouse), an Armenian film by Maria and emotional landscape, a merging of mundane task and Saakyan which combines historic arcane human interplay. I am interested in the exchange documentary footage, animated text and that happens between domicile and occupier and all the a scene of a train journey. different aspects of my personality that my home has Untitled Film Still No. 48, a photograph by ‘seen’ and influenced. With all this in mind I start to create Cindy Sherman depicting a girl stood by a film in which I play out various parts of myself, carrying a highway looking out towards a dark and out menial tasks in a seres of unremarkable or theatrical uncertain horizon ways. I am dressed in a costume that reflects my Sicilian heritage relating to my Nanna who spent all her time in the kitchen and whom I rarely saw without an apron on, and the costume is also a nod to the traditional fool or clown. There are various household props that symbolise both emotional and practical matters, including a cage, vegetables, a knife and a teatowel. I try to depict the room itself so that it has a distinct personality and holds equal weight of importance to the character. In the post-production stage, the film clips will be layered to create a landscape where I appear multiple times and begin to blend with the kitchen to create a symbiotic, co-dependent landscape.

My preoccupation with understanding the versions of myself lead to a text piece entitled All In A Day’s Work. The piece is an attempt to pin down and vocalise my inner dialogue and my imagined dialogue of others that so often becomes the hidden narrative of my day. I want the piece to be ruthless in terms of honesty. I want to counteract and balance out the face I present to the world which is so often mediated by my expectations or the expectations of others. The process of subsequently writing and displaying it publicly feel like a necessary but somewhat frightening act.

07

B IRD C AG E

Me, Me, Me Do I actually know anyone who is together?

Why won’t they just tell me that they think I can’t sing?

She’s totally out of her depth I don’t know how to do anything My love is a cage I don’t like my parents but I pretend to Should I dye it red?

I think I could get it this time It should’ve been me Why is there so much polyester in this room?

I admire that kind of bravery I am attracted to damage I’m probably the most attractive person in the room I used to be the most attractive person in the room I am the least intelligent person in the room That stupid fucking cow made me feel about this tall She should put in a complaint I could’ve been a dancer Sometimes I love him so much I want to breathe him in Innocent children are dying I’m always on the lookout for the next one What the fuck is it this time?

I’ve forgotten what it feels like to be happy with someone I’d rather watch my son eat a yogurt than come to your exhibition I never had an edge to lose Without charm I might have really been somebody Just pretend you didn’t see her I invent things to reduce myself to your level What if he’s stopped breathing?

I think he’s too complex for me to know how to love him She is beneath me Stop your dying swan act I really want you to like me If you like me you should try harder I’m not sure if I’m making this up 08

C O N V ERS AT I O NS FRO M T HE C O L L EC T I O N 2016

CAKE

Contextual Document In the last 9 months, my art has progressed from more personal approaches to more experimental strategies. I am now trying to reach wider audience. I feel like I have been able to channel that into my art in a positive way using historical influences and personal influences.

I have compiled a book of poems focusing on women and their struggles through life using my own and other women I know experiences of love and relationships.

In this contextual document, I will focus on a small selection of my poetry and films. My first film titled ‘Confined’ focuses on women through history and how they have perceived as secondclass citizens. Repressed as a modern women within relationships in the working world. I did this by having the images in the film very regimented using text in a way that women are conventionally supposed to be a certain way.

The second film in the collection I have created so far this year is a film titled ‘It’s a pity she wasn’t a lad’. This is based on a quote from Emmeline Pankhurst’s Father saying “it’s a pity she wasn’t born a lad” which is about covering up and sparking out her needs and spark to be a strong and independent individual regardless of gender.

I felt that the idea of snuffing out and covering up is something women throughout history have felt. Strong personalities have been accused of insanity and lock away hidden from the light. In this video I used all the feminine images and objects I could find them and covered them in white sheets and also I took screen shots of the image of the spray bottle and covered it up by 09

drawing it and distorting the image.

Then my work took a more personal progression and I focused in more on my own individual experience of a relationship break down. Titled ‘Destruction’ this is also based on a poem I wrote. In this film I have simply stacked up objects and using a macro lenses I have created a shaky atmosphere because in the poem it refers to a break down of a relationship like a building falling down.

The other films I have created are not soley focused on one poem they are focused on the poems as a collection rather than one specific subject, they are raw in their making and more creatively ambiguous.

I wanted to create films and images without them being soley related to the images created in the poetry so it could give me a broader understanding of filmmaking and its relationship to my poetry.

Enjoying the separation between the two.

This year I have also compiled a book called ‘The Poems for Women’ which is a book dedicated to my experience of being a women, each poem is about a different subject and a different influence that people have given me some are based on historical women and some are based on women I know.

Beside each poem in the book is an image of obscure objects and images I have taken on my daily travels.

The influences on my poetry and art come from artists such as Elizabeth Price, in particularly her obsession and use of objects in her work is something that I can identify with. The way she can

CAKE

create a language and an atmosphere leave a cake out in the rain’ which was with sound and text and creative works a bit of a comical play on the fact that within her work such as’ The house of a cake is the object that I used but the Mr X’ where you have an look into a dark image of a melting cake is beautiful apartment full of twists and turns and and one that I can relate to when my confusing dark corners. emotions run and blur together when I am creating poetry.

Her other work that inspires me was her Turner Prize winning ‘Woolworth Using a still from one of my films to show choir’ which is because of the use of the fact that I like to look at the world historical influences and imagery within through a lens, distorting imagery in my her work. Other influence are feminist films and poetry. artists such as Hermione Freed and her work using family albums putting herself Within this presentation I was matched in the picture which is something that I with works from the collection One found particularly interesting. Also the work was Richard Long’s Contested poetic way she narrates the work and Ground and Willam Hamos Thoyrn puts herself within the imagery.

Croft’s maquette for a monumental plinth. I responded to these with a My other influences are poets such as poem titled ‘Mask’, which is my mind is the poet laureate Carol Anne Duffy and the objects pretending to be something her collection of love poems. they are not.

This year we have been involved in a project called ‘Conversations from the Collection.’ This project involved us selecting five things that are influential to us as artists.

The work by Richard Long is something he made and tried to mimic old classic pots by burying it. He didn’t change the fact that it wasn’t an old antique and the maquette of a plinth, which will never reach is full potential because it is only a prototype of the real thing. In this poem I am trying to get across that the object would think if it had a personality.

I chose for my object a cake because of its sweet and innocent exterior and its complex and layered interior. This is how I think people view me as a person, they think I am all sweet polite I responded to Lucia Nogueria sculpture and naïve but I am a complex difficult ‘Black’ with a poem and a short film to understand person on the inside just in the film I am smashing objects and like a cake. cutting them up like the glass that is shattered in the sculpture. I have also I also chose a poem by Edna Vincent written a poem called ‘Black Hole’ Milay, an American poet I related to the relating to the whole in the middle of poem because it was so beautiful and the image, which makes it seem like a creative in its simplicity. But it was also black hole. morbid which is something I love to put in my art.

Responding to the water colours by Steve Johnson ‘Shopping’ and ‘Picnic’ There is a song by Jimmy Webb written fascinated me as I work in retail and in 1968 called ‘MacArthur Park’. There the idea of wasting food is disgusting to is a lyric which says ‘you should never me. I also thought about the collection 10

and the fact that trends in art change so frequently that the collection as a whole may be ‘past its sell by date’ and is hidden away in stores and never to be seen by the human eye.

The other work I responded to was ‘Doppelganger’ by Stephen Willetts. By day he is an office worker and by night he is a hard core raver. I thought what if the personalities imbued in the work argued like siblings, I wrote a poem on this subject and I have made a film, which involves very simple imagery to illustrate the fact.

In conclusion this course has been a very interesting and challenging and as a whole my work has progressed in a positive way. This recent project has stretched my understanding of what poetry and art means to me.

C O N V ERS AT I O NS FRO M T HE C O L L EC T I O N 2016

Past your sell by date Left on the shelf to decay You’ll need to be wasted off soon Nobody wants you You’re affectively useless Swished battered Dried and used up Damaged goods You can’t even be reduced because you are broken and useless

Response to artworks from the collection Artwork no. 02

Response to the whole collection and if it could talk what it would think about.

“My response to the collection is a series of poems and films which are related to the idea that everything in the collection is sat there hidden and wasting away in the museum hidden behind closed doors.”

You’re wearing a mask made out of plaster You’re playing a part Pretending to be something old and wonderful But you are new and shiny You buried yourself like a relic Trying to fit in You may not be old but you took craft and effort Although you will never be that thing you mimic You are still perfect and beautiful just the same

11

Response to artworks from the collection Artwork no. 01

CAKE

A million little pieces all scattered around As small as dust particles they cannot be seen by the human eye They cannot be collected, categorized or labelled But they are there floating out of my chest Where the giant gaping hole still lies there It’s healing around the edges the skin is itchy and pink

Response to artworks from the collection Artwork no. 03

If Personalities Bickered Like Siblings You push they pull You scream they are described as quite You’re creative they are suddenly a mathematical genius They are girly you are a tomboy They are pretty you are seen as more plain They’re more fun than you’re boring No one wants to hang out with you they have friends You’re the weird one they are completely normal You’re described as childish they are very mature for their age You’re complete polar opposites Maybe work together and one day you’ll be a whole person Or just fight until the dominant one takes control

12

C O N V ERS AT I O NS FRO M T HE C O L L EC T I O N 2016

13

to fix w o h ’t know n o d I so th me i w g n wro to find ly s r i e t d a r h o l know w long in nconditiona t e ’ b n I o e d I r wher pletely and u o m a I . m o me will co ow wh n o k h t ’ w n ions to t le u p t i I do o t e s . p n e of onal i nd me g the trib nd understa ons, educati trottin i e a t b t a o s p l i g e n a ; o acc rch org explorations pectations t u h c x From artistic ons, family e r es of o l l a t a i c d i t s n a a mu an visit tories c s i r , f s t A s a From rous p ; u s t n r o o i t t i f fix me. n a c exped l lectures o I ; me, so n’t last ca i o h r t d o i t s w s i m g H kingdo is wron n blood, s t u a o h i r w o i gl t know ise, washed ’ n o d l l !

I sti n prom uch blood? o i t p m m Rede why so or orange. , can fix d I o o o l s b , e ? y e g e Wh ck, bei a, kilod wrong with m a l p b u , p n n Brow , eniya now what is u d u d Eniyan a, I do not k ric Oh, Af dignity skin? y y t m r l ? i . r a d i e e a m uddied shy thorny h thers who st m y m a Is it gled bu n with the f ? n a t y o erland s i h a t i l o Is it m y l m e unho gain? ers, oh disgust you? t h g u a Is it th a d visage fix me; d over of her n y a y m a r s e w v e a o n o casting ed of me, d h me so I ca e h t t i it m Is o asha t is wrong w s u o y ongue? on them? a t h n Are w g i w e a for t kno y back aham? m n r I do no use I pray in u t f Abr at I o h a t c d d e o e b g r e e Is it ds ang n despise th o g e h Are t ealed? d of Iro each other? v o e r g e e b h Does t at war with e truth x me? h t a child l l i m w y a fi e I w n h o e t a h c Are tells m ather, e, so I h F c m a r h b u t i h b Oh, A rong w what I am! C ofty ideals; w s i t a l of the , Oh, wh w who I am od and such in the midst o no el Don’t k holy priesth mposter I fe soul. a d i e , , l r d b e o g u an of G oh tro w e a str o k i l n l r l i o t f x me! fi e c n Yet s a a . e c , so I e at p gation congre oh why, oh, b rong with me y, at is w h Oh wh w w t kno 14 I do no GOLD

C O N V ERS AT I O NS FRO M T HE C O L L EC T I O N 2016

GOLD

on Santiago Sierra, “The Black Cone, A Monument to Civil Disobedience” further reminding me of Egypt pyramids monuments to the skyline.

Contextual Statement

“From the chaos and abstraction, randomness and craziness my art began “I go with the flow like a river towards to take on a more tame, simple and the sea around obstacles be. organized form. The colors will fade Embracing the new terrain, keep moving, away and diminish to black and white no stopping!” charcoal symbol like drawings”.

Rose Garrard, is described as an My short to medium term goals was artist whose voice never dominates exploring digital art, sound and poetry but lets her work exchange dialogue. amalgamated into creating riotous, I discovered her 12 black and white colourful abstract digital works within drawings that related to a gnostic poem the constraints of my mobile phone app, called “Talisman”. cameras and studio space availability.

It reminded me of my poem “Dear I set myself a challenge to do regular Grandma” For a moment I didn’t know WordPress blog, Instagram posts & in which direction to go! I created some Mixcloud podcasts. I also sought to still life abstract drawings based on my explore esoteric concepts such as poem and Garrards “The leather glove alchemy, law of attraction, and answer of her mother”. questions like, “is life a series of random events?” or “how much control do we And my work is evolving to hopefully have over the universe?” build golden pyramids, with ancient drapes and scrolls of hieroglyphic like I was very much inspired by series drawings, symbols and simplistic still life of visiting lecturers, ranging from charcoal drawings screen and digitally Dada performances by Jaap Blonk, printed.

Erasing pages by French artist Jérémie Bennequin to Blank canvasses of darkness by Craig Dworkin.

“Art for Art’s Sake”, I dared to submit a slide show for the Big Screen, created a contact mic, and took lots of photographs of Leeds coined “Corridors of Leeds” and attempting to birth Galleria L’artiste an online digital gallery.

But something sinister was lurking in the pipeline, Brexit, #blacklivesmatter, a new prime minister. I felt a bit out of sorts for a moment, I didn’t understand, but I knew I had a choice, allow myself to be sucked into a vortex of confusion or like water, a river, go with the flow, let go and let be, fret not and let live!!

Singing with a new band through the summer, experimental music like Sun Ra sent to save me!

My Five Things Intrigued by ancient Philosophy, poetry and positive affirmations. “Law of attraction”, what does this mean?

Heraclitus for he believes the best order is random sweepings stacked up. In spite of the chaos I can feel some order for this carbon unit interspersed with other carbon units.

“Africa my Africa” cried David Diop, Will Smith so fervent the atmosphere is intense! If that’s not enough it descends into a kaleidoscope of riotous Dadaist imagery, “what do you want from me?” says Grace Jones. In comes Erykah, playful bag lady, self help books, pop culture, stuff, stuff, stuff, identity, hear my voice!

It’s getting brighter and brighter, ‘Conversations from the Collection’, and To cap it off with ninjas, purple ninjas my experience looking at the collection ironically, a guitar, I sing the song with Nigel. I felt honored, like one of “nomad woman!” the presenters on an art show, and reveled with youthful exuberance and excitement, in the works of art, like buried treasure in the basement.

From Grenville Davey “Eye” & Golden Table coupled with further research 15

GOLD

I was motivated to do charcoal drawings, process screen prints, digital print and laser cut engravings. I also collaborated with a few local artists who did charcoal or pen drawings.

Santiago Sierra and political artistry giving voice, Brexit, protest matches, rallies! The sound of people on the streets of Leeds, perhaps juxtaposed with my “Corridors of Leeds” photos!

From Grenville Davey “Eye” & Golden table coupled with further research on Santiago Sierra, “The Black Cone, A Monument to Civil Disobedience” further reminding me of Egypt pyramids monuments to the skyline.

Then the golden table inspiring golden pyramids of Egypt coupled with scrolls and drapes, a political video too!!

I feel at last perhaps I have permission to speak. Hear my voice, oh ye peeps!!!

Tracey Emin drawings, Barbara Kruger slogans, simplicity is the key. Pop art, Andy Warhal, Art for Art’s sake or ritual.

Were the Egyptian wall engravings popular art and culture at its time?

Ritual, religiosity, humanity, nothing has changed really in the human race!!

Response to Nigel’s Selection Is it mastery I crave or do I just want to be heard!!!

The sun is now shining directly on my face, as I type in the ground floor 3d studio hide away. I feel like buried treasure that has just been discovered!!

A smile forms around my lips!! I’m Salvador Dali, surrealism master!! I crave mastery, I need to speak up boldly, learning the native tongue of the Kemit land, my ABC’s and 123’s back to the be no longer afraid. beginning. Like the quill feathered pen of an ancient scribe to parchment Interestingly, Nigel identified from my scrolls, so my charcoal drawings of choice of work the element of wanting ankhs and symbols peculiar to me. The to be heard, be given voice!! The ancient voices, buried treasures rise works he chose in response were to indicate this sense of diminishing voices, like a phoenix from the ashes! political statements, coupled with what Very intrigued by Grenville Davey print I see as glory, valor and beauty. series of 6 prints Eye coupled with the golden table! Somewhat I now am In addition were simple, calming, obsessed with wanting to build a golden freeing, and as soothing as the G# pyramid or two. modulation of the music of the new band. Even the idea of the works stored in the basement cellar was synonymous The Brexit aftermath! I’m somewhat disheveled, flummoxed, puzzled, with the works crying out to be discombobulated, befuddled!! rediscovered!

I was drawn initially to Rose Garrard not because we both share the name Rose but the stillness of the work, the blade, simplicity and curious still life drawings.

It was a thrill to find 11 more drawings based on a gnostic poem, Talisman.

Suddenly a political input, #blacklivesmatter and my first ever activist match on the streets of Leeds!

My interest in Santiago Sierra became heightened coupled with Barbara Krugar’s use of slogans “don’t shoot!

16

C O N V ERS AT I O NS FRO M T HE C O L L EC T I O N 2016

RUST

17

RUS T

Contextual Statement We are asked to think about five things that in some way describe ourselves. They should be things we like, that excite us, that are important or nostalgic for us. They should also be things that influence or stimulate our imagination. By displaying these objects it is hoped that Nigel will be able to glean enough about each of us, to choose pieces of work from the Collection at Leeds Art Gallery that we each can respond to. This is a list of my responses and how I presented them to Nigel.

The strange fruit are the bodies hanging from the trees. For me this song reminds me of the civil rights movement in America and the 60s when my world was changing.

The largest object was a vase that had rotted away leaving the rusted skeleton within. I placed this on a plinth standing upside down in front of a window so that the light shining through enhanced the rust. This last piece was to show 4. For my audio clip, Radio

the area that I am most interested in Four and The Shipping Forecast is a at this time in my art career. Rust! My no brainer. The music at the start, Sail first experience of art in this medium Away, and the end with the National was the Richard Serra exhibition Anthem is wonderful. This is what I at the Gagosian Gallery in London turn to, particularly when I am feeling (2008). What I saw blew me away. I was frazzled and in need of calm. When it enchanted and exhilarated by the scale starts to go through all the different of the huge towering metal structures. areas, the forecast is like a mantra, a I could touch them and examine them

up close. The textures and colours 1. I chose as a piece of text some soothing, calming repetition. Listening lines from Alice in Wonderland. Alice to it allows me to breathe. There is were extraordinary; blues, greens, reds, is asking the Cheshire Cat where she safety and security in the continuity, oranges, greys and blacks, a wonderful should go. “That depends where you especially with the National Anthem at russet cathedral with curving sides want to go” he says. When she replies the end. It gives me a place of sanctuary produced a welling of emotion in me. I that she is not bothered where she ends away from the chaos around me. cried! up, the Cheshire Cat tells her that it 5. We are asked to choose an doesn’t matter then where she starts.

I have a fascination with rusted objects.

This to me is the exciting thing about life. object, or in my case, a few objects.

I find them everywhere on the wayside, It doesn’t matter where you start, the They are all found objects. The first in gardens and allotments. Friends and important thing is to enjoy the journey. is a stone from my garden covered in family, knowing of my interest, bring me Who knows where you may end up. For moss that is so soft to touch. Hard and rusty things they have found in garages. me it is about embarking on a journey soft, one in the same. Next, animal I am researching and examining rust to discover myself through art and I am bones also from my garden, all the end using audio equipment. I have been still on that journey. product of meals. I put them outside for recording the variety of sounds that the birds to feed on and for the weather different rusted metals make using

to change them. Alongside, a root contact microphones. This is in its 2. For an image, I chose a collection of photos from World War from some plant (whose name I forget) early stages and is something I wish to Two. The reason they are important pretending to be a tree and bark from a pursue on my MA. My ultimate aim is to me is because they belonged to my cherry tree so delicate like lace but also to record the sound of rust, or rather Father. He brought them back when like a piece of rusted metal. I chose a the sound produced by the interaction he was demobbed at the end of the a dried stalk from a pumpkin from our of rusted metal and other substances. war. They were put away in his drawer allotment, an odd thing that reminds Can you record the sound of rust? I and they never where shown to anyone. me of a tree stump, something heavy have been assured you can. My work is I now wonder why he kept them. A but light as a feather. Finally, a dried about the transformation of things, not secret perhaps? Perhaps he wanted a flower with seed head as soft as silk. the decay of them. I believe that decay reminder of why he was fighting in the All these things have a fascination for is seen in a negative context whereas first place and the consequences. Or, me. I want the viewer to look at these transformation is positive, continuing just something he acquired along his ordinary objects and see them, rather a story of change. I am a collector, journey? The photos were of Hitler and than simply walk by. To emphasise this, rescuer and a protector of found other Nazis and the consequences of I placed some small white pebbles next objects. This is a part of me and my art war for humans and buildings. to the WW2 photographs. The pebbles practice. were so tiny and white. I specifically

put one less pebble than the number 3. I chose a video clip Billie Holliday singing Strange Fruit. I adore of photographs. The pebbles represent her voice and the power and sadness the Normandy beaches - one less would she creates is overwhelming. The return. I hang the bones inside a clear camera focuses on her head and we see perspex box using fishing line. I want the power of the emotion in her face. to create the illusion of space and life It is very arresting. We are held by her that I didn’t think I would achieve voice and the words she sings. Suddenly, otherwise on the plinth. you realise she is singing about lynching.

18

C O N V ERS AT I O NS FRO M T HE C O L L EC T I O N 2016

Artworks from the Collection

Anya Gallaccio

When I receive the list of works that Nigel has chosen for me to respond to, I felt it was a bewildering array of artists and obejcts. I felt confused and overwhelmed and unsure of how to respond. Looking down the list I see that Nigel has picked out some of my favourite artists, including Paul Nash, Andy Goldsworthy and Anya Gallaccio.

How, I wondered, has Nigel come to the choices he has made? What was it from the Five Things I had presented that prompted his decisions? I was unfamiliar with some of the artists. I enjoy researching and discovering them online and in books, mainly from the Henry Moore Library. I decide to respond to three of the works Nigel chooses. These are Anya Gallaccio’s Six Dozen Red Roses (1992), Martin Naylor’s Important Mischief (1978) and Laurence Burt’s Helmet (1974). I have responded to these works in the following way. It is a sculpture. It is a hanging piece of rusted metal, from a settee or bed, that I have manipulated in terms of shape.

On the ground below is a broken Piñata made from paper card and coloured tissue paper. Spilling out from the broken body are dried roses and welsh poppy seedheads. The sculpture is entitled Before the Rain. My work is responding to violence and love. These are the feelings I get from these three works of art.

Six Dozen Red Roses (1992) I first saw this in Leeds Art Gallery ten years ago. It is a small box on the wall with two chalks in it, one red and one green. I am fascinated by the change from a huge installation of 10,000 red roses distilled into two chalks. I remember thinking how wonderful it would be to hold them and to make a mark with them. Over the years when visiting the Gallery I would make a point of seeking this piece out. Why they provoke a sentimental response in me is beyond me. I wonder how it is done and what work is involved from the artist. I am glad that the red roses, including the stems, have been transformed into something else. The installation is entering a new phase. It has become a favourite of mine, very much like going to see an old friend. Very odd but I believe it is the transformation from negative to positive, the idea of life from death, that draws me back to this piece time and time again.

The past nine months on the APD has reawakened my interest in art and restarted my practice within a supportive and encouraging environment. I think I was in a state of semi hibernation, struggling with my physical and mental issues. For a while I become creatively impotent. My mind is a blank. Even now, I am having difficulties with my thought processes.

However, I am feeling enthused and looking forward in a positive way to working with the processes involved in my work, particularly those processes of rusting.

19

“Gallaccio’s decomposing flowers do not conjure death and extinction so much as they engage us to witness the complex transformative processes.”

RUS T

20

C O N V ERS AT I O NS FRO M T HE C O L L EC T I O N 2016

Index PAGE

APD STUDENT

REFERENCE

OBJECT RESPONDED TO

04-09

LUCY BERGMAN

BIRDCAGE

ERNEST PROCTER (Watercolour) Little Girl Reading in Bed, 1911 ANNELIES Å TRBA (Photo) Sonja as Cathy, 1996 (Photograph) Bronte Moor, 1996 (Photograph) Linda as Isabella, 1996

10-13

JOANNA LAWSON

CAKE

(01) LUCIA NOGUEIRA (Sculpture) Black, 1994 (02) RICHARD LONG (Sculpture) Untitled (Pot), 1966-1967 (02) WILLIAM HAMO THORNYCROFT (Sculpture) Maquettre for a Monumental Plinth (03) STEPHEN WILLATS (Sculpture) The Doppelganger, 1984

14-17

LARA ROSE

GOLD

GRENVILLE DAVEY (Sculpture) (Gold) Table, 1991 (Print) Eye (Series of 6 prints), 1997 ROSE GARRARD (Watercolour) Talisman: The steel knife of her grandmother, 1988 SANTIAGO SIERRA (Photograph) Hooded Woman Seated Facing the Wall, 2003

18-21

CHRISTINE HINCHCLIFFE

RUST

LAURENCE BURT (Sculpture) Helmet, 1974 MARTIN J NAYLOR (Sculpture) Important Mischief, 1978 ANYA GALLACCIO (Sculpture) Six Dozen Red Roses, 1992

21

INDE X

22

C O N V ERS AT I O NS FRO M T HE C O L L EC T I O N 2016

A COLLABORATION BETWEEN LEEDS BECKETT UNIVERSITY AND LEEDS CITY ART GALLERY ADVANCED PROFESSIONAL DIPLOMA IN PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE IN ART & DESIGN WITH THANKS TO NIGEL (LAST NAME) ALAN DUNN MARION HARRISON EXAMPLE NAME NAME EXAMPLE

CURATOR AT LEEDS ART GALLERY SENIOR LECTURER, FINE ART AND MA ART & DESIGN COURSE LEADER, APD PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE IN ART & DESIGN JOB TITLE AND ROLE GOES HERE ANOTHER JOB TITLE

CONTRIBUTERS ARTWORKS BY LUCY BERGMAN JOANNA LAWON LARA ROSE CHRISTINE HINCHCLIFFE PUBLICATION DESIGN KIM LUNDGREN KOTRYNA JUSKAITE

BIRDCAGE CAKE GOLD RUST LEVEL 6 GRAPHIC ARTS & DESIGN

23