ETIENNE DE VILLIERS, BLACK HOLE, IN ARC SPACE

We are really pleased to have work by Etienne de Villiers in arc for the next few weeks. Etienne is a painter and was recently shortlisted for the John Moores Painting prize. 

This is what he has to say about his work:

"The title of my first exhibition was: "Slow Art for Fast Times".  This title reflects the fact that my images need time: time for subtle relationships to become visible. Immediate emotional impact is not my aim, with the result that the works can at first acquaintance, seem dry. I try to make works with subtle interplays/interweavings/or vibrations even, as meditations on the Sublime in nature. The painter, Agnes Martin is someone I admire.   Black Hole could on first reading appear as a rather flat image. However given time, it yields up a very three-dimensional reading, possibly drawing to the viewer's attention the distinction between looking and seeing."

NATALIE DOWSE, 'WORK IN PROGRESS' IN THE ARC SPACE

We are really pleased to have work by Natalie Dowse - Work in Progress - on show in the arc space for the next few weeks. Drop in to arc for a coffee and chat and take a look, we would love to see you.

‘Work in Progress’ was made during Natalie’s year long residency in Derby, the Jonathan Vickers Fine Art Award, and formed part of her exhibition, ‘Skimming the Surface’ at Derby Museum and Art Gallery.

The Jonathan Vickers Fine Art Award was established by Derbyshire Community Foundation to produce new work of national importance in response to the landscape, heritage and people of Derbyshire.

This series of paintings are based on low-resolution film stills, capturing a split second of time…

‘ Work in Progress … depicts men at work near the [newly built] shopping centre, harsh orange streaks and spray paint glares out among the lush natural greens of the trees and foliage. The sound of the road drill is almost audible and the colours are familiar to a modern onlooker whose view of nature is rarely undisturbed by road signs and neon graffiti. As the city develops and grows, there is a suggestion that its ‘sense of place’ is being gradually eroded.’

- An extract from the essay written by Chloe Johnson from the ‘Skimming the Surface’ exhibition catalogue.

Natalie Dowse lives and works in Portsmouth. She has a studio at Art Space Portsmouth where she is also the part-time Studio Coordinator.

To see more of Natalie’s work please visit:
www.nataliedowse.co.uk

WORDS BY TANIA ROBERTSON

Where does meaning lie? In pictures, in words, in both, in neither?

WORDS takes a wry and poignant look at how visual art can reveal layers of meaning the written word manages to dissemble. Each work uses the simple image of a leaf but wilfully fails to reference it in the text integral to each piece. Instead words and phrases in common usage make up part of the visual work throwing the meaning of both into question. What does 'democracy' mean to us today? What does 'impressionism' invoke? And what does 'bipolar' actually tell us? The meaning of words shifts with time and use for language is, arguably, the greatest historical record we have but like all records it is imperfect and open to interpretation. Perhaps it is time we take a closer look at what we write, the words we select, how we use them and why.

MORE JEANNIE DRIVER PHOTOS

Jeannie Driver sent some more photos of her excellent exhibition that she held in the Arc offices. Have a look down at our previous posts to see her artist statement.

click on photo to see them larger

LISA TRAXLER - APRIL 2010 - "MEMORY VESSELS"

LISA TRAXLER, MEMORY VESSELS

Recycled carrier bags, acrylic, graphite, tape, laser photocopies, stitching.

“The craft of building in medieval times was often viewed as a mysterious, even magical process, in which secret forms of knowledge were used to produce majestic structures. Individual masons used special symbols to ensure that they were paid for the blocks they carved.

Medieval imagery such as the dragon symbolized evil - shown in defeat it represents good over evil. Such images were requested by the monks and bishops who paid the masons to represent the many temptations of the world.

This installation depicts these memories and the temptations of our material world. Obscured and layered images appear and disappear and text etched into the textured coverings echoes our vulnerability.

‘Shopping is the religion that fuels the life in this secular city, the stores like cathedrals drawing the faithful.’

These 'memory vessels' embody fragile artefacts, representing a valuable contribution to the understanding of everyday life and society through material culture.”

The 'Memory Vessels' were first exhibited at The Link Gallery, Winchester as part of the Hyde 900 Exhibition 'Re-Imagining Treasures of Hyde Abbey' alongside artworks by Lisa Traxler at Winchester Cathedral and the City Space Discovery Centre, Spring 2010.

JEANNIE DRIVER - APRIL 2010 - "RISING TIDES OF BUREAUCRACY"

rising tides of bureaucracy

“dedicated to the hundreds of unknowing participants, whose work,

effort and time have helped create the material for this exhibition.”

Jeannie Driver

Jeannie’s socially engaged practice explores issues and experiences common to us all. Her aim is to create situations and catalysts that encourage a re-examination of everyday life issues to raise thought, dialogue and debate.

As a starting point for her work, Jeannie, has always sought a ubiquitous object or action, one that almost everyone will have a pre-existing relationship or experience of. However, although there is a commonality of experience, it also represents a complex range of issues, connections and individual associations. The majority of people have some form of relationship with paper, and paper work; the concept of being swamped, the repetitiveness of work, the visual reference of black type on a white page.

Rising Tides of Bureaucracy is the artist’s response to an ongoing and consuming relationship with paper and paper work. The artist has selected this office for the installation for its architectural merits to play with notions of ‘quantity’ as other artists may explore ‘scale’.

Although shredded paper has a generic quality and reference, each shred with its own unknown history intrigues the artist.

Rising Tides of Bureaucracy is the latest installation by Jeannie Driver that has derived from her experiences as a freelance artist, project manager and consultant. Creating works as a visual response to working as a researcher first began being in 1998 with stack , a work relating to issues of access. In 2007 the artist developed SPIKE IT, a participatory project that located 6ft spike files into seven different offices for workers to impale their waste paper.

Work Play, a solo exhibition by Jeannie Driver in March 2009, included, confidential, a series of three artworks, constructed from notice boards, and shredded documents.

no paper has been ‘wasted’ for the purpose of this installation.

“All shredded paper will be recycled- most probably into toilet rolls (so my recycling agent tells me!) It’s interesting that shredded paper has a new life as a commodity and its value changes.” JD

ARTURO CASCIARO - FEBRUARY 2010 - "INTENTIONALITY"

Arturo Casciaro, artist’s statement:

INTENTIONALITY

“The practice objective remains to eliminate inspiration and develop the concept of intentionality. This is not just aiming at acting deliberately as opposed to accepting serendipity. It is more to do with gaining some understanding of my thoughts, beliefs, desires which operate at a number of levels. Sometimes precise, other times inconsistent, erratic, false, vain, sacred and profane.

The inherent difficulty is that we perceive that we exist in a real world. However thoughts do not rely on reality. We can think of unreal things. The focus being on drawing as the reductive process of capturing a concept down to a minimal number of lines. This is an attempt at elimination of extraneous components, in order to provide maximum focus on the representation of my thoughts.

The process is initiated conceptually by choosing a theme in order to consider the wider concerns relating to the visual representation of signs particularly language. Language is primarily addressed through the written or spoken word.

Language is what makes us human. It defines us and describes our existence. Language enables us to communicate, to express ourselves. Without language there is nothing beyond sensuality and instinct. Without language there is no intellect and therefore no possibility for the effective articulation of thoughts.

Through the appropriation of language, it is possible to address simple and complex themes. Language can be poetic, whereby the representation of the words becomes an entity in itself. Also writing can be a point of departure for visual and other representation.

Representation is critical in order to facilitate communication beyond the confines of my mind and enable socialisation. Without this, the tenuous hold each of us have on reality is dangerously loosened.”

www.arturo-casciaro.com

JANE KILFORD & HABIBUR RAHMAN - DECEMBER 2009 - ARC CHRISTMAS TREES

HABIBAR RAHMAN
JANE KILFORD
JANE KILFORD

click on image to see larger

FRAN RICHARSON - DECEMBER 2009 - "WORLD OF INTERIORS"

The territory between reality and fiction is explored through the construction of imagined interiors that that act as a point of departure for the drawings. Referencing imagery from interiors magazines and historical painting that present idealised domestic interiors the fictional compositions subtly break the conventions of representation. The discordant awkwardness of the perspective, lighting, and composition questions the enigma of appearances, estranging the work from ordinary visual experience so that it slips into an unhomely reflection of the human psyche or the projection of a fleeting emotional state.

The highly finished charcoal drawings are finely rendered using a labour intensive process of layering that carefully distributes deposits of charcoal onto the surface. Tonal value is achieved by controlling the extent to which the texture of the ground shows through the spread of black. In this sense we are presented with the materiality of the surface as much as the image.

HELEN SCALWAY - OCTOBER 2009 - "TEXTILE SHOP, GREEN STREET, NEWHAM E7"

Helen Scalway

Textile Shop, Green Street, Newham E7

2009, digital print on aluminium

Helen Scalway is an artist primarily concerned with research into the visual representation of the experience of the contemporary cosmopolitan city. Her focus is on urban pattern and ornament which codes places and things, fills them with meaning and suffuses them with memory.

She writes: ‘I was looking for communicable structures through which to convey the shifting plenitude of the material and decided to explore the notions of “shop” and “museum”, echoing my research sites, the contemporary textile shops in Green Street, Newham, and the South Asian textile collection at the V&A. This chart was made as a result of my many visits to South Asian textile shops and conversations with proprietors, employees and customers. It’s an attempt to reveal more about the dynamics of the South Asian shop: not just the business dynamics but the imaginative (social, psychological) ones as well.’

CHRIS BALLINGAL - SEPTEMBER 2009 - "ALTERED POEMS"

Image from Facebook

Chris Ballingall

Altered Poems, 2009

Altered Poems is a series of appropriated book pages that have been altered by covering the majority of words in ink. By obscuring all but a few words, the viewer is left to ponder these ambiguous sentences. The arrangement of the words on the page can be veiwed as the middle of a conversation, leaving the viewer to fill in the blanks and create a context for the words that they can see. The position of every untouched word was carefully considered when selecting the structure of each poem.

Chris Ballingall (b.1985) grew up on the Isle of Wight, has since lived in the USA and now resides in Portsmouth where he studied at University of Portsmouth completing his BA in Fine Art. He has recently completed his Fine Art MA.

ANNA CADY - JUNE 2009 - "CONVERSATIONS"

Anna Cady and Louisa Makolski

3 x 3 minute films selected from a body of work made over the past year called Conversations.

Louisa cannot speak orally, she communicates with her eyes. However we do not see the work as a documentary representation of disability; the intention is to have given Louisa a voice whilst at the same time revealing the struggles and rewards of our working practice.

Louisa said she wanted to make work about water. We have been taking pinhole photographs together by water.

The title is Conversations - plural - in that it is not only the conversation we have had whilst making the work but it is also the discourse which has been developing with the viewers during presentations (the first of which was at the ARC crit group). We would welcome your response too.

ADRIAN MUNDY - MARCH 2009 - "3 STEPS TO UNIQUE"

Adrian Mundy - 3 Steps to Unique

Mundy’s work is the result of living with M.E. and agoraphobia for the last 21 years. Over this time his world got smaller and smaller until even the thought of stepping out the front door was scary. Instead he went travelling with his paintings, architectural perspective views. These were painted with numerous numbered shades of grey to form the 3D effect. Within all these paintings there were always paths which you could go travelling down and often with arches or doors to wonder “What is through there?” It is only in reflection that these tight grey paintings were done when his agoraphobia was at its worst and he wanted to escape down these paths.

Then, while doing a sudoku puzzle, he wondered what would happen if he changed the numbers for his numbered pots of grey paint and thus, his technique ‘predetermined randomness’ was born. Following a number of Sudoku paintings he used crossword and wordsearch puzzles and then literature to dictate the position of subjective colours.

Mundy’s latest work (on show at the gASP Gallery) deals with the themes of loneliness and isolation and can be summed up with a notice on his studio wall.

The more I get out,

The more I do,

The more people I meet,

The lonelier I feel.

Only having had a studio for the last 6 months, the experience of having a dedicated space to work and think in has had a huge transforming effect on his work. He started off planning to use experiences from the past, as themes for paintings, but that changed with the studio and instead used his own feelings from the present. The words for some of these latest paintings come from letters and emails sent to him, while with his most recent work he has had the courage to use his own words, knowing that nobody will be able to work out what he has written. A number of these new works only use selective letters, the rest left blank, creating hidden sections of the grid, to create an even more random pattern.

Mundy uses the process of painting as therapy. With virtually no external stimulus or release mechanisms, over the years thoughts and emotions have continually circled his brain like a washing machine on perpetual spin cycle. However, he is slowly learning to express and lock these away in his work and designs emerge almost fully formed with only minimal tweaking in the full scale drawings. The actual process of applying paint to canvas is also very therapeutic as concentration is needed to create the sharp edges, while the negative feelings slowly fade away.

www.adrianmundy.co.uk

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Adrian Mundy - Unique

New paintings based on words written by or about people, places and events connected to an agoraphobic as he emerges into the outside world.

gASP Gallery

Art Space Portsmouth

27 Brougham Road

5th - 21st March

Private View: 6th March 6.30-8.30pm

Viewing by appointment only.

E: eschersapprentice@googlemail.com

Tel: 023 9282 5481

Aspex Gallery (ARC Resource Space)

3rd - 29th March

PATTI GAAL-HOLMES - FEBRUARY 2009 - "DESPITE THE SNOW"

photo from bandcamp.com

PATTI GAAL-HOLMES

despite the snow, March 2009

Three short films which form part of a collaboration with singer/songwriter Emily Barker

despite the snow (2008)

Super 8 & digital transfer, duration: 4 mins 55 secs

winter’s tea (2008

Super 8 & digital transfer, duration: 3 mins 12 secs

silent song (2008)

Super * & digital transfer, duration: 3 mins 15 secs

SALLY TAYLOR - FEBRUARY 2009 - "DRAW BREATH"

SALLY TAYLOR

My paintings and drawings affirm a desire to understand more about human relationships, specifically my own interaction with others. They are equally about forming a balance between formal concerns and the creation of emotional resonance.

While issues, thoughts and feelings, which often evoke memory, personal history, fears and anxieties, are central concerns, it is their exploration through the specific languages of painting and drawing that informs the meaning. In this body of work, I have focused on the recording and mapping social interaction. Through mark-making, I engage with these humanistic themes as intimate / public dialogues are played out on the paper or canvas in an attempt to challenge the validity of language in articulating these aspects of human experience.

The emotional power of the colour red, is entrenched in the content of the work, and is not used as an illustrative or descriptive device. using a wide range of media including felt tips, crayons, biros, marker pens - I have also begun to investigate issues surrounding dialect and its associations. Primitive and 'Outsider Art' have become significant influences as I aim to create work that embraces gesture and impulse in and attempt to achieve images that are raw, painterly and representative of a nervous energy. The intention is to avoid pre-meditation and ideology that could jeopardise the creative process with the 'mouths' used without regard to their potential connotations.

The values of selfhood and authenticity are central to my work, and the intimate relationship between artist and artwork is celebrated in a process that values that dialogical connection, and the revisiting of artworks and engaging with them over time. a desire for this considered relationship extends to the viewer also, in that while the work displays conspicuous references to the human presence, viewers are encouraged to test their own physicality against the work.

"The drawings and paintings ofSally Taylor seem to be in a constant state of urgent communication. She is immersed in a daily studio practice that repeatedly affirms the primacy of the hand drawn mark. Her work is personal and intense. She habitually begins with numerous found blank sheets of paper, which have their own character and history and exert a strong fascination for her. She reworks and assembles them into larger panels, whose seamed and shaped limits present the artist with a suggestive compositional structure upon which she can superimpose her marks. Her insistent and serial process-based practices share some of the characteristics of anyone to endlessly draw and paint. But, for presenting works for exhibition, Taylor positions herself as a creative artist in relation to an 'other' and we, as an audience, are invited to respond. the intensity of her worked surfaces reach out to us i a scream that is both visual and silent, a cry that conveys a profound emotional depth and provides an experience that is consistently powerful."

Jonathan Parsons, arc, Aspex Gallery, 2009

www.sallytaylor.webeden.co.uk

sally-taylor@ntlworld.com

ANDREW MCCONNACH - JANUARY 2009 - "OFFCUTS"

ANDREW MCCONNACH

OFFCUTS

Andrew is an artist with over 19 years of experience who has been exhibiting internationally since 1990.

He produced these relief prints, earlier this year, at the Omega Centre; an open access studio in Portsmouth.

Further prints from this series can be viewed at

Omega Printmakers Print 2008/09

The Parlour, 265 (Old) Fawcett Road, Southsea, PO4 0LB

Exhibition runs until Friday 27 February 2009. Open every Thursday 11am to 4pm Telephone 023 92828148.

Website: andrewmcconnachart.com

a_mcconnach@hotmail.co.uk

SHIRLEY MUNDY & SUE PARASKEVA - DECEMBER 2008 - ARC CHRISTMAS TREES

SHIRLEY MUNDY

BEADED CUBE CHRISTMAS TREE

Shirley’s Cube Christmas Tree is covered in a hand bead woven mesh made up of red silver lined beads in a herringbone pattern. ‘Icicles’ of green beads lie on the top surface and hang down from lower surfaces forming the foliage. Beaded presents sit at the base and an ‘alternative’ fairy sits on the top.

BIOGRAPHY

Shirley has always been involved with creative crafts. Starting with

dressmaking, patchwork and toymaking, Shirley became involved with beading 20 years ago after attending a weekend course. For the last 7 years she has been developing her work, learning how to turn her technical skills into artforms. She has had one of her designs published in a beading magazine and been a finalist in a number of competitions.

Shirley runs a weekly craft group in Southsea and a monthly beading workshop in Bosham, West Sussex. She also runs occasional workshops in residential homes with elderly residents, a number of carers groups and teaches individuals with one-to-one lessons. She is currently the Chairman of the Portsmouth & District Embroiderers' Guild.

Sue Paraskeva, 2008

Sue’s work was selected from an open submission where arc artist members were invited to respond in a creative way to the concept of ‘Christmas Tree’. She has hand made 100 porcelain discs to produce a hanging decoration the size of a small tree.

VERONIQUE MARIA - DECEMBER 2008 - "PROCESS 2 PART 3"

VERONIQUE MARIA

PROCESS 2, PART 3, 2006

Video

I am passionate about relationship; relationship with 'self' and relationship with 'other'. Using earth/clay and body I am exploring how we engage with life, whilst holding and managing the life - death tension of our existence.

It seems to me that when we focus on recollections of the past or fantasize about the future, we distract ourselves from the present, avoid intimacy and therefore life itself.

Through 'process' and 'material', I am looking at ways to be fully engaged with intimate relationship, right now.

NB :- If you are interested in working collaboratively or simply want to give feedback, I would love to hear from you.

www.veroniquemaria.co.uk

BIOGRAPHY

With a background in craft and psychology (BA(Hons) in wood, metal, ceramics and plastics, MA in Applied Psychosynthesis,) Veronique has been a practicing self employed artist since 1994.

During that time she has explored sculpture, earth work, painting, installation, live art and sound. Since 2003 she has been developing dance - drawing techniques using earth/clay and body. She is currently exploring poetry writing and sound bathing with a view to incorporating these into her body movement work.