My City

Task for Time [Space] + the Everyday:

My city:
On a postcard- found, bought or made- please decribe 'your city'.
This could be a real or imagined city, the place you are happiest, a place you cannot stand, the place where you feel most at home. It could be the place you inhabit in cyberspace, the place you desire to be in. It could be your flat. It could be your village.

You could:
Describe it. Or draw it.
Describe your feelings about it.
What is it that makes this city your city?
What is a city?


"Don't be too hasty in trying to find a definition of the town; it's far too big and there's every chance of getting it wrong."
-Georges Perec

City isn't defined by size or population or how urban a place is. That I know- What is isn't. But how can you decide what it is? It could be all of these things as well.

My city is my Dad's back yard, there I spent three months in bare feet, living in the forest and loving the dust.




Dad's back yard.
I have written many postcards from here.
I remember it dry and DUSTY. My place.
Outside. Iced tea. Deer. Cats, lots of cats. Knitting. Writing. Making charcoal. Cooking. Parties. Collecting.
Bare-footed.
This is where I live.
(When I imagine myself away, this is where I go to.)
My city

Studio update 05/12/11

It's strange, but it feels as though now BAS7 has gone, I've finally got myself back. No other obligations or distractions. It's time to be an artist again.







Imaginary landscapes
-Creating a world that I can inhabit.

Working from my criteria of places of signficance- creating new places.
Simple places- a line, a feeling, a colour. But it means all of these things that I've been trying to grasp.

Exhibition: Bridgette Ashton

A show that I've been extradordinarily excited by is Bridgette Ashton at Plymouth Arts Centre- sadly ending today.
I rolled across it by accident this week and am furious with myself that I didn't go to the PV, and then go and see it every day after!
He work is a nostalgic, sensual, obsessive exploration of place and archiving. Exploring defunct places, creating new narratives within them, collecting and getting excited! Everything that I love.
The current show consists of large and small models, framed prints, found items, and zines. It's a fantastic collection that you are welcome to explore and make connections for yourself. You get a real feel for the places that she's describing, and want to know more!

A very exciting show. I will certainly be running back there today before it closes.

04/12/11

There are two things that I can talk about. Place- Specific place- Geographically. Maps, names, specific memories. I can do that and be very literal and tour-guidey... Which might be easier to understand... easier to present to other people...

Or.

I can talk about place in another way; in THE other way. Discuss the criteria of significance, and talk about dampness and the experience of travelling and trying to find places that resonate in the right way. And I think if that's intangible and woolly... Well it just has to be fine. Because I think that's the right thing to do.

Presence of a sea or otherwise; this is the bare bones of it.


Either one or two lines between where I stand, and the sky.

My week in Laugharne

I think keeping a record is important, however you do it. A souvenir that you can keep and use to preserve your memories. And invent new ones, once the old ones have died.




Learning to make books is the most useful thing I've done in ages.

Nebula; Come to Ours

Fringe event: Come to Ours
By Jess Young

Come to Ours is a series of artist-led fringe events and activities, run by and comprising of Neil Rose, Rachel Dobbs, Hannah Jones, Mark James, Chris Green, Bryony Gillard and Beth Richards. There have been six strands of Come to Ours running alongside British Art Show 7; A Circle (Now finished), The Library of Independent Exchange (Now finished, but returning to Plymouth College of Art Viewpoint Gallery in February 2012), Plymouth Aural Survey, Video Takeaway, Would You Like This Badge?, and The Fireplace Gallery. Having spoken with Neil Rose of Come to Ours, the feeling that you get, despite each of these events being very different in content, is of the overriding desire to welcome ‘outsiders’, visitors to BAS7, into our city, and into perhaps the more intimate, friendly face of Plymouth’s art scene; as he put it, to “assist people who don’t know the city, to navigate the city... assist them in achieving those things that they need.” In many ways, from what I gather, the projects are to be viewed as an absolute beginner’s guide to Plymouth; the artists involved are confirming for you the takeaways that it’s okay to eat from, and the pubs that it’s okay to drink in, inviting you into their homes, and telling you a bit about the People of Plymouth.

My own experience of the Come to Ours program is that it offers a much more inviting, less rigid art experience- most of them giving the viewer the opportunity to also become a participant in these art activities, and actually a wholly different experience to that of the British Art Show, and the expectation of viewing art within the typical gallery space.
The Come to Ours activities have been very varied, and have included Performance art, or more accurately art with performative aspects as in A Circle, an independent arts library; L.I.E, and a tongue-in-cheek take on the classic white gallery space, at the Fireplace Gallery where you can view micro-exhibitions every Sunday.

BAS7 may be drawing to a close, but have no fear, if you’re quick you can still experience a lot of what Come to Ours have to offer;
Plymouth Aural Survey can be experienced online at www.PlymouthAuralSurvey.co.uk;
The Library of Independent Exchange is over for now, but will return to Plymouth at PCA Viewpoint Gallery from the beginning of February 2012;
You can catch the Video Takeaway at Ali Baba’s New York Express Mon-Thurs 7pm-close, and at Jakes Fri-Sat 7pm-close right up until December 3rd;
Would You Like This Badge? Will be running until December 4th at The Fortescue, The Seymour Arms, The Nowhere Inn, Ride Café, and B-Bar, though if you do actually want a badge, you’d better get there quick!
And finally, the Fireplace Gallery will still be putting on microcosmic exhibitions until 4th December- Every Sunday from 3-6pm. Contact the Fireplace at Fireplace-gallery@live.co.uk if you would like to visit.
More information can be found on the Come to Ours website at www.CometoOurs.co.uk