Stick Up: How to Collaborate

Anna-Bethan from ve strata on Vimeo.

For the next 6 weeks the Stick Up exhibition is on display at AirSpace Gallery, which is part of Stoke-on-Trent's BCB.
I had the pleasure of collaborating with Bethan Lloyd Worthington, an artist who works with drawing and porcelain and who is based at Manifold studios in London.
The project was challenging, and infinitely enjoyable. I am really pleased with what we did. We kept a blog, which documents the entire process here: http://stokestickup.blogspot.com/

Duke Of Cornwall: The Chambermaid

I have been invited by Plymouth based Platform P to resurrect the Chambermaid - for their art extravaganza weekend, due to coincide with the British Art Show in November. I am really pleased to be involved and am putting out a call for miniature artist's multiples for the Chambermaids trolley. The Chamber maid was first performed at Trajector Art Fair Brussels earlier this year, and was part of the Motel Kandinski project.
Here is the call below:
Title: The Chambermaid at the Duke of Cornwall Hotel

What: Small works and multiples responding to the idea of the Hotel.

Anna Francis will be taking a miniature gallery (housed on a hotel hospitality trolley) to the ‘Platform P’ weekend takeover at the historic Duke of Cornwall Hotel. This event is a British Art Show Fringe event. Anna will be representing the selected artists, acting as curator, and Chambermaid simultaneously.

To Apply: If you would like Anna to represent you at the event, then simply send in a proposal for your miniature art work/multiples responding to the theme of The Hotel. The item(s) should be no bigger than an ordinary sized match box. The items will be for sale and the artists will receive 60% of any sales made.

You may like to consider Hotel memorabilia, ie. miniature sewing kits, toiletries and other holiday survival items.

Proposal: no longer than 100 words to explain your approach and response idea.

An image/sketch of your proposed item(s).

Up to 3 images of previous works.

A 250 word statement about your practice (for purposes of representation and publicity at the event.)

Blog or Website addresses.

Closing Date for Applications: Monday, 17^th October 2011

Artworks to be delivered by post/in person by Monday, 24^th October 2011

Email: deadromanceboxes@yahoo.co.uk with applications or for more info/postal addresses etc.

Go to the Platform P Facebook Page for more info: https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100002767921582

Wirksworth Festival Window

I have been invited by David Bethell, who is curating a programme of window displays for the Wirksworth Festival, to do a window. The reason he asked me is that he wants works which are site specific - or which fit the specific location of a small town high street. He was particularly thinking about the works that I have done along the lines of SHOP INDEPENDENT.I thought this was quite interesting, especially when he told me that in Wirksworth only one shop IS NOT independent, and that is the Spar. All other shops are independent, which is incredibly rare these days.
This got me thinking about how far we have come in the last 50 years in most high streets, moving away from Independence and difference, with high streets becoming more homogenised. This creep is something that we are now very aware of, but it happened almost without most of the general public's awareness.
If we continue down this route we will become a nation where there is only one big shop. High streets may no longer exist at all - we may have no choice but to shop in the big corporations. I love the fact that Wirksworth is full of Independent shops - but it is certainly something which should be hailed and celebrated.We went across to Wirksworth on Monday to have a look at the available windows and to see if there would be one suitable for my idea. I had imagined that we would all be using empty shops - as many of the Shop projects I have been involved in recently have utilised these empty spaces. Actually Wirksworth high street doesn't have many empty shops - in comparison to other places - and we will actually be using the windows of existing businesses. I was a bit worried by this, as some shopkeepers might think my piece is negative - and might not want something like this in their window. My approach for Wirksworth will be to create a possible - anti-independent store of the future. As a warning to Shop Independent and to keep supporting local shops I am going to create the BLAND Brand - a non-independent monopoly, which is the future of retail if the previous 50 years is anything to go by. The Bland brand will see everything available for sale in cans - nothing fresh or exotic. Everything from Bread, to beans to soap in a can.
No choice, No colour, No difference, No independence.
BLAND.
The chosen site for the piece is part of (but across the alley from) Ken's Mini Market - the chosen window is on the high street but is not the frontage of the business - which is good. Also it was unmanned - and is where the mini market shows the DVD collection which customers can borrow. A DVD shop is very different to my chosen shop type - so I think this could work.
I will be including a QR code on the window and on all of the items for sale in my shop window, this will announce: Buyer Beware - Shop Independent.

This is the making process for the Bland Shop at the Wirksworth Festival:

And this is the installation image of the finished shop window.

Through A Glass Lightly

This summer has been a full on one in terms of making art. As well as project managing the Kiss Me Quick show for Margate, and making a significant new piece of work for it, as well as doing a residency at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, Manchester, I was also invited to be in an exciting show, due to take place at the GoCart Gallery in Visby, Sweden later this month.
I was invited by Harrington Mill Studios, who as well as representing some of their studio artists, have invited some of the artists that they have worked with over the past few years. I did a two month residency in the studios back in the summer of 2008 (SEE THE WLTM BLOG HERE) - so I was delighted to have been asked.
The show title 'Through A Glass Lightly' references the Ingmar Bergman film 'Through A Glass Darkly' which tells the story of a young woman struggling with schizophrenia, and her relationships with the 3 men in her life. The film is a dark tale of confusion, and sexual tension and was my first point of call for researching an approach to the show.
Artist David Manley who is curating the show together gave this advice when considering new works for the show: " To give you a flavour of the concept think introspection, doubt, drawing, as possible themes."
I finished my residency at the Burlington at the same time as I was thinking about making the work for this show - and in my conversations with Tracey Eastham (my co-residency artist) one sentence had stuck out for me - and had become a page for the zine we made.In our conversations we talked about the doubts which accompany us at the beginning of a residency - and I think in all aspects of our artistic endeavours. The amount that an artist invests in their work - and the difficulty in separating emotion from artistic activity mean that we can feel very exposed and vulnerable. I was glad to be able to explore these ideas further by making two new text drawings from the same phrase. These A1 text drawings, made with graphite powder, take around 12 hours to complete each, and therefore offer a period of reflection while working. Something which I am coming to enjoy, as much of my work is public, quick, responsive and involves conversation with others. Finding a new thread which involves solitary time in the studio is proving to be very rewarding, and I am really pleased with the results. Although I like the computer generated white text on black background texts - which I have been making for over 4 years now - I think the handwritten nature of these new text drawings is very different to the graphic ones. I enjoyed making a pair of works - and felt that the change in nuance of the two texts refelcts the theme of the show well - I imagined the idea of looking into a mirror, where everything is almost exactly the same - but also opposite.
The GoCart show will be on from 23rd August until 6th September. I am not able to attend - but will look forward to seeing the documentation.

The Burlington Paper Cocktail Night

On Thursday, 14th July The Burlington Paper Cocktail Bar opened, from 6 til 10pm. Serving the 6 evaluative cocktails which had been developed through the week long residency. This saw me visiting Manchester International Festival events, armed with my 12 evaluation criteria which were developed from: MIF mission statement (4 criteria), Burlington Fine Arts Club ethos (4 criteria) and my own personal ideas of what makes a good art event (4 criteria) see this post for the criteria.
There was a lot to do to get the bar set up.
I decided to set up on the other side of the Reception table, as this would mean I was very close to the glasses shelf, and would be able to stick to Burlington methods of asking each member to choose their own glass.I displayed the names of the cocktails, and also the menu on the bar and got changed into my uniform.
The cocktail sign looked fantastic and along with the luscious pleating, they really set the bar off, no one would guess it was two plinths and a drawing board!
I had just enough time before opening to make one of each cocktail to have on display on the bar, so the members could see what they would be getting, and this also acted as a prompt for conversation.
The cocktails were:
Number One: The Burlington, which ended up containing: blue curacao, vodka, Orange juice, soda water, a strawberry, and a fruit paper lantern.Next on the menu was Audio Obscura, which was very popular with the Burlington members, and sold out second after Projection. Audio Obscura contained: vodka, gin, elderflower, ginger beer, a maraschino cherry, a fizzy straw and a red paper umbrella.I was glad that this one was so popular and also that it included a few elements which bombarded the senses (even if here it was the tastebuds, rather than the earbuds.) Next was 11 rooms after the Live Art event at the Manchester City Art Gallery.This one contained vodka, gin, orange juice, grenadine (mixed in) and a squeeze and slice of lime. This one was served with a straw - and was disappointing - which matched my feeling about the piece, (see previous post for reasons why.) Then there was The Architect, which refers to the MIF Architecture which I took. I actually really enjoyed this tour, and as tours feature quite prominently within my practice it was interesting to see how 'a professional' tour guide would approach it.The Architect for me should be sophisticated, but simple - and so the choice of small European cup for display glass was important. The ingredients were: vodka, orange juice, soda water and a dash of grenadine, left to nestle at the bottom of the glass in the style of a tequila sunrise - classic!
Next up - the most popular cocktail of the evening - Projection - I am told that this one was 'really strong' but I know that it had the same amount of alcohol as the others. In fact the least popular was The Architect, which lots of people didn't want - because on the list there was only one alcoholic ingredient - however, I put in a double shot to make up for it!Projection contained: rum, vodka, elderflower cordial and lemonade, with mint and a pineapple shaped paper lantern. Very smooth - and very popular.
Finally the sixth cocktail of the Burlington Paper Cocktail night was Constellation. This one looked and tasted very fresh, containing vodka, gin, elderflower and cucumber. Constellations was not an official MIF show, but was an exhibition at the Cornerhouse curated by a Burlington member - Karen Gaskill. This was a wonderful show - in particular a piece by Katie Paterson called Earth-Moon-Earth, which saw Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata beamed onto the surface of the moon, the reflected notes were collected - but some were lost in the dark parts of the moon, and so didn't make it. The remaining notes are played by a self-playing grand piano, wonderful!
I enjoyed making the cocktails, and was amazed that some people didn't realise that I was not a real cocktail maker. One person, who I met earlier in the week, asked me - 'has the artist employed you to make these cocktails for her' so he didn't recognise me at first. I had to explain to a few people that this was not a real bar, but an artwork. And that they were drinking my art pieces. The idea here was for me to have a chance to talk to the Burlington members about their own ideas, thoughts and experiences of the MIF, but at times I was so busy (at one point a queue for cocktails went right down the middle of the large Burlington Club Floor) and at these moments I think I really became a Cocktail Maker, rather than an artist. At other points it worked very well and I was able to discuss my experiences, and test the feelings of the members.
It showed that many Manchester based artists and members of The Burlington had not been to any MIF events, despite there being quite a few that are free. Reasons given were, too busy, not relevant, not interested, too expensive, intending to go later on...
Also it seemed to be a recurring feeling that MIF is not for Manchester based artists - and is more about bringing people in - some said they felt that the MIF does not represent Manchester based artists, but that it is not a bad thing for the city.
If I were to do something about this again I think I would be more relaxed about it. I did try to take my time in making the cocktails in order to talk to people properly, but this is something I could have taken further. Perhaps if I had had a booth, which people could come into one by one - which would isolate me and them, and give me a chance to talk to them properly, that would have been better? Although this would have taken away from the 'atmospheric bar' feeling. There were times during the evening when people hung out at the bar chatting to me while I made cocktails for others - they would watch and comment on the ingredients and the shows that the cocktails referred to, and in this way it worked very well. The other idea may have been to employ a barman to make the cocktails and provide table service. This would have been a good idea for the Burlington, as the idea is for groups to sit at tables and chat - as the Burlington Cocktail Bar became the focus these groups were somewhat broken up - as people queued for cocktails. If I had waited on the tables this would not have happened, and I could have joined the tables and instigated conversation around the MIF around the room.My Collaborator at the Burlington Tracey Eastham had shown her collages on the posts and window of the Burlington. Unfortunately I did not get a chance to find out how Tracey had found the opening, as it was so busy, but I will definitely be back to see Tracey again and ask her how the residency was for her. I know that she did enjoy a few of the cocktails - and smapled the one that we had created together at the Cornerhouse.
The Burlington will close this coming Saturday (I can't believe it has been a month already) and myself and Glen Stoker will be back in Manchester for the closing event with this months 'There is Beauty in the City' outing. We hope to talk to the members of The Burlington about which bits of Manchester they find the most beautiful, we will be creating a map of Beauty. Looking forward to celebrating the successes of the Burlington then.

Last minute things: Cocktail Ingredients and signs

So tomorrow will see the opening and results of my residency at The Burlington Fine Arts Club Manchester.
I now have my cocktail ingredients shopping list, a sign, a bar, and a uniform, and the zine is being printed overnight.
Tomorrow will be installing, and buying alcohol, and then the opening from 6 - 9pm.
I am quite excited, and looking forward to testing out my cocktail making skills.
See you there!

Time at the Burlington runs by: things come together

Today at the Burlington was spent creating and collating the information gathered so far. Writing lists for things I need for Thursday's opening, and finishing off the zine pages, which need to go to Liz by tonight in order to be printed tomorrow morning.
Tracey and I have decided to do half and half of the zine, in the way that there are two beginnings, and no endings.
I am quite pleased with what I have done so far. Just need to do one before bed tonight.
I don't want to ruin the surprise for anyone who wants to come along for the cocktails on Thursday, so I will only post my front cover here...exciting. The BPC (Burlington Paper Cocktail) refers to my project - making evaluative cocktails for the MIF and periphery events, and Tracey's MIF collages (we like to think that a collage is a paper cocktail.)
At Thursday's opening (14th July - 6 - 9pm) the zine will be available for sale (very cheap price!) or to swap - in order to create a temporary Burlington Zine Library over the course of time that the Burlington remains open. Also, visitors will be able to sample my special Burlington cocktails.