13th January 2013

Saw the exhibition Film in Space today. Another excellent show at Camden Arts Centre. This time about the moving image, or more specifically about exporing the tactile and experimental possibilities of analogue film. Curated by artist/film maker Guy Sherwin, the show draws from 'expanded cinema' work made in the 70s and recent work, some of which also includes digital media. There is a lot to digest and it is not possible to do it at one sitting as some of the exhibits will have changed three times by the time the show finishes at the end of February.

Was interesting to see work by artists like Annabel Nicolson, steeped in the hand-made innovative performance aspects of experimental film from the 70s, rubbing shoulders with current work by artists like Simon Payne who's site specific piece projected exactly proportioned coloured light onto the window panes in a window alcove.

My favourite room (gallery 3) showed modern films, concerned with light, colour, shape and movement, including a new work by Guy Sherwin: a small painting of simple rectangular shapes that continuously change when coloured light is projected on to the canvas, Emma Hart's piece for which light is projected through an automatic venetian blind creating shadows and reflections on the adjacent wall and Simon Payne's work, mentioned above and shown below.

Mariko Mori

Enjoyed the Mariko Mori exhibition at the Royal Academy in their 'new space for art and architecture' in Burlington Gardens.  It is full of optimism and embraces simplicity, clarity and connections.

It occurred to me as we walked through the familiar surroundings of what used to be the British Museum's Museum of Mankind, that I had not been there since I saw the 'Skeleton at the Feast' exhibition, about the Mexican Day of the Dead, in 1992. The building has not changed at all (although I understand that it is being refurbished and overhauled in a couple of years time).

This is the first paying exhibition based on the work of a female artist that the Royal Academy has staged since the Tamara Lempika exhibition of 2004. This link will take you to a list of past RA exhibitions: women's art work has usually been shown in the free areas like the cafe gallery and the friends' rooms.  This omission has bothered me for some time (not that I am suggesting there is anything wrong with viewing great art work free of charge).  Perhaps this excellent exhibition marks the beginning of a more balanced view from the Royal Academy.  (Disappointed there wasn't a catalogue for the exhibition though - although I was offered a very big book about women artists!)

6th January 2013

Loved Christmas but it is great to be back in my studio again.  I have finished my book project and  have 366 little books waiting politely for me to animate them; we need a rest from each other (the books and I) and I am delighted to be taking some time to make some paintings on canvas.  I am making paintings based on the wonder tale illustrations I made at the end of my MA.  

Here is one of my recent paintings. It is from the story 'Bearskin', a fairytale attributed to Henriette-Julie de Murat.  In the picture a princess is dressing in bearskins to escape from her rhinoceros husband.

I am pleased that I'll be going to Bologna Children's Book Fair in March and some of my work will be on show on the Cambridge School of Art stand.  I'm working very hard in the evenings to put work together for this.

Also excited about the teaching projects I am planning for later in the year, some with Rhapsode and some with other Fenners artists.