Tabernacle Gallery
34-35 Powis Square, London W11 2AY
“The Chaos of Memories”
17th to 22nd January 2012

Private View: Tuesday 17th January 6-10pm

“Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector’s passion borders on the chaos of memories.”- Walter Benjamin

A group show by four painters: Christina Christova, Bruno Deroulede, Fiona Long and David Stockley, all graduates of Wimbledon College of Art. As collectors of images: real, imagined and combinations of the two, these artists explore ways to work with the interface or
intersection where the immateriality of the memory of these images meets the inexorable materiality of their medium - oil paint.

Christina Christova’s work is a voyeuristic intrusion into the fantasy and secret desires. Dreams, memories, (tangible or deceptive), together with mood and colour, are triggers for the world she creates, one of ambiguity and escapism, fantasy and delusion – an alternate reality.
http://www.inachristova.com

Bruno Deroulede explores identity and isolation in our image-driven culture. He paints portraits of individuals or groups, often using clothing to illustrate the complex relationship between the self and its social identity, and photography as a symbol of the public gaze. His figures in their ‘unique uniforms’ strive to exist but evolve in a world where the need to be recognized as an individual collides with the need to belong.
http://www.deroulede.com

Fiona Long’s “Urban Portraits” are a multi-faceted exploration of how it feels to live in the city. These chaotic and sometimes vertiginous images investigate the fast-paced lives we lead both visually and almost viscerally. An archaeological approach to painting shows the contrasts of the impact that both people and nature have on the manmade structures we are surrounded by. The wabi-sabi aesthetic of the beauty of transience is sought, to interpret ever-changing urban landscape. A fascination with material is coupled with areas of representation using personal street photography and collages from free London newspapers as source material.
http://www.fionalongart.co.uk

David Stockley’s paintings question the nature of the psychological states that may arise in individuals as they inhabit public spaces – often places of transit, non-places. They can represent juxtapositions that may never have been present – he is interested by the way that such juxtapositions may be a metaphor for the contingency of relationships between people.

The paintings may also question perceptions of the permanence of physical structures and assumptions about the environmental status quo.
http://www.davidstockley.com

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Anyway, the reason I was there is that members of POST Artists were invited by the Mobile Institute to go and stay at Littoral’s Cylinders Estate, home of the famous Kurt Schwitters Merz Barn. The aim of the residency or “Place Exploration” was to investigate our notions of place through a series of workshops and exercises run by the Mobile Institute. I loved exploring the Cylinders estate in such an in-depth way and thinking about a place that isn’t London for a change. It made my soul smile to get into such sublime beauty, climb mountains, watch dawn, cook and eat together, and to spontaneously make stuff. Just brilliant! My favourite exercise was a group object relations sculpture game which could have quite happily done all day, and when we made out own interventions on the estate. Mine was a contemplation chair. I had found a stone which I considered the perfect contemplation spot during an earlier workshop, however, it invites you to come and sit on it and dangle your legs over the edge giving a rather unremarkable view. Looking in another direction, there is a stunning view so I had already started wondering what the perfect contemplation spot would be. Placing the chair at this angle allowed both comfort and the beautiful view but the nasty plastic chair sits somewhat uncomfortably with the natural surroundings and feels like cheating. I weighed it down with a rather ominous looking rusty iron hoop and chain on the back and a new plastic rope with a log tied to the other. On the one hand, this was just the simplest way of doing something practical. I like the elegance of practicality. On the other hand, it added a new level of narrative (possibly too much!) and was, to me at least, another humorous measure.

On the last day, we made collages from a single local newspaper. I had so much fun making the demonry (a rather surreal combining of mismatched pictures and headlines) that my Dad taught me to do when I was little. I enjoyed engaging the same kind of humour I used for the Contemplation Chair, albeit in a very short space of time. People laughed when they saw the collage too rather that the uncomfortable glances that I had made some sort of torture device. I enjoyed the limitation of it coming from one publication. I am about to embark on a series of city portraits with a collaged feel so the idea of making at least one per day from free London newspapers appeals to me. It was a thoroughly inspiring trip, and this is one of the more obvious immediate results from it. I look forward to finding out how it continues to affect my practice later. It seems appropriate that I recapture my love of surreal collage whist at the Merz Barn!

Many thanks to Littoral for hosting us and to the Mobile Institute for such a rewarding programme.

I was excited to receive an email a couple of weeks ago informing me that I was a finalist in the Eco-warriors photography exhibition a the National Centre for Craft and Design. An hour later, I was told I had won! My photograph had been exhibited for a few weeks and members of the public had been voting on their favourites. It was only when I was sent my print that I found out which image had been on display. And here it is. The colours are not enhanced, it was just a really sunny day on the River Wandle. I have a few photographs of this scene, as more and more tyres built up in this bottle neck.

A group art exhibition at the Merton Priory archaeological site,
Colliers Wood, London: 8, 9 and 15, 16 October 2011

The Chapter House ruins, once part of the massive and historically important Merton Priory (destroyed by Henry VIII), are the site of an exhibition of contemporary art during the first Merton Arts Trail this October.

Curators Sue Evans and Wendy Bliss have chosen ten recent graduates, mainly from Wimbledon College of Art, who will be showing work made in response to the heritage site. Steeped in history, the many artifacts found during various excavations of the Chapter House over time, have been catalogued and stored in the archives of the Museum of London. Some of these will be on display during the exhibition, being aired for the first time in many years, as the artists have chosen one or more to support their artwork installations.

Participating artists are Robert Aldous, Jane Bailey, Wendy Bliss, Sue Evans, Maxwell Flood, Fiona Leighton-Crawford, Fiona Long, Helen Newhouse, Maxine Pringle and Chris Rowe.

Marcus Beale Architects, designers of the Wimbledon College of Art Reception and Gallery space, have sponsored this exhibition, and are delighted to be supporting the project alongside the Museum of London.

The exhibition is free and open to the public from 11 am – 5 pm during the Merton Arts Trail weekends. http://www.mertonartstrail.org.uk

My talented friend, Theresa Bruno is curating a show next year and has invited me to be a part of it. I can’t wait!

She loved my “Customer Fulfilment Centre” photo and has asked me to put that and other related pieces into the exhibition. Here is what she wrote about it: “Long captures and edits everyday intimate moments within urban life producing gimmicks which discuss far more complex issues beyond the surface. In ‘Customer Fulfilment Centre’ the comical photograph depicts a discarded box which becomes a symbolic representation of capitalist greed prioritising profit over ethical customer care. Beyond the humour lays a deeper complexity which mimics postmodernism’s ironic tones.”

I needed a good photographic print and it was at around this time that I heard about canvasdezign.co.uk Of course, as a painter, I would never normally consider having a canvas printed as I love the tactility of paint and painting. I felt that it was ideal for the concept of this piece though and the level of labour involved suited the piece. I’m now wondering whether to frame it in a handmade cardboard moulding or some lavish gold-leafed affair.

I got a 40″ x 30″ print and the print quality is really good. The stretcher bars are light and well made and it has been stapled extremely neatly with even edges. The canvas is neatly trimmed and taped at the back too. I was impressed with the attention to detail. These are the sorts of things that artists worry about. I had a choice of colour effects and went for full colour and chose not to have the image wrap around the edge as I am planning to frame it. If you ever feel like getting a canvas printed, I’d thoroughly recommend Canvas Design.

In case you’re wondering, this image is the canvas being peeled out of the bag I moved it in…

On Friday night, I was supposed to be at a Private View for a show that I was in, 1.3 Miles from Centre Court. I didn’t go, and in fact none of us did, because the gallery manager ran off with our money leaving the gallery padlocked. Not just ours, but several other artists with shows booked before and after us were left in the lurch with other complications like transportation fees, flights, booked bands etc. We came off relatively unscathed! We all decided to meet up and lick our paws at the jotta exhibition 810 Senses where we saw a great show in beautiful surroundings with free flowing wine and some canapes designed to attack the senses such as raspberry chicken satay, tomatoes in caramel with salt crystals, and smoked salmon eclairs with herb icing. It was a lovely evening, in spite of the change of plan! We will put the show on at a different venue at a later date instead. Watch this space.

On Saturday, I met one of my dearest old uni-friends from when I studied Psychology at Cardiff and we went to the spectacular Phyllida Barlow exhibition at Hauser and Wirth I love her! I would recommend this show to absolutely everyone but to anyone interested in sculpture, site responsive work or architecture, you simply have to go!

Then on Sunday morning, I was lucky enough to get a sneak peak of Westfield Stratford (the largest shopping centre in Europe) just a couple of days before it opens. There was a real buzz of excitement during the last minute preparations. I love to experience spaces in transition and to see things I’m not really supposed to see…

I then zipped off to Exchange Project Space where I curated POST Artist’s recent show “Broken Telephone” (photos to follow) to collect my work and to go to a symposium on entitled Ordinary Language which consisted of a series of performative actions that explored language in general life and within some specific art practices, a talk on rhetoric in contemporary performance art from artist writer David Howells, and a video interview with Oriana Fox. I have to mention lunch which included wonderful allotment grown produce and the best carrot and coriander soup I’ve ever tasted.

Having done all this running around, I was completely behind with checking my emails and discovered that I’d been invited to attend a photography exhibition at the National Centre for Craft and Design, to be presented with an award because I’d won their Eco-Warriors Photography Competition! So that’s another thing I missed on Friday. It’s just been pointed out to me that now, I can say that I’m a multi-award winning photographer! I think I need to enter some painting and sculpture competitions now…

POST Artists have kindly been invited to take part in the Exchange Project in Hackney Wick in conjunction with the education and community programme of the Hackney Wicked festival.

POST Artists will be showcasing the results of their collaborative practice to the local residents and artists of Hackney Wick to highlight this rewarding means of making work. They will meet the artist in residence at the “Exchange” space on Saturday 27th August when they will continue a collaborative exchange which began with four members going to Athens last year and meeting with collaborative art group OgreAttend. Documentation of the show will be sent back to Athens for the next leg of this collaborative fractal.

The overriding theme of the show is that of “Broken Telephone” a Greek term with a similar meaning to “Chinese Whispers”. With each stage of the collaboration, the message metamorphoses and the journey continues… So far we have covered Byron, death, concrete, geometry, the Atrocity Exhibition, fetishisation of celebrity, triangles, buried hearts and oversized brains. Where will this take us next?

Private view 1st Sept. 7 till 9
Exchange Project Space, Unit 14, Queens Yard, White Post Lane, Hackney Wick, E9 5EN
(almost opposite Elevator Gallery)

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Some paintings from my latest series. I am often intrigued by the collections of objects I encounter in the street, placed unconsciously or accidentally in what could have been a formal arrangement. If placed in a different context like a gallery, how would they be perceived differently? By painting these banal collections, I hope to highlight the way that people perceive the arrangements of objects that surround them. These collections are painted rather than literally re-displayed in order to humorously elevate them through the sheer laborious attention they’ve already been paid. It also questions the history of still life painting, street art, and the “found object” in sculpture.

I’ve been preoccupied with the everyday lately, in fact, every day for several years. I like to find humour and wonder in overlooked and unexpected places. By finding something magical in something seemingly banal, the world at least appears to be a better place, and feels it too. I’m even reading a collection of texts on the everyday in contemporary art at the moment, and find studying the quotidian in theoretical and philosophical detail most amusing.

I also amused myself no end taking this photo. My colleagues in that particularly mundane job wondered what on earth I was giggling about, but to me this collection of plastic carrier bags and cardboard boxes, especially the one bearing the claim “Customer Fulfilment Centre” was a challenge. What could possibly be in that box to be the centre of all customer fulfilment? Perhaps it contains an elixir of life or a phoenix’s tail feather?

Anyway, having initially been laughed at for the photo, I entered it into the Lifestyle category of the Bar Tur photography award regardless and, blow me down, it was shortlisted! It seems that it wasn’t only me laughing after all!