About Me

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Liverpool/Sheffield, United Kingdom

Thursday 28 October 2010

Touched at the Tate

Child's play


Nina Conall currently has a series of sculptural installations in the Tate as part of the liverpool Biennial. One piece in particular effected me, but in a way that was completely unexpected. The piece 'Anatomy of the rising tide' consists of a series of long thin glass tubes hanging in a uniformed row, containing water from the Mersy river. The tubes are hung close to  a huge window which looks out on to the Mersy itself. Natural light form the window hits the Glass and is dispersed, causing it to flicker around the room in a very poetic way. For the duration of the time I spent in the room a small child had noticed the dancing light and proceeded to crawl underneath the hanging glass tubes. I found it particularly interesting how the child responded to the piece. She lay there almost hypnotized for about 5 minutes playing cautiously with the flecks of light, attempting to catch them in the palm of her hand. It made wonder what the piece looked like from the point of view of the child and as the security guard looked over in a fond, unconcerned way it also made me extremely envious. Can you imagine the response if I had decided to crawl underneath a piece of Nina Conalls work?!                       

Wednesday 27 October 2010

What makes you anxious?

Waiting for trains
Public speaking
Crowds
Small spaces
Darkness
Unfamiliar social situations
Meeting new people
Intimacy
Being open and honest
Being lost in a busy place
Team activities
Being in lectures
Job interviews
Hairdressers
Awkward silences
Getting on public transport
Airports
Delays
Phone conversations
Taxi journeys
Lack of organization
Long journeys
Questionnaires
Attractive people
Failure
Uncleanness
Doctors
Needles
Talking to unknown people on the phone
looking after other people's pets
Babysitting
Flying alone
The future
Deadlines
Driving fast
Driving on the motorway
Someone else driving
Driving in a low sports car
MRI scans
Caves
Lifts
Heights
My children being ill
Death/illness
Lack of fresh air
Deadlines and timing generally
Conflict
Arguments
Decision making
Scary people (smack heads)
Unfamiliar surroundings and people
Growing old
Having no money
Interviews
Pain
Losing Control
Things I don't understand
Not knowing where my life is going.
Thinking of my parents.
Being alone.
Sometimes going on a night out.
Waiting to get on a roller coaster
University
Spiders
Crossing roads
Illness
The shower curtain
Girls
Being around people I don’t know
Exams
Being late
Checking my bank balance,
Results
Cotton wool.
Outer space
Not being somewhere when I should have been
Letting people down
Money
Deep water
Disappointing people
Spiders
Small spaces
Beautiful people

Wednesday 20 October 2010

Irrational thought process

 
A short experimental film that I am currently working on. Exploring the anxious mind and the feeling of complete loss of control.

Andy Holden performance

"We sat together the mountain and I until only the mountain remained...."

http://www.andyholdenartist.com/musicelsewhere/

Wednesday 6 October 2010

Sachiko Abe


Sachiko Abe’s endurance, performance absolutely blew me away. On entering the huge silent warehouse the first two things I noticed were the train of shredded paper trailing from the ceiling from the centre of the room like a drape of lace, and the repetitive sound of cutting paper. The train tapered out and flowed in a line towards the back of the room like a trail of salt. It flowed up the outer wall of a small building within the huge warehouse and in to the arms of a very beautiful Japanese woman wearing a very crisp white dress and shawl (Sachiko Abe.) It became apparent that the repetitive sound was coming from a microphone attached to the pair of scissors she was holding and that the trail of paper had emerged and was accumulating as she cut slithers off plain white sheets of A4. She sat cutting and rotating the paper in an almost trance like state. After being in the room for a good 10 minuets a crowd of noisy school children entered the space completely disrupting the silence. Abe became extremely agitated raised her index finger to her lips and gestured for silence. When her audience failed to notice her attempt she stopped cutting the paper she closed her eyes and folded her arms in a shockingly authoritive manner, boycotting her own performance. She only stared cutting again once the school children had left the room and the room was silent.