Tag: Feature

Live with It Preview at Mura Ma Art Space, Marple

Lovely preview event this evening at Mura Ma. It was wonderful to view the results of the unseen installation performance! The premise definitely gave the space a very different atmosphere.

Jane and Nan on curating and developing ideas for the show:

“Jane and I wanted to explore ideas around creative and artistic practice in the home and questioning who gets to be the curator. We believe that anyone who creates an environment, however small, be it a shelf, a studio flat, shelter or a house does so with their own artistic, aesthetic, and cultural sensitivities. Reading Shaun McNiff’s book, Trust the Process in the early days of my own practice, helped me tune into this idea that domestic space, arrangements, physical activities around the home, each offers insights into our unique expression as humans.

“Collecting objects is associated with building meaning into our lives and the things around us are vessels for memory. The way we display those objects is vital to our creating a world in which we feel safe and sheltered from the outside world and in that becomes an expression of our inner world.”

“Rethinking, re-imagining the gallery space as a place not only to experience artworks but to participate in this mise en scene as actors performing their roles. As a modern gallery we want to show people that art offers a multi-dimensional value to life, whether that is art, or a handmade item or even something given to us with all that embedded meaning and memory. It is about creatively constructing our own reality and bring together objects that help us to create that world, express who we are and to act as memory holders.”

Nan Collantine

“It seems a simple act to place my work in an empty space but there is something profound and quite daunting in the act of choosing, as the first actor on the stage setting in motion the scene for what is to follow.

In activating the space within a freeform concept lays the foundation for an unknown structure and that is exhilarating. Like a seed whose DNA has been scrambled and knows not what it will become but knows that from its germination something new and wonderful will bloom.

I’m excited to play my part at the start of the construction of a stage setting to which each artist will bring their own flavour and when the viewers arrive to take their part the mise en scene will be complete.”

Jane Fairhurst

You can find information on the exhibiting artists here.

The show is open until 21st October and the space will host an accompanying programme of events and activities. These sessions will investigate home as a place of creative endeavour, observe and discuss the practice of collecting and arranging, and explore how domestic labour and caring can be reframed as valuable creative capital.

The exhibition will also evolve as art and all objects in the exhibition are available to buy and be taken away (as in a shop). Sold items will be replenished on a weekly basis and different artists will be invited to place work within the installation, so no two viewings will ever be the same!

Upcoming show: Live with It at Mura Ma, Marple

Delighted to share news that I will be participating in Live with It (an artist-activated home environment):

“Somewhere between an expanded still life and a stage set – an invitation to participate in an imagined occupancy. Mise-en-scene.”

“A lived-in house is animated by assorted daylight practicalities: the tasks and furnishings associated with eating, cleaning, sleeping, revolving arrangements of domestic clutter; the comings and goings of friends, lovers, children, and relatives; or the intricate rituals of the solitary dweller.”

Co-curated by Jane Fairhurst and Nan Collantine, this exhibition will give way to an interior space furnished and inhabited with items made and found by thirty artists.

Jane Fairhurst and Kat Button will be activating the space with soft sculptures. There will also be items that carve up the space to create inner rooms and furniture pieces to denote the uses for each space. From these, the installation will be built in the gallery from the artworks and objects brought in by the artists.  Both artworks and objects will be available to buy from 2nd September – 21st October 2023.

The artists’ home is “a boundary between the world at large and the private centre, as a container of the everyday, and as an activated environment”.

Upcoming event: Tees Show

Exciting news to share… I have been invited to take part in Tees at Rogue Studios; an exhibition exploring the t-shirt as art form. Taking ‘Article 19’ as its point of reference, the show poses the question: “Protest / Self-expression, what is the difference?”. It will feature work by Sir Peter Blake, Jeremy Deller, David Shrigley, Bob and Roberta Smith and artists from Rogue, Paradise Works, Suite (my studios), Bankley, AWOL, Islington Mill and beyond.

The preview is due to take place on 30th September 2023 from 2-5pm (to coincide with an open studios event). You can catch the show until 31st October 2023 (opening times are between 12-4pm on Saturdays or by appointment.

The exhibition is curated by Mike Chavez-Dawson and assisted by; Jamie Kirk, Grecia Balassone, Vincent Patterson, Maggie Stick and John Paul Brown.

Out of the Box book launch today!

Out of the Box: A Celebration of Contemporary Box Art is available to purchase from today! How happy does Tom look in this picture?!

You can order a copy from your local bookshop or purchase from many online retailers (such as Amazon, Waterstones, WHSmith and Telegraph Books). If you fancy a sneak peek at some of what’s in store then please take a look at 8 Books and Yatzer‘s websites.

Séminaire annuel des Jeudis du genre feature

Proud to have been asked to provide artwork for the 2022-2023 “Gender Thursdays” seminars at Université Tolouse Jean Jaurès. Very exciting that a piece concerned with addressing how one is defined is being used for seminars reflecting on the constructions, manipulations and subversions of gender and/or sexual assignment in literature, history, arts and culture.

Upcoming book publication “Out of the Box: A Celebration of Contemporary Box Art”

I am thrilled to share news of my participation in a new title being released on 29th September by 8 Books and distributed by Thames and Hudson Ltd.

“Out of the Box” is built on a decade of research, curation and documentation of box art exhibitions by Tom Buchanan and includes written contribution from Sarah Lea (curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, London).

Press release:

“A fascinating journey into a labyrinthine world, this is an inclusive, in-depth compendium of artists’ imaginations from very different walks of life.” Gavin Turk

From Duchamp’s Kunstkammer to the avian works of Joseph Cornell, box art re-invents the ordinary and stimulates an endless journey of discovery, both of the self and of the world around us. Out of the Box celebrates objects, assemblage, and the lost art of collecting in an increasingly digital world.

This fascinating compendium features more than 100 creatives from 21 different countries—not only professional artists, but also those living and working outside the mainstream. Showcasing over 500 works, the book encapsulates diversity by way of a practice that refuses to be categorized: it is fine art and design, decorative and serious, artefact and artifice captured in miniature.

The very accessibility of box art, touching all aspects of our lives and our daily rituals of rationalizing and organizing, elicits an empathetic response. We live, arrange, watch, and rest in death in boxes, and this extraordinary book is testament to the absurdity and wonder that is life.

Tom Buchanan is a designer, artist and curator based in London, UK. He has worked for numerous advertising agencies, publishers, record labels and newspapers, including Condé Nast, The Guardian, Saatchi & Saatchi, Time Life, Random House, TBWA GGT, Time Out, INK publishing, Jonathan Cape, Polydor records and New Scientist. In 2012 he was inspired to assemble a nationwide open submission to exhibit “Artworks that have evolved, been created within, or even escaped from a Box”. This was the start of the “Out of the Box” series of exhibitions.

Sarah Lea is an art historian and curator. Having joined the Royal Academy in 2007, Sarah has curated major exhibitions including Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust (2015), Dali/Duchamp (2017), Antony Gormley (2019) and Francis Bacon: Man and Beast (2022). She writes regularly for the RA Magazine and produces podcasts.

Private View of Northern Lights: A New Light Retrospective

This evening saw the opening of Northern Lights, a celebration of the prize exhibition’s tenth year in operation.

New Light was initially established to provide exhibition opportunities for artists in the region (especially those using traditional media), and the show at Saul Hay was held to present new work from previous prize winners. Unfortunately due to an administrative error I was marked as not being able to participate in the show and my piece was therefore missed in the catalogue.

You can view my piece “Lockdown 2.0” along with work of other prize winners Diana Armstrong, Karolina Szymkiewicz, David Chandler, Christopher Cook, Joshua Waterhouse, Anna Poulton, Joanna Whittle, Sarah Harris, James Naughton, Vic Harris, Ian Brooks, Nat Quinn, Mandy Payne, Josie Jenkins, Emma Lawrenson, Jo Taylor, Deborah Grice, Neil Bousfield, Rhea Sherriff-Hammond, Gavin Watson, Jan Huntley Peace, Linnet Rubaya, Christian Alexander Bailey, Alan Stones and Ben Ark.

The show will run from from 26th March – 17th April 2022.

 

 

Upcoming New Light Retrospective show at Saul Hay Gallery, Manchester

In celebration of 10 years of New Light, a retrospective in collaboration with the Saul Hay Gallery has been arranged (opening on March 26th). The exhibition will host work of New Light’s award winning artists spanning the last ten years. For the show, prize winners from the last 5 Prize Exhibitions were invited to submit work for inclusion (of which I am one having won the Norman Ackroyd prize for printmaking in 2013).

The exhibition will also feature work by Nat Quinn, Josie Jenkins, Mandy Payne, Christopher Cook and 2020 winner Joanna Whittle, amongst others. An online catalogue of the show can be viewed here although I was mistakenly marked as not taking part even though I was so please ignore that bit! Entries include paintings, prints, ceramics and sculpture across a range of disciplines with wide ranging subject matters.

It promises to be a diverse and thought provoking exhibition. Hope to see you there!

The Day After The Night Before…

Returning to Turner Contemporary to have a proper look at the work in situ.

I always find it difficult to take everything in at a preview so it seemed like a good idea to go back and have a look at the exhibits on my final day in Kent. It was lovely to see further interaction with my piece too; people building on the marks produced the night before.

Turner Contemporary Open Preview

What a wonderful evening at the Turner Contemporary Open! My first preview since Covid lockdowns and although there were many measures still in place (entry to the show was staggered, socially distanced and included masks), you could feel a buzz among attendees… we were able to go to physical shows once more!

It was also fantastic to see the interaction occurring with my piece as I had intended! Apparently the first marks were down to a guide dog’s tail swishing across the surface. This was the catalyst needed for others to step forward, play and contemplate. I can’t wait to see what happens to the piece between now and 20th February next year!