‘52′ Exhibition
Sorry for the radio silence – those of you who follow me on Twitter will know I was busy making and installing a brand new piece for an exhibition last week. Then I had to stay in my pyjamas for four days because exhibitions turn me into a zombie artist. Braaaaiiinnnnns (ahh, I feel better after that).
Kirsty Hall: ‘52 Drawings For Claire & Camilla’, March 2010
‘52′ was a group show curated by Camilla Stacey and Claire Platt, who work together under the moniker, Calm Air All Ice. Instead of just putting on a show of their own work, they decided it would be far easier to invite 50 of their favourite artists to show with them in Room212. Did I mention that Rooom212 is the smallest gallery in Bristol.
And in my infinite wisdom, I decided five days before the show to do 52 little drawings, coat them in wax so they could be seen from both sides, tie them all together with bits of thread and then suspend them in the window. Instead of doing something utterly crazy and unthinkable like just framing a couple of pieces that might possibly sell!
I’m blaming Camilla for this madness because she foolishly mentioned in passing that she was hoping I’d do a sculptural window piece.
Also, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
These things often do.
The drawings fell somewhere between realism and abstraction…
Kirsty Hall: ‘52 Drawings For Claire & Camilla’, March 2010
…and referred to maps, diagrams, aerial photography, archaeology and suchlike things.
Kirsty Hall: ‘52 Drawings For Claire & Camilla’, March 2010
For inspiration I looked at two of my favourite books, The Landscape Of Man by Geoffrey Jellicoe and Susan Jellicoe and Anno’s Journey by Mitsumasa Anno.
I’m very into torn edges at the moment…
Kirsty Hall: ‘52 Drawings For Claire & Camilla’, March 2010
…and I find it freeing to draw on non-rectangular pieces of paper.
Kirsty Hall: ‘52 Drawings For Claire & Camilla’, March 2010
The drawings were easy – tying them together and getting them to hang properly was the tricky bit!
Kirsty Hall: ‘52 Drawings For Claire & Camilla’, March 2010
Although I got the work up on time, I was quite mind-bogglingly disorganised about this show. I didn’t do a mail-out for it and I didn’t go back and get better photos because I collapsed with exhaustion afterwards. I’m feeling quite cross with myself about those two things. I’m trying to work out how I can do better in the future because if I’m being truthful, documentation and mail-outs are always a bit of a problem for me. I need better systems. Or a minion.
I did enjoy making the piece though. Even though it was a bit last minute, it was fun to have a break from the sequin apron (which is still trundling along like some relentless World War One tank) and I enjoyed actually completing a piece in less than a week. I’m still too close to it to know if it was any good or not but hey, I liked it.
The rest of the show was lovely – Claire and Camilla did a stunning job of hanging a huge number of pieces and there was a lot of good quality work. You can read a good review of the show here and there’s also a series of mini-interviews with most of the artists over at the Calm Air All Ice blog. I bought a small piece by Cathy Cullis and would happily have bought works by several other artists if I’d had the money.
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http://twitter.com/sewonandon Valerie Kamikubo
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http://completeflake.com/ LaVonne Ellis
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suziechaney
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http://www.tina-m.com/ Tina Mammoser
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http://susankruse.blogspot.com/ Kruse
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http://simplytrece.wordpress.com Trece
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http://kirstyhall.co.uk/blog/ Kirsty Hall
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http://kirstyhall.co.uk/blog/ Kirsty Hall
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http://kirstyhall.co.uk/blog/ Kirsty Hall
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http://kirstyhall.co.uk/blog/ Kirsty Hall
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http://kirstyhall.co.uk/blog/ Kirsty Hall
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http://kirstyhall.co.uk/blog/ Kirsty Hall
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http://completeflake.com/ LaVonne Ellis
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http://rbc-news.ru/ Alexandra
