Glebe Road Open Sudios 2011

Some pictures taken during our last Open Studios. They capture a bit of the atmosphere and the wares.

Caprichos at BCAF

This weekend I will be exhibiting my new work At the Battersea Contemporary Art Fair. http://www.bcaf.info/exhibitors.htm
The title of the series is Caprichos.

Caprichos is an allegorical set of archetypes materialized as three dimensional figures. They are the product of the creative union of my conscious and unconscious mind.

As a group they have a few things in common, the processes and material used; clay.
Drawing is my first step to consciously visualize and capture images from my unconscious. But it is not enough, I need to materialize them in 3D in order to finish their individuation and define them.
I follow a kind of ritual during their production.
They all originated from a pinched pot, two pinched bowls which are joined together to form a ball. This ball is like a planet to become or to be inhabited by the figure. The figures grow from this primal ball of mass and define their forms during the process. In some of them the ball gets transformed into something else, a skull, a turtle... In others, it disappears to become the core or heart of the piece.
I do not always strictly follow my drawings though they are the starting point.

The logic behind my choice to name these figures Caprichos is that I felt like indulging myself in their production. The term Caprichos also refers to Goya's series. They have in common with Goya's a the humor, but even if I consider them as food for thought it is not my intention to enlighten or to lecture the viewer. The viewer will make up her/his own stories. Caprichos are triggers, devices to stimulate cognitive (thought) processes.

Control

On winter times, you should keep warm, eat nuts and sleep. I was advised by a friend. Wise words, difficult to follow in London. I do end up having that guilty feeling of being lazy and laid back, the world is still spinning around and London with it, there are plenty of shows, talks, work to do, parties, functions, demos... whatever... In any case case I try to put my catholic guilt aside and, stop the headless chicken in me.
Most of my time during January was spent at the studio, I am working on figures now, I get quite absorbed on them, and it is the only thing I think about. I have been drawing too, and doing some house keeping within the folders of my computer.
No many exhibitions to report, also I have not seen anything remarkably special. I keep going to Matt Roberts help sessions for struggling artists. They are very helpful, and I have met some very nice people there. But I will talk about this other time when my opinion is more formed.
I wanted to comment on one talk I managed to assist last Monday. The talk was deferred from a previous date due to the cold weather, so I am not the only one. The talk was from one of my ex tutors, Ruth Dupre. I quite like her, lifestyle and art practice, I even like the results of her work. She was also an encouraging and positive tutor. So I want to keep in ouch with her, she is interesting...
She has been jumping from painting to ceramics to glass and now she is making movies. It seems from what she said that she is now interested in sound. We have something in common there, also the ceramics.
She started her talk stating that she does not feel obliged to talk about her work as her work is a way of expressing what she thinks, so if on top of that she uses language to define those expressions she will create two or more parallel discourses. I agree with this. After the clarifying introduction she guided us with words and images through her artistic trajectory.
The talk was for me a learning experience, capturing words and ways of describing my own artistic practice. Her attitude is so confident that made me feel reassured on my own ways.
At some point she talked about control. She wants to touch, edit, film, and be the one creator of her art works, no surrogates or slaves to make her will. She explain this as a need for total control. I can relate to that, but there is something else though. I have experience briefly myself the (suppose to be) pleasures of ordering others around, to do my will. I did not like it, it is a boring burden, I would not care, I prefer to do it myself, on my pace, and experience it, because that it is what interest me, to experience the creative process, not the end result. If someone is doing it for me, where is the fun and the discovery journey. I should say I am a very selfish person so you can not ask me for long to give duties to others, is like I have to construct their lives for them...I am more interested in my life...

Nonetheless I am not a power monger. Maybe I will, when old become bored with my life and everything. Maybe I should pity myself, as there are so many power mongers willing to manipulate and give orders around me. Some of their skills and attitudes are necessary to survive in the world. Living is not just creating nice objects or situations. Living is the fight for survival. And I want to live

The feeding 5000

It was a very cold, snowy day, yesterday. I did not want to leave the house but I was curious and wanted somehow to participate on the feeding 5000 event... The idea was to feed 5000, with skipped food.
Skipping is a good practice. A huge amount of vegetables, bread and other goodies are thrown to the skip because they will be out of date next day or they are not pretty enough. If you do not have enough money to buy food the best is to visit the bins next to markets, supermarkets or even places like pret a manger, they throw away so much edible things...
To the point, when I arrived there I could see a few tents protecting the cooks from the weather, it was snowing, and lots of people, this was in Trafalgar square. There were two long queues one for getting a meal and another for collecting free fresh vegetables. I thought it would take me a long to get some food. I was wrong, the queue was moving really fast, there were lots of very good humored volunteers, giving up apples, facilitating and chatting to the people waiting. In less than 7 minutes I got my plate with curry and bread, there was even fresh coriander, i love coriander... There was a band playing music, under the snow... Also there was a big stage with someone cooking , giving recipes and advise. There was a special tent for the media...
The people being fed was a good mix of types ages and backgrounds.
Something I did not like was to see some people throwing away the whole dish they have received in waste bins...what is the point?... irony?.... maybe they did not like the food...
I think it was delicious, and I liked a lot the disposable wood plates and cutlery. It would be too complicated due to the amount of people and the venue not to use disposable.