NGCA Proposal - Feb 16th Jan

New talent opportunity at NGCA Gallery outlined by Alistair xxxxx, curator.

AV Festival is approaching seems an appropriate stimulus.
Consider working around one of my current concerns relating to 'abstract art'. The question of  'meaning' which is often bound up in symbolism, codes and referencs to other works or areas of life.

Thinking around Morse Code as an abstract code which can be recognised both arurally and visually but only fully intelligible to those familiar with 'the code' - otherwise merely a jumble of abstracct symbols.
 Need to check:

• dimensions of gallery space - scale / impact
• best medium to deliver in
• possible integration of sound (Graham)
• H&S considerations- can image be applied direct to gallery  wall.

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Room 106 - 10/01/12

Follow up n Steve M's suggestion of using Room 106 as next 'collage space'.
Room faces south and looks over Backhouse Park - wonderful ligh t/ silhouette effects as the low sun moves its way across the heavens.
Room approx 5.5m square and 3.2m in height.

Initial thoughts are to exploit the extraordinary and subtle quallity of light:

• glazed panel indoor provides link  between 'internal building space and Room 106
• changing shadows make complex patterns which often change swiftly ( links time and landscape perception)
• translucent coloured adhesive material -direct onto windows ( // stained glas) or layered onto  sherts of glass/ perspex, sequence of which can be changed/ overlapped etc   
• research Islamic/ Mogul screens
• Various light filtering /modifying devices- muslin/ trellice work
• Comntemplative qulaity of space- sacred colours ( Budism) , ecclesiastical purple
• Icons on shelves/ timber surrounds
• Hooks in ceiling- consider suspending items- upper layer?
• Electric sockets quite intrusive -can they be integraated in some way- plugs on back wall form a fairly gaceful arc!
• utilisation of gradations of colour up walls and across ceiling- controlled band trather than total room space?
•  use of artificial light- hours of darkness /sun not out /complementary
• coloured slides  or other projections onto wall space

First intervention

•  Pick up on module of door glazing and repeat along solid wall
• define by latts (as frame) and play with idea of light intensity increasing as progrees towards the large, park facing window.
• changing silhouette pattern as 'leitmotif'                                                                        

                                                                

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• rple          

Winter Solstice Party

Invited to party to celebrate shortest day and gradual return of the light. Each guest expected to do a 'small piece'!  Decide to produce painting based on Winter / Summer solstice which fits well with current concern over time as an element in landscape appreciation.

• two coloured squares giving emotional reaction to amount of light - being encased in darkness
• two columns of light divided into 24 bands representing the hours of the day and thus a linear expression of time.

Mervyn Peake, Laing Art Gallery

What an amazing mind- Titus Groan, Gormenghast, The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, Rhymes without Reason.
Tremendous graphic virtuosity with extraordinarily fine cross hatching allowing very subtle depiction of light and character.

Turner Prize- Baltic

Great to have the Turner in the NE at the Baltic.
Martin Boyce  (Winner)
V interesting installation based on urban park, plenty of modernist references but has a quiet beauty which can be experienced without any 'art knowledge'. Interesting refreence back to early work by Joel and Jan Martel (1925) using 'concrete trees'.
White painted metal cut outs suspended from the ceiling provide gently ffiltered light, as if through trees. Paper leaves as if blown in are scattered on the floor, a 'tortured' waste bin sets a strange note of angst in an otherwise serene composition.  A concrete 'wall hanging' incorporating carefully placed metallic letters ( to his own typeface) provides another layer of meaning.

Karla Black
Has track record of making substantial works from raw and otherwise impermanent materials - powders, creams,oils,gels and pastes.
Her installation appears to be constructed from large sheets of clear plastic and paper coverd with coloured powder/ talc.
Makes ineresting use of the space with one entrance largely obscured so the work gradually revelas itself as you progress into the room. Swathes of material are twisted up towards the ceiling as if the work were to break free and continue next door. Scale is such that you can walk through the work and appreicate the flow of space from different angles. The coloured powders are soft shades, predominantly yelows and greens- the folding of the plastic/ paper allows for a great variety of small and shaded spaces with subtle changes of hue.

George Shaw
Found his paintings for more engaging than on first viewing at his recent Baltic show although the subject matter is, of course, the same. The bleak nature of the subject matter, the  low light levels and painstaking detail combine to say something poignant about how we live, nostalgia and memory. Their 'traditiional' quality provides a good foil to the other three artists on show.

Hilary Lloyd
Works with video and still image installation - describes her approach as akin to painting.
Her work is very much geared to the specific space which she has been alloted. The projectors are very much part of the experience and are deliberately placed at low level so that the become an intergral part of the composition. Moving and still projected images, usually  semi abstract form a dynamic background  tableau to the space, very  much as multifarious images form the background to our everyday lives.
Three chest height projectors filter part of the exhibition space which provides some  psychological block to freedom of movement ( interrupting the projected images) though this activity is, very much, part of the dynamic of the work. Subtle and interesting stuff!