Goole Museum

I'm please to say that the tour of Textures of Spurn has been extended to include Goole Museum for the first part of 2014.  The work is now on show there until 11th March.

Textures of Spurn in Beverley

The last leg of the gallery tour opens this weekend in Beverley Treasure House.  I delivered the work there earlier in the week and the lovely team have been hanging it in the corridor gallery over the last couple of days.

The exhibition is on from Saturday 26th October until 30th November.  The Treasure House is open Monday to Saturday.  Opening times are here.

taking down

The exhibition at The Bowery in Leeds finished a couple of weeks ago.  I recorded the process of removing the installation from the gallery space (something I wish I'd done when putting it up).  The resulting film isn't great quality but it gives an idea of how the piece surrounded you in the room and how it came off the wall in sections.  The first half is made up of shots taken around the room and then they follow it's removal.

Spurn Cloth 2 (extended)

Textures of Spurn opened last Friday at The Bowery, Leeds.  This exhibition sees Spurn Cloth #2 hung in a new way.  Rather than hanging the 10 metre long cloth vertically as before, it has been hung horizontally round the gallery to form a band of texture or a horizon that surrounds the viewer.  The installation has then been completed by continuing that band of texture and marks round the room to form a circle, only interrupted by doorway and window.

The new section has been made from rusted paper and print using the same beach-combed items from Spurn as were used on the fabric.  I've collaged the layers of paper straight onto the gallery wall - something that was scary but satisfying to do!  

More detail can be found here.  The exhibition is on until 5th July.

The Bowery

All are welcome to the preview of Textures of Spurn at The Bowery (Headingley, Leeds) this Friday.  The event is from 6-8pm and there will be refreshments and nibbles.  Also showing is In Search of Green by Hannah Lamb.  Hannah's work is based around her experience of woodland and river near her home.  These two exhibitions will be a feast of landscape inspired textiles.

This exhibition will feature Spurn Cloth #2, hung in a different format to the previous venues and with an extended installation unique to The Bowery.

images from the old town

Gallery 49 is situated in the old town of Bridlington, tucked away from the busy harbour area and all the trappings of a British seaside town.  Its lovely large georgian windows mean the gallery is streaming with light and it was lovely to see the room fill up with work last Friday, ready for the opening the following day.  Here are some images from the 'White Room'.

Gallery 49

The next outing for Textures of Spurn is at the lovely Gallery 49 in Bridlington.  The exhibition is open from 6th to 27th April and there will be a launch event on Saturday 6th between 12 and 4pm, when I'll be at the gallery.  Come and say hello.

There will also be work by Stef Mitchell, Colin Self and Margaret Lawrenson on show. 

next outing

The exhibition at the Ropewalk is now over.  I had some lovely feedback from people visiting it and, all in all, it went really well.  I'm looking forward to returning there in June to run a workshop on printing with rust.

The next venue for Textures of Spurn is Gallery 49 in Bridlington's Old Town.  This opens on 6th April.

In the mean time I have some work that is related to the Spurn project in this lovely exhibition down in Cardiff: A Personal Perspective.

Textures of Spurn at The Ropewalk

Despite bad weather last weekend the exhibition opening went ahead as planned and we had a quiet but friendly time at the gallery. The exhibition was featured in the Yorkshire Post newspaper this week, which was a nice bit of publicity.  It is on until 24th February.

I have some spare fold out brochures from the exhibition so if you can't make it to the gallery but would like one of these I'm happy to post them out.  Just send me an email with your address.

the ropewalk

South Square

The first venue on the gallery tour for Textures of Spurn is South Square, Thornton, near Bradford.  I put up my work in the Meeting Room Gallery there earlier this week, ready for the exhibition to open on Friday evening.  It is such a different space to the lighthouse but the prints and concertina books look great in a light airy room.  Because of the size of the gallery there wasn't space to bring the two large Spurn Cloths and they have stayed up in the lighthouse for a little longer so that they can be seen as part of the Nature Tourism Conference that Yorkshire Wildlife Trust are running this week.  I have made three small Spurn Cloths, which are representing the textile element of the project at this venue.

The preview at South Square is from 7-9pm on Friday (do come along if you are local) and then the gallery is open 12-3pm Tuesday - Sunday with the exhibition there until Sunday 28th October.

 

textures of spurn

You can now see on Youtube the film that Phil Legard made for me using my images and diary extracts.  This film was projected on the first floor of the lighthouse and it now has sound added; sounds that Nigel Morgan recorded at Spurn and in the lighthouse.  This film will be shown at the various galleries on the tour and helps set the scene for the rest of the work.  The sound element helps to imagine what it is like in the lighthouse, transporting you from the gallery to the place that the work has come from.

(Image by Phil Ratcliffe)

saying goodbye

It has taken me all week to recover from last weekend - I've been in a bit of a daze.  The exhibition weekend went so well and exceeded expectations on various levels.  We had 700 visitors over the three days, which was fantastic.  Many had traveled quite a distance to see the work.  Family and friends came from London, Cheshire, Bolton, Grimsby, Bradford, Leeds and elsewhere.  People I don't know came from Peterborough, Boston, Buxton... and many from south of the Humber and from York.  It was really quite overwelming to find so many people had made such an effort to get there.  There were also many who were just visiting Spurn anyway and came in to see the lighthouse.  Hopefully some of these were pleasantly surprised at what they found inside.

The space worked really well and I'm so glad that I used each level in different ways.  It made for a journey of discovery as you climbed up all those steps.  It is only when people actually start to come into the space do you find whether it has been successful and whether people will react how you've imagined they might.

There were many lovely comments about my work and it confirmed for me that I'd managed to capture something of the place in what I produced.  The book was a big hit.  This is available directly from me at £10 (+ £3 p&p).  Just send me an email to request one. 

Of course this isn't the end.  Although I've handed back the key to the lighthouse and my residency is over the project continues for another year with the work traveling to various galleries in the region.  The first of these is South Square next week (link on the right).

So as well as recovering and unpacking and generally adjusting to the real world again I've been preparing for the next exhibition.  Each venue will be different and will show a different selection of the work.  The lighthouse is unique and was such a special (as well as challenging) space to show it in.  It belongs there.  However, I am looking forward to seeing it elsewhere.  There isn't space for the two big Spurn Cloths at South Square so in order to represent these large textile works in the smaller venue I have made three small Spurn Cloths.  I'll show images of these later.

So this blog will continue as the work travels and develops. Don't go away...   

unwrapping

On my way to Spurn today I went to Bridlington (it's kind of on the way) to visit the lovely Gallery 49 in the old town.  They are going to show my Spurn work next year and I went to have a chat about that.  The drive through East Yorkshire to Bridlington was wet and horrid and the rain continued on between there and Spurn.  When I got to Spurn the rain had just about stopped.  Finding that the road was closed due to a wash over I walked on the beach near Warren Cottage for a couple of hours and the sun even came out briefly!  The tide was right down and there was mud exposed that forms amazing peaks and troughs, very like the formations of the salt marsh over on the estuary side.

The digger cleared the road after a while so I was able to drive down to the lighthouse.  I couldn't wait to inspect my bundle on the groyne.  It was still there!  Unwrapped and rinsed in the sea I found some interesting marks on the fabric; nothing ground breaking, but a starting point.

The bundle left inside has obviously taken colour from the rusty metal but I decided this could do with another soak in sea water.  I'll leave this one longer before unwrapping.

The wind is really roaring up at the top of the lighthouse but the weather isn't as bad as I expected.  The showers are coming and going and in between there are some beautiful clear but moody views.

big news

I was absolutely thrilled to receive a letter over the weekend confirming that my application to Grants for the Arts was successful, meaning that the project has been awarded funding from The Arts Council.  I am officially now supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England!  This is a really big step for me.  As well as the financial support, which makes this whole project much more comfortable to undertake, there is a stamp of approval for my work that is a real accolade.  I'm excited but also quite daunted!

The residency will span the next six months, culminating in the exhibition weekend in September and after that the work will tour a number of galleries through into 2013.  Currently dates are confirmed for October at South Square, Thornton and then January/February at The Ropewalk, Barton-upon-Humber.  There are more venues and dates yet to be confirmed.

I'm very much looking forward to visiting Spurn later this week and really getting going on things.