A selection of images of my works The Center for Revolutionising and Archetype for Hidden Door 2017! A really fantastic project to be part of and great to see Leith Theatre back in use after 25 years of closure!
Me @ Hidden Door
STUDIO BLOG
Hidden Door Festival
It’s now just 2 weeks til Hidden Door Festival which naturally means that “shit just got real” and it’s officially “squeeky bum time”. The reason why I’ve been fairly absent from my blog of late is that I’ve been invited to make a new body of work for exhibition as part of the festival, and so, I’ve been buried away in my studio, busily working away…
Returning for its fourth edition, the non-profit and 100% volunteer-run multi arts festival will this year take place in the old Leith Theatre; with 10 days and nights of music, theatre, visual art, film and spoken word bringing the stunning venue back to life. Left derelict and decaying for 28 years, Hidden Door will provide the initial spark to get this art deco gem back up and running as a major Edinburgh arts venue and transform its empty spaces with the help of some of the best creative talent from Scotland and beyond.
My contribution to the festival will take the form of various interactive installations of models, paintings and photography, dotted around various nooks and crannies in the incredible, old Leith Theatre building. My main installation piece can be found in a room on the roof of the building, with access through the rear of the auditorium – where the bars will be!
The festival will be open from Friday 26th May to Sunday 4th June will be free to explore every day until 6pm, with tickets now on sale for the evening events, including live music from the likes of Anna Meredith and Idlewild!
For more info about the festival, click here
Southside Salon
Opening tonight is the Southside Salon exhibition, part of this year’s Southside Fringe Festival in Glasgow.
The exhibition celebrates the variety of work created by local artists who live or create their work on the Southside of Glasgow.
The exhibition takes place at Studio Pavilion, ART PARK, House for an Art Lover and runs til 27th May!
For more info, click here
The Museum of the Construction of the Museum of the Construction of the Metro
I’ve been rather busy of late working away on a commission but recently enjoyed seeing one of my new works in progress on display as part of Visual Artist Unit‘s Annual Members Show. This year’s show was held at the fantastic St Margaret’s House which boasts a very vast gallery space with lots of natural light, allowing for the submission of something a little more ambitious!
The Museum of the Construction of the Museum of the Construction of the Metro is a new installation which has involved revisiting older works, examining the different processes involved when making these works and observing how they all tie together.
This particular version starts with the revival of an old painting titled Megalomania from my Degree Show in 2013. The board used for the painting originally started life as part of a set for a model I’d made, the board being made up of hundreds of miniature scale floor boards. I photographed this set up playing about with light and scale and the resulting photographs were used as source imagery for the painting.
Megalomania. Watercolour, acrylic and varnish on balsa wood mounted on board with steel rods and gold leaf. 150cmx60cm. April 2013
I’ve always found this completely unplanned but natural progression of processes of a painting starting life as a sketch and then in turn being changed from a part of a model to a photograph to a painting an interesting way of making work. This was the inspiration behind The Museum of the Construction of the Museum of the Construction of the Metro, where all parts of this process are brought together and displayed as a museum exhibit, with one additional process being added – a plaster cast of the original painting.
This is most definitely unfinished business but it was useful to see the installation in situ at this stage and see where to take it next!
A Camel is a Horse
Megalamonia IV will be featuring in Transmission Gallery’s annual members show, A Camel is a Horse. I missed it last year, so pleased to be showing again this year.
The show opens for preview on Saturday 25th June and continues until 23rd July!
