anish kapoor on iplayer

Imagine: The Year of Anish Kapoor

on BBC iPlayer

Watch it.x

Wind In My Hair

Lara Favaretto

at the Tramway 23rd Oct - 13th Dec 2009

Lara Favaretto creates such an atmosphere in this exhibition space, a feeling that was totally new to me. I was able to really feel the presence of this work as well as see them, hear them, it was an incredible experience. Colourful hairy giants of all shapes and sizes swirling at random, you could feel the wind in your hair as you moved around the room. It was a beautiful thing. And as I walked around I could feel the energy of the people too - everyone smiling, laughing, getting a real buzz off her work. I've never felt an atmosphere so electric. Maybe it had something to do with the free booze that was on offer at the opening, but either way, I think its lush. I'm going back again - sober this time. I'll probably love it more.

Art On The Subway

Passing daily through the city, there is so much to see - hundreds of people roam the streets, adverts smother our buildings and pigeons infest the skies. I see this every day, but i'm not left with the memory of anything in particular. I sometimes wonder where one person might be going, or what they’re doing, but unless they’re a Johnny Depp look-a-like, I forget about them as soon as they’re out of sight.

This weekend, while waiting in the underground for the next train, I expected to get in a carriage, sit with my head down and listen to my i-pod. The train pulled into the station and I was drawn to one particular carriage. Not because there were more seats or that the Johnny Depp look-a-like I’m trying to find happened to be there, but because I could see through the window, a huge globe, made from hundreds of origami birds, swinging from the ceiling. I walked into the carriage and the lady whose creation this was apologised for the obstruction. I assured her that it was anything but, and that I was delighted to be in its presence. As the train moved away from the station, the globe started swinging all around the carriage, only just missing the noses of the other passengers, making this work look like it was specifically made to hang in the interior of this carriage.


We started talking and it turned out she’d been at an origami workshop that day and her work was the result of an intensive few hours of paper folding. A few more people in our carriage took interest in this origami wonder and so the woman proceeded to hand out little origami birds she had spare in her handbag. As I got off the train I couldn’t help but feel like what would have been an uncomfortable, lonely journey was made so enjoyable by the presence of this piece of work.

Its moments like this that I will always remember, and carry with me day to day. In an artistic city like Glasgow, the ordinary is met with the extra-ordinary and is a talking point for those present. Art brings us together in a way we should celebrate, and not take for granted. So keep your eyes peeled, and the extra-ordinary things will jump out at you and make your day that little bit better.

Word Up

Our group was asked to reflect on an artist we'd been looking at and create a response in a week to exhibit for our first ever SEA exhibition. We chose the artist, Ross Sinclair, who is also a tutor at the school. His work explores the social functions of public spaces and creates site specific work in response to these places. Because our studio is a place my group work, think, breathe, exist - we thought it only natural to take influence from Sinclair's idea and respond directly to the space we are working in. We each chose a word we'd use to describe our space and made several 3 Dimensional versions of these words which we would then install into our space in a visually exciting way.

Our words:


Still

t h i n k

o

P

e

n

iMaGinAtION

white....

Limited to only cardboard and fixing materials, we get to work and begin to make these words 3 Dimensional. We do this again and again until we are left with a huge bundle of letters to work with and create a piece ready to exhibit for our first ever SEA exhibition on Thursday 15th October.

The Group: Patrick, Jess, Luca, Gillian, Krysia.

i love art, he loves real life..

When I was younger, what made me happy was to go into art galleries and see pictures hung on the walls; mainly paintings, photography, prints.. I would look at the composition, colour, shape and line, and if I liked them then that would be my conclusion. THAT I LIKED THEM. And, heck, there's nothing wrong with liking art, but as time passed and I grew more and more involved in art, I knew there had to be something more to it than making a visually pleasing piece of work..

It's thanks to artists like Ross Sinclair, who explore that relationship between art and real life that I now not only LIKE art, I LOVE ART. Art has opened up my mind to so many different aspects of life and the world we live in -that, for me, art is now more real than ever.

Sinclair's 1998 exhibit, "Do All Oceans Have Walls?" relates 6 different institutions as places we all visit at least once in our lives. He does this by installing six neon "I LOVE REAL LIFE" signs in a school, hospital, police station, fast food joint, an office and a church. These signs were installed in an attempt to make the viewer think about the environment they were in rather than the sign itself. These signs act as a footnote to the work as a whole - take these signs out of the institutions and they no longer exist as an artwork. The context of the work is just as important as the pieces themselves. It is in doing this that Sinclair is so successful at describing this possible relationship between art and real life that I just LOVE.. :)

Monika Comes to Edinburgh!!

The End Of The Line: Attitudes in Drawing
14th November 2009 - 10 January 2010

Monika Grzymala is coming to The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh soon to exhibit alongside Jan Albers, Michael Borremans, Marc Brandenburg, Fernando Bryce, Kate Davis, David Haines, Kim Hiorthoy, Garrett Phelan, Naoyuki Tsuji and Sandra Vasquez de la Horra.

This show is not to be missed - me and my fellow SEA students are particularly excited about this one so get yourselves along and let us know what you think :)