Phiadon

I've recently been considering what it is that I would want to do in the future and as I enjoy creating books I would like to look into the publishing industry...

I've got many design books created by Phaidon, they are the publishers of one of my favourite books of all time - The Art of Looking Sideways. They also create many good reference books for art students such as: The photo book, The art book, The art of the 20th century and The American art book - all of which come in both large 'coffee table' books and smaller 'pocket books'.

They've recently released a new book called 'Ice Cream' which contains:

-An exhibition-in-a-book that presents 100 contemporary artists
-Selected by 10 internationally renowned curators, these artists will be the stars of tomorrow
-Each artist is featured over four pages with a selection of their most interesting work together with a commentary by the curator who selected them, an exhibition history, and a bibliography
-Each curator has also selected a source artist who has inspired or influenced the younger generation, providing readers with a broader historical perspective

and is said to be "A must-have for art-world insiders, an essential source book for students and all those who follow the contemporary art scene."

I'm intrigued.

Maybe one day I'll have a company that creates some amazing books to help all those art students and other along in the world or just show them something a little bit different...

Ladyfest - Leeds

"Karen's art represents a mystifying and odd universe. The bright and lurid colours of her work will primarily lure you in, sweet style, but it doesn't take long before the goofed out and bent content takes hold and really snatches you. You are never really sure what is going on in this place populated by acid damaged individuals, seeping wounds, 'knowing' wildlife, feral children, unknown exotic narcotics, strange skin conditions and so much more. Its all here, baby."

This is not an exhibition I would have chosen to go to alone but my housemate is involved with Ladyfest and so I went along for the jollies. It was very inspiring and a little surreal but worth the visit. We also went to 'EXP24 does Ladyfest' in which Holy Trinity is further transformed to allow for screening of experimental films which was really amazing as they didn't stick to conventions but used the ceiling as a screen also, there was a lot going on around you; so much to take in.

Check it out here.

Crosby Beach - Antony Gormley - Another Place

Antony Gormley is one of my favourite artists of all time. I focused my National Diploma end of year art history essay on his work and various other presentations and projects since. I was thrilled when I was offered the chance to go and see his piece called Another Place situated on Crosby Beach near Liverpool. The exhibition consists of 100 cast iron figures cast from Gormley's own frame. Each figure stands to attention, gazing out across the sea as though waiting for something that never seems to arrive...



Still Antony Gormley inspires me, I have recently been reading about his new exhibition called Blind Light which is another step away from Gormleys roots of his human figure sculptures. The piece is a large glass room filled with fog in which the viewer can enter and become lost and disorientated but yet strangely at peace and they see other viewers drift in and out of view in the contained space.




Although he seems to be moving away from the work that attracted me in the first place I think that he has captured my imagination enough that I will continue to follow his progress and hopefully get to see more of his work in the future. Check it out at: Antony Gormley's Blind Light

Yorkshire Sculpture Park - Andy Goldsworthy Exhibition

[Hanging Trees]

I've recently been to visit the Antony Gormley exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my digital camera but I do have these post cards...


[Stone Room]

Some of the work was really amazing to take in - I've seen a lot of photos and been told a lot about the exhibition but it was great to have the opportunity to go and view it in person.

Unfortunately at the time I went to the gallery I was on crutches so wasn't able to go and view the piece's outside so mainly stayed in the gallery spaces.


[Leaf Stalk Room]

The leaf stalk room was amazing, I wanted to walk up and touch the net to see just how fragile the piece was. It really made me wonder how such a large structure was made - is there a trick or is it just time and patients? Impressive.


[Wood Room]

I found the Wood Room really quite daunting and oppressive it made me quite nervous that it would collapse at any moment. It was quite awe inspiring to see - it was nothing like I had heard it described


[Stacked Oak]

I find it really interesting the way in which Antony Gormley has the ability to take found objects (like the tree branches in Stacked Oak) and turn then into a human, controlled shape but not through the use of forming or carving, just through their natural grown shape. Maybe this the way man should work, taking nature and manipulating it but without distorting and loosing it's original form. We should fit into nature, it shouldn't be made to fit around us...

Leeds Gallery

We went for a wander into the Leeds art gallery and my god it's so uninspiring... I would have thought they'd have had some more interesting work around but it just seemed bland and nothing appeared to have changed since when we had to go there in the first year for drawing practices!

I would think that in such a creative and constantly changing city as Leeds the gallery would have so many opportunites to put on exhibitions on a regualar basis. It's not like there isn't enough artists and other talented creative people around looking for a break or opportunity to show the city what they can do.

They need to be less old fashioned, get with the plan Leeds!

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

I took my first trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park back in December of this year. These are some of the pictures we took in the wandering...




This is the metal walkway leading up to the main gallery building, supposedly all the names contained on it are people who have sponsored/donated to the park...








These are permanent Henry Moore sculptures found in the first part of the park.

I really like the Last of these three photos, this sculpture is huge, you can walk inside it and sit and gaze out through the hole at a framed view of the fantastic countryside.



This is, ermmm... me is a sculpture. yeah, anyway - moving on -->



These are huuuuuge sculptures made out of steel that stand over about 14 foot tall. They are so big you can walk inside them, when I was there they were full of kids playing hide a seek. I managed to jump in when they were finished and took a couple of photos looking up into the structure (see below).






This is another random sculpture... I like the interactivity of the park, art should be interactive, who wants just a pretty picture?




Antony Gormley - the only piece he has at the park but it was good to be able to see it in person. There was a professional photographer there taking photos at the time, we stopped and eavesdropped on the conversation for a little while, he had worked with Gormley in the past on other projects.



A sculpture of nature

"winds through the branches becomes the silence" - found on a stamp in a box next to a turn style in the park





This is a piece by James Turrell called Deer Shelter in which he had created a concrete room with a hole in the ceiling that frames the sky, we lay in there and watched as the clouds passed us by, bliss.