Strong & Unstable II
- New work from the Capricious Cartography series
- Sculpture in the City launches on 30 June
- Watch a London Live video – with a brief appearance from me
I hope you’ll be able to make it to see my latest work, A Worldwide Web of Somewheres, in Leadenhall Market until May 2019.
For some time I’ve been trying to find ways of making maps that are more mutable, shifting and unstable than traditional cartography (whose roots are often in authoritarian boundary-marking)
This work is partly inspired by Polynesian fishing nets, which I’ve been led to believe were also maps of wind and sea currents. In their lines and nodes, these nets reveal an unseen natural infrastructure that conditions the course of journeys, that allowed their creators to navigate vast oceanic distances.
Here I am making my piece for Sculpture in the City.
The monochrome seems to bring out the mappiness (click to enlarge).
Sculpture in the City
I’m delighted to announce that I’ve been selected to participate in Sculpture in the City, a cultural initiative that turns the City of London to an urban sculpture park.
Exceptionally for this programme, which usually showcases already-existing works, I will be making this installation specifically for this site, Leadenhall Market, in the heart of the City.
The new work will be from my Capricious Cartography series – handwoven nets inspired by Polynesian fishing net-maps – which was developed from a Venice fellowship with the British Council.
Sculpture in the City launches to the public on 30 June and the new work will be up until May 2019.
This year, artists participating include Marina Abramovich, Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas. Previous years have featured Yayoi Kusuma, Ai Wei Wei and Anish Kapoor.
The selection jury this year was Iwona Blazwick (Director Whitechapel Gallery), Stephen Feeke (Director New Art Centre), Jane Allison (Head of Galleries Barbican) Wendy Fisher (Art Collector and Philanthropist), Robert Hiscox (Honorary Chairman Hiscox), and Whitney Hinz (Hiscox Curator).
READ MORE
Official Press Release (PDF)
Last year’s programme (PDF)
“A spider in a worldwide web of somewheres, London caught the world in lines of news.”
– Maya Jasanoff, The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World
Unreal Estates, an exhibition and website
I’ve just been awarded Arts Council funding to curate an exhibition and website about domestic interiors.
Six London-based painters will each work with a writer, together looking at a property being advertised within a mile of Homefinders Estate Agents, London E8 (where the final exhibition will take place). Working together, they will create an interpretation, story or narrative about this property – expressed through a series of images and a short text.
I’m incredibly excited to work with these artists and writers, each of whom makes brilliant work and I’m looking forward to seeing what they produce together.
Check out their work:
Writers: Martin Jackson, John Z. Komurki, Portals of London, Karina Lickorish Quinn.
Artists: Hannah Bays, Dawn Beckles, Elysia Byrd, Héloïse Delègue, Brian McKenzie, Anna Jung Seo. (click to enlarge)
Hannah Bays
Dawn Beckles
Elysia Byrd
Heloise Delegue
Brian McKenzie
Anna Jung Seo
Part of the idea will be to tour this to other cities, with each iteration featuring local artists and writers.
Update
Unreal Estates has launched! Please check out the website or read more about the project here.
British Airways Front Cover
British Airways have commissioned a short film about me and my practice:
It accompanies an artwork I created for the front cover of their First Class mag which uses the sculptural language developed in my series The Skyscraper Index to depict a fictive tower.
My studio in Wapping is halfway between London’s two skyscraper districts – the City of London and Canary Wharf. For this film we took a walk around the City on a cloudy day, and then visited the Stoke-on-Trent factories who make my metal sculptures. Lots of fun.
Other artists who have participated in this series include Rebecca Ackroyd, Alex Chinneck and Phoebe Cummings. The editors have great taste!
The free iPad app features an interview and fancy animated cover (above). To download the app, click here. To read the interview, click here.
The Rebellious Script
Now extended: The Rebellious Script, a show I put together with Geoff Titley for ArtLicks Weekend 2017. Runs until 7 October at A/Side B/Side Gallery in Hackney.
The show’s title, The Rebellious Script, is a term borrowed from Yuval Noah Harari’s 2011 book Sapiens describing the ‘partial script’ of maths and accountancy. Harari explains that while this incomplete script is unable to describe the full gamut of human interaction, it has nevertheless come to dominate our worldview.
Capricious cartography featured on British Council website
Here’s an interview with me about my macrame map which was installed in South London for the Deptford X Fringe.
Next week:
The Rebellious Script
Autumn Exhibitions
– Solo and duo presentations this month
– LORDSHIP included in group shows
I’m delighted to invite you to two exhibitions in London this Autumn:
The Cartographer Tries to Map her Way to Deptford | A site specific installation woven over a cafe courtyard on Deptford High Street
The Rebellious Script | A two-person show featuring photographic installation (Geoff Titley) and machine-cut sculpture (Amanda Lwin)
Kleptomania
I’m pleased to be showing one of my Stoke Newington glass houses less than a mile from their inspiration.
18 Edwards Lane, London N16 0UL
Private view 12th October.
Artist Consignment Note Template
A few weeks ago I was hunting around for a template for an artist consignment note. I couldn’t find one so I made my own. Here it is in case you need one as well. Continue reading “Artist Consignment Note Template”
Strong & Unstable
I’m spending June in Venice on a Fellowship with the British Council. I spend half the time looking after the British Pavilion as part of the Biennale and the other half doing my own research.
The artist showing this year at the British Pavilion is Phyllida Barlow. When I started, I wasn’t especially fond of her works so it’s been an interesting experience spending so much time in their company. More and more, I feel like they want to get up and start jumping and dancing around the space. So I made these gifs.
Her sculptural language works as a surprisingly potent metaphor for these uncertain, unreal times. See more gifs:
Continue reading “Strong & Unstable”
Saltaire Mantel
“The hearth and the fireplace are as close as the contemporary secular Western dwelling comes to a shrine… the site of celebration and ritual” – Edwin Heathcote, The Meaning of Home
I enjoyed my weekend showing at Helena’s and Neil’s terraced house in the model town of Saltaire, Yorkshire as part of the Open Houses Arts Trail. Neil’s family was in the Merchant Navy and many of these trinkets are geniunely old. I thought they complemented the set-up quite nicely.
Platforms Projects 2017
If you’re in Athens next week I’ve got a couple of pieces at Platforms Projects Art Fair showing with Lubomirov Angus-Hughes.
ARTS CENTRE
121 CHARILAOU TRIKOUPI ST
114 73 ATHENS
20-25 May 2017
Open Contemporary Young Artist Award: Finalist
Pleased to say I’ve been shortlisted for the above award. The show is at the Biscuit Factory in Newcastle from 18 May – 20 August. And I now have my first ever Artsy listing.