Photography in the garage

Excuse the rubbish photos of the photos, but there's not a lot of natural light in the garage I've been black and white processing in, which is good, because I've been using it as a darkroom.

Yesterday I spent the day building a pinhole camera from a kit that my ex-collegues bought me for my birthday last year, I then processed the photos as negatives onto photographic paper and made some positives from them by laying the 'negatives' front to front with a new piece of photographic paper and exposing to the light again.

The pinhole camera is made of a material similar to MDF and is not perfect, it lets in a bit of light, so tomorrow I'm off to a timber yard to get some proper wood and make a more solid, light safe, pretty pinhole camera.

Gakkenflex

I've been messing around with a new camera lately.

I recently found a kit camera which I bought from eBay 3 years ago: The Gakkenflex.

After struggling to build it from Japanese instructions (not impossible, there were pictures, I just lack patience) I gave up. Recently though, a friend mentioned that they had English instructions and so I borrowed them and finally built it.

The above double exposure was accidental, but in the end, a happy mistake.

Above: Selsey Beach

Dave McKean: A Retrospective at the Willis Museum

Yesterday a friend and I went to see the Dave McKean exhibition, which was on at a local museum in Basingstoke. It was a good exhibition with a great range in types of work by McKean, including mixed media, digital, book covers and movie posters.

 The work I enjoyed most was the mixed media work, an array of interesting materials were combined including slate, resin and bronze dust, in the side panels of the above piece. It definitely made me feel like being more experimental with the materials I use.

 

 McKean uses a dark palette, selecting bring colours sparingly, it gives and overall dark post apocalyptic feel at times.

 

The comic book work was great, so well executed and yet it looked so effortless.

 

It was interesting to see the range of work and how well it complimented each other, showing that a multi disciplinary practice can work well.

For The Time Being

Photo of installed work 'Free Cake - 2' by Chloe Gooch

Our graduate show 'For The Time Being' is currently in the Bargehouse. I reinstalled the 'Table' piece and also adapted the 'Free Cake' piece. There are now no barriers, however the cakes were glued down, causing the audience to struggle with following the posters' instructions.

A few recently developed photos from this summer.

I've been enjoying the lazy summer days (not that they've been nearly as lazy as previous summers. Here are a few pics.

Punting on the river Cam

Bedroom window in the sun

Graffiti 

Sara sitting by the cathedral

Mushrooms

PLEASE WAIT, FILM IS ABOUT TO START

Last week was our degree show. Here are the pieces I created for it:

Film #1

Free Cake (Photo by Amelia Cross)

Table (Photo by Aidan Frame)

My work for the show was about frustration. The film I showed never started, the free cake was behind a barrier (and then gone) and the magnifying glass did not reach the minuscule text.

I am very happy with the way the pieces went, aside from someone breaking one of the barriers surrounding the shelf. I am part of a show of recent graduates from Winchester School of Art taking place in London in just over a weeks time, so I will be showing the table there again, hopefully with even smaller text. I will also be displaying the Free Cake piece, but changing it up a bit to make it easier to install and less vulnerable to damage. 

I have been exceptionally busy since the show, with end of year meals, Graduation ball and the handover of my student union job. I achieved a 2:1 in my degree which I was pleased with and have been having a great time overall. 

A photo of lots of Winchester leavers together at the Grad Ball

And a lovely photo of me and the other sabbs at the Ball.

So all is going well, just looking for a job now and looking forward to the London show, which if you would like to come is at:

Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf,
South Bank, London SE1 9PH

From 6 - 8th July 2012

Entry is free and the venue is open from 11am-6pm daily!

The Essential tools for a Degree show set up...

 Artwork in picture by Roseanna Clare

We have been setting up for the degree show all week now and today it was finally done.

I am glad it's over and am looking forward to the opening night and seeing everyone's work all looking fabulous.

I hope that you don't ever have to feel the pain of setting up a degree show. I literally put blood, sweat and tears into it and am now going through the recovery process, which involves jelly, cookery magazines and the occasional glass of Prosecco. If however you do ever have to set up a show, this is what you may need.

Masking Tape
Mask off every area of floor you paint, if you don't, people will step on it and you will be angry or cry. They will step on it anyway, but this decreases the likelihood and is better for your sanity.

Wet Paint Signs
Like masking tape, this helps your sanity. It also means you feel more justified for calling people who step on your paint morons.

Roller & Tray
If you don't have these you can't paint, at least not quickly. You could borrow someone else's but they may scowl at you.
 
Scraper
For scraping off the polyfiller you dropped on the floor whilst filling in gaping holes in the wall. This is also useful for applying polyfiller to holes in the wall. It is not good for opening paint tins though, it's too bendy.

A screwdriver
For opening paint tins.

Sandpaper
For sanding the liberal amounts of polyfiller you just applied to everything.

Newspaper
This is useful for avoiding getting the wrong kind of paint on the floor, like any paint which is not the colour the floor is going to be.

Scalpel
For cutting off the ends of the wall/board tape

Paint Thinners
Floor paint is oil based and if it gets on ANYTHING which is not the floor it will stay there, unless you have paint thinners or white spirit. (Note: Do not spill the paint thinners on the floor)

Many Paintbrushes - Very cheap ones
For painting the edges of floors and walls, you need them to be cheap because people 'borrow' these and leave them places with paint on.
 
A helper
These are a valuable recourse, they work for free and help you to get things done in time. Thank them lots and give them beverages. I recommend you get a strong one that can lift things better than you, like I did.

Plyers
For pulling things out of the wall which shouldn't be there.

A hammer
If you are using anything with wires then a hammer is your friend, as you can tack them up with those little wire holder things.

Cable Ties 
For tying up wires and making everything look neat and wonderful. 


Plasters
I needed these for when I decided to run a cable through the ceiling and discovered some jagged metal. I am not the only one who injured themselves though, I saw many blisters.

Coca Cola
To bribe your helper and keep you nourished in extreme weathers.

There were many other things I used (electric screwdrivers, paint, tape) but these were the things which my university (Winchester School of Art) didn't provide for me. If you have yet to embark on your degree show adventure I wish you luck.

Degree show prep

Free Cake Exhibition

Photos by Tessa Gray

A couple of weeks ago Tessa Gray and I had an exhibition in Westside Foyer. We placed posters around the University advertising free cake, however upon arriving at the exhibition it became apparent to the viewer that the cake was not possible to reach as it was very high up from the floor.

People tried though and some succeeded.

We also showed videos from the photobooth project, which I will post footage of soon, and the earlier tempt project. I included the bronze cupcake from my personal work as an opposing object to the Tempt video.

Cake Lady Cynthia

For international Women's day I collaborated with two artists to make a lady out of cake. I've made a lot of work with cake recently and Grace Belli, who works close to me in the studio works a lot with naked ladies, so when she suggested we collaborate, it seemed ideal. Tess Gray is another artist who works mostly with painting, but we also regularly collaborate on many cake based ventures, so she also joined the collaboration and became head of painting.

We were going to do a show together at Winchester School of Art, however an opportunity presented itself to hold an exhibition at Southampton University Student's Union, for International Women's Day, so we took it.


It required a lot of baking.

It was a well received part of the exhibition and got a lot of attention. We invited people to help themselves and eat of her flesh. The piece became an interactive performance.

Photographs by Isaac Whitcombe

I also organised the exhibition, which was curated by Letitia Northcott, I will post pictures of the show in another entry.