AA2A.biz: Catherine Harrison's friends

Lyn Wait

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:12:29 +0100

I use diverse media to make visual responses to commonly held concerns about the natural environmental, heritage and conservation. This often means the unseen and the remnants of past history and how we do or don’t recollect. As artists in residence on the ‘asiwalkedout…’ 2010 project in Stroud, Gloucestershire, myself and a fellow artist, wool, cochineal and clay were the materials that were carried and also sought thrugh the duration of the walk. A guardsman’s jacket served as a transitional object taking us, the walkers from planned to unplanned as the walk progressed. ‘Hidden tracks…’ is a proposal for York Open Studios at the National Railway Museum 2011. I want to use Super 8 on the shadowy hollows where animals may be seen fleetingly from the train track but which are animals most of us feel we know through our experience of highly defined close up imagery through screen and magazine.

Through this AA2A opportunity I want to make a costume using shrunken sweaters and other woollen items that have had previous life – like shrunken dreams compiled to make a bigger dream come true.

This is an opportunity for experimentation through access to equipment and thinking time plus space to manouvre and library facilities. There is an added bonus that the project itself can take shape in Hull – as this has for me already become part of its concieved intended journey. I want to look at costume for carnival and theatre, consider recycling and exploration of the effects of shrinkage, freezing and starching of woollen items. By April I will have accrued a collection of found and given objects that may or may not become part of this costume.

Hannah Rogerson

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:01:58 +0100

My aim is to further develop recent series ‘The Stranger’ and ‘Bump’ using cutting edge technology and facilities currently unavailable to me. My work is concerned with exploring the unsettling nature of the unknown and the nature of fear itself. The work I produce is dark both literally and philosophically which aim to ask the viewer to question their own personal demons and how they manifest themselves. Specifically I would like to investigate the creation of 'lenticular’ images which use multiple camera set ups treated Perspex framing to create layered images that appear to move with the viewer while remaining static (think of the cards you used to receive in cereal packets as a child that show a person such as a footballer appear to kick a ball when the card is manipulated through movement). I am looking to explore the physicality of how these images are made and how they can be used to psychological effect.

This opportunity would allow me access to equipment essential to the development of my work including studio lighting in a controlled lighting environment and use of multiple cameras at the same time.

My goal after leaving college was to develop myself into becoming a professional exhibiting artist so my main aim is to produce a body of work for exhibition. I feel this opportunity is the stepping stone I need to give myself the time and space to create the work and to create exposure for myself and my work. Technically I want to explore the possibility of creating lenticular images and to try to resolve projects already started.

Elizabeth Rowe

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 18:37:29 +0100

Katie Whitehouse

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 18:34:43 +0100

My name is Katie Whitehouse, my main passions in art are photography and sculpture. My past work in photography has focused on digital and dark room techniques where I explored topics such as 'Women in Advertising' and 'Female Stereotype in Media' which included pieces based on the femme fatale character which formed an ongoing narrative. I began to concentrate on the constructed images of women in advertising and began to study the contorted poses that the model's positioned themselves in. This work then took a natural progression on to a 3D form where I began to experiment with new processes and started to cast these poses in plaster bandage. This lead me on to my final year degree project, where I became very interested in body casting and sculpture, therefore, I developed the original 'Women in Advertising' project on to another level by incorporating sculpted poses. The work that I produced focused on the representation of the female body in the media, specifically the Western world, along with social constructions of the feminine. I produced five body casts depicting the way in which women pose for advertising campaigns. I would like to extend this practice and develop my work further by focusing my next project on both men and women.

I am keen to divulge and share my knowledge by means of running workshops and utilising student participation throughout my project; giving them access to additional support and providing them with the opportunity to learn new skills. I would also be keen to extend my own knowledge by way of volunteering to help with peer artists projects.

Recent projects include work for Saint James' Church, Shirley. After seeing my final year exhibition, Father Michael Caddy commissioned me to design and make a bronze resin sculpture to be displayed in the prayer area of the church. I would love to experiment further with body casting and mould making and research and test other materials to be used in these processes.

Peter-Ashley Jackson

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 18:19:39 +0100

Step 1. Appropriate.

Step 2. Lather.

Step 3. Rinse.

Step 4.Repeat.

Lesley Brewer-Wright

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 18:08:52 +0100

I am creating narrative portraits and landscapes of people I know and places I visit regularly. They are moments in time that were captured in a single photograph; using acrylic and oil I recycle the photographs and create paintings. I have always loved how you can manipulate paint and an image to make it something different. I love textures within paint and I have always been interested in the relationship between painting and printmaking. I want to see how I can use my subject to explore techniques in print that can help develop my future paintings. In printmaking you can produce a variety of textures and effects. I am hoping to explore and transfer my painting techniques to printmaking as they complement one another; I hope to create a body of work that is unique to me.

PAST EXHIBITIONS

‘UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL’ PORTRAIT EXHIBITION - HATTON GALLERY, NEWCASTLE 2006

‘FRIENDS OF HATTON’ RECENT WORKS - HATTON GALLERY, NEWCASTLE 2006

‘ARC’ - STOCKTON ON TEES 2007

‘BRANDED’ - PYTHON GALLERY, MIDDLESBROUGH 2008

‘EMPTY SHOP’ - DURHAM 2009

‘BOOK ART’ - MIDDLESBROUGH CENTRAL LIBRARY 2009

‘CAN YOU’ - DEGREE SHOW TEESSIDE UNIVERSITY, MIDDLESBROUGH 2009

‘IMAGINARY PARLOUR’ - WE ARE OPEN MIDDLESBROUGH 2010

‘ARTWINS PROJECT’ - OBERHAUSEN, GERMANY 2010

'THE TEEN COMMANDMENTS' - NORTHERN STAGE, NEWCASTLE 2010

I AM CURRENTLY WORKING TOWARDS MY FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION AT THE PYTHON GALLERY MIDDLESBEROUGH 2011

Chava Rosenzweig

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 11:00:26 +0100

Since graduating I have continued to concentrate on developing my own practice, whilst setting up my own business, providing therapeutic workshops for people with alzheimer’s and dementia and people with mental health issues. In September 2010 I have a piece, ‘Fragile’, in the Jewish Museum in Manchester. I’ve been commissioned to run workshops in low income areas of Manchester on the subject of ‘My Manchester’ helping people to express what Manchester means to them through art. This will use art to show outcomes that cannot be expressed in other ways. This will inform future social policy. I am also doing ceramic workshops with the Chinese Women’s Centre and the Jewish Museum to explore cultural diversity.

This work reinforces my belief that art is a very strong tool in helping society to express and preserve feelings and emotions, which might not otherwise be expressed. My practice is enriched by working with other people in this way. The AA2A residency is a unique opportunity to work with other practitioners and up-coming artists in the art college environment. Part of my enjoyment is to see how we can use art as a tool to improve people’s lives, to enable them to tell their story. This interest is encouraging me to pursue research into the ‘use’ of art in society, how art plays a bigger role in people’s lives than they realise. This work will be an exploration of how we use art, how art is used and how it influences events in our world.

My aim is to push the materials to their limits and to use ancient materials, such as porcelain and silver, in a contemporary way. The finished product will be an art installation, preferably outdoors, accessible to the public, which promotes the concept behind the piece.

Kay Aitch

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 18:06:31 +0100

I describe myself as a mixed media artist but I'm happiest working with paper in some way, whether in 2D or 3D. My Project title is journey which gives me scope for plenty of exploration of ideas and process, with several strands of thought interweaving.

Scott Engering

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 18:04:24 +0100

I have always been fascinated by rocks and minerals and much of my working life has been spent studying stone in its many forms, as a geologist and photographer.

My art is based on photomicrography. When polarised light is shone through a thin section of rock, only 0.03mm thick, it is refracted by the internal crystallographic structure of the minerals to produce an astonishing array of vivid colours that vary according to both the chemical composition and orientation of the individual interlocking crystals.

John Ruskin, an advocate of “artistic science”, wrote lyrically about the beauties that could be seen using this technique. Using traditional photographic colour film to record my observations, the essential character of the rock has been retained wherever possible but, using some of the tools of modern digital imaging technology, I have taken this idea to a higher level.

Glowing Edges Designs were originally intended to produce a big splash of colour on the walls of modern bars, cafes, clubs, restaurants and other places of business and leisure.

These include large traditionally framed prints and canvasses, with other projects including multiple projections in a bar/night club environment and experiments with light boxes and Surelight Neon Light Wire and light tape.

Having explored the various uses of traditional images to decorate light, open interior spaces, I am now developing my interests in transferring my images onto fabrics and textiles, for silk scarves and other fashion accessories, soft furnishings and backdrops to shop window fashion displays.

I am keen to collaborate with like minded individuals and organisations to develop these ideas.

Terry Chipp

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 18:01:13 +0100

Over many years, as both artist and teacher, I have explored the properties of a broad range of 2 and 3 dimensional media. Repeatedly I come back to the fundamentals of painting and drawing. On leaving teaching 10 years ago I stepped back from a long standing theme of traditional landscape. My work has become more involved in creating another view of the world which is outside of time, hovering in the realms of dream and memory. Through this I have evolved a range of techniques that play with the persistent and transient elements of our surroundings - frequently involving stencilling. This has led to a curiousity about the potential for other forms of printmaking, used for their ‘one-off’ qualities rather than a repeating process, as part of the mix. I want to explore the overlap between painting and printing techniques. By printing onto paintings and painting onto prints I hope to exploit the qualities of each and create works that are as ambiguous in process as they are in form. The nature of the outcomes is impossible to predict since there will be a continual dialogue between my studio work and that done in the college as each affects the other.

In the college I want to use the theme of ‘Performance’. I want to use images gathered from dance, drama and music classes as source material for paintings, drawings, prints and maybe 3D work. We’ll see…