Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts

Sunday, 9 October 2011

Chester Performs: Up the Wall



Make do and mend is going to be performed at Up the Wall, an event run by Chester Performs, on the 21st and 22nd of October 2011!  Chester Castle is the venue and we are very excited to be doing our performance and meeting everyone else involved.  Hopefully I will get some good photos of us doing our map fixing in this dramatic venue.  For more information visit http://www.chesterperforms.com/upthewall/ and book yourself some free tickets!

A long time has passed...

...and a lot has happened!  I haven't kept up to date recently, must do more as always!  Here are a few selections of the things I have been up to.  I took photos of my friends dogs for his new house (Oakley and Poppy)  gorgeous chocolate Labrador and Dalmatian.  I went to a Minecraft themed party and knitted some little characters for the birthday boys.  I took many a floating photo with varying degrees of success trying to imitate the work of yowayowacamera.com an amazing blog of beautiful photos!  Keeping up with the old HDR and also recording myself in my sleep to be made into a possible piece of art.  Hear some of the results at http://soundcloud.com/stacey_allen1 Phew!  Exhibition news on the way too, I have been a busy bee!



Model: Chris Dubock




Self portait!


Minecraft Creeper

Minecraft Pig

HDR Selfridges Birmingham

Oakley

Tuesday, 26 April 2011

Make Do and Mend hits Brighton

 I performed Make Do and Mend for the third time with Katherine Johnson on Saturday night at The Basement in Brighton.  We were one of the many acts performing at the "Supper Cub" night which included art performance, music and poetry.  Our slot was for an hour and a half where we frantically tried to fix the mess the audience had made-the Brighton audience certainly did not hold back on the map destroying!  Our washing line of wet maps were at the top of the amphitheater which took a lot of exertion to climb up to the top and do our duty.  The line of destroyed maps started to look like rows of frayed bunting, quite apt in the run up to the Royal Wedding but also another layer of meaning that runs through the piece of damage and repair.  All in all a good night, excellent venue for our work and a great platform for artists or anyone involved in the creative scene.  We  even managed to enjoy the weather and have a little paddle in the sea!







Thursday, 3 March 2011

Make Do and Mend Art Performance

Last night Katherine Johnson and I performed our Make Do and Mend performance at the opening of the reduction exhibition at Broadcasting House. The exhibition was organised by the Young Curators, a project based at Leeds Met Gallery and Studio Theatre that gives young people a practical introduction to curating art exhibitions. The performance was as we wanted it to be, very hectic! We invited members of the audience to destroy maps of Britain and our task was to attempt to put them back together showing a literal cycle of damage and repair. The exhibition was based on cuts within the arts and the performance was based on the idea of "Broken Britain" and how the ever-mounting problems in society are never fixed properly but smoothed over and inherent to our culture. We were dressed as land girls referencing the idea of the wartime community spirit and the idea of the home and hard work to bring people together in more desperate times. We had some very good feedback during the performance and are both looking forward to performing it again at the Home from Home exhibition at 153 Woodhouse Lane, Leeds on 12th March from 12pm. More information about the reduction exhibition can be found here.













Monday, 7 February 2011

Leeds takeover!

Make do and mend!  Me and my fellow partner in art crime Katherine Johnson will be performing our new piece in Leeds on the 2nd and the 11th of March.  The first one is an exhibition at Broadcasting House called "Reduction" based on the recent cuts to the arts.  The second is called "Home from Home" at 153 Woodhouse Lane and is being shown alongside the annual artist's book fair as artists respond to the brief of a book being a time based medium.  Our performance fits both of these quite well fortunately!  During the performances we will be asking the audience to destroy and deface maps of Britain which we will then try to fix, showing a literal cycle of damage and repair.  It is a piece based on the modern idea of "Broken Britain: and how the ever mounting problems in society are never really fixed but just smoothed over.  We will also be dressed as 1940s factory girls to hark back to wartime community spirit (any excuse to dress up!)  If anyone is about in Leeds pop along and see us in action!

Tuesday, 21 December 2010

Fun in the snow!







I went on a lovely winters walk today, braved the cold and took a camera out with me. I think snow is quite hard to photo so that's why most of them are black and white. They were almost devoid of colour anyway because of everything being so white! These were taken in Abbey fields in Kenilworth, I wanted to take some of the castle, maybe another day. The lake there was frozen over and all of the ducks and swans were huddled in a small patch of water that was not iced over! Brr.

Saturday, 18 December 2010

Book art!



So I had a bit of time on my hands. Well, a whole day to be precise due to the the blanket of snow that has engulfed our street. Looks lovely but no one should really be going out unless they have those tennis racquet shoes on and a dog that has a brandy barrel on it's collar.



So I had a bit of a play with a book I have been dying to do something with for ages, not sure what Mr Spooner would think of it. I, personally, think he would be proud I have finally found a use for the maths skills I acquired at school. These are parabolic lines (had to google it, sorry Mr Spooner) and each one is cut out of a page in the book. I will fix the pages so that you wont be able to turn the pages when it is finished. (Mainly to disguise the pretty rough cuts around the lines) It was quite difficult as I just leapt right in with no real idea of what the finished result would be like and no handy "edit, undo" button to fix it if it went wrong. Am I the only one that repeats ctrl, z, ctrl, z, ctrl, z when I have majorly messed up?!

Thought so....

Tuesday, 31 August 2010

Epic Bee Fail

Oh dear oh dear. I have spent the day trying to do my bees. And I have a headache from all the fumes, it looked like it was going so well and then it went all wrong. I'm wondering whether I can salvage it and make it look ok using lighting and stuff but I have a feeling it wont work. You can see the layers where I have poured the resin and also there is a massive crack in the top. Obviously where it got too hot, ah well. Have enough bees to have a second go if I wanted but I think I'll leave it for now. Sad day in the art world today.

Monday, 30 August 2010

Writer's block


For Kat. writing paper and ink-less biro


And a shout out for Hayley!

Nyyyyaaaaahhh! X

Friday, 30 July 2010

An art day


Went to Birmingham the other day for a visit to the art galleries with the brother. We went to the Ikon Gallery, a really good venue for seeing some interesting contemporary art. On at the moment in the main gallery is a retrospective: This Could Happen To You: Ikon in the 1970s Very much art of the time there is a lot of work pertaining to the political and social affairs of the day. What I found more interesting however, was the offsite project in the Pallasades shopping centre: Seeing the Unseen: Photographs and films by Harold E. Edgerton Photographs based on the new technology around at the time, exposing unseen movements and actions in everyday life in an appropriate location not far away from the original site of the gallery. Both on until the 5th September. Also there is an amazing exhibition on at the Waterhall Gallery by Steve McCurry Another retrospective, breathtaking, almost painterly images. Some with gorgeous colour and others with fascinating content. On until 17th October it is definitely worth a visit.

Tuesday, 27 July 2010

The Art Book Book Shop











































I almost forgot! I was in an art exhibition at the Oxfam bookshop in Leamington. It was in conjunction with Warwickshire Artsweek and Oxfam Bookfest curated by Annie Carpenter.

A group of artists respond playfully to the idea of the book as both a physical object and a method of conveying information. The exhibition takes the form of an intervention into the bookshop, where viewers will have to seek out the artworks within the existing shop display.

Me and my collaborative partner Katherine Johnson were invited to do our Eat your Words performance piece on the opening night. It was really nice doing the performance in a book shop where many of the edible books we alter come from, a return to the beginning as it were. A really enjoyable evening. Other artists involved were Taneesha Ahmed, Alice Bradshaw, Robert Cliff, Chloe Edwards, Yan Laundy, Amy Mckenny, Hannah Rollings and Lynne Williams.

Monday, 12 April 2010

April Fools day exhibition



This photograph will be in the April Fools exhibition in Leeds on 16th April 2010. It is a response to a brief where the work had to be made on April Fools day from 12:00 am to 11:59 am. Luckily I had a few minutes free at work and took this photo of a chair found in the drama block. The exhibition is on for one night only, more details can be found here